Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak

5 reviews

mr_cain's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I love the fig tree as a narrator!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Xenophobia, War, Violence, Alcohol, Grief, Animal death, Child death, and Colonisation

Moderate: Hate crime, Gun violence, Murder, Police brutality, Homophobia, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Pregnancy

Minor: Alcoholism and Torture

leic01's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: War, Homophobia, Death, and Violence

Minor: Torture, Abortion, and Abandonment

mermaidstears's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I really loved this book. The writing is gorgeous and the story itself is completely compelling. I throughly enjoyed the amount of nature featured in this and the narration from the fig tree were some of my favourite parts. Not too mention the amount of loveable characters and the love they have between their own relationships and their relationships with each other. This taught me so much about Cyprus, Greek and Turkish Cypriots and the conflict and history as well as the culture. Highly recommend 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and War

Moderate: Death of parent, War, Murder, Animal death, Grief, Animal cruelty, Colonisation, Pregnancy, Homophobia, Hate crime, Gun violence, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child death, Torture, and Suicide

rieviolet's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I did not mind the peculiar narrator, aka the fig tree, but I think that its narration was maybe given a bit too much space at the expense of the human characters. They felt a bit surface level, I would have liked for the author to delve more into their characterizations and relationships.

Also, the final revelation left me a bit perplexed, I was not expecting it and I think that it added an ulterior element of magical realism that felt a bit like too much.

Still, the writing style was really good, maybe just at times it felt a bit overdone, that is overly sentimental for my taste or going a bit overboard with the metaphors.

Overall it was a nice reading experience, that taught me a lot about the natural world and about a time and place that I knew nothing about. 
Also, please give me an entire book on Yiorgos and Yusuf's backstory (*crying in extreme sadness*). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Animal death, Gun violence, Death, War, Abortion, and Violence

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Bullying, Death of parent, Grief, Colonisation, Religious bigotry, Xenophobia, Sexism, Alcoholism, Homophobia, Child death, Drug abuse, and Mental illness

Minor: Infidelity, Cancer, Torture, Rape, Sexual content, and Suicide

piiiesk's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I enjoyed this book very much. I didn't want to put it down or for it to end! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abortion, Torture, Pregnancy, and Mental illness

Minor: Suicide