Reviews with content warning for Murder - The Island of Missing Trees

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak

65 reviews

cassielaj's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

I finished this book with tears in my eyes, and that wasn’t the first time it brought me to tears. This story is as heartbreaking as it is heartwarming. The characters go through so much and their stories are told with such reverence. I loved the multi-timeline, multi-narrator style of storytelling, and the writing itself was stunning — I highlighted so many passages! The unique perspective of the tree and the attention paid to the natural world throughout made this book absolutely fascinating to read.

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crazytourists_books's review against another edition

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emotional sad 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

4.5

Something quite interesting happened while I was reading this book. My feelings about it completely changed; I didn't particularly enjoy the narration parts by the fig tree (how much I love figs, is beyond words; fig trees are my second favorite tree after the olive trees). Let's get back to my feelings about these parts of the narration: I started feeling annoyed, then tired, then indifferent until the end that part of what Shafak tried to do, fell in place. Part of it, because I still think that pages in the book were unnecessarily and overly didactic.
When I started this book, I left aside all the biases that, inevitably as a Greek have towards the history of Cyprus, the events, the people, the british colonisation and then the island's dichotomy. I think that Shafak also did her best to leave her biases on the side, and overall, she did a very good job, but in places, it did feel kind of forcibly balanced.
Having said that, once again, I was lulled by the author's wonderful talent in storytelling; her words have a great power of pulling you in the story. A story of grief and loss and love.
And here I am, loving a love story!
My only regret is that I read in November, in England instead of August, in Greece, overlooking at the see, eating the most amazing fruit in the world! Fresh figs!

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nicolaparty's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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mlkai's review against another edition

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emotional informative sad slow-paced

3.0

i read it for the trees 🌳✨
writing to floral & detailed for my taste. the love story didn’t grab me. learning about the civil war felt heavy, timely, real. learned a lot about trees tho which i’m happy about

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mathilda1998's review against another edition

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emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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mraddd's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.25

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sarabookshelf's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad

4.75

For someone like me who comes from a war-torn country, whose parents are of different ethnicities and religions, one of whom recently passed away, this book might have hit a bit too close to home.
It is beautiful, emotional, thought provoking book which touches on a myriad of topics such as migration, displacement, war, love, religion, generational trauma and has a lot of history woven throughout the story. The choice of the narrator and book structure is unusual, and the characters are all well-rounded and persons in their own right, even minor storylines are thought out.

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