Reviews with content warning for Child death - The Island of Missing Trees

Beautifully written. The descriptive, almost lyrical writing was reminiscent of Middle Eastern story telling, and was fitting for this book. The characters were believable despite not being overly developed and I enjoyed the way Shafak moved between past and present. I originally loved the chapters from the POV of the fig tree but later chapters felt repetitive and I thought the tree was aware of too much information. My main issue with this book was that there was too much telling and not enough showing. No mysteries were left unsolved and everything was explicitly explained. The interweaving of ecological awareness and advocacy was done really well and added to the overall plot. The historical rooting of the book was also well written and the author struck a perfect balance between historical and fiction. Looking forward to checking out more from this author in the future.

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eemadeeberry's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful informative mysterious 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

4.75

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bootrat's review against another edition

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emotional informative reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

I enjoyed this book, and I learnt some more about the history of Cyprus and the struggle of the people living there, but I struggled to connect with the characters. I found myself liking the fig tree more than any of the humans, I wish I'd been able to sympathise with them more.
Beautiful prose, metaphors, and comparisons, so if you like that then you'll love this book (but that style of writing isn't usually my thing).

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annakh16's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

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

2.75

First things first: this book is a lot darker than the synopsis suggests imo. I’d recommend looking at content warnings.

I really want to like this more than I did. The plot in Cyprus was heartbreaking,

especially Yusuf’s and Yiorgos’ story was moving

, and the writing was good. But I’ll be honest: I think the entire late-2010s plot could’ve been cut. Most of it went nowhere,

especially the exorcism part?

, and it was mostly just the characters sitting around. I understand it was aimed to develop an understanding of generational trauma, but I don’t think it was pulled off, because the overall discussion of the emotional impact on the characters was underdeveloped. The beginning was also soo slow and nearly made me DNF.

I also couldn’t get into the fig tree perspective. I think it was more enjoyable towards the end, when it actually told the story of the tavern, but in the beginning there were a lot of seemingly unrelated flora & fauna facts that just slowed down the story. If you enjoy that, this might work better, but it wasn’t for me. (And I agree that it overshadowed/hampered discussion of the human characters‘ thoughts and feelings).

The story in Cyprus was no doubt my favourite, and I quite liked it. In my opinion, the book would’ve done a lot better just sticking to that. I learned a lot, but unfortunately I think this could’ve been better.

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agnela's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I really, really would like to give this 3 stars, mainly because of that damn tree, and details that the author mixed up, like cultural view on doves and pigeons, mixing Greek and Roman mythology figures, making the tree almost all knowing and horny. This was a ride through ups and downs, but I loved the cultural background, the history of Cyprus and people who lived there. The main story wasn't that bad, neither was the characters. Besides the tree. Who made the believe it was a good idea? Sometimes it didn't even feel like it was written by the same author with how much it got wrong. You see, when you miss small details, like mixing Gaia and Jupiter together, or saying that a tree can hear bees in December, London, as an author you loose credibility. Do you mean your words or do you just shoot them out to fill the space?
I don't trust this author, but it wasn't bad.

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