Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak

72 reviews

melreadsandrecs's review

dark emotional reflective medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and War

mikkiokko's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

I am crying while loving every living thing. 
The more this book marinates, the closer it gets to my heart. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, and War

Moderate: Alcoholism and Death

ellagrady's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad 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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Racism, Suicide, Violence, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, and War

now_booking's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad 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

4.5

I never thought I would enjoy a story of how trees view humanity with our foibles, squabbles, quarrels, wars, hatreds, loves…. But this was amazing. Part historical novel about the partition of Cyprus and the violence around that, part coming of age story in a time of grief, part nature study about trees and fauna and how intertwined they are with our culture and existence, this book was an exploration of what it means to be a survivor that bears the marks of past trauma and what it means to keep moving forward.

This novel focuses on the love story of Kostas and Defne, star-crossed Greek and Turkish Cypriot lovers whose devotion to each other is tested by the violent conflict that emerges in 1974. Despite their commitment to putting the past behind them and moving forward, years later, their teen daughter Ada’s breakdown in the middle of a history class brings past traumas once again to the fore. 

This is my first book by this author and I’m not sure how she accomplished a book that was simultaneously heartbreaking and healing, how she managed to make the reader feel part of the story even though we were jumping timelines and perspectives between the tree, the characters, the plot versus the tree’s commentary…. It was brilliant and incredibly well-executed. I think the thing that makes this a little less than 4 stars for me is the inevitable fact that I could have done with a little more character development and a little more connective plot… I wanted more Ada, more Meryem, more Kostas… even more Defne… this was a very introspective sort of book where the characters often felt very isolated and the story mainly existed in their thoughts and reflections. For a book such as this that speaks to the interconnectedness and community of Cypriot people and more broadly of the interconnectedness of humanity and nature, the characters had little dialogue with each other and for me that would have been an opportunity to get to know them better. I recognize and the author points out (through the omniscient fig tree) that in reality unlike in fiction, we rarely know everything about characters or have the complete tale with all plot holes filled, rather we have bits and pieces of story, hints and allusions, gaps we have to fill in ourselves and information we have to content ourselves with never knowing, and this book feels very much like that. And I can accept this argument, but that left so much unsaid in the book (as it often is in life, but in a book you want to see it said- tangent: I also find it difficult to accept that Meryem came to stay in Kostas’ house and they never have a proper conversation that we can observe).

That said this is so beautifully written. The proverbs and aphorisms are so apt, the reflections on human experiences of conflict, survival, migration, trauma, healing and what it means to be far from home spoke for anyone who has ever experienced the out-of-body feeling of trying to feel at home and at peace in a situation which is far from that. I found myself highlighting swathes of this book and I know it’s one I won’t forget soon. I plan to check out more books by this author.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Outing, Abandonment, and War

Moderate: Alcoholism, Mental illness, and Abortion

Minor: Sexism and Suicide

clairehe's review

dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

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

4.5

This book really moved me. I'll be thinking about it for quite some time. You'll find it fascinating if you have any interest in generational trauma, civil wars, or nature.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Violence, Murder, and War

Moderate: Grief and Death of parent

Minor: Homophobia

bootrat's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Xenophobia, Grief, Alcohol, and War

Moderate: Alcoholism, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Suicide, Religious bigotry, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, and Colonisation

Minor: Child death

saskia_ej's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Homophobia, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, and War

Moderate: Alcoholism, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicide, and Pregnancy

annakh16's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, and War

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Mental illness, and Death of parent

Minor: Suicide, Grief, and Abortion

There is a chapter where Ada‘s aunt takes her to see an exorcist. Nothing comes from it, Ada does not seem upset by it and in fact finds it funny. But I wasn’t quite sure how to categorise this.

kaanda's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective 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? It's complicated

4.75

So descriptive that I can clearly see the tavern and every character in it. A very beautiful and painful story with seamless flow. Loved it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Abandonment, and War

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Murder, and Pregnancy

Minor: Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexual content, Colonisation, and Classism

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

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

Minor: Alcoholism and Torture