Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak

43 reviews

emmagreenwood's review against another edition

challenging informative 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cancer, Child death, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, and Classism

mopare's review

emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Violence, Xenophobia, and War

Moderate: Suicide

readingelli's review

emotional reflective slow-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia and War

Moderate: Child death, Abortion, and Murder

Minor: Suicide

Civil war

griernotgruyere's review

emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Abandonment, and War

Moderate: Alcoholism, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Addiction

siobhanward's review against another edition

emotional 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

2.5

 Reese's Book Club Pick 60/68


Maybe it's because I know nothing about the history of conflict in Cyprus (which is on me, I probably should know a bit about that), maybe it was the writing style, or maybe this book wasn't my style, because I just didn't get the hype.

I thought the book was fine. It wasn't terrible or anything but I didn't feel engaged and just felt like I was waiting for it to be over. I think there was context that Shafak needed to explain in more detail to get more reader buy-in, because it felt like I was missing something the whole time. The tree's POV was cool, although I felt that I could have used less of it and would have loved to see more from the characters themselves. More show, less tell. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Death of parent

Moderate: Homophobia, Xenophobia, and War

maggiems's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

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

2.0

I desperately wanted to love this book a tree as a narrator is exactly the kind of stuff I want to see in the world. And well I found the human characters fascinating love their stories there ups and downs and relationship to their trauma. We can't being thrown back to that fucking tree who was the keeper of the metaphor.
Did you know that animals migrate? Did you know that "we trees" also have genetic trauma? Sure does make you think huh?  All of this may not have annoyed me so much if I didn't hate the voice of the tree to an unreasonably degree. A mix between holier than thou and naive twit! The phrase "We Trees" started to grate me. Perhaps it was the switch between third and first person narration.
So what of the human characters. I am a sucker for a love story and multiple time lines and generational issues. We have one Turkish Cypriot and one Greek Cypriot who embody historic conflict, a teenage daughter who stands for the new generation, and an aunt who stands for tradition. The novel is not very interested in the politics of why there was unrest in Cyprus, but its effects on individuals. Again this is essentially what the tree was there for, to take the longer view, to not care about why the humans came and gone, only that they did. In this way Shafak is going for a universality of conflict could be writing about any conflict.
This kind of links up with Ada's episode in school, 

  leading to the  #doyouhearmenow. All of the girls screaming are disaffected youths, the "losers of history" I wanted more of this. The trauma of being bullied online while also getting adoration and starting a trend that empowers people is interesting, but we have about 3 scenes with it and in the end it amounted to very little. She goes back to school and nothing more is said about it. I guess in the end it is true what she says; the losers do not get to write their story.

A feature I really did love about the book was   

the gay couple who ran the tavern. It was nice to recognize that while our mains were star crossed lovers in a dangerous situation, others were punished much worse for their love.

 

I wanted to like this book so much more than I did and that just always makes a book worse. What would have been a 3* if I didn't know anything about it, is brought down to 2. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia and Xenophobia

Minor: Alcoholism and Self harm

natgzmun's review

adventurous emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide and Xenophobia

nessazee's review

emotional informative inspiring sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia, Violence, Xenophobia, and War

lynneliu's review

emotional hopeful 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Colonisation, and War

Minor: Animal death, Gun violence, Suicide, and Pregnancy

cinnamonpizza8's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.0

The author did a magical job of tying together a beautiful story of immigration and conflict and history effortlessly. I felt engrossed in this book when I read it, wanting to hear all the details and deeply thinking of the concepts the author rose through the characters. The fig tree was the best part of the story - I loved having this omnipresent voice that felt grounded (haha, get it). Overall, a great story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Hate crime, and Grief

Moderate: Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Genocide, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, War, and Injury/Injury detail