The Island of Missing Trees

by Elif Shafak

With a bit of light you can make us do so much. With a promise of love

example of two sentences that would be more impactful as one

You discover it, not at once, but step by anxious step, losing your way, your sense of direction, treading its sunlit valleys and rolling fields, finding it warm and welcoming,

Don't need the second half of this sentence.

The place seemed to have been decorated by someone who clearly worshipped the colour blue.

Whole para is an excuse to name various words for blue...

One must always speak up, no matter what.

Is she 16 or 60?

The courtyard was dimly lit by the waning moon, the warm wind that had been whistling through the treetops all day long had finally exhausted itself and fallen quiet, and the night felt gentle and cool. The tang of jasmine, winding around the wrought-iron balustrade like a golden thread through homespun cloth, perfumed the air, mingling with the smells of burnt metal and gunpowder.

trying to be too clever with descriptions which makes it too washy to comfortably read without noticing its ridiculousness.