Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - The Prison Healer

Kind of a bit of a slow start for me, but wow was I hooked by the end! I picked up the sequel immediately, which is kind of rare for me these days. This is definitely YA fantasy, but it’s still set in a deathly prison, so pretty dark at times. It’s not quite like anything else I’ve read, which is always a plus. The last 100 pages are wild and there were multiple twists that I absolutely did NOT see coming. Quite remarkable! It will be so interesting to see how this plot progresses over the next book and how the world building will deepen.

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jasperw's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

The first half of the book was a bit slow for my liking. The story was overall fun and good, but nothing too special to me, until the last like 100 pages. It was SUCH a strong finish and raised it from a 3.5/3.75 to a 4. It actually makes me curious for the future books and I am curious and may check them out.

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christygsp's review against another edition

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4.5

I was surprised at how much I actually loved this book. The entire plot centres around the elemental trials and life in this crazy dangerous prison.
Our main characters are engaging, interesting and encircled by such an interesting world.
The ending……. I went out and got the next two books on almost that alone. I GOTSTA know what happens next!
Careful of content/trigger warnings (I will list below) but the author didn’t go tooooo far with those so just be aware.

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csmall73's review

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adventurous challenging dark funny slow-paced

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

3.0

This book was a little bit of let down. I feel sufficiently confused by the events that take place in this part of the story. But I am also intrigued enough to read the next installment. Kiva definitely got poop end of the stick in life and family. Left for an unreasonable amount of time, she becomes the prison healer. Takes insane amounts of crap from the filth of several countries. An impulsive and rash royal invites himself to prison as a way of getting information and intelligence gathering on a notorious rebel that happens to also be royal. We are up to three. Kiva takes the do no harm way to far and volunteers to take the place of her patient in trials. Basically give me liberty or give me death.

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av0universe's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I didn’t expect that ending?!

This book surprised me in a good way. I really like the worldbuilding and Kiva as the main character is interesting, to say the least.

Tipp is the cutest character ever 🫶 and for the most part, I really liked the found family

Seriously, I can’t stop thinking about that ending. It blew my mind even though I guessed most of it. Amazing. The narrator is everything here.

I’m pretty sure I dreamed of this book today