Reviews tagging 'Gore'

The Prison Healer by Lynette Noni

27 reviews

epellicci's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-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

3.0

This book somehow felt both slow and rushed. While I expected it to be uncomfortable, with most of the book taking place within an unregulated prison environment, the brutality felt poorly fleshed out. There is constant reference to physical, sexual and mental abuse suffered by the prisoners at the hands of the guards, but it never goes anywhere. Kiva’s internal monologue often refers to how at any time there are people who can take advantage of her, and yet it felt shallow and unbelievable. 

 While the aim it to increase the drama of the big reveal at the end, I found Kiva hard to root for when her motivations seemed so all over the place. She takes on the horrific ordeal of the Rebel Queen’s sentence and punishment, yet maintains throughout that she is only mildly sympathetic to the rebel’s cause – instead driven by her oath as a healer. When in the very last pages, it was revealed that there was much more to it than that, I found it hard to believe that the cool, manipulative Kiva who had just been revealed was the same person as the hopelessly naive one who still believed after a decade that her family were on the way to recuse her, and who broke all her rules about forming relationships because Jaren had a pretty face. 
 
 Unfortunately, I can see fairly obviously where the next two books are going, and am not invested enough in the characters to watch it play out. Despite this being a pretty quick, easy read, that ultimately did no harm, it reminds me of all the things I didn’t like about ACOTR, and so I won’t be bothering with the rest of it.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, and Self harm

Moderate: Drug abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Confinement

Minor: Child death, Rape, and Addiction

jessieslibrary's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual harassment, Blood, Gore, Sexual assault, Fire/Fire injury, and Torture

delandjessica's review against another edition

mysterious medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

I both loved and didn't love this book. I loved the idea of having this character, Kiva, be the healer in this horrible prison and the focus on her doing her best to take care of the other prisoners. I especially liked the detective element as she's trying to figure out where a mystery illness is coming from. But I didn't feel like the main element of the plot, the Trial by Ordeal, was really even necessary. Not once did Kiva manage to accomplish anything in the trials on her own, being saved by others every single time,  and it honestly just felt super gimmicky anyway, used as a flashy lure in the book blurb to get readers to pick up the book. It makes no sense that a prison would go through the effort of putting on such a pointless and time wasting performance just to kill a  prisoner, since that's the whole point of the trials is for the person to die spectacularly, especially when there's already the Abyss where problematic prisoners are sent to but never return from. It all just smelled like plot convenience to me and could have easily been written out of the book, which would have made both the plot and Kiva's character stronger.

I also had a huge problem with Jaren. He starts hitting on Kiva from the moment he sees her, continues to pursue her romantically and touches her constantly despite her repeatedly telling him to stop, and he has no real personality other than being attractive and good. I'm not sure how that's supposed to be interpreted as being romantic. I also struggled with Tipp. His character was sweet, but though I appreciate that the author wanted to introduce more character diversity, Tipp's extreme stutter really slows down the reading experience. The author could have reduced the stutter by at least two thirds per dialogue exchange and it would have conveyed the same idea without making it so difficult to get through. The stutter also didn't add anything to Tipp's character that wasn't already there, so I would have liked to see the author either give a purpose for the stutter or remove it entirely.

However, despite all the overexplanation and insufficient description and Kiva's wishy-washy grasp of who she herself even is (she's always saying that she never or always does things and has for the last ten years, but then turns around and is doing or not doing them anyway), I absolutely loved the whole ending and the twist at the very end. It was unexpected but suddenly made the entire book make so much more sense in hindsight. Twist endings are so difficult to pull off, but this one was handled perfectly and I'm eager to see what happens with Kiva next.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Gore, Blood, Torture, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Chronic illness, Death of parent, Physical abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual violence, Drug abuse, Child death, Vomit, Addiction, Sexual harassment, Rape, Self harm, and Sexual assault

Romance is present, but doesn't get physical.

molly_love's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring lighthearted mysterious 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? No

4.75

An incredible book, with a sad but beautiful plot, with twist and turns always around the corner and jumping up at you when you never expected them or knew you needed them but just working so perfectly together that you cant help but love the book to bits.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Physical abuse

Minor: Blood, Gore, Self harm, Murder, Torture, Violence, Bullying, and Drug use

n0elle's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Abandonment, Terminal illness, Slavery, Sexual assault, Death, Body horror, Classism, Torture, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Blood, Child abuse, Gore, War, Police brutality, Physical abuse, and Violence

laurenevlyn's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-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

4.75

I loved this book! Read in one night. Only downside was that the (absurd amount of) plot twists felt a bit rushed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Violence, Medical trauma, Confinement, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Drug use, Gore, Sexual violence, Mental illness, Sexual harassment, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Self harm, Blood, Child death, Murder, Sexual assault, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death of parent, and Drug abuse

Minor: Addiction, Drug use, and Animal death

kinskinn's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Death of parent, Death, Medical content, Physical abuse, Genocide, Gore, Violence, Child abuse, Confinement, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Torture

Moderate: Self harm, Drug use, and Rape

Minor: Addiction

lunalorenne's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.75

I really enjoyed Kiva as a character. Her strength, and resilience despite her fear was so admirable. She wars internally with herself and still tries to do the right thing. The first twist I didn’t guess but the second one I knew pretty early on. Regardless, both of them have made me excited to see how things play out in book 2! The book tackles some dark topics but does so tactfully and nothing ever felt gratuitous. Also Jaren and Tipp must be protected at all costs!! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Blood, Death, Drug use, Physical abuse, and Violence

Minor: Murder, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Self harm, and Sexual assault

foreverbookwandering's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense 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

5.0

Re-read 🥰

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Rape, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Self harm, Death, Drug abuse, Medical content, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Drug use

meg_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-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? N/A

3.5

This was super good and I could not put it down. Absolutely loved our main character and her cast of misfits helping her throughout the story. The story as a whole was somewhat predictable but that ending was kind of insannnnneee and I am so excited to read book two because omfg. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Violence, Child abuse, Gore, Death of parent, and Self harm

Moderate: Drug use, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, and Confinement