Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - The Prison Healer

Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

The Prison Healer by Lynette Noni

62 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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delandjessica's review against another edition

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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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thorn_n_thistle_reads's review against another edition

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challenging funny hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

This was #chattycathysbookclub February read. I really enjoyed this one. It was a quickish read. I enjoyed the trials and later parts in the book. I wished there was less repetition, as the interrnal thoughts/mantra got boring quickly. The twist on magic was fun. I enjoyed that there was some royal intrigue with the rebel queen and mystery surrounding a separate illness in the prison. I didn't predict the plots twist till later in the book, and the other one that was dropped on us at the end made my jaw drop!

Overall, it's a solid read, and I'll continue the series at some point. Many members binged the series after book one.

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willsnow's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Ending was a little bit surprising but not in a great way in my opinion. Seemed a bit rushed and predictable which kind of ruined the rest of the book which was ok.

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ssc1109's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

The rebel princess was finally ready to rise.

Jaw on the ground, brain is doing somersaults and I'm skipping around the house in triumph and awe. I picked this book up on a whim because of a review I saw on Bookstagram and the phenomenal rating on StoryGraph. NEVER in my life did I think I would have enjoyed it this much.

This is a dark, thrilling, mysterious tale full of elemental magic, hidden identity and "rightful heir" battles. There are some predictable plot twists but still some that I did not see coming at all.

The pacing was fast, the setting is very small so no large world building (yet?) and fantastic, loveable characters.

I just...I need book two now. I'm so glad I picked this up with the trilogy finished because there's no way I would be able to wait.

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emzconklin's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious 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? Yes

4.5

I was recommended this book by a friend and I really enjoyed it. It’s a classic struggle against injustice set up but there are so many layers of magic, love and friendship, and turmoil within the fantasy setting. I read it very quickly and look forward to the rest of the series.

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