Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The Prison Healer by Lynette Noni

159 reviews

prashiie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

5.0

“Here at Zalindov, the only person you can trust is yourself.”

This might be my favourite read so far this year! The twists, especially those at the end of the book, are amazing. Serious vibes of Hunger Games and Avatar: the last airbender. It is a dark fantasy and whilst some parts were challenging to read and weighed heavily on my mind, there were also other parts that brought a sense of hope.
But please be sure to review the trigger warnings before diving into this book. This might not be suitable for everyone.

TW: mentions of rape, torture, drug abuse, overdosing on drugs, self harm, child abuse, child death, violence.

Okay, now let’s get to the plot. The story is set in Zalindov, a prison where nobody ever leaves once they’ve entered. The grimm conditions of this prison and the injustice is mind boggling. As if being condemned to die in this prison isn't horrible enough, there are also guards who don’t shy away from violence and use and misuse the prisoners to their liking.

Our main character, Kiva, is the prison healer and has been in Zalindov for 10 years. Her prison job forces her to brand the new prisoners which goes directly against being a healer. But hey, sometimes you’ve got to do things to survive, can't really judge here. Kiva wants to fight for herself, let loose the rebellious fire in her, but she is also smart enough to know how to survive in this prison. She is secretly in communication with her family on the outside and hopes that they will make true of their promise to come for her.

But with the Rebel Queen’s arrival to Zalindov, sick and in no condition to carry out her sentence, Kiva volunteers to take the Rebel Queen’s place and claim the sentence as her own. What in the Hunger Games…!
"My name is Kiva Meridan, and I claim her sentence as my own."

If Kiva manages to survive the Trials of the four elements (air, fire, water, and earth), see and the Rebel Queen are both free to leave the prison! Freedom is waiting.

I really liked to read more about Kiva’s scientific side and the dynamic between her and the other prisoners. She warms up to Naari and Jaren, both of them being new to the prison. She cares a lot about Tipp, I mean it’s impossible to not love this character!!
“The world needs people like him out there in it, shining light into the dark places.”

THE TWISTS IN THIS BOOK ARE BETTER THAN I EXPECTED.
!! Spoilers incoming !!

Here I am, thinking that Kiva and Jaren have a chance to be together after finding out Jaren is actually the crown prince. However, this becomes more complicated with the revelation that Kiva is in fact the rebel princess and she’s getting ready to take back the kingdom?! 

Jaren is such a sweet person and he has proven on multiple occasions that his heart is in the right place. He’s always there for Kiva, a loyal companion. Yet, I am worried that he will have his heart broken in the next book. I dread to see another version of Cal Calore and Mare Barrow (Red Queen). At least in their case they both knew they were both on opposite sides!
I actually think (and hope) that Kiva wants to be the rebel princess but having to betray Jaren will contradict her feelings for him. While I don’t believe she’s deliberately using Jaren, I guess she will be torn between her destiny and her affection for him. AAAARGH… the politics in this book, secretly brewing in the background and ready to wreak havoc, adds an interesting layer to this story.
Either way, she better not hurt him!

I had a lot of questions and doubts whilst reading this book and for sure I won’t be the only one! Just trust me when I say that the story will make sense in the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Blood, Bullying, Murder, Physical abuse, Violence, Drug abuse, Sexual harassment, Torture, Death of parent, Confinement, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief

Moderate: Rape and Addiction

Minor: Self harm and War

sophierosemaria's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

4.75

Sooo fun. Love a good YA!
Definitely tense at moments, especially when characters decide to have a deep chat when time is ticking on!! But super enjoyable with a nice twist at the end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent, Physical abuse, Child death, and Torture

becksbecks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny 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

4.5

devoured this book in one day, very entertaining with several twists (one predictable and one not!), but sometimes the writing was repetitive (particularly over backstory) and dragged. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, Vomit, and Death

Moderate: Child abuse and Sexual harassment

Minor: Addiction, Sexual assault, and Drug abuse

ashlyncherie's review

adventurous dark emotional sad 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? No

4.75

THAT ENDING! Holy cow. I haven’t had a plot twist do me like that in a while. I freaking loved this!! It had everything I could have wanted. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Torture, Vomit, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Violence, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Slavery, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Pandemic/Epidemic, Physical abuse, Medical content, Murder, and Child death

Moderate: Sexual violence and Sexual assault

Minor: Grief, Rape, Addiction, Self harm, Drug abuse, and Sexual harassment

agiraffereads's review against another edition

dark inspiring 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

4.0

That end🤯

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug abuse, Violence, Murder, Mass/school shootings, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, and Grief

Minor: Domestic abuse

livcashmere's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture, Violence, Addiction, Police brutality, Confinement, Sexual assault, War, Rape, Drug use, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death, Forced institutionalization, and Murder

lizrushby's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Confinement, Violence, Blood, Emotional abuse, Death, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Physical abuse, Medical content, Medical trauma, Sexual harassment, Murder, Sexual violence, Vomit, Pandemic/Epidemic, Police brutality, Self harm, and Torture

rinku's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Drug abuse, Blood, Pandemic/Epidemic, Police brutality, Violence, and Torture

Moderate: Medical content, Abandonment, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual harassment, Addiction, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty, Rape, Animal death, and Pregnancy

mirthesportel's review against another edition

dark hopeful medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, and Confinement

Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Self harm, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Police brutality

Minor: Child death, Child abuse, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Self harm, and Rape

the_jesus_fandom's review

adventurous emotional 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? It's complicated

3.5

I enjoyed this book and I especially loved Tipp (some of his scenes almost made me cry). All of the side characters were lovable, though, in their own ways. The book felt slow at times, but that's probably because my attention span has been bad. The descriptions were super good and especially the water trial was very stressful to read.

There was a bit of discrepancy in Kiva saying she helped everyone cause that was her job, regardless of what they did, but then she refuses to help a guard and actively makes his sickness worse.

So why exactly are you helping a person who killed his children but not a guard who sexually harasses people? Is it cause you didnt see the man kill his children but you did see the guard sexually harass people? Bit of a double standard.

My only major grievances: eyes don't have to have stone colours. Just say her eyes are yellow (amber).

And yeah, the plot twist. Not about Jaren, the one about Kiva. On the one hand it explains why her family was so sure of being able to rescue her, but on the other hand we saw her alone with Tilda various times. Why did she not call her "mother" then? I get that maybe she was still super on alert, but apparantly things were safe enough for her to tell the story of how her parents met. It also makes it a bit hypocritical that she was mad at Jaren for hiding his identity from her. And lastly, it does make the ending of this series pretty predictable. Jaren and Kiva will get together, thus uniting both sides, but not before Kiva does a lot of soul-searching and her angry siblings will push her to take her revenge. That relationship is going to break, we'll get lots of angst cause Kiva is heartbroken, etc. I think one of her siblings will probably die and his/her last words will either be for her to stop this fighting and make up or to continue the fight. I'm thinking it'll be the brother and he'll say the latter. Idk, if I'm wrong don't tell me, I want to read the books to see if I'm right!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Drug abuse, Medical content, War, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, and Torture

Moderate: Rape, Abandonment, Cursing, Vomit, and Death of parent