Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

The Prison Healer by Lynette Noni

17 reviews

sarahsbookss's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Physical abuse, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Violence, and Vomit

chamaeleontis's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

This book was great. It had so many amazing, and natural plot twists. I only guessed 1 of them, and part of 2 others. Nothing was set up that wasn't followed through on. The characters are all 3D, and morally realistic, which I personally really enjoyed. That's not even to mention the writing. Lynette Noni's style is spectacular. It flows so naturally, and is very enjoyable.

The one nit-picky thing was a plot point I personally didn't like, which is why it's 4.75, rather than 5.

It bothered me that we never got to know Tilda despite her being right there. I would have had a problem with it regardless of her being Kiva's mom, but that made it more frustrating. In the same vein, I get why it was done, but I feel that there could have at least been one full sentence exchanged

I would highly recommend this book for anyone who loves fantasy but is sick of repetitive plots. There's a few common tropes, but they are well done, with unique takes. I'm really looking forward to the next book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Torture, Violence, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Self harm, Sexual harassment, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Sexual violence, Drug use, Terminal illness, War, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Animal cruelty, Blood, Ableism, Misogyny, Slavery, Medical content, and Sexism

julienicole1106's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Drug use, Drug abuse, and Child death

Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual violence

jessannderson's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

3.75

I did start getting frustrated with Kiva’s repetitive thoughts but it all makes sense now…damn that ending was so good! amazing plot twist, literally making me doubt everything I just read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Blood, Death, and Child death

Moderate: Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Medical trauma

dariusmortee's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? Yes

4.25

First things first: I love Naari, Tipp and Mot to death and will protect them however I can. 
This is why I said I did find the characters to be loveable. 

Kiva herself wasn’t the worst main character but I think she could’ve been better. Jaren annoyed me. 

I did enjoy reading this book! Although it really does fall into some tropes it is an orginal story. A story with a very dark undertone, for which I am a sucker. I am curious to how this story proceeds and will be buying the second one, but I am however also scared for the clichés it could possibly walk into. 

Overall: good story, loved the side characters but it has to watch out not to fall into the clichés. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Torture, and Child death

Moderate: Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

annacolb's review

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Grief, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Violence, and Blood

Minor: Domestic abuse, Drug use, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

pagethatreads's review against another edition

dark hopeful 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? It's complicated

3.0

The message was clear:
“Don’t let her die.
We are coming.”

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Our protagonist is seventeen year old Kiva, prisoner of Zalindov, a notorious prison for the worst kinds of criminals, or those of severely unfortunate circumstances. For ten years she has survived against all odds, rising to the rank of Prison Healer. Her tasks; to care for those inside the walls and carve the Z that marks new prisoners for what they are.

Despite her role as healer, Kiva is not generally well liked.
She regularly interacts with a naive little brother figure named Tipp, who is just too pure for this world. The prison warden who is supposed to feel more threatening than he actually does, the new POC guard Naari, who is probably the most likable character and new prisoner and love interest Jaren, who is just a little too perfect for such a gritty setting.

With so few characters to care about, the scope of the story feels incredibly narrow. Although you understand that there is a whole world outside of the prison, it’s not touched on enough to elicit an emotional reaction to it yet.

When the Rebel Queen is captured, it falls to Kiva to keep her alive long enough for her to complete the trial by ordeal, IF she survives all four ordeals she will be declared innocent and be granted her freedom.

In a fairly predictable Hunger Gamesesque maneuver, our heroine finds herself volunteering to undertake these trials, while trying to keep the rebel queen alive, navigate her budding love life and finding the solution to a pandemic that's systematically killing off troves of prisoners.

If you’ve read YA fiction before, you’ll recognise the tropes within this book.
If you wrote a book combining The Hunger Games, Divergent, Throne of Glass and Red Queen I think you’d come fairly close to what The Prison Healer has to offer.

That being said, I enjoyed this book for what it was.
What it lacked in memorability, it made up for with that ending. 
For that alone, I’m excited to see where the sequel will take us. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Genocide, Medical trauma, Rape, and Trafficking