Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

The Prison Healer by Lynette Noni

91 reviews

book_dragon_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Police brutality, Medical content, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Child death, Death, War, and Blood

this_is_naomimi's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content and Blood

Minor: Sexual harassment

sophs_mood_reading's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Kiva the resident healer has survived 10 years at the kingdoms death prison waiting to be saved by her family on the outside or die, whichever comes first. She’s hated by the other prisoners for being the warden’s tool and informant and treated like scum by the guards (so life’s not great). 

When the rebel queen arrives in a state close to death the warden and the prison rebels both demand one thing of her: Keep her alive. 🤦‍♀️
 
So now she must do the impossible, all why trying to figure out what strange deadly stomach sickness is spreading throughout the prison as well as not be too distracted by the new handsome and charming inmate. 

A little slow in parts and I did predict a major plot point fairly early on, I still really enjoyed this start to the trilogy. 

Read if you like:
Found family
Hidden identities 
Slow burn romance 
Elemental magic
High stakes challenges 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Sexual harassment, Death of parent, Child death, Physical abuse, Murder, Medical trauma, Grief, Violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Death, and Confinement

katelynnreads's review against another edition

5.0

That was so EPIC. 10/10. 

“you’re right, you don’t need me fighting your battles. But if you’ll let me, I’d like to be standing beside you as you fight them”

“Our scars define us. They tell a story of courage and survival. They tell of who we are at our deepest being, of the challenges we've faced and overcome”

I devoured this boon on our trip to Canada. It was beautiful & full of horrors at the same time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Medical content, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Murder, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Alcoholism, Physical abuse, and War

Minor: Grief

christygsp's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, and Confinement

Moderate: Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Gore, and Child abuse

csmall73's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Drug abuse, Toxic friendship, Misogyny, Gaslighting, Slavery, Grief, Gore, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Sexism, Self harm, Mental illness, Medical content, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Death, Child abuse, Murder, War, Torture, Trafficking, Terminal illness, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, Panic attacks/disorders, and Pandemic/Epidemic

grace_yin's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Confinement, Blood, Child death, Death of parent, Medical content, Physical abuse, Torture, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Self harm, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, and Sexual assault

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Domestic abuse

av0universe's review against another edition

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

Mother is dead.
I’m on my way to Vallenia.
It’s time to reclaim our kingdom.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Slavery, Blood, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Grief, Death of parent, Death, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Self harm, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Medical content, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Slavery, Addiction, Rape, Sexism, and Torture

Minor: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Self harm, Sexual assault, Vomit, Violence, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Torture

readabilitea's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

1.0

My tolerance for basic writing and plot predictability is pretty high, but I found it difficult to get through this one and in the end resulted to skimming just the speech.

The primary problem for me was how unnecessarily repetitive the writing was. I felt like I was being treated as stupid and as if my hand needed holding all the time, as though without the constant recapping, the stating the obvious, and the incessant reminders of "Don't let her die. We are coming." I would have forgot everything I had read up until that point.

I also felt this handholding and the telling rather showing aspect of the writing was a problem when it came to some of the sensitive issues handled in the book.

when Kiva reveals her self-harm to Jaren, and when he reveals his mother's addiction to Kiva, what followed was a lecture encompassing the beginning, middle, and end of a trauma storyline and it left me feeling really icky, as if the author wasn't actually engaging with the topic but using the trauma to add some history to her characters, justified by ending on a spelling out of what to do should you ever encounter these issues in real life.

This book is full of YA fantasy tropes and I see why people like it, after all that's exactly why I picked it up: I wanted an easy, action-packed read that would be difficult to put down. Ultimately though this backfired because I was left with so many questions that regularly took me out of the reading experience. If the prison is regularly overpopulated, why would you just accept kids coming in with the parents? The guards clearly don't mind being cruel so why would you not just forcefully separate children and their arrested parents before getting to the prison? Why are the trials impossible without magic and not just very very difficult?

How did Kiva just forget that a stomach bug was what caused her father's death?

If we are supposed to believe throughout Kiva is rigid about sticking to her healer code, why does she at one point worsen a guard's symptoms rather than just giving him a less effective remedy?

A slightly more minor point of annoyance was that the pacing was off. It starts off promisingly but slumps majorly in the middle section, which is even more baffling considering the whole appeal of a Trial format is the suspense and danger that propels a story forward. Instead of this, we spend pages upon pages conducting pointless scientific experiments?? And then it picks up at again towards the ending, finishing on a lot of drama and 'revelations' which felt contrived and fell flat.

Overall, I was pretty disappointed in this book and even the desire for plot resolution isn't enough to make me want to read the rest of the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment and Violence

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Self harm, and Sexual assault

Minor: Addiction and Drug abuse

guessgreenleaf's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual harassment, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Misogyny, Grief, Death, Confinement, Blood, and Death of parent

Minor: Self harm, Domestic abuse, and Addiction