Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Prison Healer by Lynette Noni

127 reviews

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

lotte5322's review against another edition

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Confinement, Death, Medical content, Murder, Torture, and Bullying

letiross's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Confinement, Physical abuse, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Drug abuse, Self harm, Death of parent, and Sexual assault

Minor: Child abuse, Rape, and Sexual assault

ephemeralreader's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent and Torture

Minor: Sexual assault and Rape

helliepad's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.0

There was a point in the middle of this that I just wanted to put the book down bc it started getting miserable and I totally forgot this had magic halfway through. I love the story and even though I suspected that Kiva was

from the Corentine line

from the start, the emotional impact of

her mother the Rebel Queen DYING under her care

was insane to me and it still hit. Two more books is too long for me though idk if I'll finish the series. Though the story is really good and I love

secret identity

stories so that was nice.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Physical abuse, Confinement, Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Police brutality, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Self harm, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

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

lordfroggington's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment and Violence

Moderate: Sexual assault, Rape, Blood, Self harm, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Death of parent, and Child death

Minor: War and Fire/Fire injury

sunniva174's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Blood, and Torture

Moderate: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Addiction, Sexism, Drug use, Drug abuse, and Child death

marenm's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

those plot twists were actually insane. i never knew what was happening. i’d recommend this book sorely off of how cool the premise was, but it’s such a fun read. 4.5/5!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, and War

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.