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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
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
maddie_rae_reads's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
4.5
Epic YA Fantasy at its finest! While it does touch on dark themes such as death and abuse (in ALL its forms), the story itself refrains from graphic descriptions or harsh language. Lots of diverse characters, some that are easy to hate and others you aren’t sure what to think.
We follow Kiva, the Prison Healer (thus the name) as she encounters new problems at the prison she’s lived at for 10 years. Taken with her father for a crime neither committed, she’s been acting as the prison healer in her father’s footsteps after his death. Because of harsh prison life she rarely forms close connections with anyone in order to spare her tender heart. All except Tipp whom she cares for like a younger brother/surrogate mother.
As the protagonist you may think she has powers that she suddenly has and can wield flawlessly to help her, but that is not the case. I found that so refreshing!!! She is smart and quick to learn, which continues to help her along her journey.
Following the author’s breadcrumbs, I was able to guess several of the big reveals, but I was still taken off guard by the last page! Definitely jumping into book 2 as soon as I can.
Includes:
⚔️political intrigue
⚔️hidden identities
⚔️shared bed
⚔️fantastical powers
⚔️strong women
Title: The Prison Healer
Author: Lynette Noni @lynettenoni
Series: The Prison Healer, 1
Spice: 2/10
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Kindle Unlimited: No
Deseret Bookshelf: No
#bookstagram #audiobookstagram #theprisonhealer #aestheticreel #maddieraereads2023
We follow Kiva, the Prison Healer (thus the name) as she encounters new problems at the prison she’s lived at for 10 years. Taken with her father for a crime neither committed, she’s been acting as the prison healer in her father’s footsteps after his death. Because of harsh prison life she rarely forms close connections with anyone in order to spare her tender heart. All except Tipp whom she cares for like a younger brother/surrogate mother.
As the protagonist you may think she has powers that she suddenly has and can wield flawlessly to help her, but that is not the case. I found that so refreshing!!! She is smart and quick to learn, which continues to help her along her journey.
Following the author’s breadcrumbs, I was able to guess several of the big reveals, but I was still taken off guard by the last page! Definitely jumping into book 2 as soon as I can.
Includes:
⚔️political intrigue
⚔️hidden identities
⚔️shared bed
⚔️fantastical powers
⚔️strong women
Title: The Prison Healer
Author: Lynette Noni @lynettenoni
Series: The Prison Healer, 1
Spice: 2/10
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Kindle Unlimited: No
Deseret Bookshelf: No
#bookstagram #audiobookstagram #theprisonhealer #aestheticreel #maddieraereads2023
Content Warnings
Minor: Emotional abuse, Drug abuse, Addiction, Physical abuse, Death, and War
raichou's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
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? It's complicated
3.5
Ich habe mir das Buch vor allem gekauft, weil ich das Cover so schön fand, ohne wirklich zu wissen im was es geht.
Alles in allem eine gelungene Geschichte, ich glaube ich bin nur schon etwas zu alt für die eigentliche Zielgruppe. Trotzdem war es eine interessante Story, der Twist am Ende kam für mich unerwartet.
Alles in allem eine gelungene Geschichte, ich glaube ich bin nur schon etwas zu alt für die eigentliche Zielgruppe. Trotzdem war es eine interessante Story, der Twist am Ende kam für mich unerwartet.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Torture, Vomit, Drug use, Sexual harassment, Violence, and Rape
Moderate: Self harm
bungleboo's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
5.0
The ending! Oh my days!! Get me book 2!!!
Content Warnings
Minor: Drug use, Physical abuse, and Sexual assault
jessieslibrary's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
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? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual harassment, Blood, Gore, Sexual assault, Fire/Fire injury, and Torture
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.
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.
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.queen_melliott's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
In the beginning, this seemed very much like Throne of Glass: A 17 YO girl being imprisoned, then catching the interest of a prince, strong hints that there may be more to the girl’s identity, only for the very last page to reveal that she’s the long lost rebel princess with a claim to the throne . Also, prisoners working as slaves in the mines, even the map looked quite similar to eastern Erilea where ToG is set… Honestly, the similarities had me expecting a cheap ToG fanfic, so I didn’t have high hopes at first. Luckily, I ended up loving it.
It’s funny how sometimes I cannot warm up to the characters throughout the whole book and don’t care if they live or die. And then other times, as it was with The Prison Healer, I am so invested in the characters from the getgo. Kiva, Jaren, Naari, Tipp, Mot, I just loved them all. Watching their bonds grow stronger over time, watching their banter, growing trust and support of one another made me grow ever fonder of them. It all felt very realistic for the setting. Also, the romance was built up slowly despite the initial spark between Kiva and Jaren, which I was very relieved about. An insta-love-y romance might have ruined it for me.
Another thing that was developed slowly and tastefully was the world building. It was continuously woven throughout the story and felt organic.
The story orders never got repetitive or boring, despite being set in only one place for 500 pages (in German). There was a lot going on with the friendships, romance, trials, the rebel Queen’s mysterious illness, the plague and overall dynamic at the prison. However, all the stories were woven together organically and made sense, so it never felt like there was too much going on all at once.
One aspect I do have to complain about was the extremely foreseeable plot twists. It’s also not too difficult to imagine where the story might go, but I still can’t wait to get my hands on the sequels.
It’s funny how sometimes I cannot warm up to the characters throughout the whole book and don’t care if they live or die. And then other times, as it was with The Prison Healer, I am so invested in the characters from the getgo. Kiva, Jaren, Naari, Tipp, Mot, I just loved them all. Watching their bonds grow stronger over time, watching their banter, growing trust and support of one another made me grow ever fonder of them. It all felt very realistic for the setting. Also, the romance was built up slowly despite the initial spark between Kiva and Jaren, which I was very relieved about. An insta-love-y romance might have ruined it for me.
Another thing that was developed slowly and tastefully was the world building. It was continuously woven throughout the story and felt organic.
The story orders never got repetitive or boring, despite being set in only one place for 500 pages (in German). There was a lot going on with the friendships, romance, trials, the rebel Queen’s mysterious illness, the plague and overall dynamic at the prison. However, all the stories were woven together organically and made sense, so it never felt like there was too much going on all at once.
One aspect I do have to complain about was the extremely foreseeable plot twists. It’s also not too difficult to imagine where the story might go, but I still can’t wait to get my hands on the sequels.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, and Physical abuse
Minor: Confinement, Sexual assault, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Child death, Death of parent, Rape, Vomit, Addiction, Sexual harassment, Drug abuse, and Fire/Fire injury
molly_love's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
lighthearted
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
4.75
An incredible book, with a sad but beautiful plot, with twist and turns always around the corner and jumping up at you when you never expected them or knew you needed them but just working so perfectly together that you cant help but love the book to bits.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Physical abuse
Minor: Blood, Gore, Self harm, Murder, Torture, Violence, Bullying, and Drug use
thorn_n_thistle_reads's review against another edition
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.
Overall, it's a solid read, and I'll continue the series at some point. Many members binged the series after book one.
Content Warnings
Minor: Drug abuse, Violence, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, and Sexual harassment
n0elle's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping, Abandonment, Terminal illness, Slavery, Sexual assault, Death, Body horror, Classism, Torture, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Blood, Child abuse, Gore, War, Police brutality, Physical abuse, and Violence