Reviews with content warning for Torture - La guaritrice di Zalindov

My main issue with this book is just pacing, it was so slow at times and it feels like we’re learning nothing only for it to all be revealed at the end in a rush. I also felt like every character was flat and not very well developed. I’m not sure I’ll pick up the rest of the series

but the reveal at the end may have changed my mind uggh

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raichou's review against another edition

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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.

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marenm's review against another edition

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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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jessieslibrary's review against another edition

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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

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delandjessica's review against another edition

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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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bluebreex's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense 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? Yes

3.0

I did enjoy this book, but I do think it was way too over hyped for me. I enjoyed the main cast and the trials throughout, but there were some themes I could do without. Please check trigger warnings before picking up this book so you're not caught off guard.

I wasn't sold on continuing this series until the last few chapters

and that's on plot twists!! Did not see any of that coming! Very intrigued to see what storm Kiva is going to kick up in the palace

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r1vana's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

What is that ending!! I am speechless. I got goosebumps. For all the books I’ve read, that cliffhanger was probably one of the top ten unexpected plot twist!!

she is the princess and the daughter of the rebel Tilda!!!

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