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A review by readabilitea
The Prison Healer by Lynette Noni
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.
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.
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?
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual harassment and Violence
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Self harm, and Sexual assault
Minor: Addiction and Drug abuse