Review by malima - The Prison Healer

malima 's review for:

The Prison Healer by Lynette Noni

2.0

reflective tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

I don't really get the hype of this book. From the very beginning, the prose felt clunky to me. After some time, it became apparent that I got this feeling because the prose was very repetitive. Kiva's emotions, her history and the stakes were often reiterated in between bits of plot, more than once distracting from the dialogue and action happening around her that at the end of this internal monologue I've forgotten what was happening around her again.

Then, there are two main problems for Kiva to solve in this book: The mysterious illness and the trials. The explanations for her "research" and everything she did to cure the illness were so thin, they were nearly indistinguishable from plot holes, and she didn't do anything to deal with the trials. She's consistently saved by other people, which is fine, and also important for the plot, so I don't mind that as such, but I did mind that she always said that she would have to come up with a solution for the next trial and that she's been thinking about what the trials could be, and yet we never see her actually doing anything about it, but going to her death essentially unprepared.

The concept itself was cool, though, and the plot twists were set up nicely so that I was able to guess all of them earlier from all the hints that we got before. I enjoyed that, even if a lot of the book was tedious to read. It also made me care for the characters, so I do have an interest in knowing what happens to the characters in the next books, but unfortunately, I don't have any interest in putting myself through the prose again, so I will likely not read them.

Content Warnings