Reviews with content warning for Grief - The Prison Healer

This book hooks you immediately! It’s a really easy and binge worthy read. The plot twists are very fun. The puzzles and quest for answers is very intriguing.

It’s dark and checking TW’s is recommended- but it’s not shock value graphic or unnecessarily brutal in descriptions. The author paints the picture without overdoing it, and I appreciate that.

I had a few mild annoyances but those were mostly “me” problems that I don’t think would bother most people.
1) The plants/science:
It’s a bit of a pet peeve of mine when high fantasy uses real world elements inconsistently along with high fantasy elements unique to the world. The world building was really lacking for me in this regard.
2) How I met your mother:
Another pet peeve of mine is pop culture references in high fantasy. This just 🤦🏼‍♀️ All of it was so pointless or could have been done in a way that didn’t make me cringe at the very obvious ode to/copy cat of the show.
3) miscommunication trope/ betrayal trope/ secret identity trope/ enemies to who knows- just all my least favorite tropes.
4) Space invasion:
Some very intimate moments for the main love interest happened in a very unlikely moment and very cringe worthy scenario considering the circumstances and it completely undid all the butterflies/ character development I felt up to that point.

My biggest issue is probably world building & character development- but it’s very addicting. Despite my grievances, I find myself itching to read the second book ever though I will probably hate it, based on where the plot is going.

Is this a romance with an HEA? The answer might determine my willingness to continue- honestly.

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lisa_m's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No

3.25

I've been looking forward to reading this book ever since I first heard of it and I finally did read it as a buddy-read. When I started this book I could barely remember what it was about, I just knew I used to really want to read it.

My thoughts on this book are quite complicated. I did not love the majority of the book. Most things that happened felt either like complete coincidences or out of our protagonists control. She was just there for the ride and the few decisions she did make did not make a lot of sense to me. She constantly needed to be saved and I just felt like I didn't have enough information about anything. A huge part of this book is 1. descriptions of the prison and how horrible it is in there and 2. Kiva trying to find a cure for this mysterious illness spreading around the prison.

When she finally finds out what happened to the dying prisoners it is by pure coincidence.

A very important part of this book are the 4 trials Kiva has to survive. I hoped that these would be interesting but instead it just felt like we're waiting for them to finally happen. The trials themselves are basically just Kiva being put into a situation that is impossible to survive, and then getting rescued.

The majority of the time while reading I was almost bored and waiting for something unique and surprising to happen. I did not understand any of the main characters or their relationships and we got barely any information about them. Things seemingly happened at random just to make a good story and to drive the plot forwards. Kiva also always made wrong assumptions about everyone to the point where you can pretty much assume all her assumptions are false.

BUT all of this boredom and indifference change in the last 50(?) pages. We finally get answers and information that make the whole story make sense. Certain actions get explained so they don't seem as random anymore and it's honestly very intruiging and I was hooked. My problem is that those last few pages don't make up for how I felt throughout the rest of the book.

I really liked the relationship between Kiva and Tipp. It was the one that made the most sense to me and I found it really sweet. I also liked Naari even though we got so little information and I always knew that there was something missing which made it frustrating to read. The same also goes for Jaren. For me personally the idea of keeping all relevant information until the end for the big 'aha' effect did not work out at all because it just made me more frustrated. At the end it just felt like I was being lied to throughout the entire book because important information has been kept from me which was the reason I did not understand what was going on or why people are reacting the way they do. So all in all it kind of feels like this book tried to be smarter than it is.

I think 3.5 stars is very justified considering all that. Still, now that I'm intruiged and I FINALLY know what's going on I will be reading the sequel as well. I hope it will keep up the intruige and perhaps I will really like the second book. It definitely has the potential to be good.

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tabea1409's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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myahthebookfiend's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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? No

5.0

oh. my. god. I adored this book with every fiber of my being. the writing style was perfection. the characters were perfection. the plot was perfection. the end was perfection. this book was perfection. it took me longer than most books I read to finish for whatever reason, but that doesn't diminish how great it was. I thought the beginning and part of the middle were kind of slow, but given the whole plot line, it makes sense. that slowness doesn't account for any negatives. I saw people praising this book up and down and left and right, so I thought, "Hey, why not give it a shot?" take it from me: the praises weren't lying. I'm 100% reading the rest of the series.

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callistag1's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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cepbreed's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This book disappointed me in the beginning, I’d say up until 60% in I wasn’t hooked. It’s all so cliche, the most classic YA tropes converging in one novel. You’d think that’d at least make it entertaining from the get go but it just felt so overly familiar there was no intrigue left to get me invested. I will say that once the action picked up I couldn’t stop reading (but I was also on a plane so it’s not like I had many other options). Naari is the best character in my opinion, what a badass. Kiva and Jaren I could honestly care less about. Speaking of Jaren, what kind of name is that in a fantasy setting (yes I know it gets explained but still). Only one character actually annoyed me rather than being subjected to indifference: Tipp. I HATE written stutters with such a passion and I don’t know why.

The myriad of plot twists weren’t always the most creative

(I mean Jaren as the prince was obvious early on)

but the last twist was lacking in the opposite sense. The earlier twists were predictable thanks to tenants of the genre, but the last one lost me. I mean there was hardly any build up. Of course Kiva

has to be a “chosen one” of some sort but I prefer her as a healer only, but that may change if I read the second book.

Recently I’ve had such an issue with never continuing series, there are just too many books I want to read. To my credit I started this thinking it was a standalone.

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l1brarygirl's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

3.0

I was into it...but then I got bored in the middle 🫣 I almost DNF this at 47% - thank you to my sister for telling me to push through because the last 25% 😮🙌🏻

oh and that last line...

"The Rebel Princess was finally ready to rise." YAAAAASS 👌🏻 I also guessed Tilda was her mom early on and kinda suspected she had healing abilities but her never using them or alluding to them the entire time had me second guessing myself. I also thought Jaren was like a royal cousin or something, so him being the prince was a cool twist. I would have been soooo PO if Tipp died though, I was ready to throw hands!!

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that_awkwardbook's review

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

I haven't read anything similar before. And I'm in awe. Everything came through beautifully in the end. I can wait to read the next book.

This book is about a young girl, that has been in prison for the last 10 years. She is the prison healer, but keeps mostly to herself and stays out of trouble.

A must read. In my opinion.

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