Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

The Prison Healer by Lynette Noni

86 reviews

lisa_m's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Abandonment

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Drug use, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

energy365's review against another edition

emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

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

3.75

slow at the start but picks up around the middle, characters are lovable and I am looking forward to the next book in the series 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Addiction and Drug use

Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual violence

tabea1409's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

ettaviereads's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

0.5🌶️ 

This book was phenomenal! I was hooked from the first page until the final plot twist on the final page. The story follows Kiva in a deadly prison as the prison healer and the many things that go on behind the walls. 

She makes decisions that lead to her participation in the Trial by Ordeals and it is just about as intense as it can get. Each trial had me questioning what would happen next. 

I also fell in love with the three other main characters: Tripp, Naari and Jaren as the story progressed and things got more and more intense. 

There were a few plot twists that I didn’t see coming at all and Lynette Noni did a phenomenal job at their reveals. While thinking back on the various twists included in the plot, Lynett Noni does drop very subtle hints into what was going to happen but as a first time through, it will likely catch the reader off guard. 

I am glad this is a completed trilogy cuz I’m so ready to find out what’s going to happen next!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse

Moderate: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Self harm, Medical content, and Death of parent

Minor: Addiction, Child abuse, Confinement, Murder, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

lebibliothequedevivi's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I loved this book! Such a unique setting paired with an eclectic group of characters made for a very memorable read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Drug use, Self harm, Violence, and Medical content

Moderate: Drug abuse, Rape, Terminal illness, Torture, and Medical trauma

Minor: Addiction and Sexual violence

myahthebookfiend's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Torture, Grief, and Sexual harassment

karinreadsalot's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Physical abuse, Self harm, and Violence

Moderate: Child death, Gore, Sexual assault, Torture, and Death of parent

klaudiao's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful tense slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

l1brarygirl's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual violence, Vomit, Grief, Medical trauma, and Murder

Minor: War

that_awkwardbook's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, and War