Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

The Prison Healer by Lynette Noni

120 reviews

mollymoll44's review against another edition

3.5

First off, this is NOT YA appropriate. There's so many SA mentions/threats/complications, as well as a good amount of torture. I'm not sure why some things get labeled as YA when the majority of the book is about not age appropriate topics, other than that it's a younger female protagonist. But that's my grievance with how the book is labeled and promoted, not against the content. 

Nothing was terrible, but I didn't connect with the pacing or big twist. I also find that books where the fmc continuously only gets by from help from

the mmc/love interest

fall flat for me. I kept waiting for her to learn to be self sufficient, but she couldn't do jack by herself. 

The big twist at the end: this is a personal preference, but I find giant twists where there wasn't any hints or easter eggs about the surprise kind of lazy. There was no reason that huge thing wouldn't have entered her inner monologue that is half the story. And I like a clearly defined power system. You go 'oh the powers the royal fam can have are elemental powers', but boom surprise she actually has unheard of healing powers because it's convenient for the plot? Ehhhh I'm over it pretty fast.

ALSO DOESN'T THAT MEAN THEY'RE COUSINS?!?! Not into it.

Overall disappointing, mostly because I had waited almost 5 months for this book from the library. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture

Moderate: Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Stalking, and Injury/Injury detail

cehanzen's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Confinement, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, and War

twonky's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Death, Violence, and Death of parent

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Police brutality, and Murder

jjamieww's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

It was a pretty basic book to be honest. She was portrayed as having little to no flaws. The love interest was perfect and did everything for her. I am underwhelmed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Police brutality, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Body horror, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Addiction, Bullying, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Abandonment

joisaddler's review against another edition

adventurous emotional fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, and Death of parent

bookylarz's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse and Violence

Moderate: Sexual harassment

Minor: Drug abuse

x_rosered's review against another edition

challenging dark 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Self harm

paperbacksandsnacks's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I think I’m going to upset people with my opinions on this one, but honestly I just thought it was kind of boring 🤷🏻‍♀️

It felt very YA, which honestly might just be a me problem. I’m aware it’s not an adult fantasy so I’m not marking it down for that. But I am marking it down for being kind of basic and a bit predictable. The ending to me was so obvious 😬

I loved the found family aspect of this. I thought it was beautiful, and the way that Kiva came out of her shell was great. The bonds she formed were lovely and I liked Tipp, Naari and Jaren a lot. But something just felt lacking for me, and I’m yet to put my finger on what. I will continue the series but not in a huge rush. For me I have read other fantasies I prefer and want to prioritise.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Physical abuse, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

missgarceau's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

3.5

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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, and Pandemic/Epidemic

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