Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Prison Healer by Lynette Noni

9 reviews

jjamieww's review

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

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

l1brarygirl's review

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

mrobin14's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

2.0

The writing at times is very immature. Often thoughts would be scattered paragraphs away from where it started, or events would become repetitively told to the reader within the same chapters. Some events that transpired don’t make sense to have been included, it feels like they were cheap shots at making a “diverse” and “deep” cast. Pages were clearly taken from Lemony Snicketts writing in silly chapter set ups, but it just makes it feel like a poorly written YA novel. Feel as though the story idea is good, but needed a more stern publisher to steer it in the right direction. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Dementia, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Suicide attempt, Sexual harassment, and War

csmall73's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny slow-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? Yes

3.0

This book was a little bit of let down. I feel sufficiently confused by the events that take place in this part of the story. But I am also intrigued enough to read the next installment. Kiva definitely got poop end of the stick in life and family. Left for an unreasonable amount of time, she becomes the prison healer. Takes insane amounts of crap from the filth of several countries. An impulsive and rash royal invites himself to prison as a way of getting information and intelligence gathering on a notorious rebel that happens to also be royal. We are up to three. Kiva takes the do no harm way to far and volunteers to take the place of her patient in trials. Basically give me liberty or give me death. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

r1vana's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

What is that ending!! I am speechless. I got goosebumps. For all the books I’ve read, that cliffhanger was probably one of the top ten unexpected plot twist!!

she is the princess and the daughter of the rebel Tilda!!!

More RTC

“Enemies to lovers” 
Hidden identity
Magic world building 👍🏾

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Misogyny, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, and Death of parent

laurenevlyn's review

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I loved this book! Read in one night. Only downside was that the (absurd amount of) plot twists felt a bit rushed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Animal death, and Drug use

tkatt20's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

A warning for anyone looking to read this: this is a very trigger heavy book, if there are sensitive topics that you need to avoid i would probably avoid this one since pertty much everything is brought up at least once. Please check content warnings before reading. 

Im kind of lost on what I feel about this book. It was good, but I tend to be a detective when reading, so I was searching for every plot twist and I solved 90% of this book within the first 50 or so pages. That didn't ruin my enjoyment of the book, it just made it seem very slow paced for me when I usually like quicker fantasy novels. The premise and the storyline was very interesting, I lost a little on the world building, but considering the entire book is set in a prison that the MC arrived at when she was 7, it kind of makes sense. The characters were interesting enough to hold my attention, and for being only 17, the MC was very mature and resourceful. I would have loved to see more of the side characters and some of the little details of the Prison more fleshed out but it was alright. Everything was mostly saved by the ending in my opinion.
    If you're the type of person who doesn't search for plot twists and just wants a fun and quick read then this would be perfect for you. This checks off all the boxes of a basic YA fantasy and it was definitely worth the time. The ending was amazing and I hope the next one does more in terms of world building.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Chronic illness, Confinement, Drug use, Physical abuse, Self harm, Vomit, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Miscarriage, and Sexism

jessannderson's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

I did start getting frustrated with Kiva’s repetitive thoughts but it all makes sense now…damn that ending was so good! amazing plot twist, literally making me doubt everything I just read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, and Blood

Moderate: Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Medical trauma