Reviews with content warning for Trafficking - The Prison Healer

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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dark hopeful tense medium-paced

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

3.0

The message was clear:
“Don’t let her die.
We are coming.”

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Our protagonist is seventeen year old Kiva, prisoner of Zalindov, a notorious prison for the worst kinds of criminals, or those of severely unfortunate circumstances. For ten years she has survived against all odds, rising to the rank of Prison Healer. Her tasks; to care for those inside the walls and carve the Z that marks new prisoners for what they are.

Despite her role as healer, Kiva is not generally well liked.
She regularly interacts with a naive little brother figure named Tipp, who is just too pure for this world. The prison warden who is supposed to feel more threatening than he actually does, the new POC guard Naari, who is probably the most likable character and new prisoner and love interest Jaren, who is just a little too perfect for such a gritty setting.

With so few characters to care about, the scope of the story feels incredibly narrow. Although you understand that there is a whole world outside of the prison, it’s not touched on enough to elicit an emotional reaction to it yet.

When the Rebel Queen is captured, it falls to Kiva to keep her alive long enough for her to complete the trial by ordeal, IF she survives all four ordeals she will be declared innocent and be granted her freedom.

In a fairly predictable Hunger Gamesesque maneuver, our heroine finds herself volunteering to undertake these trials, while trying to keep the rebel queen alive, navigate her budding love life and finding the solution to a pandemic that's systematically killing off troves of prisoners.

If you’ve read YA fiction before, you’ll recognise the tropes within this book.
If you wrote a book combining The Hunger Games, Divergent, Throne of Glass and Red Queen I think you’d come fairly close to what The Prison Healer has to offer.

That being said, I enjoyed this book for what it was.
What it lacked in memorability, it made up for with that ending.
For that alone, I’m excited to see where the sequel will take us.

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