katelynnreads's review against another edition
5.0
That was so EPIC. 10/10.
“you’re right, you don’t need me fighting your battles. But if you’ll let me, I’d like to be standing beside you as you fight them”
“Our scars define us. They tell a story of courage and survival. They tell of who we are at our deepest being, of the challenges we've faced and overcome”
I devoured this boon on our trip to Canada. It was beautiful & full of horrors at the same time.
“you’re right, you don’t need me fighting your battles. But if you’ll let me, I’d like to be standing beside you as you fight them”
“Our scars define us. They tell a story of courage and survival. They tell of who we are at our deepest being, of the challenges we've faced and overcome”
I devoured this boon on our trip to Canada. It was beautiful & full of horrors at the same time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Medical content, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Murder, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Alcoholism, Physical abuse, and War
Minor: Grief
sarah_ellen_bbgr's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.0
The ending of this book infuriated me. It's really interesting and well written - very hard to put down. BUT the very last page features a giant twist that felt 💯 like a last-minute publisher idea to turn it into a sequel and there was no thought to how it would retroactively change other parts of the narrative and the character development/motivations throughout. Just the most contrived, disappointing device I've come across in a long time. But otherwise, if you can get past all the CW content, the rest of the book is pretty good.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Classism, Confinement, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Deportation, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, and Hate crime
Moderate: Self harm and War
marsh_mall0w's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, and Torture
Moderate: Sexual harassment, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, Child death, and Grief
Minor: Confinement, Self harm, and Medical content
kinskinn's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Murder, Death of parent, Death, Medical content, Physical abuse, Genocide, Gore, Violence, Child abuse, Confinement, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Torture
Moderate: Self harm, Drug use, and Rape
Minor: Addiction
steffandbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
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
I have so many thoughts on this one, I don't even know where to start! The book left me reeling and speechless. I don't know whether I should cry happy or sad tears. This is a masterpiece and I am so mad at myself that I didn't read this sooner!
Not gonna lie though, I had a hard time getting into this because I was so confused with the world, like, literally nothing was being explained until page 100 or so when you finally get a few glimpses at the magic system and how the different kingdoms are interconnected. But then later, I realized, this is intentional and let's be honest, isn't every high fantasy book confusing in the beginning?
I am so in love with Kiva. She is such a great character, very strong female lead and very selfless. The well-beings of others always come first and although she doesn't trust easily, I couldn't blame her because she was thrown into prison when she was only 7 and had to survive somehow. We get glimpses of her past and what happened to her family and how she went through some difficult time by herself, being addicted to certain things and stuff but overcame that period of her time in prison as well. Like I said - she is such a strong character.
We also had so many plots intertwining into each other in this book, I loved it! You know when you sometimes read a book and there is one main plot? This was not the case here. While we think it focused mainly on the Trial by Ordeal, the normal prison life goes on as well and there are many challenges Kiva has to face and we focus on that in the book as well for some time, while going back to the Trial when it became time for the next Ordeal.
Side characters like Jaren, Naari, Tipp and Mot had me reeling. Jaren was so mysterious in the beginning that I didn't know what to think of him. I had a slight feeling what he was hiding, but in the end, didn't see it coming nonetheless. Naari has my full heart. She poses as a guard in the prison and while Kiva came to fear all guards, she slowly realized that Naari is different and she turns into a friend. I loved seeing how both, Jaren and Naari, just slowly made their way into Kiva's heart and she wasn't able to do anything about it. And Tipp! Oh boy, that sweet, sweet boy. I was sobbing for him and when I saw a fanart of the character? Man, now I wish I had my own younger brother.
The ending was just mind-blowing. I loved how Lynette just casually mentions the biggest plot twist in two solid sentences and then goes back to the "main story". Obviously, I have to pick up the next book immediately as I need to know what happens with all the characters and I can only hope that Kiva will stay true to herself based on what was revealed on the last page....
Not gonna lie though, I had a hard time getting into this because I was so confused with the world, like, literally nothing was being explained until page 100 or so when you finally get a few glimpses at the magic system and how the different kingdoms are interconnected. But then later, I realized, this is intentional and let's be honest, isn't every high fantasy book confusing in the beginning?
I am so in love with Kiva. She is such a great character, very strong female lead and very selfless. The well-beings of others always come first and although she doesn't trust easily, I couldn't blame her because she was thrown into prison when she was only 7 and had to survive somehow. We get glimpses of her past and what happened to her family and how she went through some difficult time by herself, being addicted to certain things and stuff but overcame that period of her time in prison as well. Like I said - she is such a strong character.
We also had so many plots intertwining into each other in this book, I loved it! You know when you sometimes read a book and there is one main plot? This was not the case here. While we think it focused mainly on the Trial by Ordeal, the normal prison life goes on as well and there are many challenges Kiva has to face and we focus on that in the book as well for some time, while going back to the Trial when it became time for the next Ordeal.
Side characters like Jaren, Naari, Tipp and Mot had me reeling. Jaren was so mysterious in the beginning that I didn't know what to think of him. I had a slight feeling what he was hiding, but in the end, didn't see it coming nonetheless. Naari has my full heart. She poses as a guard in the prison and while Kiva came to fear all guards, she slowly realized that Naari is different and she turns into a friend. I loved seeing how both, Jaren and Naari, just slowly made their way into Kiva's heart and she wasn't able to do anything about it. And Tipp! Oh boy, that sweet, sweet boy. I was sobbing for him and when I saw a fanart of the character? Man, now I wish I had my own younger brother.
The ending was just mind-blowing. I loved how Lynette just casually mentions the biggest plot twist in two solid sentences and then goes back to the "main story". Obviously, I have to pick up the next book immediately as I need to know what happens with all the characters and I can only hope that Kiva will stay true to herself based on what was revealed on the last page....
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Blood, and Torture
Moderate: Rape, Addiction, Genocide, Murder, Sexual violence, and Self harm
Minor: Vomit, Death of parent, and Death
pagethatreads's review against another edition
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.”
---
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.
“Don’t let her die.
We are coming.”
---
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.
Content Warnings
Minor: Genocide, Medical trauma, Rape, and Trafficking
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