Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Prison Healer by Lynette Noni

61 reviews

gattolinos_nerdy_nook's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

This is an amazing book. The setting felt unique and darker than I was expecting for a YA book, but I was here for the atmosphere.

I loved the characters and how they dealt with the mystery and challenges that they find themselves in.
By time I got to the end of the book I was so happy that I already had the sequel. The ending left my mouth agape and me reaching immediately for the sequel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Self harm, Death of parent, and Sexual assault

Minor: Rape, Child death, and Addiction

book_dragon_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Police brutality, Medical content, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Child death, Death, War, and Blood

sophs_mood_reading's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

4.0

Kiva the resident healer has survived 10 years at the kingdoms death prison waiting to be saved by her family on the outside or die, whichever comes first. She’s hated by the other prisoners for being the warden’s tool and informant and treated like scum by the guards (so life’s not great). 

When the rebel queen arrives in a state close to death the warden and the prison rebels both demand one thing of her: Keep her alive. 🤦‍♀️
 
So now she must do the impossible, all why trying to figure out what strange deadly stomach sickness is spreading throughout the prison as well as not be too distracted by the new handsome and charming inmate. 

A little slow in parts and I did predict a major plot point fairly early on, I still really enjoyed this start to the trilogy. 

Read if you like:
Found family
Hidden identities 
Slow burn romance 
Elemental magic
High stakes challenges 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Sexual harassment, Death of parent, Child death, Physical abuse, Murder, Medical trauma, Grief, Violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Death, and Confinement

annielikesbooks's review

adventurous challenging funny hopeful tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death

Minor: Self harm and Child death

grace_yin's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Confinement, Blood, Child death, Death of parent, Medical content, Physical abuse, Torture, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Self harm, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, and Sexual assault

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Domestic abuse

av0universe's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I didn’t expect that ending?!

This book surprised me in a good way. I really like the worldbuilding and Kiva as the main character is interesting, to say the least. 

Tipp is the cutest character ever 🫶 and for the most part, I really liked the found family

Seriously, I can’t stop thinking about that ending. It blew my mind even though I guessed most of it. Amazing. The narrator is everything here.

I’m pretty sure I dreamed of this book today

Spoiler

Mother is dead.
I’m on my way to Vallenia.
It’s time to reclaim our kingdom.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Slavery, Blood, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Grief, Death of parent, Death, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Self harm, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Medical content, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Slavery, Addiction, Rape, Sexism, and Torture

Minor: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Self harm, Sexual assault, Vomit, Violence, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Torture

sheekapatak's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Rape, and Violence

epellicci's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.0

This book somehow felt both slow and rushed. While I expected it to be uncomfortable, with most of the book taking place within an unregulated prison environment, the brutality felt poorly fleshed out. There is constant reference to physical, sexual and mental abuse suffered by the prisoners at the hands of the guards, but it never goes anywhere. Kiva’s internal monologue often refers to how at any time there are people who can take advantage of her, and yet it felt shallow and unbelievable. 

 While the aim it to increase the drama of the big reveal at the end, I found Kiva hard to root for when her motivations seemed so all over the place. She takes on the horrific ordeal of the Rebel Queen’s sentence and punishment, yet maintains throughout that she is only mildly sympathetic to the rebel’s cause – instead driven by her oath as a healer. When in the very last pages, it was revealed that there was much more to it than that, I found it hard to believe that the cool, manipulative Kiva who had just been revealed was the same person as the hopelessly naive one who still believed after a decade that her family were on the way to recuse her, and who broke all her rules about forming relationships because Jaren had a pretty face. 
 
 Unfortunately, I can see fairly obviously where the next two books are going, and am not invested enough in the characters to watch it play out. Despite this being a pretty quick, easy read, that ultimately did no harm, it reminds me of all the things I didn’t like about ACOTR, and so I won’t be bothering with the rest of it.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, and Self harm

Moderate: Drug abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Confinement

Minor: Child death, Rape, and Addiction

lordfroggington's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment and Violence

Moderate: Sexual assault, Rape, Blood, Self harm, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Death of parent, and Child death

Minor: War and Fire/Fire injury

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.

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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