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THE PRISON HEALER
Lynette Noni
Series: The Prison Healer #1
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Publisher: Clarion Books
Pages: 416
Publication date: April 13, 2021
Seventeen-year-old Kiva Meridan has spent the last ten years fighting for survival in the notorious death prison, Zalindov, working as the prison healer.
When the Rebel Queen is captured, Kiva is charged with keeping the terminally ill woman alive long enough for her to undergo the Trial by Ordeal: a series of elemental challenges against the torments of air, fire, water, and earth, assigned to only the most dangerous of criminals.
Then a coded message from Kiva’s family arrives, containing a single order: “Don’t let her die. We are coming.” Aware that the Trials will kill the sickly queen, Kiva risks her own life to volunteer in her place. If she succeeds, both she and the queen will be granted their freedom.
But no one has ever survived.
With an incurable plague sweeping Zalindov, a mysterious new inmate fighting for Kiva’s heart, and a prison rebellion brewing, Kiva can’t escape the terrible feeling that her trials have only just begun.
“I claim her sentence as my own.”
You do not want to know how many times I called this book “The Poison Healer” in my head. Do I know how to read? It doesn’t seem like it.
Anyway! The Prison Healer was such an engrossing read for me. I picked it up because I needed something new and Fantasy-related in my life and planned on reading just the first few chapters. Except! It is now about five hours later and I have finished the book. Noni’s writing was wonderful and I loved how Kiva’s perspective hooked me right from the beginning.
It was so interesting to have the story be centered around the prison and Kiva’s work as a healer. The space was so contained, but Noni still did a great job with developing the world-building and giving us a bit of information here and there about the outside and the current political situation.
The plot, in general, was also super intriguing! There were quite a few things happening at the same time and I was tense pretty much throughout the entire book. I will say a few twists and plot points happened rather… conveniently for Kiva and as a way to move things along and I felt like that made a few reveals a bit too messy.
The ending, though??? Amazing. I’m still pretty shocked at the final twist??? But in hindsight it was so obvious sldljflsdf I guess I just didn’t put things together fast enough. Not that I’m complaining, because I was so satisfied by how surprised I was lol It also means I cannot wait to read the second book and see how things will go!
owls reads 
Can’t wait to read this one myself! I’ve been hearing great things about this one left and right!
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It was so good! I was a bit hesitant picking it up since I also saw all the rave reviews, but it did live up to the hype for me 😀
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