The Prison Healer - Book Review

 

The Prison Healer (The Prison Healer #1)

by Lynette Noni

What is it about:

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.

What did I think of it:

This is a difficult book to review.

I finished it and was entertained, but there were also things that annoyed me. Some of the things that annoyed are hard to describe as they're so elusive. Others are personal pet peeves: the unreliable narrator, who keeps important information up her sleeve for shock reveals, the snarky love interest who thinks he's all that, stuff like that.

Biggest flaw of this book for me was that I could not care for Kiva and her love interest. I actually disliked Kiva a bit. So while I was entertained enough and curious to see where the story would go, I wasn't invested. That made this a mediocre read for me.

The ending was meant to be clever and shocking, but didn't work for me. It only confirmed that this book wasn't meant for me, and that I won't be reading the next one in this series.

Why should you read it:

If you like unreliable narrators and snarky dudes, this is your read.

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