There are many content warnings for this book including torture and violence. 


Despite the torture, I enjoyed this book and devoured it in a few sittings. The characters were interesting and that plot twist at the end.


I found the pacing to be perfect and kept me engaged. The plot was dark, something I haven't seen in a while tbh.


Rating: 4/5

HUGE thank you to HMH Books for Young Readers & Netgalley for providing me with this eARC in exchange for my honest review!

I was browsing Netgalley one day when I came across a cover that caught my eye. It was The Prison Healer by Lynette Noni. I was immediately drawn in by the title and cover. Plus, while I had never read anything by Noni, my book bestie has read her Australian exclusive series (The Medoran Chronicles) and is a massive fan! So suffice to say that I was thrilled when I got approved for an arc! And holy cow. Guys. The Prison Healer was freaking amazing!

The Prison Healer tells the story of Kiva Meridan. Kiva was imprisoned with her father ten years ago and she has been fighting to survive ever since. She works in the Zalindov prison as — you guessed it — the healer. Kiva spends everyday caring for the inmates of the brutal prison while maintaining hope that her family will rescue her. But everything changes when the Rebel Queen is captured and Kiva is placed in charge of the sick woman’s care. The Rebel Queen is sentenced to the Trial by Ordeal, but Kiva receives a message from her family to keep the queen alive. Kiva sacrifices everything and volunteers to take the Trials in the queen’s place. What comes next is intense, action-packed, and full of all kinds of twists and turns.

I absolutely loved The Prison Healer. I was immediately hooked by the atmosphere and setting. The prison is intense, grim, and full of danger around every corner. I found myself so nervous as Kiva explained the day to day life of the prison. It is simply terrifying. Lynette Noni did an exceptional job of crafting this world and creating an all-encompassing, tension-filled atmosphere. I truly felt Kiva’s terror as she dealt with both the horrors of the prison and the Trial by Ordeal tasks. Kiva encounters abusive guards, aggressive fellow inmates, and truly terrifying trials. I was so on edge during the trials . . . especially the Trial by Fire. I’ll keep this spoiler free, but all you have to know is that I was petrified during this trial. Once again, Noni did such an incredible job of making me feel like I was with Kiva. I was with Kiva throughout the entire book and I couldn’t put it down. I had to know what happened next!!

One of my favorite parts of The Prison Healer is the healer aspect. As a nurse, I love to see characters who are passionate about healing and healthcare. Kiva was so incredibly inspiring with how she was truly selfless in her care. She cares for everyone who comes through her door the exact same way. It doesn’t matter who they are or what they’ve done. It’s what we all are trained to do as healthcare workers and I love seeing it represented so well in a fantasy book! I saw parts of myself in Kiva as she cared for her patients!

I was also fascinated by Kiva’s research and investigation into finding out the cause of the stomach virus plague that has overrun the prison. It was so fun (lol I am such a nerd) watching Kiva reason through the outbreak and come up with a plan to investigate. I am a huge nerd so I was loving all of the research and evidence based experimenting that Kiva was doing. Yay science!! This subplot was not only super interesting, but it also was another way that Noni was able to illustrate the injustices taking place at the prison.

And now for what you’ve all been waiting for . . . the romance. There wasn’t an overwhelming amount of romance in The Prison Healer. There are definitely moments and the start to more, but the romance was not the overall focus of the book. I was initially worried that the romance/love-interest was a bit too insta-lovey. It seemed liked that was the direction the story was going, but I definitely changed my mind. I think what started in the beginning as an initial attraction/insta-love became a supportive friendship that slowly developed over time. The way that Jaren supports Kiva throughout the story was amazing. I was definitely swooning! Even in his prison disarray . . . Jaren is dreamy!

As much as I love Jaren, he is not my favorite character from the book. That title belongs to Tipp!!! He is absolutely adorable and such a sweet kid. I loved all of his scenes. It’s heartbreaking that a sweet, innocent eleven-year-old is in a horrible prison, but Tipp is such a light in the darkness. He really pulls Kiva out of herself and I love it. Tipp, Jaren, and Naari (a prison guard) were all fantastic supporting characters. Shout out to Mot too! The whole cast of characters is so well done. Even the bad guys . . they were so creepy and truly evil, but so well done!

The Prison Healer ends with several major twists and a huge cliffhanger! I suspected a couple aspects of some of the twists, but I had no idea the extent. I was shocked! There are so many reveals and truly EPIC twists that my jaw dropped. And that ending?! Are you kidding!? I need book two now!!

As you can see I absolutely loved The Prison Healer! This book was incredible. The world-building, cast of characters, plot, and twists were all exceptional. My only problem now is that I need more. The Prison Healer hooked me from the start and kept me on the edge of my seat. It is definitely one of my new favorite books and I cannot recommend it enough!

THE PRISON HEALER IS SET TO BE RELEASED APRIL 13TH, 2021.

As I was reading this book, I thought, "yeah, this is pretty good." And I definitely found it compelling and well-paced, and was intrigued by Kiva (the titular prison healer) who was brought to brutal Zalindov prison at age 7 and has been there for ten years, outliving the father with whom she was brought in. She's definitely a compelling character, someone who is forced to both harm and heal prisoners in order to stay alive, and she's generally not a very popular figure because of her role in branding every new prisoner. It spices things up a bit when a handsome new prisoner arrives and is followed soon after by the Rebel Queen, a controversial figure who has an ancient claim to the throne and a massive rebel following. The Queen is incredibly sick, rarely conscious, and has no strength, so when she is ordered to participate in trial by ordeal (basically trials that only people with significant magic could survive) by the recognized royal family, Kiva volunteers to take her place. Anyway, so all of this was good solid YA/adventure/fantasy/magic stuff, but honestly it was like the last couple of pages that made the whole thing way more awesome - I can't wait for the sequel that I sure hope is planned!

I had to sit on my feelings for awhile before writing this review.

There were a few things I liked about this book, but there were also many things that didn’t sit well with me. I have read dark fantasy before but this had so many triggers that honestly it left me not wanting to read it which made the book take longer to get through. Triggers contained in this book are Self-Harm, Child Abuse, Rape/Sexual Assault, Drug Abuse, and a good dose of violence.

Some of the triggers listed above are either quickly mentioned (self-harm/child abuse) or are continuous (rape/sexual assault being one). I feel like there was just too much going on with most of the triggers being there for shock value as some are just glossed over. I just don’t see the point in adding such topics if they aren’t going to be used in a meaningful way. If that makes sense.

Now, I have read fantasy before with hard topics but there was always light moments of laughter or cute romantic scenes to help break up the bad. If you are looking for that in here, keep looking.

Some may find the romance to be to their liking but there really isn’t much going on with it until way later into the book. There also isn’t too many scenes between them besides him being concerned for her. I still felt nothing. I liked the guy in the beginning but from other comments about this book, I just expected more from it.

As for the characters, it’s easy to feel bad for them. This setting is harsh. Kiva has lived in the prison for ten years. It’s definitely not a place I would want to be. Besides feeling bad, it was hard to connect with her in any other way or any of the other characters. I just felt the development for them lacked because there is a lot of hidden identities. Because of that, you don’t get to know the real them.

When it comes to the setting, you can see parallels from our own prison system. You can also see parallels to Auschwitz. I had seen a couple comments about it and went in trying to see if there were similarities. I then went to my husband and gave him phrases from the book (without telling him they were in a book) and he automatically thought if Nazis. I’m still thinking about how I feel about this so do with the information as you will.

The plot is filled with a lot of tropes and it can make the book very average. If I didn’t figure out the plot twist, I wasn’t surprised by it. The magic system is hardly talked about or even used. I didn’t learn much about the rebels until later on.At times the book is predictable and the pacing can be slow, especially the beginning.

I did like the writing style. I liked the past tense scenes to help tie everything in. There were times I did like the characters, especially Naari. The ending was pretty interesting and kind of makes me want to pick up the next book but honestly who knows if I will. I’m still deciding. The overall problem is that there was just too much bogging all of these things down.

Overall, it was okay. Maybe I am not the right reader for this book. I can’t say I would recommend this book due to all the triggers.

My first thoughts after finishing this book were, 1. why did I wait so long to read this? 2. OMG at that ending
3. Im definitely getting a finished copy of this and 4. When is the next one coming out?
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This book as the title suggests takes place in prison. Kiva has been in prison for 10 years, ever since she was 7 years old. She has worked her way up to being the healer.. When the Rebel Queen is caught and brought into the prison Kiva is told that she has to get her ready for the trail.. One that if she survives will guarantee that the Rebel Queen will be released.. However no one know of anyone that has survived the trials before, and even if they had the Tilda (the Queen) is gravely ill and Kiva doesn't know if she can heal her..
.
When the time comes for the trial to start, Tilda definitely isn't well enought for the trial so Kiva takes her place.. Now if Kiva can survive not only will Tilda be released but so will Kiva.
Kiva has been in prison along time and she means to do whatever she needs to survive until her family comes for her. In the beginning when she is explaining to a new prisoner what its like, and what he needs to do to stay alive as long as possible we really get to see what life for her has been like inside these walls.

We also have a love interest, and while feelings grow and personal walls slowly come down between them they still have along way to go for happiness, and I really hope they get it.

I really enjoyed all of this story, and I can't wait for the next book!

This book definitely interested me from the beginning and I was really liking it, and then we got to some plot twists and I became obsessed! I saw some things coming but was completely shook by that ending! I really loved the contrast between all the characters and how their relationships evolved throughout the book. There was a good balance between action, dialogue, and character and plot development that really kept me hooked. The prison setting was very interesting and, despite the book taking place in one setting, it never got dull. I can't wait to see what comes next in this series!

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review. This book was so good. It took a lot of unexpected turns and ended in a place that I did not think it would. I really loved a lot of these characters, especially Tipp, I really liked their characterizations and how we got to see how they all reacted under different circumstances based on what they had to deal with. I liked the setting of this book and I liked having a healer as a main character POV because I found it to be so interesting. I also found it interesting to see how the prison worked, and how the inmates interacted with each other. As the story goes on you find more information about some of the people, and it altered my feelings on some of the characters as well, and because of that I was left feeling confused on whose side I'm on, which I actually like because then you get a chance to root for different characters at different times, which I normally don't do, I normally like someone and stick to that. This book blurs the lines between what is considered good or bad in a way I haven't read before, or at least that I can remember in this way.

The Prison Healer is a YA book with a mission to educate as well as entertain. The setting and premise were interesting and unique. The story was moving and I enjoyed this book.

The Prison Healer is a book that I can't seem to get off my mind, even though I finished the book a few days ago. Having a main character who is a healer is something we so rarely see in Fantasy, and made Kiva's story all the more refreshing and fun. Lynette Noni has developed such a propulsive plot within her magical world--and I cannot praise it enough. Full of interesting characters, on the edge of your seat-action, and an unforgettable story--The Prison Healer is a book you absolutely cannot miss out on.

I received this book in exchange of a honest review.
This books is so different than the most of the YA books I have read.

It took me about a day to get threw and I am so happy I read it... I enjoyed it so much

After reading this book I was so upset that it was over! It did leave off with a cliffhanger so I am anxious to read the second one. I can't wait to read the next one.

The Prison Healer has its merits but ultimately, falls into the category of just another YA novel. I think the decision to limit the setting to the prison alone was very interesting, and had a lot of potential for some very relevant social commentary. The portrayal of the weaknesses of the legal system (questionable sentencing) and the abuse of power (manual labour of inmates, violent guards and absent management, assault, death in custody, mental abuse) accurately reflected reality, however they weren’t delved into a deeply as they could have been. Quite a few basic tropes (the trials being one, but others are spoilers) were included that also contributed to the average-ness of the book.

The novel was slow for the first third I would say, which is possibly a reflection of the drudgery of prison life, but also made it difficult to be sucked into the story. The plot was very predictable to me and many of the reveals didn’t feel like surprises at all.

Notably, I enjoyed the medical aspects of Kiva’s role as prison healer and thought it was very interesting given the lack of modern medicine and technology in Noni’s world. Kiva is a fairly standard protagonist and while it was difficult to become attached due to HER fear of attachment, it eventually became easy to want the best for her. I also really appreciated how Noni did not focus on the romance aspect, and allowed Kiva to become more vulnerable while giving her time to adjust.

4.5*s. I loved this book and struggled to put it down towards the end. It’s very young adult, with its fair share of tropes and its predictable twists and turns, but it’s got a good cast of characters, an interesting world and is easy reading. Just what the doctor ordered.

---- 'Here at Zalindov, the only person you can trust is yourself.'----

Kiva is the 17-year-old healer of Zalindov death prison. With little to no training or support and thirty thousand abused, overworked inmates to care for, she struggles to keep her head above water on the best of days. To survive, she’s hardened her heart and assumed a tractable demeanour, but some people can break down the sturdiest of walls and some situations demand action - no matter the risk to life and limb. When the Rebel Queen arrives at the prison on death’s door, Kiva steps up and volunteers to undergo Trial by Ordeal in her stead. Whether she’ll survive long enough to even take the Trial is another question.

---- "I don’t see you as some kind of damsel who needs rescuing. I’ve never met anyone stronger than you - not just because you’ve survived a decade in this gods-awful place, but because you’ve sacrificed your own needs over and over again to serve those around you, even-and especially-those who don’t want your help. So 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."----

I liked Kiva, and she’s certainly a talented healer, but it was Tipp who stole the show. Kiva’s 11-year-old assistant, he’s adorable with his stutter and his forehead kisses, his unwavering optimism and his willingness to help. Jaren, the love interest, and Naari, the kindly guard, also get some serious lovin’. Kiva takes far longer than I did to warm to them, but then she’s had ten years of bad experiences to warn her to be wary.

---- "I have a lot of dreams. A lot of nightmares, too. Only time will tell which path my life will take."----

Set exclusively in Zalindov and predominantly in the infirmary, I enjoyed watching Kiva at work and exploring the different areas of the prison with her. The barbaric setting, and the trials she’s forced to face, give a good sense of tension without the reader ever really having to doubt that good would triumph. Those sensitive to such things should beware that there are a number of triggers. These include but aren’t limited to: off-page rape of non-mc, death of adults and children, and mental and physical torture and abuse.

---- "If you survive the next three Ordeals, you’ll be freeing the most wanted woman in the kingdom.” “That’s a big enough if that I don’t think you need to be worrying about it right now.” “Easy for you to say,” Mirryn returned. “It’s not your crown she’s trying to steal.”----

This book went where many other young adult books had gone before. Not wanting to spoil the plot, I’ll just say that that gut feeling that you have really early on about who’s who and what’ll happen is correct. Plot points that never really seemed to add up suddenly become clear with the Big Reveal towards the end and then we’re left with big heap of trash on the last page. It just doesn’t follow from the heart of what comes before! INFURIATING. It also made me drop the rating another half-star.

Clearly, it’s not perfect. But the fact that I’ve given if 4.5*s despite the plot-pitfalls and the car-crash of a last page just goes to show how good the rest of it was. I imagine fans of Sarah J. Mass would particularly enjoy it (Noni actually dedicated the book to her). It’s got the same easy writing style, a good, strong female lead, a swoon-worthy love-interest, and a whole lot of brainless fun besides. I’ll certainly be reading book two whenever it comes out.

This book covers a lot and does so remarkably well! It spins an entire world and magic system from within the confines of a prison. Kiva is the kickass heroine you never knew you needed! I loved that this felt like the typical fantasy trope: young woman in danger finds out she has magic— but it isn’t that trope! Kiva doesn’t use magic when in danger. She has courage and bravery and has to seek help but that doesn’t lessen who she is. I cried several times during this book, largely due to the relationship and character development of her friends and makeshift family. I loved the raw emotions of each character as they dealt with brutality but chose to live well anyway.

However, the last page of this book left me disappointed. The “reveal” at the end felt inauthentic to the plot and characters Noni had spent so much effort developing. I’m hoping the rest of this series improves my feelings and I will be sticking around to see how it turns out.

2.75 rounded to a 3. This story was quite slow for about 60% of it, and definitely not as exciting as I thought it might be. I liked the premise, the story starting in the prison was interesting.

The worldbuilding is a bit confusing and we don’t really know what the characters are fighting for, what drives them, until the next of the book. It was quite vague as to their motivations and even as some of the ‘reveals’ happen, I found myself not impressed by them. It was a bit cliche, like of COURSE Jaren has to be a Prince. And OF COURSE she had to have powers laying dormant!

The writing was quite repetitive, for example how many times it repeated Kiva had been there for 10 years.

10 years.
10 long years.
She paused.
TEN. YEARS.

This part of the writing wasn’t for me either, I know it was for emphasis and drama but personally it drove me crazy and took me out of the story because it was used so frequently.

The ending was really good and I think the next book might be a lot better as the cast is now set up. However I am in a minority for this review, so please check out some others before making your decision. If you like a slow fantasy you might really enjoy this!

Thank you to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's Book Group for the ARC.

This book is most definitely aimed at the YA market but it does contain adult themes including sexual abuse, physical violence, torture, drug use and even self harm. Admittedly most is more tell not show but I actually thought it fitted the story which shows a shocking and cruel side of humanity.
Kiva has survived in prison for ten years and as the leading healer has the ear of the coldly, pragmatic Governor. Her fellow inmates resent her but things come crashing to a head when Tilda, a woman dubbed the Rebel Queen is sent to the infirmary plainly close to death. Kiva has always held herself aloof fearing the consequences of losing anyone she might care for but recently she has started to let herself feel and that makes her a target for blackmail. Tilda cannot stand, is barely conscious so incapable of taking part in the four deadly trials she's been sentenced to complete so in order to save her patient Kiva puts herself forward as the Rebel Queens champion . Sadly in doing so Kiva puts herself in mortal danger !
I won't rehash the plot but I will say this takes a more leisurely pace at times. I feel some might find it slow and crave more action but upon reflection I think the everyday miniature and oppressive situations actually worked as in prison life would feel interminable, boring and endless.
I liked Kiva and she is bravely doing whatever she can to be the best healer she can be and indeed her resources whilst obviously limited added a lot to help set the scene. She does meet characters who are not quite what they seem which whilst obvious to the reader still had the capacity to surprise when the final revelations happen. As Kiva slowly allows her emotional walls to be breached the author teases her readers with the possibility of a future romance but sadly this book hasn't quite finished toying with the reader ! No there is still more shocking revelations as it ends which left me wanting to kick myself for ignoring a very obvious clue but that's why I will be anxiously waiting to read the next book in this series.
This voluntary take is of a copy I requested from Netgalley and my thoughts and comments are honest and I believe fair

This was good. And the premise wholly original, thank god, not just another mary-sue young adult heroine being awesome in every way and oh -- so --perfect. I really liked the prison setting and enjoyed the non-stop action and suspense. This is a great one for fans of SJ Maas!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I accidentally received another copy from Edelweiss+ earlier, so this is the same review.
This book is stunningly written, and there was stunning worldbuilding. I loved how well the characters were done, and they were so intricate and how they had such astonishing backstories, and the cliffhanger at the end was AMAZING! My only issue with this book was that it got slow at some points and that it got a bit hard to follow at one or two points in the book. Other than that, this was marvelous. Five stars from me!

3.5 stars -- OK, so the ending of this book was WILD. Like, it's worth reading purely for that IMO (though maybe that's overselling it? Don't expect like some 6th Sense level reveal, but it's really fun & I didn't see it coming). So this is a solid first entry in a YA fantasy series, where we've got our MC who is a gifted healer but she's stuck in an awful prison in ye olde fantasie world. She's survived by hook or by crook for the last 10 years, though most die in this prison within the first 6 months, and now she's the healer in the infirmary. Lo and behold, a queen is leading a rebellion comes into the prison, and Kira gets roped into trying to save her by standing in her place for the equivalent of trial by ordeal. The writing is very strong, but I felt like a lot of the book was pretty slow and felt like a prologue to the real story. The pay off at the end was worth it for me, and I will continue in the series

I had a mixed reaction to this book, but it's hard to tell if it was my pandemic-induced brain fog, or if this just wasn't a book for me, or what. To be clear: it was well written with good pacing and intriguing worldbuilding, and I would recommend it to a teen looking for a fantasy adventure with some romance (but not too much romance). Absolutely. On a personal level, though, I found myself a little indifferent. The gradual unraveling of Kiva's backstory was a little TOO slow, and it left me with too many questions for too long. There was a bit of a nicely foreshadowed twist at the end, and readers who enjoyed this one will definitely be clamoring for the sequel.

The first book in an epic series, The Prison Healer by veteran author Lynette Noni, is a page-turning adventure to unexpected places. Young Kiva Meridan is the prison healer and has spent the last ten years fighting for her survival. When the Rebel Queen arrives in her clinic barely clinging to life, Kiva is tasked with keeping her alive so that she can undergo the Trial by Ordeal, a punishment no one has ever survived. Suddenly the clock is ticking and no one and nothing is as it appears. With each exhilarating revelation, Noni draws her readers into a world where magic exists, the impossible is possible and freedom is merely a state of mind.