Student Book Review: The Prison Healer by Lynette Noni, as reviewed by Morgan Abel-Pattinson (Year 10)

Every week, Volumes will feature a new review from one of your St Cuthberts classmates. Want to write one of your own? It's easy! Email seniorlibrary@stcuthberts.co.nz with the subject line 'Book review request' to find out more.

This week, Morgan Abel-Pattinson (Year 10) reviews The Prison Healer by Lynette Noni.

The Prison Healer by Lynette Noni is a fantasy novel that follows the life of 17-year-old Kiva, who is locked away in a well-known death prison, where she has to heal others. However little respect is ever shown towards her.
 
I would recommend this book to people that love fantasy, but also to people that like a well-crafted book. This book is written in a very powerful and effective way. Your interests would probably lie in books that are filled with excitement, as it is a rather fast-paced book. There is also a slightly magical element to it as well if you like that sort of thing. One main thing is that I would only recommend this book to people aged 12+ as there are some darker themes explored.
 
These Hollow Vows is a similar book to The Prison Healer. The similarities are the underlying magical theme, choosing between right and wrong, and not letting love get in the way of what's most important, even if that means dismissing your feelings. I do believe that These Hollow Vows, is slightly more suited to a younger audience.
 
It is set in a notorious death prison, Zalindov, which is part of Wernderall. One of the main characters is called Kiva. Her personality, I would say, is very harsh and she is rather numb to the horrors of her world. Taken to the death prison at only eight years old, and then forced to heal and hurt other people, she learnt not to mix friendships or romance with her slavery inside the prison.

Jaren always manages to have quite a positive outlook no matter how hard his life is. He is very obviously in love with another character, and he isn’t quite as afraid to express that as other characters. At first Naari seems like a concrete wall, never showing any signs of emotion, but as the book develops, so do her intentions.
 
I believe that the most prominent underlying theme is the idea of perseverance. As Kiva has had to grow up inside of one of the cruellest and harshest places imaginable so she had learnt to stay very strong. The thing that kept her going was her family's words, “We are coming.” And it didn’t matter how long they were taking Kiva didn’t give up, and just kept going.
 
I would give this book 4.5/5 stars.

Keen to read? You can pick up a copy of The Prison Healer at the Frances Compton Library!