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The Prison Healer

Lynette Noni’s darker adventure fantasy, The Prison Healer, will bring vibes of other popular fantasy, from Incarceron to The Hunger Games. Kiva Meridian has been living inside the prison of Zalindov for the past 10 years, using the teachings of her father to guide her as the prison’s primary doctor or healer. Kiva’s past comes to the reader in waves, while the plot rolls along quite rapidly over the course of fall season. Kiva also has the job to give new inmates the mark of the prison, as she cuts a “Z” into the top of an inmate’s hand upon arrival. The physical scarring doubles as mental scarring for Kiva as she believes she is wrongfully imprisoned. Yet she does want to do her job, one of the best ones to have in the prison, to the best of her abilities, including protecting the most important patient, the Rebel Queen. Kiva will be tested in her abilities to navigate a budding romance, maneuver political turmoil, and survive deadly “ordeals”. Two of the three she passes with flying colors as a pro-fem protagonist. This reader wishes Kiva discovered her own superpowers to survive the “ordeals” rather than relying on those of others. Still, the quick pacing of the plot and dialogue, with many twists and turns, will keep any fantasy reader entertained, even if they skim a few pages here and there. Complete with a cliffhanger that came at the last minute, The Prison Healer is worth adding to school library shelves grades 7 and up.