The Prison Healer

The Prison Healer by Lynette Noni follows the story of Kiva Meridan, who was imprisoned at the tender age of seven simply because she was with her father when he was arrested for purported contact with rebels.

The story is set almost entirely within the fearsome death prison known as Zalindov. It’s a place you enter but never leave. The monstrous complex is fairly self-sufficient, and it serves to house criminals from several different, neighboring countries. The layout and the pseudo-sufficiency, along with mass executions and on-site crematoria, definitely call to mind the likes of Dachau and Auschwitz.

Magic does exist in this world, but it seems to only follow certain bloodlines. Indeed, that’s the whole of the rebel cause. Both the line of Vallentis, the current rulers of Evalon, and that of Corentine have legitimate claim to the throne.

It took me some time to begin warming up to Kiva. She’s gruff and kind of flat to begin with, but she grows over the course of the story. And after these trials, she’s sure to have PTSD. The trials triggered some of my own fears. Fire for one, when Kiva must spend ten minutes inside an active crematorium. No, son. Just––no.