Horn Book (Fri Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2011)

In this sequel to The Shifter, Nya's sister, Tali, is captured by the Duke, who's also tracking Nya; meanwhile, the Baseeri resistance is starting to fracture. In a story thick with political intrigue, Hardy keeps the focus human through Nya's qualms about hurting one person whenever she heals another, the tough choices leadership thrusts upon her, and her smart-alecky voice.

Kirkus Reviews

Continuing where The Shifter (2009) ended, book two of The Healing Wars series finds 15-year-old Nya, her sister Tali and other Takers hiding in Geveg from the invading Duke of Baseer, who plans to use them in his mysterious pain experiments. Takers heal by transferring human pain into "pynvium," but Nya shifts pain from one person to another, enabling her to use pain as a weapon. While fleeing Geveg, Nya's kidnapped by bounty hunters and transported to Baseer, where she escapes, allies with Baseeri underground fighters and discovers their leader is her uncle, making her half Baseeri. Deperate to find Tali and protect the Takers, Nya orchestrates a hair-raising plot to demolish the Duke's pain experiments. Flashing and pushing pain into her foes, determined and seemingly fearless Nya catapults through the pages like a super-charged action figure, but her first-person narration reveals inner conflict when forced to use her healing powers to injure and kill. Again, Nya confronts impossible moral choices as she fights to find her beloved sister. Relentless, gripping adventure. (Fantasy. 10 & up)

School Library Journal (Fri Oct 01 00:00:00 CDT 2010)

Gr 6-8 Mysterious relationships and unacknowledged royal heirs emerge in Hardy's neo-futuristic sequel to The Shifter (HarperCollins, 2009). Because of her ability to shift pain, 15-year-old Nya is highly valuable to the evil dictator ruling her kingdom. She is even more coveted than the other healers, yet she and her underground revolutionary friends risk their freedom to fight the Duke's wrongful power. While selling goods at the markets, she tries to help a desperate street urchin and gets captured by rogue kidnappers. She is taken to the capital city, where her captors intend to collect the bounty on her head from the Duke. After escaping, Nya is determined to save her imprisoned friends and sister. A series of high-stakes adventures ensues, with the teen using her unique ability to harness pain as her greatest weapon. Nya is a strong and capable heroine who struggles with moral dilemmas throughout this fantasy, yet the story falls flat. More questions are raised than answered, and readers may be confused by the complex rules and unexplained entities. Action sequences and the progression through time are awkward. All in all, this book is disappointing. Tara Kehoe, Plainsboro Public Library, NJ