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3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
it's really badly handling the concept of patriarchal society and being an independent woman
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder
Minor: Bullying, Child death, Abortion, Death of parent
In this dystopian young adult novel, there are two cities, divided by a poison river surrounded by a toxic forested area. Violet lives in Matrus, where women rule and men are weeded out if they are deemed violent and are otherwise considered second class citizens. Violet, an orphan, was put into the prison system when she tried to smuggle her younger brother out of the city after he failed the test of male violent tendancies. When Violet gets into an altercation in prison with a bully that results in the death of the bully, she is supposed to be euthanized, however, she is given the option of going on a top secret mission in Patrus, the male-dominated city across the river. In Patrus, women have no rights and cannot even go out in public without a husband or male guardian. Violet needs to befriend a handsome fighter named Viggo in order for the plan she is there for to work, however, her new "husband", Lee, never tells her all the details of the plan. There is action and romance and the book ends in a cliffhanger. I received this book free to review from Netgalley.
I admit, I read this from morbid curiosity. Bella Forrest and her truly unbelievable number of publications caught my interest, and I had to know: if she's putting out this many books a year, what is the quality like?
It seems that "not good" is the answer.
Characters and worldbuilding are very shallow, subservient to the plot, of which there isn't much. The writing failed to transport me to a dystopia; in places, I felt like I was reading a regular contemporary teen novel. (The character goes to the Very Bad Patriarchy Land... and promptly gets a wedding makeover, including a 45-minute manicure. SINISTER.) But then we'd get a paragraph of "telling" about how unfair and terrible this society is, and I'd be like... okay cool? There was only a couple of places where the badness was "shown," like when the MC is standing outside a house and hears a wife being abused. Otherwise, there was no emotional connection to the badness. Violet gets to walk around in a man-shaped suit and take voice-deepening pills (we're not even going to touch the ridiculousness of these convenient technologies) and do whatever she wants. Even when she gets caught, her "husband" generously arranges to let her follow around another dude at all hours of the day, for Reasons. And oh noes this other guy is So Hot. Whatever Will Happen? I Genuinely Have No Idea. (eyeroll)
Violet doesn't change as a person or learn any lessons during the course of this book. She simply acts out the plot. She starts the book as a chip-on-her-shoulder pseudo-badass, bumbles through a fake marriage, an espionage plot, and joining a fight club, and comes out the other end much as she started. I imagine she might have some more growth in the next six books, as this one covered *very* little ground plot-wise, and was mostly filler scenes. But frankly, I don't care about her or any of the other characters, and that's the kiss of death for a series. Once I stop giving a crap about the characters, only the most riveting of plots can keep me moving forward... and this one is lukewarm at best.
And don't even get me started on the lack of nuance in the worldbuilding. "Matrus" and "Patrus," a matriarchy where boys are subservient, and a patriarchy where girls are property. That somehow sprang up in the mountains of Appalachia after an apocalyptic event that destroyed America. Ooookay. So all the men wanted to reinstate the patriarchy, and instead of trying to, you know, create an *equal* society... like feminists actually want... the women decided to just leave and create a society where they're in charge of men? That's literally so dumb it's almost insane. I feel like Matrus is a parody of what men's rights activists *think* feminism wants. There's almost no thought or depth behind the society's structure, beyond "Man City, Woman City." It's the worldbuilding equivalent of a villain who twirls his mustache and says "muahahaha."
Plus, as several other reviewers have already pointed out, there's not a peep about humans who don't fit traditional gender roles, such as LGBTQ people. There's some hand-wringing by the main character about "What if I feel like I don't fit in either city?" but it's not due to any crisis of gender identity, it's just that - surprise - she's noticed that choosing between two dystopias is a garbage decision to have to make. Wow. Much deep. So amaze.
Yeah, so, in conclusion, I feel like three stars is generous for this book. It deffo reads like a first draft that got shoved into a t-shirt cannon and blasted onto the Internet with some surface-level copyediting to make it readable, without any attention to craft, characterization, or worldbuilding. But the entire series was published in the space of a year, so really, I'm impressed they even had time to copyedit.
Needless to say, I don't think I'll punish myself by reading the rest of the series.
(Edit later: I've decided to reduce my rating to 2 stars, which I think more accurately reflects the number of issues I had with this book.)
It seems that "not good" is the answer.
Characters and worldbuilding are very shallow, subservient to the plot, of which there isn't much. The writing failed to transport me to a dystopia; in places, I felt like I was reading a regular contemporary teen novel. (The character goes to the Very Bad Patriarchy Land... and promptly gets a wedding makeover, including a 45-minute manicure. SINISTER.) But then we'd get a paragraph of "telling" about how unfair and terrible this society is, and I'd be like... okay cool? There was only a couple of places where the badness was "shown," like when the MC is standing outside a house and hears a wife being abused. Otherwise, there was no emotional connection to the badness. Violet gets to walk around in a man-shaped suit and take voice-deepening pills (we're not even going to touch the ridiculousness of these convenient technologies) and do whatever she wants. Even when she gets caught, her "husband" generously arranges to let her follow around another dude at all hours of the day, for Reasons. And oh noes this other guy is So Hot. Whatever Will Happen? I Genuinely Have No Idea. (eyeroll)
Violet doesn't change as a person or learn any lessons during the course of this book. She simply acts out the plot. She starts the book as a chip-on-her-shoulder pseudo-badass, bumbles through a fake marriage, an espionage plot, and joining a fight club, and comes out the other end much as she started.
Spoiler
Even the big reveal of what was actually going on with the spying plot is spoon-fed to her in a suicide note.And don't even get me started on the lack of nuance in the worldbuilding. "Matrus" and "Patrus," a matriarchy where boys are subservient, and a patriarchy where girls are property. That somehow sprang up in the mountains of Appalachia after an apocalyptic event that destroyed America. Ooookay. So all the men wanted to reinstate the patriarchy, and instead of trying to, you know, create an *equal* society... like feminists actually want... the women decided to just leave and create a society where they're in charge of men? That's literally so dumb it's almost insane. I feel like Matrus is a parody of what men's rights activists *think* feminism wants. There's almost no thought or depth behind the society's structure, beyond "Man City, Woman City." It's the worldbuilding equivalent of a villain who twirls his mustache and says "muahahaha."
Plus, as several other reviewers have already pointed out, there's not a peep about humans who don't fit traditional gender roles, such as LGBTQ people. There's some hand-wringing by the main character about "What if I feel like I don't fit in either city?" but it's not due to any crisis of gender identity, it's just that - surprise - she's noticed that choosing between two dystopias is a garbage decision to have to make. Wow. Much deep. So amaze.
Yeah, so, in conclusion, I feel like three stars is generous for this book. It deffo reads like a first draft that got shoved into a t-shirt cannon and blasted onto the Internet with some surface-level copyediting to make it readable, without any attention to craft, characterization, or worldbuilding. But the entire series was published in the space of a year, so really, I'm impressed they even had time to copyedit.
Needless to say, I don't think I'll punish myself by reading the rest of the series.
(Edit later: I've decided to reduce my rating to 2 stars, which I think more accurately reflects the number of issues I had with this book.)
This was my second attempt to read this book, and thankfully I managed to overlook most of the initial flaws/plot holes enough to make it through the first third of this book and pick up enough pace to make it to the end. I was very excited by the premise of this book but sadly I felt the story lacked enough detail for me to really buy into it. I was disappointed by lack of intricate detail of the two opposing worlds. Instead we read about an incredibly flimsy idea of what two worlds, each ruled by a single gender respectively.
I would have really liked to have seen some more thought-out depths to the two gendered worlds. Instead I felt myself with more questions than answers and never really got a grasp of either world.
It has already been discussed on here, but the idea of any other identity besides male/female is completely absent from this story, as well as same-sex relationships.
And a last little gripe was the monarchy element, I found it incredibly hard to believe that in an advanced dystopian society, a monarchy would still be upheld in place of a governing body. Perhaps it was because of the romanticism around a monarchy, but I find it jarring, out of place and irrelevant in this story.
I would have really liked to have seen some more thought-out depths to the two gendered worlds. Instead I felt myself with more questions than answers and never really got a grasp of either world.
It has already been discussed on here, but the idea of any other identity besides male/female is completely absent from this story, as well as same-sex relationships.
And a last little gripe was the monarchy element, I found it incredibly hard to believe that in an advanced dystopian society, a monarchy would still be upheld in place of a governing body. Perhaps it was because of the romanticism around a monarchy, but I find it jarring, out of place and irrelevant in this story.
When The Gender Game first appeared on my Facebook feed it was described as a must read. It promised a fascinating mix of the dystopian and the political- a novel where men and women rule two, separate societies.
The protagonist, Violet Bates moves to the male-dominated Patrus to steal a back a capsule stolen from her home, the female governed Matrus. Forced to become the property of a man, she is stripped of her rights and freedom, unable even to go out unaccompanied.
Read my full review here...
https://meganbreakwell.wixsite.com/blog/single-post/2017/04/24/REVIEW--The-Gender-Game-by-Bella-Forrest
The protagonist, Violet Bates moves to the male-dominated Patrus to steal a back a capsule stolen from her home, the female governed Matrus. Forced to become the property of a man, she is stripped of her rights and freedom, unable even to go out unaccompanied.
Read my full review here...
https://meganbreakwell.wixsite.com/blog/single-post/2017/04/24/REVIEW--The-Gender-Game-by-Bella-Forrest
Cop out rating of "middling." So the story did have bones and actually went somewhere. And of what I've read lately, that puts it in good standing. And even though the characters were all pretty predictable, it didn't fail to keep me engaged and wanting to know what happened next. And while I knew certain plot points were likely, a couple were surprising. It was an easy, mindless read. Violet was pretty irritating, but most YA "protagonists" are ;)
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Much better than I expected.
I wasn’t expecting much and was really surprised with how it turned out. I will buy the second one to find out what happens.
I wasn’t expecting much and was really surprised with how it turned out. I will buy the second one to find out what happens.