Take a photo of a barcode or cover
greenbeantango 's review for:
The Gender Game
by Bella Forrest
I was drawn to this book by the concept of a society divided by gender. In the gender game two societies are divided by a river. To the West, Patrus a male-dominated society, where women are not educated, are treated as male possessions and cannot leave the house without being accompanied by their husband or a male chaperone. To the East is Matrus, a female-dominated society, where male children are screened at 8 for signs of aggression, men are given few freedoms and many women conceive by artificial insemination. In this society we find Violet, an orphan who has spent most of her teenage years working in a juvenile detention facility.
I expected Violet to a strong, self assured character because she comes from a female dominated society. Instead I found violet’s character slightly contradictory, she has a violet temper, yet she never gets angry about any of the situations she is put into, particularly how she is treated in Patrus. I wanted her to channel her anger rather than let it overwhelm her. I wanted her to make smart decisions and to look beyond the surface to reveal Lee’s true intentions. I also wanted her to acknowledge that the reason she finds Viggo attractive is because they are an equal match. There is no discussion in this book of men and women being equals and Violet never once considers it. I think this may have been the author’s intention, but I found this grating as I was hoping that it would explore these themes more. I also wanted more background on why this is a divided society. All in all I found the gender game disappointing and will probably not follow Violet’s story in the next book; The gender secret.