Book number 54 in my Goodreads Reading Challenge is The Gender Game by Ella Forrest.
A toxic river divides nineteen-year-old Violet Bates’s world by gender.
Women rule the East. Men rule the West.
Welcome to the lands of Matrus and Patrus.
Ever since the disappearance of her beloved younger brother, Violet’s life has been consumed by an anger she struggles to control. Already a prisoner to her own nation, now she has been sentenced to death for her crimes.
But one decision could save her life.
To enter the kingdom of Patrus, where men rule and women submit.
Everything about the patriarchy is dangerous for a rebellious girl like Violet. She cannot break the rules if she wishes to stay alive. But abiding by rules has never been her strong suit, and when she is thrust into more danger than she could have ever predicted, Violet is forced to sacrifice many things in the forbidden kingdom … including forbidden love.
In a world divided by gender, only the strongest survive… (Thanks Amazon)
So as we all know, Facebook now loves an advert. Well this particular novel continues to pop up on my Facebook feed as a suggested good read for people who enjoy dystopian novels such as The Hunger Games and Divergent. As I happened to enjoy both of these trilogies I thought this one might be worth a read, so I grabbed myself a copy of the eBook and off I went reading it!
The premise of this series is an interesting one…following a nuclear fallout only pockets of the world are inhabitable. In this particular area men and women have fought for years, eventually choosing to separate, with women ruling the East side of a toxic river and the men ruling the West.
Violet is a young woman who has struggled with the concept of men being lesser beings on her side of the river, and this feeling is exacerbated when her younger brother is banished due to his personality traits which show he is unwilling to submit to women. Her anger causes her to get in trouble until one day she takes it too far. In exchange for her life, she is asked to undertake a secret mission within Patrus which she accepts. Whilst she has no choice but to take on the secret mission, what she doesn’t appreciate is just how hard life in Patrus is for women. They have no rights, and must submit to their husbands at all times.
Violet is forced to learn lessons about herself, about love and about the divided nations as she fights for her place in the world and seeks answers about the brother who was snatched from her years previously.
This series definitely intrigues me. At a time when equality for men and women is so rife in society, this novel turns those ideas on their head as it explores what could happen when things are taken too far. Violet is a very headstrong character, who I found really interesting to follow. The relationships she forms are great, and you really do see her grow as a person as she is forced to create a public persona to enable her to successfully complete her mission. I will definitely be reading the next book in the series, The Gender Secret, as soon as I am able to!
Have you read this series? What did you think?
Rating: 📖 📖 📖 📗
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