The Gender Game

By: Bella Forrest

Narrated by: Rebecca Soler, Zachary Webber

Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's Summary

For fans of The Hunger Games and Divergent comes a story like no other....

A toxic river divides 19-year-old Violet Bates' 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....

Over 20,125 worldwide five-star reviews and one million copies sold of the series.

What early readers are saying:

"Bella takes this genre to a new level. Imagine the intrigue of Divergent, the suspense of The Maze Runner and the heart-pounding excitement of The Hunger Games. That is the magic Bella is working with her new novel The Gender Game."

"The next BIG THING. Unique and brilliant."

"The perfect mix of adventure, mystery, thrill, blossoming love and heartbreak. READ THIS ASAP! You will not regret it."

"Intrigue, danger and mystery at every corner."

"Once I started reading, I knew I wouldn't be able to stop. My heart raced along with Violet's.... The twists and turns so far in this book have left my mouth hanging agape."

If you enjoy Suzanne Collins or Veronica Roth, this will be a ride you won't want to miss. Buy now.

Book one of a completed seven-book series.

Beware of spoilers in the reviews below that are without spoiler alerts.

©2016 Bella Forrest (P)2016 Bella Forrest

Plot line is asinine in so many places.

This story is so full of holes. I was continually rolling my eyes at the lack of character development and motivation. Truly disappointing after all the reviews I read.

58 of 61 people found this review helpful

cheesy narrator for a meh story

First of all, the narration was cheesy, unnecessarily dramatic and overdone. At first, I thought this book was okay, but it just kept getting worse. I struggled to finish and the fight scenes were narrated so hilariously that I almost laughed out loud a few times. I generally like ya fiction, and I liked hunger games. I just had trouble with the plot, it was rather boring. I knew I should be getting more excited toward the end, but I was very relieved when it was finished. it was pretty predictable, but I know I'm a good guesser. I wish the author would have stopped writing sooner, and it is rare for me to not be inclined to finish a series.

58 of 61 people found this review helpful

Predictable

Predictable story line. Not much substance. Whiny narration. Save your money and find something else

44 of 47 people found this review helpful

Cliche City

I essentially had the entire story figured out in the first hour of the audio book. This author could have made something really good with this story and with the main character but it's the same old convict being given a secret mission to avoid death trope.

Of course she has to pretend she's married to some dude. Of course she falls for the absolute worst person you could fall for in this scenario. Of course her life is on the line but she consistently does dumb things because love and stuff.

I struggled to get through all 10 hours. This was one of the most poorly written books I've ever been exposed to.

31 of 33 people found this review helpful

Boooooring!

Moved so slow. Not at all like the other types of books in this genre. Read it bc Audible recommended and it was just 10 hours of waiting for something interesting to happen. Save your time and money.

27 of 29 people found this review helpful

Hard to believe

I liked the story but it was difficult to get behind. The background of the character and the back story of the world was too far fetched to be believable. More should have been done to prop up the story of the surroundings and the why of where the settlements were and what "the green" was. Why if seemed to thrive with animal and plant life but not be a place that could be used for crops. The severity of the gender based societies took things a little farther than what I thought would be able to develop naturally. It ended up being a frustrating story thin on development of the world history, structure, and drive.

16 of 20 people found this review helpful

Meh

It wasn’t cohesive. The beginning of the book was an attempt to set up the storyline but it didn’t really flow through. Violet seemed a bit one-dimensional, especially considering it’s written in first person. There were mentions of a few incidents which I felt would have developed the ot further but weren’t explored. Overall, it was just ok for me.

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

Umm - no really

I was not really thrilled with the story. The editor's did not catch some story line errors. I'm not sure overall how I feel about the story I felt like it was supposed to end like a cliffhanger but it fell flat. Try it you may feel differently, I was unimpressed.

11 of 15 people found this review helpful

Mediocre at best

I’m sorry, but this book is just not that good. The premise was interesting (though even as someone who is really into the effects of gender roles and whatnot, Matrus and Patrus were a whole new level of extremism) and I was looking forward to Violet’s story. But the characters were horrifyingly one dimensional, the pacing was off, and the narration was over dramatic a lot of the time, especially during fight and romance scenes. I rolled my eyes so many times during this book (particularly almost every time Violet saw Viggo and commented on some aspect of his “chiseled body”) that I thought my eyes were going to get stuck.

I really am a huge YA novel fan and I honestly don’t even need them to be of very good quality to enjoy them; they just need to keep me entertained. I thought the Gender Game would, but it honestly just irritated me. I’d skip this one y’all. It’s not worth struggling through, especially given there are 6 more books. I certainly won’t be purchasing the rest, not even if they are on sale, despite the author’s attempt at a cliffhanger at the end.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Don't pass this one by! It's a definite MUST READ!

If you could sum up The Gender Game in three words, what would they be?

Loved this book!

What did you like best about this story?

The Gender Game was packed full of all my favorite things: adventure, the angst of a (PG-13) forbidden romance, action and good vs. evil. I really loved how the author built up the main character so that everything that happened made sense and was believable. I cared what happened to Violet. I was rooting for her and felt her pain, her joy, her shock and her heartbreak. I can't wait for the next installment of this story to come out!

Which scene was your favorite?

The romance angle was built up so enticingly well, that I must admit that last romantic part was my fave. However, that was definitely not all that this book was about!

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The one that got me was "For fans of Hunger Games..." I think that is an accurate tag line that a lot of people would know how to respond to.

Any additional comments?

I also really, really, REALLY enjoyed the narrator! I am a huge fan of her work. She makes the characters and the stories come to life flawlessly! <3

26 of 40 people found this review helpful

Brilliant! I am officially obsessed!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Now onto book 2! I can't wait to hear what happens next!

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Ok, but nothing special

It tries to be like the Hunger Games, Divergent and Mazerunner...but while it is an ok story it really was nothing special and the ending was really rather disappointing.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Average

I didn't know this was a series so was a bit annoyed to discover it was. The writing is ok. Standard for YA dystopian fiction. Characters are somewhat enjoyable. The heroine isn't completely useless but it's not going to knock your socks off. Not sure why this received such high ratings. If you're an existing fan of the author you'll probably enjoy this. I was not and found it to be a bit 'meh' and a wasted credit.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Terrible

Just not worth listening to the narrator was fine but the plot was not good and boring from start to finish

SENSATIONAL

The best story I've ever read/heard and so glad I've read such an amazing story

The Gender Game

I really loved it and can't wait to.download the next one in the series. Thank you

Better than expected

More plot twists than I had been expecting for a typical YA novel. It surprised the cynic in me and I can say I felt every bit of desire instilled by the writer. Recommend!

Very enthralling from start to finish 😍👍👍⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I can't wait for the next one just downloaded it!👍
The narrator is fantastic even male voices, quick pace I couldn't put it down!
I love scifi, Like hunger games but a LOT less violent, apart from a little smooching quite tame if which I like about my Selection.

Great idea poorly executed

I found the concept an interesting one. A world divided by gender with different rules and expectations in both. However, the writer was sloppy, firstly in the huge unexplained plot holes to disappointing character progressions. After all the hype I was truly disappointed with the outcome

got better towards the end

Took me a while to get into it, but now I've finished it, I will be continuing the series of books