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

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.

43 of 45 people found this review helpful

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.

44 of 47 people found this review helpful

Predictable

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

40 of 43 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.

25 of 27 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.

23 of 25 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

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 14 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

where is Zachary Webber oh ....there he is

I hardly ever review books but I got this one bc I always enjoy Zachary's choices of performances so the fact that he read 1 chapter at the end of the book was agriva ting. That being said this book has just enough interesting things going on that once the book picked up it's pace I enjoyed it.

10 of 14 people found this review helpful

Story Was Good - Narrator Was ....Meh

What did you like best about this story?

Story was good. A bit predictable, but good.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

The narrator continually put emphasis/inflection on words needlessly. For example, "Violet put all her clothes on and last were her ....SOCKS." You're almost expecting to hear dramatic, ominous "dun-dun-dun" music after the last word. So hard to listen to. I chose to read the next books in the series instead of listen to them for this reason.

3 of 4 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!

2 of 2 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.

1 of 1 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

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

Not what I expected

This didn’t quite live up to my expectations. I was expecting distinct male and female societies, which isn’t what you get. Instead there are some rather clumsy comparisons and deliberate, infuriating stereotyping. The interaction of the 2 societies was not as exciting as I was expecting.

Our protagonist is fairly mature, but still technically 19. Id have liked her to be nearer 22-25 to make the relationships and responsibilities she’s given more believable though!

There were some cliche romcom plots that Forrest refused to fall down so it was slightly saved. Unfortunately, Soler’s performance left a fair bit to be desired though. Her accent took some getting used to and I suspect didn’t do justice to the material.