Book Review
Title: The Gender Game (Gender Game #1)
Author: Bella Forrest
Genre: YA/Dystopian/Romance
Rating: *****
Review: I have read both the Gender Game and the Gender Secret a while ago but took a break from the series due to work commitments and I am jumping back into it. Rather than jumping straight into the Gender Lie, I am starting from the beginning to refresh myself and to see the blossoming relationship between Violet and Viggo all over again. We are introduced to the worlds of Matrus and Patrus, one ruled by women, the other ruled by men. In Matrus young boys are tested the see if they have the correct personality traits to continue living in Matrus, boys who fail the test are taken away and never seen again. Violet’s younger brother Timothy has been marked as a boy who failed the test and she attempted to smuggle him out of Matrus to the care of her cousin Cad, in Patrus. However, this doesn’t go to plan when Timothy accidentally cries out for Violet and all three end up getting caught.
We then jump forward 8 years where we find Violet being bounced from one correctional facility to another. In this new facility we learn that Violet has been breaking the rules for years in order to find Tim but failed each time. On her final chance she knows she has to keep her head down for the next two years and she will be free again but when a girl named Dina, the so-called bully, tears up her old photograph of Tim, Violet sees red. The pair end up in a fight that ends with Violet killing Dina and as per the laws of Matrus, Violet is being taken to be executed. However, she ends up at the palace of Queen Rina and faced with her chief scientist, Alastair Jenks. Jenks offers Violet the chance to wipe the slate clean and start again if she is willing to take on a mission, she isn’t told what the mission is only that she has the choice to accept and live or refuse and die, and it is clear which Violet is going to take.
Violet is told that a specimen was stolen from their lab and it is being held in a newly renovated laboratory near the palace of King Maxen and her job is going to be retrieving it. However, the only way for Violet to get in Patrus safely and stay there without suspicion is to marry the contact that Queen Rina has in Patrus. This throws Violet off as she had intended never to marry but anything is better than death in her eyes. She has three days to brush on her combat skills before she heads over the river and she trains with her old instructor Ms. Dale. Having read the first two books I picked up on some clues that I didn’t notice before, like the hint of people being in the Green and the spy’s true allegiance and Ms. Dale warns her not to trust anyone once she reaches Patrus. As the time comes for Violet to leave Matrus, she asks that if she is successful in her mission and returns without causing any trouble between the two nations, that she be allowed to visit her brother who would 16 now and the Queen agrees but I know that even if Violet succeeded this wouldn’t be true.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, Violet has met Lee in Patrus, the man she is going to marry and Matrus’ spy. He gives her some basic information on himself but the less she knows about his role the safer they are, and Violet agrees. He begins to tell her about how Patrus is very different from Matrus and what is and isn’t acceptable in society, especially given how high up in the patriarchy that he sits. Lee kits Violet with everything she needs to survive in Patrus before they head to their very low-key wedding ceremony and Violet constantly has to watch her actions, so she speaks very little. However, she is already beginning to see how different the two countries are and how hard it is going to be for her to acclimatise to Patrus, given the fact she is a very strong, independent woman. She has also been introduced to Viggo Croft on paper as one of the men who stands between her and the completion of her mission but over the course of this novel he is going to become much more to Violet than she could have ever imagined.
Violet hasn’t even been in Patrus a few days before complications begin to crop up in the form of her cousin Cad, who seems to recognise Violet in a restaurant, and she has to slip out before he can approach her or see her too clearly. In an alleyway she encounters some of the men that Lee spoke of, but her defence training comes in handy, however, she is found not be Lee but by Viggo which may have put some strain on the plan. Lee decides that they can use this in their favour as he is planning to pin the theft of the egg on Viggo anyway. He tells Violet that they will set off a small explosion during a dinner party being held at the lab where Violet will steal the egg before being extracted from the roof back to Matrus and all suspicion will fall on Viggo. However, Violet is already having doubts about injuring people and framing Viggo before she has even got to know him but her desire to see her brother again is the only thing keeping her on track.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, Violet is slowing adjusting to the way things work in Patrus, but Lee has provided her with a body suit so that she can perform tasks as a man, so it doesn’t slow down the schedule of the mission since they don’t have long until the banquet. During two of these outings Violet has to get quite close to Viggo, the first time is during one of his fights where she has to get a tracker into his water bottle so they can keep track of his movements. The second time she is heading to the gym where he trains to see if he has anything scheduled on the night of the banquet and because Lee gets severely delayed she ends up running into Viggo, literally. Rather than panicking Violet thinks of her feet and tells Viggo that Lee approved her coming out dressed as a man in order to help her adjust to the move to Patrus. This pulls on Viggo’s emotions since he was married to a Matrus woman who was hanged for defending herself and subsequently killing a man. These small interactions begin building the relationship that Violet and Viggo will ultimately enter and I couldn’t help smiling seeing this all over again.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, Lee decides that they can use this to their advantage by making Viggo Violet’s second guardian and build a friendship with him to ensure he is where they want him to be on the night of the banquet but we already know Violet has some major reservations about using Viggo as a scapegoat and these are only going to heighten as the novel progress. I need to say I love Viggo, he is a lot like Violet in the fact he has lost someone he loved and desperately tries to hide what he really believe but the small action of shaking Violet’s hand in a society where men are meant to have no interaction with women they aren’t tied to through marriage or family is so sincere and unconscious that you can’t help but love him despite his gruff exterior. When Viggo is working and an incident occurs Violet helps him take down the men who kidnapped a woman, but one manages to escape which will come back to haunt her later on, but it really solidifies the budding relationship between Violet and Viggo. Watching the small interaction between the pair was divine and I love how this relationship progresses over the course of this novel and the sequel.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, Violet is already beginning to forget what her goal is in getting close to Viggo and we can see the big man himself softening towards Violet even though he believes she is married. When Violet gets Viggo to accept a big fight it almost throws off their whole plan and Lee is shy about ripping into her because of forgetting that up until this point she is a 19-year-old who has been alone her entire life and for the first time she is forming a meaningful connection to another person. We see Lee taking more of a romantic interest in Violet, kissing her whenever he can, making Violet and the reader think she might not be the only forgetting what the goal is. As Viggo’s big fight approaches we can see them getting closer but neither has crossed the line as Viggo is under the impression that Violet is married and no matter how he feels he can’t express them to her. However, as the big fight is about to begin Violet is told she has to stay in the changing room and when she emerges from the bathroom she is attacked, and now unconscious she is kidnapped. Even though there are no clue to the identity of her kidnappers we recall an early scene where she helped capture some kidnappers and the link is immediately formed but we aren’t sure who is responsible.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, Violet is tortured by the gang who she helped Viggo arrest in order to teach her a lesson, her place in the world of men. However, it isn’t long until she is rescued by Viggo and here she becomes fully aware of her feelings for Viggo and accepts them. But she is furious that Lee was tracking her and didn’t tell, she trusted him, but he never trusted her. This singular event is what turns the tide of the novel and leads to the events at the end and I can’t wait to see them unfold again even though it is going to break my heart all over again. Tat kiss scene and the way it unfold with Violet caught between a rock and a hard place but torn by her loyalty to her brother and her loyalty to Viggo is heartbreakingly beautiful and that can’t be denied when reading this story, and it is also very satisfying as the romance has been a major slow burn right up until this moment. After this everything happens so quickly, and I think this is due to the change in Violet’s mindset after she begins taking the drugs to numb her emotions. She helps Lee carry out the plan to frame Viggo and they pair escape back into Matrus with the egg, however, Lee double crosses Violet which does lead to his death, but his true motivations are astounding, and Violet is literally left holding the bag and bodies as she escapes towards the Green. The Gender Game is one of the best YA dystopias I have read in a long time and now I have the time to dedicate to this series I am definitely going to be flying through it and I highly recommend you read it too.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Also see: The Gender Game by Bella Forrest
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