The Gender Game (The Gender Game #1)

The Gender Game (The Gender Game #1)

Bella Forrest

A toxic river divides nineteen-year-old Violet Bate’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 the rules has never been Violet’s strong suit and she’s tired of playing a game she didn’t agree to. Now thrust into more danger than she could have ever predicted, Violet is forced to sacrifice everything in the forbidden kingdom… including forbidden love.
Excerpt taken from book cover.

Language
A**- 2

H***- 8

D***- 13

B****- 2

Bas****- 2

Religious Cursing

G**- 5

Alcohol, Drugs, Smoking

A king is trying to produce a pill that eliminates or reduces all emotion.  One woman is given one of these pills to get a mission done.

A woman is drugged.

Intimacy, Sex, Immodesty

A woman needs to wear a man’s bodysuit as a disguise.  It’s a skin-colored fabric she wears under clothing that has all man’s parts and presents a more manly figure.  

A woman watches a shirtless man, admiring him and his muscles.  

A man leans down and briefly kisses a woman on her neck. Later, he kisses her on the cheek.  

A married woman gets into sparring matches with another man.  They are close, comfortable and close to crossing lines.

A woman strips out of bloody clothes leaving only her underwear.  She then gets out of her bloody bra and underwear also, covering herself in a trench coat.  A man picks her up and carries her.

A man answers his door in the middle of the night wearing only boxers.  A woman grabs the back of his neck and kisses him. He doesn’t kiss back at first but then grabs her and passionately kisses her, running his fingers through her hair, grabbing her hips and lifting her up so she was wrapped around him.  He then pushes her up against a wall and runs his hands from her knees to up her shirt. She feels “lit up” and continues kissing him, using tongues, “devouring.” He lightly fingers the top of her breasts.

Violence, Weapons, Crime, Blood

A young girl is convicted of (involuntary) manslaughter at 11.  She was in a fist fight with another girl but accidentally rammed a fork into her neck.

A woman has two infractions at a prison for punching others.

Bullying is common in the prison.  A young girl is cornered and forced to give up her food, many jabs and confrontations happen.  

A woman attacks another in revenge.  She knocks her down and repeatedly punches her face. The other woman uses removable braces as a weapon, but she is able to keep them away by using pressure points.  The woman then chokes her. She takes the braces and accidentally slashes the woman’s throat. Blood is pooling. The woman dies.

A woman is given two choices; die or retrieve something for her people.  She takes the latter. She is also forced to marry.

A woman packs multiple guns on a training exercise in a dangerous environment.  A wild boar is seen with killer bees chasing it. The bees would attack in a swarm and drink the prey’s blood till they were dead.   A python looks large enough to swallow a woman whole. A pack of wolves had to be scared off and a horde of venomous spiders are seen.    Two women practice shooting each of the guns. One teaches the other how to make a weapon out of common objects such as a pencil or hair pin.    

Euthanasia of criminals is “routine” in one community.  The other community hangs the offenders.

To defend herself, a woman hits a man’s arm knocking it aside.  The group of men chase after her but are stopped soon after.

After a fight with her husband, a woman walks alone at night and gets confronted by a group of men.  She fights them off but ends up killing one of them. She was hanged for her crime.

Professional fighting is common in one community.  A fight is watched where one man becomes unconscious.  There are quite a few throughout the book. Mostly punches, kicks, and chokes while taking someone down are common.  

It is a rumor that boys who don’t pass a certain test are killed.  It is told that they get sent to mines.

A man attempts to kidnap a woman, and gives her a black eye.  The police officer chasing them grabs a gun and shoots their tires.  He shoots a bullet into one’s ankle as he tries to run. Another two run away and a woman chases them, tackling one.   

A police man grabs a man from behind, shoving him up against a wall and accuses him of stealing.  He finds a wallet that isn’t the man’s.

A woman gets punched in the face and drugged to the point of losing consciousness.  She wakes up disheveled, sore and shackled. A man comes in and grabs her throat. He then punches her in the gut while holding her up by her hair.  When she collapses he kicks her in the kidney. A woman then comes in and grabs her by the hair, slapping her. She then cuts a shape into the woman’s face.  She then smashed her face against the floor. She then takes a hot iron and burns the woman’s arm multiple times. She was then strapped onto a table and multiple people starting cutting her with knives.  When moving her one man knees her in the face to make her obey. She hears gunshots and is thrown in a trunk. When taken out, a group is watching her. She is thrashing about, nose bleeding, while they are walking through water.  The man falls, she grabs for his knife and slashes his throat. She is hit hard on the head and she falls. A foot holds her down, then she is grabbed by the neck but she finds a sharp rock and cuts. A man jumps onto her but he is shot in the head in the process and she see a large hole in the back of his head.   She has blood on all her clothes, neck, chest, and torso. Another man stabs the man the woman has killed in the neck so she cannot be linked to the crime.

Potentially Intense Themes

A young woman is hiding her brother and trying to save him.  They get caught and are chased by guards and dogs, then are drugged and taken away.  She is locked away for years for her crime. He had been labeled as too aggressive and noncompliant for their community.

There are two communities.  One is male-dominated, the other is female dominated.  Each community practically looks down on the opposite sex and treats them as less-than-worthy.  

A couple are framing a man for an explosion.