The Gender Game by Bella Forrest
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Title: The Gender game
Author: Bella Forest
Rating: Four stars

This is the first in a series of books that explores what it could mean to have two kingdoms divided by a river, where one was males in charge and traditional male female roles required and the other where females are in charge and everything is supposed to be all sweetness and light. As you may guess each side tries to control their population by making the other sound worse than it really is.They each focus on the very worse of the othe . Since people are still individual, this is an extreme simplization of the two cultures.
Violet falls afoul the strict laws everyone must follow when she tries to send her llittle brother accross the river after he fails the test given to young boys to make sure they are pliant. She ends up basically becoming a slave for her country and another severe incident when fighting leads to her being given a choice; Cross the river and and do what her ruler wants and have all her crimes expunged or be put to death.
The majority of this book takes place after crossing the river. Through Violet's eyes we see why a purely feminine country and a traditionally male society both have serious flaws. Taking a girl, even one who has been a slave, and putting her in a country where she is subservient and has no rights leads to an interesting look at the world.
This book is well written and interesting. I didn't realized it was going to end on an extreme cliffhanger so ended up really frustrated. The next book wasn't available for several months. books with cliffhangers I usually prefer to wait and read all the books at once. This book is intended for YA readers and I would recommend it to any reader in that group. Some younger readers may enjoy it but someone should screen it for that individual child. I chose to review this book after receiving a copy from Netgalley.

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