“For the sake of Viggo, my brother, my family in Patrus, and every single citizen of our God-forsaken nations, I had to stop the war.”
Continue Violet and Viggo’s journey in the ELECTRIFYING fourth book of The Gender Game series.
Young Adult | Fantasy | Dystopian | Science Fiction
Surprise Surprise – I actually am still invested in this series comrades, and whoah, what is this, a little more pleased one would think with a rating above a three? Yep. I think something peaked my fancy a bit more. There was something a bit more edgy, more brutality, dare I say actual world building with great character dynamic in The Gender War that really made this a tidbit more exciting. Honestly, if this had been done the first round, I could only imagine what the series actual potential could have been.
And since I don’t know where, or really what to start with, we will just willy nilly this review, bad with the good and see what rambling actually makes sense I suppose…
Opening up at the start of the book, a great deal of things are already thrown at the reader. Without trying to spoil everything, there is a lot of back and forth on who is really working for who, world domination takeover and all that jazz is a messy ordeal. Surprisingly, there is actually a lot of things happening on both sides of Matrius and Patrius spectrum, it really devolved the magnitude of corruption amongst ones political pyramid. I liked the overall capitalization of how Desmond and Tabitha were at the root of a bigger pool; granted, saw it coming, I could feel it in my bones, but to see things turn the way they did – it sent chills down my spin. With these two powerful female figures in the mix, there is this undertone radical hatred that is just spewing at every page. Granted, this is the main reason for the Matrius and Patrius agreement to separate, but honestly, the foundation of how each area is dictated yet the other feels they are still better, more superior, more justified – yet both are cruel, hypocritical and downright disgusting human beings. It was interesting to finally see this malice play out, I think this is always what was intended, but I don’t think the book really conveyed it as beautifully until The Gender War; probably because all the cards are finally laying out for the characters (aside from the fact the obvious title is GENDER GAME…), or maybe because I can finally semi-appreciate the plot Forrest is wanting a reader to see. Either way, the sexiest, raciest, and dehumanizing actions speak volumes and I felt the execution was rather fascinating.
I will admit, I try really hard to Like Viggo and Violet. I do. And honestly, I do enjoy their characters, when they are fighting, or joking. But oh my sweet baby Jesus, their inner monologues will be the death of me. This has been something that really irked me right from the start, it is their lack of responsibility and logical thinking; I say this because about eighty percent of the time when they are deciding the fate of themselves and everyone else involved, they cannot seem to stop thinking about kissing or pressing up against each other – alright, I get it, you love each other. But seriously, their romantic thoughts are absolutely exhausting to the point of yawning. I love a good romance, don’t get me wrong, but in a lot of ways, their romance drowns out the actual amazing fundamentals that are Viggo and Violets personalities. Like, if you asked me right now what do I remember most about either of their personalities the best I could feed you is that Viggo is charming and Violet is cheeky. Both are good with guns.
But you’re mine, Violet Bates. And I’m going to fight for you, beside you, and probably with you, and it will be worth it every single time.
And while mentioning guns, other than the snooze mush mush romance but the battles. Yep, you heard me, this round actually had some pretty intense combat. The seer violence between one on one combat to the masses in gun firing down to the car chases while Owen and Viggo try to out run bombs – it was pretty entertaining. Violet actually impressed me. Right from the start, she actually packed a punch – literally. Not only did she enter with a bang, but quite literally, she ended with one too. It was definitely really intriguing to finally see that potential side-affects of the drugs that the ‘boys’ had been given previously. The moment when Solomon entered the area that Violet was secured with her riffle in that one scene – you know that scene comrades. The description that was projected in this moment absolutely struck fear in my soul. It was like visually seeing a horror movie play out; I really hope to see more of this devastating twist. It aided so much on the building of just all things catastrophically delicious.
Overall, I will admit, yes, it did take me forever to get back into this series. Not for a lack of wanting to because honestly, I used my audiobook credits on it, I wanted to see this through to the end, but really I just lost the motivation a long the way. Though again, I may not have loved The Gender War, but surprisingly, I really liked this installment out of the other books since starting. It held my attention a little more throughout, the character development wasn’t too lack luster, there was growth continuously and there was a bit more depth to the world surrounding the characters that actually made me imagine the scenario. I am still on the fence with if this series will continue to improve, The Gender War gave me some semblance of faith, but I won’t hold my breath. I still wonder if seven books is just a smidge too much….
Well, off to book five we go – see you in The Gender Fall.
Suey Library 