This book was odd. To add to it, I do not feel like I would ever support a homophobic, racist author.

I started reading this book and found that it was not for me. I didn't think it was fair to review a book I didn't finish.

A dystopian read that imagines a futuristic feminist society where men have been "gentled" and women work together in a collaborative under the rule of Matriarchy. But things are not as they seem.

Reina has lived her whole life knowing that she was different, daring to question the way things are, and dreaming of being an Alexia. Over the course of the book I came to admire her for her strength, strong resolve, and willingness to sacrifice.

A dystopian new world that imagines feminism and masculinity taken to extremes, as Reina finds her eyes opened while fighting for the honor of Matriarch. I liked getting to know the other girls, as well as about the world around them as well as the differences between the provinces, though at times it felt heavy on the information dumping, and took a while to ramp up.

Overall, this was an intriguing read, though slow to start, I found that I had grown to care about the characters over the course of the book. While a work of speculative dystopian fiction it felt at times that the seams of the world were a bit rough. I loved Calisto, as well as Reina's brave gentle friends, I am interested to see where this will go.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Okay, who doesn't like a good neutral 3 star rating. This book was controversial and there are lots of problems I have with themes and apparently the author- but it wasn't terrible?

Plot: Kind of a typical coming of age story. Reina doesn't know what destiny to choose, gets involved in a competition for the leader of the society, learns everything isn't what she seemed. I don't hate it but I don't love it. There are plot twists yes, but even those I expected. I suppose if you like clichés and you want to stay within the expected, the plot is okay.

Characters: Rei is strong, and chooses for herself which I love because when you talk about feminism, you actually want a main character that embodies it. Her character goes through a loss of innocence story and actually has a fairly good arc which was great, but other characters aren't so fleshed out. Make us like your villain , give us more to side characters than "she's annoying, she is scary, she is timid and she is nice". I think the author could have cut the size of the cast of characters and focused more on improving the ones she was writing.

Writing: Well, the style is okay. Lots of clichés but I went in expecting that. Some minor grammar mistakes and minor plot holes but nothing too big. I don't normally hate on authors but Jess Corban has a lot of controversy (check out other reviews) and I could see that reflected in the book. To be honest, I was going to write about these problems before I even saw the comments/videos etc. about the author. At the beginning this book is all about diversity, 'some people keep their religions', 'we have different languages, different foods' and I was happy with that (although even that was concerning). Later, race is just taken out of the equation and the tern 'Neaden brown' (or something like this...) replaces it. Nope. Just nope. If you are going to tackle the enormous conversation of race, don't minimize people's cultures. As a minority, I hate the idea of the 'melting pot' being a good solution. I don't think we should judge people by race, but we should embrace (and enjoy) the many cultures of the world. Beyond that, I had problems with the LGBTQ+ representation. This is a society of only females (in power), are you kidding that the w/w relationship is hidden and shunned!!! The author's opinions about sexuality seem to rub off into the book and I am not here for it. This book just doesn't cut it. I think talking about the feminist lens is enough and was (kind of) well done so stop there.

Honestly didn't know what to rate this. I would have given it a lower rating, but I think that it has things going for it. The actual writing is okay, and the plot is interesting but it just isn't approaching the conversation right. If you are going to write an book about equality, you can't just talk about equality between sex. Or if you do, don't pretend that you are preaching about equality in general.

Side note, I love the title, very well thought out.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed are mine and mine only.

Full review to be posted soonish.

I would like to thank the publisher and netgalley for providing me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Although the story premise is interesting, the story itself dis not grab my interest and it seems targeted to a younger audience.

I could not find in me the will to finish it, so my rating is one star.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for kindly providing me with an eArc!

An eerie, disturbing and thought-provoking dystopian novel. This is more of a heavy read, but if you’re a lover of dystopian novels like I am myself, then I highly recommend you try this out!!

Well, just about the only nice thing I can say about this book is that the cover is gorgeous. The premise of the story was actually quite interesting, but the execution left a lot to be desired. As a high school teacher, I read a lot of writing that is...let's call it "developing." Unfortunately, the writing here is at a junior high level, and the ideas aren't fully formed. Some warning that this was going to be abuse-trigger-heavy and drenched in religious moralizing would have been appreciated.

After a slow start, this turned out to be a story that I really enjoyed and can’t wait to see what comes next.

A new look at the popular YA Dystopian genre that so many readers love. A Gentle Tyranny sets up in the world of Nede where women have taken over and have “Gentled” the men. It has taken years of research and testing to be able to tame these men and set up a new hierarchy that on the outside seems tame, but on the inside, nothing is as it first seems. Raina Pierce is seventeen and has been selected to compete for the apprenticeship of becoming the Matriarch of Nede. Her grandmother currently holds the position leading some to believe that Raina is the obvious choice. The trials she must go through show Raina that all that she learned growing up was only part of the story. The world is not what she expected and not so gentle after all. Will she be selected to take over and make the changes so desperately needed? Or will she even be alive to see who wins?

A Gentle Tyranny started really slow; I almost gave up on it but am glad I stuck with the story. It was hard to picture the new world and connecting with these characters was difficult. In any new series, especially a dystopian such as this, the world building takes time. About halfway through, things started to pick up and catch my attention. Once I felt the connection with the characters, I was more invested in the story and couldn’t wait to see how it played out. I really enjoyed Raina in the forest and her interaction with the men, so different from what she was led to believe.

As a debut novel, Jess Corban finally found her footing and took off. While this isn’t my favorite of the year, I will definitely be giving the next in the series a chance. Hopefully now that the world is built, the pace will be quick and the enticing characters will continue to engage the readers. I recommend this to fans of dystopian that are willing to be patient and let the story go where it will and be happy with the payout at the end.

I received a complimentary copy of this title from the publisher. The views and opinions expressed within are my own.

Interesting.

That's the best word I can think of to describe this book. Interesting.

A Gentle Tyranny tells the story of Reina, a young girl in a female-dominated society who becomes part of a competition-of-sorts to become the next Matriarch, the leader Nede. As Reina trains to possibly become the next Matriarch, she learns about certain things happening inside of Nede that she isn't sure she can approve of.

When I originally read the synopsis for A Gentle Tyranny, I actually found it pretty confusing since it uses a number of terms that aren't defined until you start reading the story. So here is the synopsis with some definitions put in.

What if women unraveled the evils of patriarchy? With men safely “gentled” in a worldwide Liberation [an overthrowing of regular men], the matriarchy of Nedé has risen from the ashes. Seventeen-year-old Reina Pierce has never given a thought to the Brutes of old. Itching to escape her mother’s finca [basically a large farm] and keeping her training for the Alexia [the "military"] and her forbidden friendship a secret, her greatest worry is which Destiny [career path] she’ll choose on her next birthday. But when she’s selected as a candidate for the Succession instead, competing to become Nedé’s ninth Matriarch [ruler], she discovers their Eden has come at a cost she’s not sure she’s willing to pay.

A Gentle Tyranny really plays off of the "your utopia is my dystopia" idea. Nede is a world in which all abuse against women has been eradicated because all of the men have been "gentled". Men are weak and docile and do whatever the women don't want to do. They mainly act as servants.

While I enjoyed A Gentle Tyranny, the plot did feel a fair bit like set-up for the other book, especially in light of the ending. And while the pacing didn't feel slow, considering that this series is only going to be a duology I think that the story could have been structured better.

I liked the setting and worldbuilding of A Gentle Tyranny, but I would have loved to see it dig a little deeper into it and really immerse me in the jungles of Central America.

I found Reina to be a sympathetic character. She's a girl who isn't exactly sure what she wants to do with her life, but she knows some things she doesn't want to do. And then she ends up discovering facts about her world that she doesn't know what to do with.

That all being said, Reina does make a decision towards the later part of the book that is a "wrong thing for what will hopefully end up being the right reason". And I found it a lot harder to still like her after that decision. It would have been interesting if she had made a different decision and to have seen how that could have played out.

Overall, A Gentle Tyranny is an interesting look at what would happen if women stopped men from being men. However, I'm not sure I enjoyed the book enough to reread it or read the conclusion to the duology.

I would give this 0 stars if I could. The problems with this book, if I would compile them into a list, would be several pages long. The prologue alone contains outright xenophobia. The first few chapters feature a blatant use of “the mammy” stereotype perpetuated onto Black women. This book is so wildly racist, colonizing a part of Central America, the author being an outright culture vulture, and then writing into the constitution of her new world that the spoken language is to be English only while championing diversity? I’m so disgusted and I’m so incredibly uncomfortable.

Not to mention, THIS BOOK IS CHRISTIAN FICTION. And the fact that it’s not labeled as such is a clear use of fundamentalist evangelical Christian subterfuge similar to the work of crisis pregnancy centers AKA fake medical clinics run by religious people. I hope this book does poorly. Truly. I would never say that about a book but I will make an exception for this TRASH.

I was intrigued by the synopsis as its an alternate world where females “conquer over the” evils of patriarchy. I was hooked on the alternate world because I was constantly explore how the author would have envision this kind of society of Nedé, and was curious on how the main character would develop her character. Unfortunately, about a little under half the book I grew distant from being invested because the pacing was slow.

Actual rating: 3.5/5

Growing up, Reina always wanted to be an Alexia and protect Nedé but her grandmother has other plans for her when she nominates her to be the next monarch. Pitted against four other women, Reina suddenly has to navigate the political elite and show the Matriarch she's the best candidate.

In the late 21st century, Tristan Pierce established Nedé as a safe haven for women. The men are gentled from birth while women are allowed to pursue a life free of fear and oppression. In order to assure this, Nedé's men are unable to grow much hair and muscle, making them weak and short lived.

Shortly after birth, they are separated from their mothers and raised to be servants. They are only allowed to perform society's menial tasks while being forbidden from forming any sort of relationship with the women around them. Corban does a brilliant job describing men's lives under this regime, which rightly makes certain passages uncomfortable to get through.
Even Reina, who grew up on a more tolerant farm where the men are allowed to have names, doesn't question this subjugation until later on in the novel.

Reina was an interesting character. I found her grating in the beginning as she dismissed her family's chosen careers but I was happy to see her grow out of that. As she learns more about those destinies, and her family in particular she not only comes to appreciate them, but they help fuel her determination to change Nedé for the better.

She also started out very naïve. While she maintained a secret friendship with a gentle, she still held firm to Nedé's constitution, until the selection process challenged her core beliefs.
I appreciated that Corban didn't make Reina a rebel from the beginning. Given the setting, it's expected that Reina would agree with the status quo, which makes her rebellion all the more poignant.

A Gentle Tyranny was fun well balanced. Once the selection begins, the book flowed well and I had no trouble getting through it. I liked that Reina is slow to change her ideas as it's hard to rebel against one's upbringing from one day to the next, and this was reflected in the book.

My one complaint is that I don’t think Corban developed her world enough. Some of the secondary characters are lacking, whereas the worldbuilding is confusing at times, particularly when it comes to the Brutes. As this is the first book in a series, there's more than enough potential to grow and I look forward to seeing what Corban does in the sequel.

A Gentle Tyranny by Jess Corban was an interesting study in what a matriarchal dystopia could look like. Corban's character arcs are well crafted and the slow build of a rebellion fits Reina's mindset. The lack of a romantic element was a welcome surprise as well, even if I do like the hints of a future relationship.

This book is for older readers as it contains violence and on-page depictions of executions.

3.5
This is what happens when feminism only includes straight white women
I was quite concerned at first that this was going to promote the “feminist” idea that men are inherently evil, which of course isn’t actually feminist, the belief in equality and not superiority.
A few thoughts I had while reading:
How have they got advanced medicine yet no technology?
Reina keeps contradicting herself, she says she hates and resents her mother for being kind to the gentles yet is glad treowe is one of her mother's gentles as it means he knows kindness and is safe?
When Reina starts training it begins to read very much as feminine=bad, caring about your appearance/makeup/clothing/skincare is bad and stupid, she actually describes interest in such things as petty
The explanation Rohan gives as to why some men hurt women and some don't as being that they're men, is stupid, some women hurt people some don't, women still commit domestic violence, female rapists exist, female paedophiles exist. Reina has seen women being violent and cruel herself plenty of times, violence isn't a solely male attribute. Even with men being ‘gentled’ violence would definitely still exist.
“I let out a breath I didn't realise I was holding”
The idea that every country in the world legalising paedophilia and rape is insane and honestly the most ridiculous thing about this book
Porn=evil, its not like women like porn, though its clear from the beginning in the articles that sex is evil and shameful, that only men can enjoy it, which is ironically a very patriarchal view.
Power corrupts - the system was corrupt before they came to power, Tristan is shown to be hateful decades before nede was founded, even before the laws stated above were enacted.
The articles show that nede has from the beginning been built on enslaving people, about striping everyone including the women of freedom and liberty. Nede hasn't become evil under teeras reign nede was built on hate and evil.
How is the population into the hundreds of thousands yet the country is only 125mile across and there is heaps of farmland?
Women have testosterone as well. Completely inhibiting testosterone would kill you, it doesn't just affect your reproductive organs it affects almost every organ in drastic ways

The author note at the end clearly shows that she is against the ideas of Nede though and is actually in support of equality between genders and not women being superior.
I've seen another reviewer criticise the book for donating to A21, which they have said is homophobic, and for the publisher being a Christian organisation, however, Reina and Trins relationship, their intimacy, the way Reina talks about and describes trin, is queer-coded, so I doubt an author who would write such a relationship especially one that is a significant source of good in the book would hold homophobic ideals.

Initial Thoughts

I was a bit on the fence about this book. I saw the cover and thought it was pretty but wasn’t immediately grabbed by the synopsis. That being said, once approved, I wanted to give it a try.

Some Things I Liked

Wonder Woman vibes. Nedé reminded me so much of how I imagined Themiscyra to be like. A society run by women who don’t need men. That being said, our main character doesn’t quite believe that their world is as optimal as she’s made to believe. Like Diana (Wonder Woman), she longs for more.
Contrast between Dystopia and Utopia. The beginning of the story leads the reader to believe that the citizens of Nedé created a utopia. However, as the story progresses, the reader sees what it really is, a dystopia. I loved the contrast and change in view as the story progressed.
World building. I also thought that the creation of the world was very thorough and well done. There were details and pretty much all of my questions were answered, but I didn’t feel bogged down by science or overly complex explanations.

Series Value

I definitely want to read the next book in this series. I can’t wait to find out more about what Reina is going to do next. There’s so much left unsaid in this book but in such a way that I am desperate for the sequel.

Final Thoughts

I can’t wait to read the next book in this series. This story had me on the edge of my seat and was such an interesting concept. I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this book when I read the synopsis but I really loved it. It was thought provoking, well thought out, and left me eager for more.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Recommendations for Further Reading

Scythe by Neal Shusterman – if you liked the idea of a futuristic “utopian” world with a twist, definitely give this series a try.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins – if you liked the competition setting as well as a dystopian setting that’s more than what it seems, try this trilogy.
A Brutal Justice by Jess Corban – if you enjoyed this book, fear not, book two is coming in just a few months.

Spoiler free review. I really enjoyed the amount of world building this author uses and the way the author really brings out the characters. The way the location is described throughout the story is amazing. I would definitely recommend this book to a friend!

This book is what you would get if you combined the gender-segregated society of Sheri S. Tepper's The Gate to Women's Country with the capital extravagnce and high stakes competition of Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games. Which is to say that this book is more than a little derivative. Is it still worth reading? Yes.

Corban takes the ideas behind these two books and runs with them, adding in descriptions of the jungle setting that are beyond lush. Reina's naivete at the beginning of the book was troublesome to me, but Corban places her in situations that force her confront her own lack of knowledge and gives her the motivation to overcome it. Reina's growth is realistic and believable in a way that many authors can't pull off. And we learn that her ignorance isn't entirely due to her sheltered upbringing or her own passivity. There are things in her society that are just not talked about, and which will probably turn out to be its downfall. We'll have to wait for the sequel to find out, though.

A Gentle Tyranny is set in a society created as a reaction to systematic oppression of women. It serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of an imbalance of power, regardless of which group wields the power. The story follows Reina, a seventeen year old girl, as the truth about the founding of her society and cruelty with which it is sustained is revealed to her.
Many of the issues with the functioning of Nedè should be obvious to at least the scientists within the society and to most of the founding members. The founding of this society was emotionally driven and not well sought out, dooming it to failure before it even began regardless of the social structure. The book presents the issue of re-population of a single sex society as a matter of just too few pregnancies due to willingness of potential mothers, but this is a minor problem overall. It can be pretty safely assumed that the gentles do not have reproduction capabilities so the society is entirely dependent on the sperm stores in the bank at the time of the societies founding. This means there is a finite number of generations before the society runs out of the necessary resources to continue. Due to the lack of forethought on the part of the supposedly intelligent founders, a functional Nedè was always going to be forced to choose between dying out, or bringing back the brutes to restock supplies.
Overall I think the story has potential and is relevant to issues of inequalities in today's society. I hope the conclusion to the series successfully sends a message of equality and unity, inspiring us to be better.

I received a copy of this book on Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I have real mixed feelings about this book, and as a result it took me a while to decide how to rate it.

The writing style itself is good and I enjoyed both the narrative and character development. The premise is interesting - Reina is chosen to complete to become the next leader of a Matriarchal society, but during her testing she discovers that their regime is built on some questionable policies.

However, I wasn't totally comfortable with the presentation of society. Diversity and cultural differences seemed to be totally glossed over and explained away, and there seemed to be no romantic relationships at all, as though hormones had ceased to exist in this dystopia.

There is a lot of set up in the book, so I assume there is at least a second installment planned. That meant the ending wasn't particularly satisfying - it felt as though the book stopped just as things were about to get started!

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

The potential for A Gentle Tyranny’s premise to go horribly wrong is tremendous, but it’s a calculated risk that pays off enormously at the end. I feel it’s only right that I mention that at the outset. With every page that I read, the more I loved the book and the more concerned I became for how the major thematic element—the Big Message™—was going to play out. Let me explain.

A Gentle Tyranny is a twist on the YA dystopian genre that we haven’t seen before. In the world of Nedé, women have taken over. In response to an increasingly cruel and male-dominated world, women revolted and for nine generations they have “gentled” the men of their world, changing their biology to be docile and subservient. My fear—and at no point was this ever a point the book was leading toward—was that the conclusion of the book would be that of conservative Christian fundamentalism: Men were made to lead and a world without “real” men, manly men, men of chest hair and testosterone would be an ungodly world indeed.

Fortunately, that is not where A Gentle Tyranny goes. Instead, debut author Jess Corban presents a world where both patriarchy and matriarchy have resulted in violence and destruction and the best path forward is humankind working together in a blessed alliance, male and female, to live and lead.

But to the story: For generations now, the matriarchy of Nedé has ruled. Men have been safely “gentled” in a worldwide movement of liberation. It’s into this world that seventeen-year-old Raina Pierce is born. At the age of eighteen, the women of Nedé are expected to chose a type of profession—a Destiny—which they then perform throughout their lives. Raina has no clue what she wants to be and, complicating that, her grandmother, Matriarch of Nedé, has selected Raina as a candidate to succeed her. It’s through the competition to become the next Matriarch that Raina learns some of the darkest secrets of Nedé and becomes convinced that she must become the next leader to set things right.

One of the most difficult aspects of YA dystopia, particularly now that the genre is utterly saturated, is giving the audience what they want and expect while still telling a new story. Corban takes from the classic tropes: the various Destinies read like the factions in Veronica Roth’s Divergent, the competitive element is somewhat reminiscent of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games, and when we move into Christian dystopias there’s thematic shades of the Ted Dekker/Tosca Lee Books of Mortals and Rachelle Dekker’s The Choosing. Yet, while A Gentle Tyranny has elements of all these books—because all these books are drawing on the same tried and true formula—it’s also very clearly its own thing and something much different than I’ve seen in the genre up until now.

A Gentle Tyranny is a thoughtful take on male/female relationships and leadership, political elitism and the corruption of power, the justification of evil on the basis of an alleged greater good, speaking truth to power, leveraging one’s position of privilege and influence for the marginalized, the appropriate means of the oppressed to fight against oppression, and more. While A Gentle Tyranny’s primary inequality is gender-based—men are “gentled” while women are honored—it’s impossible to read the book without seeing the nonfictional inequalities of our own, both historical and present. You also begin to see the inequalities within Nedé—rural and urban, poor and rich, commoner and elite—and how the elite, Raina’s grandmother in particular is no less cruel than the male leaders of the past that proved the need for male “gentling.”

Jess Corban’s A Gentle Tyranny is a masterpiece of fiction. Her sense of world-building is stupendous. Her characterization is rich and layered. The novel’s pacing keeps the story moving even as never rushes over important elements of the plot. The story gives readers story we think we want, one with all the comfortable familiarity of the genre, but then goes beyond that to deliver a thematically-rich and thought-provoking story. Jess Corban has breathed new life into a well-worn genre.

I’m reading this in January, but I’ll make the prediction now that this will be one of my favorite novels of the year. I predict some debut author awards coming Corban’s way and it’ll be well-deserved. Now can I please have the next book?