This book was interesting and unique. The books should be read in order to fully appreciate the story and the world building.

Picking up in the aftermath of the previous book, this book continues to follow Reina Pearce as she discovers more of the history between the Matriarchy and the Brutes.

I liked how this book told Reina's mother's story, as well as showed us a little more of the Brute's world. I think that this book as an interesting premise, I liked that they mentioned exploring the world beyond the Brutes and Matriarchy, because the world in which this book is set felt smaller somehow in this book.

Overall this is was a good sequel, though I personally felt some of the twists were predictable. There was good growth and progression of the characters, with a powerful message of how we need each other as was intended.

I received a complimentary ecopy of this book. Opinions are my own.

Some books don’t fit every reader. This is one that did not fit this reader. The author has created a dystopian story that leaves a world where women dominate, and men are demasculated at birth when they receive a “vaccine” that will turn them into “Gentles” that are essentially slaves. Not a pretty picture.

Much of the story focuses on saving the male population so they are allowed to grow into “Brutes”, their natural state. I found the story boring and slow moving - determined at several points to put the book down without finishing it. I would pick it up again to give it another try only to give up again. Eventually, I did not finish the book and moved onto my next book. I give “Brutal Justice” 2-½ stars.
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This review is based on a free electronic copy provided by the publisher for the purpose of creating this review. The opinions expressed are mine alone.

After the first volume (A Gentle Tyranny) ended leaving many questions unanswered, I was eager to read this to learn what happens to Reina Pierce, and Corban didn't disappoint. The book opens as Rei begins her training with the elite Alexia soldiers, which she had hoped to do before vying to become Apprentice to Nede's Matriarch. She is still recovering from her time competing in the Succession, what she learned then, and the consequences of her choices, when things begin changing quickly. The action is nonstop as Reina and former adversary Bri join forces with the Brutes in the jungle to right the wrongs in Nede: the motto of "protect the weak; safety for all; power without virtue is tyranny" had been twisted and misused by Matriarch Teera. Rei grapples with loss and struggles to make wise decisions as she learns about strength, trust, and love.
The worldbuilding in these books is well done, and the characters are compelling. Readers should definitely have read the first book before starting this one. Highly recommended.
Thanks to NetGalley for the arc!

The writer seems to be aiming for a "Hunger Games" style story about a future dystopian society. Like the Hunger Games, Divergent, etc, there has to be a big gimmick the society revolves around. In this case it's that women have subjugated men from birth and forgotten (or supressed) the idea of love and gender coexistence. It's an interesting idea... but it's basically the Greek myth of Amazon warrior women with the twist from the original "Planet of the Apes" ("What? The slave class was in charge once? How can this be...")
Fun idea, but it never gets past the cliches.

A Brutal Justice (sequel to A Gentle Tyranny) follows Reina, former succession candidate of Nedé's Matriarch. After discovering the dark secret of Nedé's gentled men, Reina vows to put an end to this cruel practice and overthrow her corrupt Matriarch.
I had a difficult time rating this book. I must have typed up and deleted a review several times. I just feel so uncomfortable every time I give a book a score under 4 stars. I wish I could have given it a 3.5
I loved the premise of a Brutal Justice.
I think the concept of a female-dominated dystopia is fresh and exciting, if not a little controversial. I love controversial books.
So, I gobbled up A Gentle Tyranny despite some of my complaints about the characters and prose.
A Brutal Justice was great at some moments and tough to get through at others. Ironically, the author fixed many of the complaints I had about the first book (Reina was much more likeable and strong. I also didn't detect a hint of "preaching.")
Exploring the Brute camp and Reina and Rohan's romance was very satisfying. I also loved that the characters (the ones still alive, that is) were still able to find a happy-ending.
But.
I wasn't a huge fan of the interludes. I enjoyed Leda's story, but the interlude threw me off and out of the story.
Where A Gentle Tyranny explored Nedé's corrupt political system, A Brutal Justice explores the jungle. While the author's description of the lush jungle was beautiful, there was so much traveling that I skimmed through many pages.
I also felt like there were many plot holes and character behaviors that just didn't make sense.
Would I Recommend?
If you're in to Christian science fiction I think you should check out a Brutal Justice. The premise and characters are great and it's definitely worth reading. Jess brings up a lot of good questions and creates a stunning backdrop for a dystopian novel.
Thank you to NetGalley and Tyndale House Publishers for letting me read this eARC

I put some big shoes on A Brutal Justice when I effusively praised its predecessor, A Gentle Tyranny. The two books comprise the Nede Rising duology and tells the story of Raina Pierce, granddaughter of the Matriarch, who discovers that their utopia is not everything it seems to be. But to the story: For generations now, the matriarchy of Nedé has ruled. Men have been safely “gentled” in a worldwide movement of liberation. In A Gentle Tyranny, Jess Corban fashioned a prototypical YA dystopian novel that explored some important themes about inequality—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.”

At the end of A Gentle Tyranny, we see Raina discover that a contingent of men have escaped “ungentled” and live as Brutes in the wilderness. A contingent of these Brutes are intent on overthrowing the Matriarchy and freeing the Gentles from their oppression. I wrote in my initial review that my major fear was that the book would self-correct toward male headship, but that fortunately that didn’t happen. Corban’s view was closer to a blessed alliance where men and women share leadership and exist as equals.

My initial assumption was that this would be a three-book series. That’s pretty common in YA dystopian fiction and seemed to fit the setup. When I learned that it would only be two books, I was concerned that Corban would struggle to fit everything in and resolve everything properly. The setup had been a masterpiece. Corban created the drama well. But now, how would she resolve it?

A Brutal Justice is that resolution…and it’s devastatingly underwhelming. More than half the book is a journey into the Brute encampment in the jungles. The pacing is slow. What action there is does not contribute toward furthering the plot or creating character depth. The intention seems to be to really get Raina to experience the world of the Brutes and develop a backstory of how they came to be. It’s this backstory, involving Raina’s mother, that proves of be the only interesting part of this section.

The question that’s being explored is how men and women should work together. Up to this point, the Brutes have lived alone, adding to their clan only when a baby boy can be secreted away to them. They have had little interaction with the outside world and no interactions with women. Raina has had no interactions with Brute men. The way in which the group of men learn to interact with Raina and her company of followers is what’s going to prove to the group that collaboration and equality is attainable. For story purposes, Raina and the Brutes must become archetypal of a new society.

And instead we get a saccharine-sweet, sloppily-written, Tarzan-meet-Jane romance. (You’d think I was a perfect sunset for the way he looks at me, I can feel our hearts fusing together, like we were made to love each other.) Look, I can get behind a sappy romance. The problem is that this romance is what becomes the archetypal expression for male-female relationships. While A Gentle Tyranny pointed toward the need for men and women to work together as equals united in their humanity, A Brutal Justice diminishes that relationship to a stereotypical, teenage romance.

Further, the way in which Raina and the Brutes revolutionize their culture is through the brutal violence by men that led to men to be gentled in the first place. After an interminable journey to the Brute colony, the company then quickly finds themselves ambushed and in the middle of a war. They decide to attack the capital city and destroy the serum that results in the gentling of men. This is something they do very quickly and very easily. There’s little in the way of drama or tension.

This lack of tension follows into the final battle, which ends (of course) in victory, but a pyrrhic victory of sorts. Raina and her friends are imprisoned and held on trial, all of the purposes one final expositional soliloquy. This final speech is good, at least in terms of its thematic value, but it doesn’t fit what we’ve seen in the story. Instead, it comes across as Corban mashing the message right into the end to make sure her readers get it. Raina testifies in the Arena: Without virtue, whoever holds the power—Brutes or women—will eventually default to tyranny…But what if we combined our strengths to fight injustice—called each other to a higher virtue? It’s a compelling enough speech that all the rulers of Nede change their mind, and their entire style of governance, and allow men to be born naturally once again. It’s a sweeping, sudden conclusion that Corban cannot write with nuance because of the constriction of a two-book series.

In A Gentle Tyranny, Corban developed a stunning world unlike any other YA dystopia that we’ve seen, particularly within Christian fiction. She asked some great questions and developed thought-provoking thematic imagery amid a story that hit upon all the typical twists of the genre while still making them unique. With A Brutal Justice, Corban faced the dilemma of how to bring her beautifully-stated problem to a satisfactory conclusion. Unfortunately, speaking as someone who loved the first book, she fails in her endeavor.

The problems are both in the storytelling and in how the message is told through the story. Corban simply isn’t able thematically to develop a relationship between a man and woman that exemplifies the equal relationship she’s promoting. And, in terms of story, the movement to resolution is so singular and simplistic that there’s no real depth to either the characters or the storytelling. It’s altogether too easy of an ending, one that might make sense as an allegory but not as a story.

This is one of the hardest reviews I’ve had to write in a long time. If anything, take this review as proof that I’m always fairly and brutally honest, even to stories and authors I’ve previously enjoyed. It’s frustrating because I see simple ways in which I feel the story could be made stronger—remove the romance, speed up the first half pacing, add a third book to enable time for the nuance necessary to pull it all together structurally. (Okay, that last one isn’t so simple.) But my critique isn’t for the author in the planning stages. This thing is in print. It’s done. And I just have to be okay with that.

Ultimately, even with my love of A Gentle Tyranny, would I suggest that someone read this duology knowing how the story ends? Honestly…probably not. Maybe I hyped it too much, but A Brutal Justice was almost crushingly disappointing.

After reading A Gentle Tyranny, I was eager to see how the story of Reina and Nede would end. I was intrigued by the premise that Jess Corban set up in her book, and she certainly posed some deep difficult questions.

I was not disappointed by A Brutal Justice. Once again, Ms. Corban is not afraid to tackle difficult issues of gender, justice, abuse, and power. The questions are tough to answer in the context of the book, but nearly impossible to answer outside of it.

I don't want to give the story away, so I will say just a few things. First, if you haven't read A Gentle Tyranny, read that first. Second, read with an open mind and prepare to want to challenge the author (I think that she wants you to question things). Third, I liked hearing more about Leda's story, but I don't really care for flashbacks. I wonder if Leda needed her own book. Finally, I was surprised at times with how things were resolved. Although the story concluded in a sense, and the author says it is the last book in the series, I am left wanting more. I hope she will reconsider.