To Best The Boys Book Review

To Best The Boys
By Mary Weber
Genre: YA Fantasy
Recommended For: Ages 13+, fans of fantasy and Hunger Games, readers who love stories where the girls stick it to the boys

Every year for the past fifty-four years, the residents of Pinsbury Port have received a mysterious letter inviting all eligible-aged boys to compete for an esteemed scholarship to the all-male Stemwick University. The poorer residents look to see if their names are on the list. The wealthier look to see how likely their sons are to survive. And Rhen Tellur opens it to see if she can derive which substances the ink and parchment are created from, using her father’s microscope.

In the province of Caldon, where women train in wifely duties and men pursue collegiate education, sixteen-year-old Rhen Tellur wants nothing more than to become a scientist. As the poor of her seaside town fall prey to a deadly disease, she and her father work desperately to find a cure. But when her mum succumbs to it as well? Rhen decides to take the future into her own hands—through the annual all-male scholarship competition.

With her cousin, Seleni, by her side, the girls don disguises and enter Mr. Holm’s labyrinth, to best the boys and claim the scholarship prize. Except not everyone is ready for a girl who doesn’t know her place. And not everyone survives the deadly maze.

Luna’s Top Thoughts:

Awesome girl-shows-the-boys-who’s-boss theme
Very high and clearly-defined stakes
Main character is very goal-oriented, which I love
Takes too long for the main action to start
Not much depth to side characters
Jumps too quickly through plot points towards the end.

The Review:

I am always game for a book where girls show condescending, sexist boys that they are so much more capable than they give them credit for. Which is why I was excited to dig into To Best The Boys. The girl power is strong in this book, and I loved it all! I thought Weber did a good job balancing it too, having Rhen show her value not just as a person but as a woman, but without making her unlikable. I found it to be an excellent portrayal of the problems with gender and class discrimination.

Rhen was a great protagonist. Right from the first chapter we learn what’s important to Rhen in an exciting and different way. I adored that she was passionate about science and loved seeing Weber use that knowledge to showcase Rhen in the competition. Rhen had many layers, a girl with ambition who loves her family and friends and still wants to pursue her own dreams. But my favorite thing about Rhen as a character was that she had a clear goal from the beginning: save her mom. This goals drives every action and decision which created a good flow of plot and made everything seem realistic.

Much like the good development of Rhen, I thought the side characters were also introduced well and I liked how Weber taught us more about each of them throughout the story. We quickly saw who each person was and how they became who they are. They also complimented Rhen’s personality well and were used to show that people can have different personalities and dreams and be just as strong and valuable.

One of this book’s shining stars for me was the romance. Having a romantic subplot in a standalone novel is hard, let alone a fantasy standalone that has to do at least a little worldbuilding. But Weber sets it up nicely then slowly builds it through thoughts with the POV and interactions outside and inside the Labyrinth.

I get the impression the focus of the book is the girl power theme rather than a fast-paced plot. For one, it took FOREVER to get to what I would consider the main action the book promised: competing in the Labyrinth. This was my biggest beef with the book. A lot of the scenes in the first half felt unnecessary, and I would have liked to see the competition start sooner because that’s when Rhen can shine and show how fierce women can be. I think the theme of women empowerment could have been better served in the competition than all the set-up scenes in the first half.

Now for worldbuilding. Because this is a standalone novel, I didn’t have high expectations for world building. However, some of the random fantasy elements she threw into the story, especially in the labyrinth, served more as distractions for me than deeper details about a fantasy world.

Overall, this wasn’t my favorite book by Mary Weber, however I would still say I enjoyed it, especially as a female empowerment book, and would recommend it to the right person.