The task is simple: Don a disguise. Survive the labyrinth . . . Best 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 … 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.
Welcome to the labyrinth.
Praise for To Best the Boys:
“Atmospheric, romantic, inspiring.” –KRISTEN CICCARELLI, internationally bestselling author of The Last Namsara
“Smart, determined, and ready to take on the world: Rhen Tellur is an outstanding heroine with every reason to win a competition historically intended for boys.” –Jodi Meadows, New York Times bestselling author of The Incarnate Trilogy and coauthor of My Lady Jane
A “Hunger Games/Handmaid’s Tale mash-up.” –BN Teen Blog
more
Loved this book!
Seriously, there had better be sequel to this thing! I haven’t heard of any at this point, but the book’s end is awful if there isn’t. I’m ok with not knowing if everything works out with her and Lute. But I need to know about her mom and college!!!
With echoes of Dr. Brennan from the TV series Bones, the author opens To Best the Boys with the heroine extracting blood and tissue samples from corpses in the local morgue. This chapter feels a little gross and unnecessary, but the rest of the plot develops nicely from there. Ren Fuller is smart, witty, beautiful, kind and persistent. However, some supporting characters weren’t as compelling. Overall, this is a fun girl power story with some interesting twists in a fantasy realm.
To Best the Boys by Mary Weber is a young adult novel rivaling The Hunger Games. With intelligence and skill, the main heroine, Rhen Teller, runs through the trials of the Labyrinth and allows the entire community to notice what girls can do. The plot is unique and predictable. There is plenty of moments of heroine shiny for the community to see. It was a riveting plot that captured my attention. While I enjoy seeing some strong female leads for the younger women to read and hopefully admire, this novel felt a little amateurish for me. Weber does a wonderful job at creating and showing the heart of a young person who wants to change the world around her. I really enjoyed this element a lot. But as a young adult novel, the younger generation does adore novels like this with all the race for a win in a dystopian environment, so I’m sure this novel is a hit with the younger generation. I have passed this book off to my seventeen-year-old son, so I’ll see what he thinks. Overall, To Best the Boys is a wonderful YA novel that I don’t mind recommending to my sons or to any of the young girls in our church’s youth group. If you know a need that reads and enjoys the Hunger Games, (I’m sorry!) than it was be a much better alternative.
I received a complimentary copy of To Best the Boys by Mary Weber from Thomas Nelson Publishing, but the opinions stated are all my own.
Hovering somewhere between 3 and 3.5 stars.
The Scorpio Races meets The Hunger Games, To Best the Boys was an entertaining and exciting read, but at times it felt a little undeveloped.
The feel of this story was so interesting! A fun mix of science and fantasy. It was like magical realism with focus on the knowledge that science is just as important as magic… which I don’t think I’ve ever seen done before.
I always love when protagonists have a passion that is (for lack of a better term) “out-of-the-box”. Rhen’s love of science and anatomy was so inspiring.
Plus this was basically an entire book dedicated to Girl Power. I do love a good feminist story.
As much as I enjoyed this book, parts of it felt rushed, and I feel like it could have benefited from 50 more pages to help flesh out certain parts of the story.