To Best the Boys

I received an eARC of this novel from Netgalley and Thomas Nelson Publishing in exchange for my open and honest review.

“Rhen Tellus opened it simply to see if she could scrape off the ink and derive which substances it's been created from. Using her father's strangely fashioned microscope. Which is how she discovered that this time the lettering was created from two types of resin, a binding paste, gold flecks, and a drop of something that smelled quite remarkably like magic.”

To Best the Boys is a lot of great and grand things. It is surprising, exciting, sad, bittersweet, and most of all remarkable. Mary Weber wrote a noteworthy book. It is a YA dipped in light fantasy without coming off as silly or unsophisticated, a rare feat nowadays. I cheered Rhen, she is a hero that young and teenage girls can look up to. Who says that women can't be excellent at science and math? Who says they can't look at dead bodies and not squeal. Rhen can! Rhen is the person capable of doing the saving, and if you listen to her, respect her opinion, she might help you out along the way and be your savior instead.

Rhen is a woman in her late teens trapped in her families financial situation. They dare to be working class people. Rhen's parents, her mother born an Upper and her father born a lesser, fell in love and married against her mother's families wishes. Rhen's family has been shunned by her mother's side her entire life. But, in a city built on familial connections, Rhen has been associating with her Aunt and cousin Seleni most of her life. In a bid to help her out of the Lesser social class. Rhen is a bit of a prodigy in math and sciences, and along with her father work tirelessly to find a cure to whatever is ailing the poorer classes in her port town. Those affected include Rhen's mother. Here is the impetus of the story. Rhen must work tirelessly to find a cure, but Rhen is a woman and therefore not worthy of having her opinions heard. She is stuck in a catch-22 unless she can change the social equation. Each year a wealthy aristocrat and inventor holds a contest of magical and mathematical tests.

“All gentlepersons of university age (respectively seventeen to nineteen) are cordially invited to test for the esteemed annual scholarship given by Mr. Holm toward one full-ride fellowship at Stemwick Men's University. Aptitude contenders will appear at nine o'clock in front of Holm's Castle entrance above the seaside town of Pinsbury Port on the evening of 22 September, during the festival of the Autumnal Equinox.”

If Rhen can win the tests, she can gain access to the education that is necessary to help her friends, family, and people of Pinsbury Port fight off this spreading disease. She has the need and drive to succeed in this. What she faces as a contestant is fantastical creatures, science, math, and logic puzzles. As well as other contestants conspiring against her. You know she can do this, but Weber affectively amps up the suspense of the story until the reader is on proverbial pins and needles.

How does this story mimic our world today?

Although we live in a reasonably forward-thinking world, generally speaking, little girls face the same challenges of sexism when it comes to STEM(science, technology, engineering, math). Woman are still considered too illogical by some to be analytical enough to be a scientist. There are still real sociological and environmental barriers that girls need to overcome to become immersed in STEM. This story echoes that. Rhen is a woman continually being told that she does not have the mind and attitude for male-dominated STEM subjects.

Different men in Rhen's Life

A quality I appreciated in this story was how men were depicted. Men are just as varied in personality, intelligence and spirit as women are. The author could have gone the route of stereotyping the male characters, but she didn't. There was no type-casting for characters. Each of the players in this story has an individual mind and personality that mimics the variances in actual culture.

Political opinions and class warfare

Rhen comes from a poorer class, and although it is a peripheral plot point, Rhen's working-class neighbors and friends have to deal with out of touch upper-class people thinking they know what is best for them. Those decisions cause a significant calamity for the working middle class and poor people of this village. It is an important vignette that mirrors political and social change taking place in our world even as we speak.

What I did not like
There is very little not to like with this story. My only slight complaint was that I felt like maybe there were one too many ideas in the plot. The plotline with the town's fisherman seemed just a little much. Maybe that plotline would have been better seen in book 2.

Should you read this?
Absolutely. I cannot stress this enough, I loved this book. It is exceptionally well written, the plot is interesting, the characters are cheer-worthy. The message is one that can resonate with young girls, and when you get to the end, the reader feels empowered. You want to do better in your life and for those around you after reading this book.

Quotes taken from eARC are subject to change upon publishing.

One thing I really liked about this book was the representation of different learning problems. Also the accurate picture of themes such as division of social status and expectations of men and women. What I did not like was how characters seemed to know exactly how the other felt. It may have worked once, but it happened repeatedly and with different characters, which I find unbelievable. Besides, the romance was too cheesy and at some point I was tired of them together. Overall, it's an empowering book for girls.

So overall I really like this book, especially the second half where the action starts to pick up a little bit more. Some of the book was predictable like Vincent being the ultimate villain and Rhen winning the whole competition but there were some smaller details that I didn't see coming like Vincent being the creator of the crippling disease and Mr. Holm actually being more of a position in that family and the current Mr. Holm was actually a shapeshifting woman. This book was predictable enough to feel familiar but new enough to keep me interested.

One part I didn't like was the lack of world building. The rules of the world and how much was fantasy creatures and magic vs. science was never really fully explored and made the rules of the world a little difficult to figure out. Mostly revolving around the Labyrinth and everything seeming so magical there with the disappearing doors and people getting magically transported to safety when nobody else could see but Rhen being so science focus and the competition being for the best science school.

I would love to see book two for this book because while the ending is good and wraps everything up nice enough, I would be really interested in a sequel about the adversity Rren faces at the male school and how she balances that with her relationship with Lute and her family. It doesn't look like a second book is in the cards and no fanfiction so that's sad that there isn't more content for these characters.