To Best the Boys
By Mary Weber
Blurb:
Every year for the past fifty-four years, the residents of Pinsbury Port receive a mysterious letter inviting all eligible-aged boys to compete for an esteemed scholarship to the all-male Stemwick University. Every year, the poorer residents look to see that 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 are trained in wifely duties and men are encouraged into 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’s ready for a girl who doesn’t know her place. And not everyone survives the maze.
I received this book in March's FairyLoot box, I wouldn't have personally chosen this book for myself but since I got it in the box I read it. The synopsis of the book seemed quite interesting and different so I went in with an open mind.
The principle of this book is that women should just stay at home and look after the house and that they shouldn't have an education, but this one girl (Rhen the main character) wants to go to the university so she can have all the equipment to allow her to complete her research on finding a cure for the disease that is spreading through the village.
The first scene within this book is where she is showing one of her friends how to dissect a dead body so that he can pass this trial/game. This scene is actually quite funny and it did actually entice me into reading this book. There was also that slight hint of romance there which was quite cheesy but also cute at the same time.
After the first 2 chapters we have near enough met every character that is within the book, which is quite surprising and it would have been quite nice to have less mentioned at the start and meet them along the way. These characters don't actually develop much throughout the book which is quite disappointing, the relationships between characters also doesn't really develop much. Which is why this book lost a star.
The other reason why this book lost a star was because I felt story didn't develop much for the actual size of the book, but I'm so pleased that it is just a stand alone book because I really would not have read the second book. I felt that this story was also quite slow paced but the writing style of the book was fast paced, if that makes sense.
There is also a concept of hierarchy status within this book and how the higher status gets more than the poor. There is also a case of fighting for what you want, I thought this was a decent concept as it is happening in the real world. With Rhen and Seleni being cousins their family situation is quite complicated especially when Rhen's mother and father married as this is what separated them from Seleni's side of the family. But it is quite nice that these two cousins are quite close and support each other in their life decisions.
I can't really think of much else to say about this book because like I said, I felt nothing much really happened throughout. The trial within the book had different tasks but they were nothing too extraordinary so it was quite disappointing, the only interesting thing was the mystery of who Mr Holm was which we do discover in the book, but it still wasn't really interesting to me but that's my opinion. Other people may have enjoyed this book a lot more than me but I think this was the book that caused me to go into my reading slump sadly.
I'd only recommend this book if you are a fan of slow stories, and not much action happening within the book. To be honest the style of writing and story really reminds me of Melinda Sailsbury. So if you are a fan of hers then I'd read this book. The actual concept and history of this book is quite interesting but that is all that I actually liked.
Favourite Character: Seleni
Read: 31/03/19 - 01/04/19
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