To Best The Boys Book Review

Yes, yes. I know I’m way too late in reading this book. But better late than never, right? I’m here and I have thoughts. 

The Blurb: 

The task is simple: don a disguise. Survive the Labyrinth. Best the boys.

In a thrilling new fantasy from the bestselling author of the Storm Siren Trilogy, one girl makes a stand against society and enters a world made exclusively for 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.

Welcome to the Labyrinth.

Honestly, I think I’m going to give it five stars. I have no complaints. Zero. 

Right at first when I started reading, I wasn’t sure I was going to like it. I get really tired of the whole Girls Can Do Anything spiel. I’m sorry. I just do. BUT this book was good. It felt very balanced and non-preachy with the girl power, and I fell in love after the first chapter. 

The characters:

Rhen is an awesome protagonist. She’s quirky and fun, strong, caring, and awkward. She felt very real, honestly, and her desire to “best the boys” felt was very natural rather than a soap box. 

Selini may take first place for best friend character. Usually the rich proper friend is also an airhead and weakling, but not Selini. She’s with Rhen every step of the way, and I loved how she portrayed being strong and capable but still 100% feminine. I also loved that her highest aspiration was to be a wife and mom—and that she was happy with it. So often homemakers are looked down on in fiction, and as a wife and mom myself, that makes me really sad. 

And you can’t best the boys without boys, and man were the boys in this book awesome. The villains were completely vile, and I actually did not see the final reveal coming at all. That was quite the surprise, and made perfect sense. I LOVE Will and Sam and really enjoyed their friendship with Rhen. And Beryl is absolutely hilarious, I can’t even stand it. 

Obviously, Lute is a heartthrob—anatomically correct lips and all. I just wanted to hug him. His story made me so sad, but yet he’s so perfect, and he’s so manly, but then he can wax poetic too (who doesn’t like a boy who talks about the sea? I mean, come on). He was perfect. That is all. 

The world: 

The world is very cool. I loved how chill it was with the magic. Oh yeah, there’s sirens in the water. Ghouls will rip your chest open. No big deal. It doesn’t give any explanation, which was really cool, because why would a character bother to explain if all of that is normal in their world? I really liked it. It was nice to just be able to accept, yes there is magic and monsters, and you just have to deal with it and watch out at night, without getting bogged down in a full blown epic fantasy explanation. 

The whole concept of Mr. Holm and his labyrinth is stinking awesome, and the way the labyrinth is described is so cool. This is a very vivid book, and Rhen’s quirky voice is absolutely awesome in describing it. 

The plot: 

It’s awesome. I had heard a lot about how good this book was when it first came out, bought it right away, then didn’t read it. So all the details I had heard before kind of slipped away from me, and I came into reading it with absolutely zero expectations. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into, so every twist of the plot was a complete surprise and thrilling. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time (did I mention I read it in like, two days?) and couldn’t wait to see what happened next. 

It was really neat to have dyslexic and autistic characters in the story too. I feel like the author kind of took all the hot topic items of the day—diversity, representation, feminism, etc—and put it into a story that somehow magically doesn’t sound like a political rant. It’s fantastic. 

So, long story short, this book completely caught me by surprise in the best possible way, and if you haven’t read it you really should.