To Best The Boys is a standalone novel by Mary Weber. It is about a girl wanting to pursue an academic career where it traditionally is reserved men. The old gender norms we know from our own world are dominating, and Rhen Tellur - the main character - doesn't fit in. She lives with the Lowers or the poorer people with her dad, an eccentric alchemist, and her mother, who are infected with lung sickness. Due to her mother's heritage, she can mingle with the Uppers and her best friend and cousin, Seleni. She's even about to be courted by one of her childhood friends, Vincent.
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When
unfortune and the inequality hits Rhen too hard, she dresses up as a
boy and joins the annual autumnal maze competition for a chance of a
scholarship. After all, she's just as educated in maths and science than
most upper boys she knows. And she has a goal: to prove that she can,
(and be one of the first girls to go to university so she can get the
equipment to make a cure for her mother in time.)
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While
Rhen is the character that mostly fits the «radical» ideas of equality -
that women can be just as good as boys in everything and deserves to be
given the same opportunities, - her best friend is the courageous
character representing the right to keep the traditional gender-roles if
that is what you want. Besides the clear feminist themes of this book,
it also represents characters with downs syndrome, autism, and dyslexia
based on the author's own experience with her own family members and
friends with the diagnosis.
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The
book has a pretty clear structure and its flow is easy to follow. The
romance is a minimum, a few kisses here. Nothing explicit. It's 314
pages long which is a decent size for most readers. The only thing that
annoyed me a little was the number of pages it took until the maze
competition began, but it makes sense as everything fully wraps up in
the end.
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This book does have some Caraval
vibes, but if you pick it up and think it should be Caraval you will be
disappointed. The feminist vibes, strong and diverging female leads,
labyrinth competition and few fantasy elements (like sirens) harboring
the town are there, but the magic is much less prominent. However, if
you are looking for a book that is a lighter and shorter version of
Caraval, you may just find something you like in this book.
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If
you're not up for corpses at the moment, you should probably know that
the main character does have a fascination about it and does, in fact,
harvest intestines due to science reasons at the beginning of this book,
and talks about it at later points.
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Labyrinth Cakes
I
tried the Labyrinth Cakes with caramel recipe in the back and they were
really good. Very sweet due to the caramel, white chocolate, and flour
sugar but absolutely worth it!
I
think It's so fun to have interactive materials in the back of books. I
think it's a good opportunity to make people want to learn and try out
new stuff with relevance to something they like (like a book!)
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I found that To Best The Boys
was an easy, enjoyable and light read, something I've really enjoyed
lately. The themes are pretty clear and romance is only a subplot that
slides smoothly into the rest of the story. The book was only about 300
pages something that made me wish for more. Especially more of the
competition. I'd say this book has a demographic more at the younger YA
readers but also can be a swift, fun and enjoyable read for older ones
as well. I sure did!
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Rating: 4/5 stars.
Rating, Labyrinth Cakes: 4/5 stars.
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