“You take this world and make it what it should be. And don’t let the beliefs of a backward system define you. You are the one who has to live with the future, baby girl. So you live it. You understand?”

This story takes place in a time where woman can only climb society by marrying themselves off to wealthy men. This place is simply divided into rich and poor. And if you’re not rich then you’re less. Imagine being a woman and poor.

Rhen Tellur wants to become a scientist but what she wants even more is to cure her mother. A deadly disease spreads over the poor residents of Pinsbury Port. Rhen and her father, who’s the town’s alchemist, gravely work to find a cure. And when Rhen’s mother gets sick she decides to take more action into her own hands. But who would listen to a strange, poor girl? Exactly, nobody. She will have to do it on her own.

Or so she thought…

With her cousin and best friend Seleni by her side, the girls disguise themselves as boy to enter the examination labyrinth. Competing in this contest grands you a scholarship to the all-male Stemwick University. If you survive and win that is.

Rhen is smart, probably more intelligent than any of the boys, but some can’t believe it and some don’t want to believe it. In the eyes of the men, women are expected to be pleasing for the eyes and perform wifely duties. One of many worst is Germaine. Not only is he sexist but downright disrespectful. When Rhen is being vocal about her rights and abilities, he sees her as something rare and wild that could and would be tamed. Not as something to be inspired by but as a challenge.
Even when Rhen proves her outstanding knowledge of maths, technology, sciences and engineering and shows her strengths, people still underestimate her and accuse her of being a fraud and a cheat.

The maze was epic! It gave me real Harry Potter and the Goblet of fire feels. Just longer and crueler. Throughout contestants getting poisoned, injured and killed, the voice of the maze, also known as Mr. Kellen. Accompanies them with grins and riddles. Riddles that have to be solved in limited time. It was such a thrilling experience for the reader as well to try and solve the riddles while threatening and horrible things happened the longer time passed. The amount of world building was just enough for me to see Rhen and the others fighting their way through the maze and not overdone in a way of me getting impatient with the speed of the storyline. I think it was perfectly done and I was flying through the pages.

Sam and Will are two friends of Seleni and I wish there was more of them in the story! They remind me a little bit of Fred and George…but just a tiny bit of crude humor. They were very likable but characters but I wish they were more fleshed out and had more sway in the storyline.

Vincent…hm..where to start? I don’t want to SPOIL THINGS for anyone but…I’d really like to choke him on bloodberries. BUT he’s clever, I’ll have to give him that. But also, he’s a pathetic little man.

Rhen is such a strong character. She never strays from the path that she wants to take and she doesn’t let anyone get in her way or hold her back. Her determination is so inspiring. And when people look down upon her, it only drives her to prove them even more wrong. She doesn’t let anyone speak for her because she can do it damn well for herself.

Lute is a decent character. Even though I like him with Rhen, he wasn’t a very fleshed out and memorable character and I didn’t really care for him.

Holm wasn’t very fleshed out but he wasn’t meant to be. Throughout the story he remains this mysterious ‘man’ with secrets and who does things that no one can explain. And it doesn’t get explained and I really loved that, it keeps you guessing.

Rhen’s parents encouraging her, to follow her dreams and not be afraid to show people who she is and what she’s capable of, is so admiring. I felt so much love for these 3 characters together!

I did not expect the plot at all and I thought it was very creative! Throughout the end there were things that surprised me and it made me love the story even more. The actual enemy in the story was something I did not see coming but thinking back it made so much sense. The author did such a good job in making you believe in one thing just to keep you distracted from the real threat.

It was adventurous, thrilling yet also had its funny moments mainly because of the friendship between Rhen and Seleni. It’s zo lovely to see such different characters work together. They know their differences and alikeness so well and I love how supportive they are and never let the other give up on what they want to achieve, even when it seems nuts.