Crewel by Genifer Albin Review

Crewel by Gennifer Albin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars Low 4 stars but not 3.

Goodreads: Incapable. Awkward. Artless.

That’s what the other girls whisper behind her back. But sixteen year-old Adelice Lewys has a secret: she wants to fail.

Gifted with the ability to weave time with matter, she’s exactly what the Guild is looking for, and in the world of Arras, being chosen as a Spinster is everything a girl could want. It means privilege, eternal beauty, and being something other than a secretary. It also means the power to embroider the very fabric of life. But if controlling what people eat, where they live and how many children they have is the price of having it all, Adelice isn’t interested.

Not that her feelings matter, because she slipped and wove a moment at testing, and they’re coming for her—tonight.

Now she has one hour to eat her mom’s overcooked pot roast. One hour to listen to her sister’s academy gossip and laugh at her Dad’s stupid jokes. One hour to pretend everything’s okay. And one hour to escape.

Because once you become a Spinster, there’s no turning back.

My thoughts: This is a new flavor of dystopian. The setting is an alternate reality built from the raw materials of earth, mined from the defunct planet and sitting over it, woven by the Creweler and Spinsters. Naturally, there is a control freak maniac who sees himself as different from the earthly leaders in days of yore. Shocker alert: There is a love triangle with both boys not completely trustworthy. Also included are social climbing women.

My problem with the books was the lack of clear segue between one person's comments and the protagonist's conclusions. Her name is Adalice, by the way. She's smart mouthed and quite spunky yet surprisingly pliable for having so much spunk. There are also a couple of holes in the story like why the life of certain people are taken and others are secretly not and I failed to follow a clear line of reasoning even in a single scene. That bothered me because I consider myself snarky and sarcastic.

On the other hand, the idea is original. The world constructed can be manipulated by certain women who can see the weave on a loom (or around them but that's a secret). Each thread or weave represents a life, a family, a community. I had a hard time visualizing it but trusted the gifted ones in the book were able to see it and manipulate it. That said, it seemed that the vindictive did not have to follow the same rules as the other Spinsters.

The ending was satisfying yet left a brand new adventure to be explored. I liked it. I didn't love it. I will read book 2 if it falls into my hands but won't wait for it with bated breath. Although, to be fair, I read much of it on a Kindle which lacked proper format. Perhaps the connections would have been more clear on my print version.


*I received a free copy of this book from publishing company in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.