Info:Author: Gennifer Albin
Series: Crewel World #1
Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Publication Date: October 16, 2012
Source: I received a complimentary eARC in exchange for a honest review.
Synopsis:
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 to work the looms is everything a girl could want. It means privilege, eternal beauty, and being something other than a secretary. It also means the power to manipulate the very fabric of reality. 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 used her hidden talent for a moment. 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 jokes. One hour to pretend everything’s okay. And one hour to escape.
Because tonight, they’ll come for her.
Review:
Crewel was a fun, original dystopian with a snarky heroine and villains you love to hate. Like most dystopians, Adelice's entire existence is tightly controlled by an extremely involved government, in this case, The Guild. Boys and girls grow up in segregated neighbourhoods, jobs are government assigned, marriages are arranged and every year the government takes a select few girls away to the glamorous world of the Spinsters. But, like most dystopians, things aren't always what they seem when you go down the rabbit hole.
Adelice was a likable heroine. She was rebellious, relatively smart, mouthy and fiercely protective of her little sister. My only complaint is that I felt like Adelice's character was a bit inconsistent in the first half of the book. Sometimes she was snarky and other times she was much more meek. However, in the second half she was much more consistently snarky.
I will admit there's a bit of a love triangle in this one, but not too much. Things seemed to have mostly resolved themselves by the end, so I don't foresee too much of that in future books (but who knows). Both boys were fairly charming and likable, although one seemed much more sincere.
The world building was pretty interesting. Spinsters and weaving felt very original to me, which served to set it apart from other dystopian stories. Thankfully, we do get some answers, which is nice for a first book in a series. Of course, there are tons more questions left unanswered, especially after the events of the last chapter. The believability of the world is pretty iffie, but I fairly easily got past that and enjoyed the world.
I also enjoyed the villains. Of course, the big bad government is easy to hate, but we also got a few faces to direct our anger towards. Cormac made me feel icky just reading about him. He's so creepy and sleazy and gross. Then there was Maela. She so ambitious that it has turned her very cruel and the worst part is I feel like it's all for nothing.
Overall, Crewel was very original and I really enjoyed it and can't wait to read the next book in the series!
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