Crewel (Crewel World, #1)

by Gennifer Albin

Enter the world of Crewel: a world of secrets and intrigue. Where a girl with talent will thrive...or be destroyed.

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 and matter, Adelice is 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, power and beauty, the ability to embroider the very fabric of life. It also means entering a world secrets and lethal intrigue. But unlike the others, Adelice isn't interested in controlling what people eat, where they live and how many children they have and will do anything to hide her talent from the Guild. But when she slips up during her final test, her gift is identified. Now she has one hour to eat her mum's overcooked dinner. One hour to listen to her sister's school gossip and laugh at her dad's stupid jokes. One hour to pretend everything is OK. And one hour to escape. Because once you become a Spinster, there's no turning back...

• ISBN10: 057128289X
• ISBN13: 9780571282890
• Publish Date: 18 October 2012 (first published 1 October 2012)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 19 December 2023
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Faber & Faber
• Edition: Main
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[ladygrey]

ETA REREAD:
So this book starts out slow with a lot of world building and internal monologue. But it gets better and the banter with all the guys makes up for the start. The politics, like a court with out the king and castle, are some of the best I’ve read—skillful in their subtly, satisfying in their revelation, not drawn out too thin or rushed past. They create an intricacy in the story that’s interesting and add dimension to the tertiary characters. I wish they did a bit more to propel the main character’s arc, but they inform her and are interesting so that’s enough.

I think I definitely enjoyed it more in the second read because I picked up a bit more, especially with Jost and Loricel (btw the names are kind of ridiculous).

********

I'm not entirely sure about putting this on my sci-fi shelf. Granted, the library had a sci-fi sticker on it and when you get into the mythology it is more technical than mythical. But I'm not sure using the word "science" and "cellular" really makes something a sci-fi story when the majority of the narrative is fantastic rather than technical. But who am I to judge?

This was an interesting expansion on the idea of the Fates into a world populated with Spinsters who weave the fabric of reality and rip it when necessary. Sometimes the description of the weave was a little abstract, but for the most part it's pretty comprehensible.

The characters were alright. Adelice was an effective enough character to carry us through the story. But I felt like there was an odd disconnect with each of the characters at different moments; where the story is telling me they look betrayed or there's hurt in their voice but it sort of comes out of no where. I was told what they were feeling or the tone in their voice without any motivation or understanding where that emotion came from or how it fits into the conversation at hand. It kept me from really embracing the characters because they weren't quite real.

Also, since I'm at it, some of the sentences were stubby and when you have two or three of those in a row the language feels blunt. But that's all the negative things I have to say. The world is pretty extensively developed and definitely unique and pretty but also tainted.

[a:Gennifer Albin|4906436|Gennifer Albin|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1324316045p2/4906436.jpg] creates a sharp male-dominated world and it's easy to see how awful and wrong it is. Women are kept in "their place" and not only have almost no rights but are forced to become an artificial version of what men would want them to be. But Albin doesn't amplify that view by portraying strong women that show how that world is more than unfair; it's tragic to diminish such interesting and dignified women.

I think the best things about this story were the premise of the world and her layered and complicated dynamic with Cormac, accented by both Jost and Erik. And despite my negative comments, those were enough to lift it from two stars to three so they worked pretty well.

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

DNF’d @ 78%

I usually wouldn’t do a proper review for a DNF – largely because I usually DNF at the beginning – but I was far enough in this one that I feel it deserves some words. I have LOTS of word for Crewel, and they are mostly unfriendly.

*deep breath*

Crewel is about a girl in a dystopian world that is strictly ruled like the 1950s and women are basically treated like brainless dolls, unless you’re a Spinster, which is basically a goddess because you have the ability to manipulate the world. Naturally, Adelice is a Spinster. Or, more specifically, she is a Creweler, which is the most powerful upcoming Spinster. As expected in Cookie Cutter YA Dystopia Fantasy, Adelice is not into doing that. She spends a lot of time flirting with two boys (*gasp!* love triangle) and being an emotionless robot.

Aaaughhh.

So this ended up on my TBR because of the concept of a woven world. I’ve come across this concept in Egyptian mythology, where Neith weaves the world in her loom. There are lot of world myths involving weaving and fate and creation, featuring great figures like Anansi, and Moirai of Greek myth. Cool stuff, guys. Great basis for a story.

Only, this wasn’t about that at all, not really. The glimpses we get of that are awesome, and the philosophy behind that aspect of world-building is wicked cool BUT unfortunately, we are saddled with Adelice and she ruins everything.

Some small things that made me hate Adelice:

When she learns that one of her crushes watched his wife and baby die, she responds with jealousy that he had a wife.
She quickly forgets her own personal tragedy, then remembers when it’s convenient to the story, then forgets again.
She’s a selfish brat who marches in like she’s important and behaves horribly and is hit with no real consequences.
She cuts her hands to shreds for 12 hours and almost doesn’t let medical help in (which she calls only after crying) because it’s her crush.
These are a few examples, but honestly – it’s Adelice as a whole. She’s flat, shallow, selfish, and self-important. I can’t be bothered to feel bad for her because she has the attention span of a butterfly and the emotional range of a teaspoon.

These things weren’t what made me DNF it, though. There were other decent characters, and the writing wasn’t the worst I’ve ever read.

What made me DNF it was the way Gennifer Albin chose to handle homosexuality in her world.

When a lesbian couple arises, the two characters who discover it are abashed that something like this could actually happen. One of the couple gets “remapped” so she will not be that way. In all the instances that this is explained, it really comes down to “I can’t explain why this is wrong, only that this is wrong, and sometimes they’ll turn a blind eye but really a relationship should be a man and a woman.”

Paraphrased, but strongly implied.

I tried to listen past it. I waited for some sort of explanation how things were going to be okay. But it came down to “they are broken and we fixed them” which infuriated me.

Nope. DNF. We’re done.

Nobody in that situation needed to be “fixed”.

[Joséphine]

It's been a while since I read this book. Actually, almost three months. Now that the year is coming to an end, I told myself I couldn't wait any longer. Otherwise I probably never would write this review. So, it's mostly based on my lingering feelings and impressions because I can't remember all the details. I've no intentions of rereading this book either to help me remember. I didn't love it enough. Altogether, it took me two months from the day I started reading till I finally managed to finish reading this, so that kinda is an indication in itself.

Crewel was a tough one for me to get into. I think I read the first couple of chapters three times before finally moving past them. I started reading, then it was due at the library. I borrowed it again, started, then put it down. Five days before it was due, I told myself I had to plough through. I'm glad I did. The world building was extremely original. It was different from the other Dystopians I've come across. Weaving time and matter, and being able to build people's reality is a blessing and every girl's dream. Unless that girl is Adelice. For her it was a curse and a nightmare. It meant being torn away from her own life and her own path to fulfil the requirements of a Creweler.

For the world building alone, I just had to finish reading the book. See, every life in their society was a thread on a loom that could be broken or relocated. This meant that a Creweler indeed had a lot of power and since Crewelers could only be female, more power to women! But that is also where my problem begun. On the surface, more power was given to women. Once you dig deeper, you realize that that was not the case. Men still were in power. The Guild these women stayed in? Yes, run by men who treated women as weak, even if they were Crewelers. Then there was this creep of a guy who would choose a Creweler to escort him to important events. Not out of respect, mind you. As an accessory. Even more disturbing was when he picked out Adelice. Their age gap constituted decades and yet he also made advances towards her. Eww! So yes, I had a huge issue with the appearance of women having power since men couldn't be Crewelers but in the end, women still were subverted because they had to yield to men. There was no mention about that being the problem. Nope. The problem lay with the pretty standard dichotomy between the government and the people. Go figure.

When it comes down to it, I think this is why I took so long to pen down my thoughts about Crewel. I didn't love it, even though the synopsis and the Goodreads ratings and reviews had me believe I would. I wasn't underwhelmed either such that I hated it. The setting and concept make Crewel and extremely worthwhile book. But the characters didn't draw me in as much. The love triangle was terrible; I didn't care for it. I thought the writing was a little cumbersome to read at some points (especially in the beginning) but maybe I was in a semi-reading slump, so I couldn't muster much excitement. Most annoying though were the overtones of sexism that were apparent in this book. I know I will still read Altered (Crewel World #2) eventually, if only for the world building alone but I'm not sure if that will sustain me till the third book.

This review is also available at dudettereads.com.

[Angie]

I received an ARC from NetGalley.

Crewel is a highly unique addition to the YA Sci-Fi genre. It's some strange combination of Utopia and Dystopia. I know that sounds weird, but it's true. On the surface Arras looks like a nice place to live. There's no crime, just peace, but this is actually accomplished through weaving time and matter, done by Spinsters. Adelice is 16 years old and has just been recruited as a Spinster despite her's and her family's attempts at hiding her gift. She doesn't want to be responsible for every single aspect of people's lives, including removing those who deviate from the tapestry of life.

One thing that really bothered me about Crewel was all of the talk about gowns and cosmetics. The Spinsters live a very glamorous lifestyle, but why? Their clothes and makeup didn't add anything to the story except a bunch of empty words. I much rather would have been reading more about their job and the compound. They can manipulate space and time, so who cares what they're wearing?! Even Adelice doesn't care very much about the glitz and glamor, so why does the author spend so much time talking about it? It just became irritating about a third of the way in.

The world, Arras, was what I really wanted to learn more about. It's an extremely fascinating concept to have a world where everything can be altered at a simple touch. But it's not very clear how it all works, and even the character don't know. There's plenty of "we're still working things out," and "it wasn't explained" or "that has now been forgotten" and other phrases to kind of push the world building aside. I want to know how this all works! If the Spinsters must weave everything pertaining to life, who weaves the Spinsters? Why the looms? Why do some girls have the gift and others don't? If women ultimately have all of the control, why are they run by men?! Some answers start popping up in the last third, but they also sparked more questions about this complex and compelling world!

As for the plot...I was less interested, but there wasn't much of a plot to start out with anyway. The first two thirds are essentially just Adelice being "tested" by a jealous head Spinster and basically being told to "shut up and look pretty" by everyone who knows about her special talent. Of course, there's also the love triangle, but we never really get any real scenes of the boys and Adelice doing anything lovey related until a random kiss with one of them. It's more implied though, since she's never been around boys before and now all of a sudden there's two set to guard her and cater to her.

We also don't even get to know Erik that well at all, so it's almost like he doesn't exist until he's needed as eye-candy. I did like Jost though, but he was also the more fleshed out of the two love interests. This isn't really surprising though, since our heroine is a pretty bland character, too. In short, the world and the concept completely out shine the characters and the plot, and ultimately, it's what kept me interested, if not invested.

By the end I was getting a headache trying to figure everything out, and things started getting very weird and slightly creepy. There's some explanations about the history of Arras, but it's still confusing as heck. Plus there's all kinds of random things that start popping up seemingly out of nowhere. Overall, Crewel is an interesting read even if the plot, characters, and romance are lackluster. Will I read the next book? Most definitely! Would I recommend this one? Yes, if you're looking for something really out there and can overlook my complaints.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[Kelly]

3.5 Stars.
It took quite a while to grasp the concept of the world created in 'Crewel'. I wish there had been more explaination before launching into the story. It left me a tad confused and I wasn't able to take a liking to any of the characters. Original and well written though, so interested to read the second installment.

[inlibrisveritas]

Crewel really shocked me and rose above my expectations. The world that Albin creates is beautifully constructed and far more complex than I expected it to be.

When I first started Crewel I kind of wrote it off as a typical dystopian society in the distant future, it has all of the necessary components. The girl who doesn’t fall in line, a government that works so hard to seem perfect but hides a rather sinister idea, and a world that needs saving. It follows the guidelines to a ‘t’ but the thing that sets this apart from all of those other dystopians is the precise and fantastic detail that Albin puts into the world. The slightly supernatural element to this story really sets it apart as well and the concept of the weaving was just kind of mind blowing. It sounds so pretty and so unearthly, but at the same time I got a sort of weird technology feel from it. I think the fact that ‘weaving’ things into and out of time came off as a kind of scary and unnatural to me so while the details described something that seemed beautifully organic the more I read the more it became a sort of world computer in my mind. The thought that the world can be changed by someone who simple removes a thread of the world is just a fantastic concept. However the downfall to having so much detail and such a complex idea is that it does get a tad confusing at times and there are sections that require time to process. I think that for that reason I might end up re-reading it just to make sure I got all of it, though I should say that I wouldn’t be opposed to reading it again.

Adelice is a great lead. She’s not a super strong character but she’s far from being a push over, and I think the biggest thing for me is that she didn’t turn into a super solder when she needed to toughen up. Ad is bit naive at first and kind of goes through the motions but as soon as the going gets a bit rocky something awakens in her and she starts thinking. She’s capable of thinking and planning things out, and she doesn’t just rush into things without having some idea as to what to do. My favorite thing about her is her wit and sharp tongue; she may not be able to strike back physically but she does a great job getting to people with a few words.

Now there is a bit of a love triangle…which does bring it down for me because I kind of hate them, however it’s more of a Isosceles triangle where two of the sides are of equal size and the third side is short. Ad kind of makes it clear who she is more interested in and there isn’t much room for debate on who she cares more for. That alone redeems the love triangle for me. I do enjoy her interaction with both guys and I ended up becoming kind of invested in her relationship with them both. The romance is sweet and there is a lot of past emotion that goes into it, so it comes off a little more real than expected.

I personally can’t wait for the second book, expectantly with the way this one ended. There is just so much I cant’ wait to see explained and I’m really dying to see what all Ad encounters on her journey to save her world.

[Ashley]

booknook — Young Adult book reviews

I don't know how to review this book. I can't do it. I just can't. And now this is awkward because you guys are here to read a review. Okay, I'll try my best, because I love you all.

If I had to describe Crewel, I'd say it was The Subtle Knife meets The Matrix.

Wha—what? What? What? WHAAAAAAATTT???

I know. I know. Mind == blown. I'll give you a moment to piece together the fragments of your brain.

..

..

Good to go? Okay. Moving on.

This book is just so indescribable. As soon as I read the blurb months and months ago, I knew this book was unique. Weave time with matter? What does that even mean? HELP ME UNDERSTAND!! Have you read a book like that? I hadn't. This is just so insane. And as it turns out, Crewel is totally and completely insane... and captivating, and mesmerizing. Reading Crewel made me want to gather up all my mom's yarn and try to figure this shit out. I also wanted to take a photo of myself completely wrapped up in yarn, but that's not the point.

There are so many parts of this book that I still feel like I don't understand, just because it's all so intricate and mind blowing. It's hard to visualize something like this — something you can't even imagine seeing or existing. You really have to pay attention while reading this book, or the whole idea of it will easily overwhelm you. There is so much to take in and you really have to open yourself up to the possibilities.

I thought that Adelice was a perfect protagonist. She wasn't perfect, but she had an amazing blend of innocence, naivety, strength, and determination. And the character development was phenomenal and seamless. At the beginning, she's scared. She's been brought up to hide her talent but suddenly it's out there in the open. She doesn't know how to tell her parents she's failed, she's not ready to face reality, and she's terrified of what's coming. But despite her fears, she doesn't just succumb to the Guild's temptations — the luxury and status they throw at her. Over time, she gains the confidence and strength of an admirable heroine.

Despite the mind blowing awesomeness that is Crewel, I did have a few problems with it. Things did feel a tad slow in the middle of the story. There were still important parts in the middle, but there wasn't much action and it didn't feel like the story was progressing very quickly. There was a lot of Adelice sitting around the compound, trying to come up with a plan, attending balls and banquets and press events, etc. I also wasn't totally sold on the romance. I mean it was okay, but I was kind of confused by it. There is a love triangle, but it was a bit awkward and I think the resolution was a little rushed.

Unfortunately, my biggest surprise while reading Crewel is spoilery, so I'll have to be vague. There was a lot more "reality" in Crewel than I originally expected. I mean, of course it's a fantasy story, but there were some elements from the "real world" that I wasn't expecting and ABSOLUTELY LOVED!! That's really what made the story for me. The ending shocked me. If there is one first-in-the-series book in the world that's incredibly and perfectly prepped for Book #2, it's this one.

Bottom line: Crewel will blow your mind. Pay attention, open your mind to the possibilities, and you will love this book. Unfortunately I didn't scream and giggle and laugh out loud like I do with a lot of 4 or 5 star books, but Crewel has a different kind of excellence about it. It's more of an intricately woven story that will make you go "WTF O_O" than it is a story that will make you scream in delight. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's just different. And Crewel is nothing if not different.