Crewel (Crewel World, #1)

by Gennifer Albin

[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”.