Crewel (Crewel World) (edition 2012)

Signed ARC giveaway of Crewel on my blog!

'No one knows why some girls have the gift. There are theories, of course. That it's passed down genetically. Or that girls with an open mind can see the weave of life around them at all times. Even that it's a gift only given to the pure-hearted. But I know better. It's a curse.'

In this world, everything is comprised of threads which can be altered, manipulated, or completely removed. Behavior modification can be done for unruly children or if they're deemed a lost cause can be removed completely. If that is done then everything is reworked in order to change the complete structure of everyone's thoughts and memories so that the child that was removed is not even remembered, even by his own parents. Even the most base things that would normally be natural: food cultivation, upcoming thunderstorms, these are all managed by the Spinsters. Only managed though.

'Crewel work is an act of pure creation. Crewelers do more than weave the fabric of Arras. They can capture the materials to create the weave. Only they can see the weave of the raw materials. (...) The Spinsters wouldn't have any matter to weave if it weren't for her special gift.'

Because this world wouldn't exist without the Creweler.

'Day by day, I am remade, into someone else. I'm sixteen now, and I will be almost flawless forever. That thought helps me fall asleep at night, secure in my place here, but it also wakes me up trembling with nightmares.'

Their beauty routines and the description of how these women look reminded me of geisha's. The only difference with the women in Arras is the access to renewal patches which allow them to heal wounds rapidly but also help to preserve their youth. These patches worked so well that you're virtually unable to tell people's true age anymore. A very sci-fi and freaky touch.

Sure, there is a slight love-triangle in the book but I'm starting to realize that my main issue with them is that there is always the guy the protagonist should obviously be going for and one that she very clearly should not be (and he's usually a total prick). That wasn't the case with Crewel and it was a very plausible situation in which the love triangle derived from. I actually liked both guys, one more so than the other (Jost), but they were both still well likable and weren't total pricks. That calls for celebration I think.

I loved the twist that was thrown in at the end. Everything slowly begins to unravel (haha... pun intended) and Adelice finally realizes the enormity of the situation that she's been forced into. The twist succeeded in not only making the entire situation crazy and eye-popping but really added a layer of realism to this 'perfect world'.

While I had trouble grasping the concept (at first) I was still incredibly fascinated by the idea and everything ended up being explained sufficiently in my opinion. The attention to detail into every facet of this world was incredibly intricate and entirely original. I loved it. Crewel is a sci-fi world where everything can be altered with a 1984 type society where people are controlled to the nth degree. Highly recommended for dystopian fans. ( )

I originally reviewed this with Christina on The Book Hookup

**I was provided a copy of this title from the publishers via Net Galley. However, that did not influence the review in any way.

♥ The General Storyline/Plot:

So freaking cool! This is a dystopian story full of magic, so it seemed like anything was possible. The setting was a place called Arras, a society woven out of threads by Spinsters and Crewelers. The government controls every aspect of people’s lives, even the ones who are doing the weaving. This is the story of Adelice, who we find out straight away has natural “talent”, and her journey as she is taken from her family and forced to deal with her gift.

♥ The Characters:

I loved the heroine. She lived a boring life with her parents and sister, but when she was forced into the towers she really stepped up to task and became a kick ass heroine. I loved her. I loved her snark. I loved her heart.

The dudes:

Cormac: I LOVED him!!! That is all. Now, before you freak out about the age difference, he has not really aged because of magical age patches, so he was not that much older than Adelice. I actually think he is the one she could have chemistry with. He is confident and powerful. Oh, and a manwhore to boot. FTW.
Jost: Meh, no romantic feelings about him at all. He was like a brother.
Erik: I could see Adelice teaming up with him. While she was never sure of his intentions I was pretty sure he was always on her side.

♥ Gripes:

I needed more romance. There were just no sparks.

♥ Verdict:

Fantastic read. If you love being transported to a whole new world, this is the book for you. The second book has a different setting and I can’t wait to see what Ms. Albin has in store for us. ( )

See this review and more on The Moonlight Library!

When Adelice slips up at her compulsory testing and accidentally weaves time and space in front of the selectors, she is pulled from her home in the middle of the night to become a Spinster – a woman kept in a Coventry to weave the very fabric of space and time itself – trained to manipulate the weather, crops, buildings and people themselves. However, Adelice doesn’t come easily, and for that she is continually punished despite her inherently valuable ability to weave without a loom.

I didn’t enjoy Crewel very much. I desperately wanted to because the idea of Spinsters being the most valuable people in this misogynistic, male-centric world seemed very interesting. Crewel’s strength lies in its absolute originality – however, I had guessed the plot twist pretty early on. I found the writing very jagged and jerky, and could not follow character motivations or logic in either their conversations or their actions. I was consistently confused about the whole concept of weaving both on the loom and off it. The love triangle was also a giant waste of space. I would have preferred it if Adelice had feelings for only one of the boys, not both of them, and I didn’t like the plot twist involving them, either.

Adelice for the most part was a likeable enough heroine. She suffered from ‘speshul snowflake’ syndrome, because of course she is the most beautiful and desirable and valued person ever to enter Spinsterhood. I didn’t like how she kept pushing her luck and being punished and quite thoroughly helpless – I knew from the start – as did every character in the book bar herself – that she was going to end up the most powerful character, and she carried a lot of that with her, but her helplessness really annoyed me. She could have easily changed a lot of things, but let herself get pushed around too much for my liking. I understand that the world of Crewel treats women subserviently (luckily without ever preaching it) but I still found it frustrating and annoying. Give a character all the power in the world and she still metaphorically faints at the slightest pressure? It wasn’t what I enjoy reading. I wanted to read about Adelice’s strengths, not her constant need to be looked after.

In summary, I didn’t exactly hate Crewel, but I was thoroughly disappointed. I wanted more from Adelice, more from the plot. Although I guessed the plot twist and the ending, and it was a somewhat satisfying conclusion, I do not think I will be reading the other books in the series.

An advance reader copy was kindly provided by the publisher. ( )

Crewel had the potential to be THE dystopian fantasy of the year. I loved its premise – the idea of being able to weave matter into time was unique and completely fascinating. I loved the concept of Arras – where the world – both time and nature – were controlled by Spinsters and the endless possibilities of what their looms could do. I naturally had very high expectations with this book but somewhere this book failed to live up to it.

In all fairness, Crewel is not a bad book. I really liked Gennifer Albin’s brand of writing – the dialogues were not cheesy and Adelice’s sarcasm managed to crack me up almost always. But I felt the characters lacked enough characterization. If we take out the backdrop of the fantasy world, Crewel would read like every other YA book – a (whiny) female protagonist with powers nobody else has, villains zeroing in on her to exploit those powers, a tortured hero and of course, an awkward (and unnecessary) love triangle. Personally, I think the book would have fared better without a first person narrative – I wanted to know more about other characters, like Enora, Loriel, Valerie and Jost , rather than just Adelice.

As for the romance, I really liked that it was just a small (albeit important) part of a much bigger story. What I did not like was that the writer had to make it a love triangle. Honestly, the book would have read completely same even if we remove Erik – his character was as necessary as Rosalie’s M6 from Twilight (something pretty for everyone to fawn over). I totally adored Jost though (and no, that is not why I am being mean to Erik!) and he is easily my favorite character in the book so far.

Crewel is a really good beginning to a dystopian series but as a single book it ended up being just okay. I am really interested to see where Albin will take the story from here.

2.5/5 Stars

This ebook was provided to me by the publishers via NetGalley in exchange of an honest review.
( )

CREWEL is dystopian goulash. It hits many notes familiar to readers who've had years to learn the genre and the original elements -- the idea that their world Arras, and everything in it, only exists because it's spun to life by Spinsters -- are either sadly neglected or underdeveloped.

I was interested in CREWEL for the worldbuilding - I've always loved the idea of Penelope on her loom in the Odyssey, the Fates and their threads, and I hoped the author would have an interesting spin on a goldmine of influences - but also for the pun in the title. Crewel! It's a sewing thing but also a homonym for cruel - how perfect for a dystopian!

The worldbuilding fails because Albin can't describe it coherently. The Spinsters manipulate threads of reality on looms, but Albin describes the fabric of reality more like a touch-screen phone than a piece of cloth, with places called up on the looms with some fantasy equivalent of Google search and controls that zoom in and out. The Spinsters behave as though they can interact directly with reality through the looms, touching threads, cutting them with a pair of scissors, etc., though the looms might be showing them places that are remote, on the opposite side of the country.

I could go on and on. It's not just the looms that sound great but then fail to really make sense or come to life in your imagination. This whole dystopian world is just the same. It's meant to be a paradise where everybody is guaranteed life's basic necessities like food, housing, and employment. The pursuit of perfection has resulted in a well-known zero-tolerance policy for even slight misbehaviors - getting into a schoolyard fight as a child results in the fantasy equivalent of a lobotomy - except that the Powers That Be hide evidence of their cruelty so whenever something bad happens, they wipe the memories of any individuals who were aware of it.

Which makes me wonder...which is it? Is everyone living in terror or blissful ignorance? The book can't decide! It tries to have it both ways, with most people aware of the draconian rules but totally fine with them, but others even more aware and not fine with them (these "more aware" characters tend to be hot, male and also interested in having sex with the heroine).

Anyhow. Enough about the worldbuilding. The biggest problem with Crewel is actually the plot and characters.

Our heroine, Adelice, starts out as a naive victim. Her parents have trained her to hide her weaving ability and she's so good and obedient that she never asks why or thinks about their motivations. But she slips up in testing, her astonishing talents are noted, and she's taken by force to Coventry to become a Spinster.

Once she arrives in Coventry, we get a bait-and-switch. Obedient, saccharine sweet Adelice disappears and we met obnoxious Adelice instead. New Adelice assumes her total moral and intellectual superiority and antagonizes everyone she meets. On her first day of training, she insists she knows better than her (cartoonishly evil) instructor and refuses to follow instructions. She insults every powerful person she meets, makes enemies of every female in the building (while romancing all of the men - most of whom constantly plead with her to cause a little less trouble & then try to kiss her), and she gets away with it because...oh yeah, because she's not just a Spinster, she's a rare, once-a-generation Creweler, and the world needs her.

At some point in the latter half of the novel, after Adelice has involved herself in a string of stupid fights and dramas, after she's embarked on publicity tours and attended balls, we get a conversation that I've seen over and over in failing books. There's a crisis. Adelice needs to step up. But...wait for it...wait for it...she hasn't done any actual training yet.

If you want to know what this book is about, if you want to know what the author thinks is important, there's your answer. The thing that makes Adelice special is the thing that she ignores. Effort, discipline and growth take a backseat to the stupid love triangle and posturing with the stupid mustache-twirling villains.

Ugh.

I received a free copy of Crewel from Amazon Vine in exchange for my review ( )