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Crewel by Gennifer Albin

By 8:11 pm

Goodreads Description -

Incapable. Awkward. Artless. 
Crewel (Crewel World, #1)

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 ...

Review - No Spoilers 
If I had to describe this book in a couple of words it would be weird, intriguing and new. When I say new I'm referring to the concept because it's definitely not a subject that has been done before. Of course it had common themes that you see in many dystopians, the 'Controlling Government' that we see in many books nowadays but it still was original.

Still, even after I have finished it, I can't quite fully understand what Spinsters do. For those who skipped the summary, (probably every one of you) in this novel, some women have the ability to weave the fabric of the world. I found it quite hard to get into the feel of this new world the author had created because it was very confusing yet I couldn't stop turning the pages. I think it was the confusingess (I know it's not word but it is now!) that made me intrigued and want to find out more. This is one of those difficult books where you can't decide whether you liked it or not even after finishing it.

The main character Adelice annoyed me greatly. She sometimes has no filter on her mouth and she sometimes tend to just say things without thinking but I think the author wanted to create the character like that. But I can also view her as a strong heroine because a lot of traumatic things happened to her in a short space of time. She had some nice witty comments and I loved her sarcasm.There was romance in this book but I just felt like it came out of no where and there was no chemistry between the love interest. There was no build up of emotions and there was also a little love triangle forming that I thought was completely unnecessary.
My conflicting emotions:


I felt like throughout the whole novel there was just this build up of tension and I was more than half way through the book and still nothing exciting had happened which annoyed me. It felt like there was all this built up of tension and suspense all for nothing and right at the moment where I thought something big happened nothing really happened. I could just see the book ending in a completely different way that would have still made it to continue on. It was a bit of a disappointment but I think my curiosity to see how it all ends will get the better of me so may continue on with the series.



Overall this was an interesting read. The concept was really unusual and I don't know whether I could call it science fiction or dystopian, it was a bit of  both. It's definitely not a book for everyone but I do recommend it to you so next time you see it in your library you should give it a go.

I give it a rating of


3 comments

  1. This book does sound quite unique... that's what drew me to it the first time I read the synopsis! Though quite a lot of people have said the concept of Spinsters is hard to get!

    I do like a book to always have something happening, so I might get a bit bored if I were to read this. If there's no depth to the romance then I probably wouldn't be all that fond of that too.

    But I will pick this up if I see it in a library! xD

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  2. Yes I will admit, I skipped the synopsis. This sounds interesting but also confuzzling. Not sure if this is my read but i'm intrigued. Like the use of gifs, this review made me laugh.

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  3. I bought Crewel because it was on sale and I've heard good things, but I appreciate your honest review on this one. The build up of tension is something that would definitely bother me, especially when it wouldn't seem to be going anywhere. Lovely review Francoise!

    Jeann @ Happy Indulgence

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