Crewel by Gennifer AlbinPublished: 16th October 2012
By: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Source: Netgalley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
It's over one hundred years into the future and earth has been destroyed by war. Adelice now lives in a world where time is weaved with matter, by girls called Spinsters. When girls reach 16, they are tested to see if they can weave, and Adelice passes this test with flying colours. She knows the Guild are coming to take her away that night but she can't tell her parents because they've trained her for most of her life, to fail the test. When the knock comes to the door, they run. Adelice soon finds out that girls who run, wind up dead, so why is Adelice different, what is so important about her?
When I heard about this book, I thought it sounded fantastic, but I found it to be very bland. It didn't excite me at all. While Adelice appeared to have everything I like in a main character, tough, brave, caring and sarcastic at times, I just couldn't take to her. There is a slight love triangle but I couldn't become invested in either of the guys enough to care, and the romance didn't thrill me either.
What I'd say I enjoyed most in this book was probably the interactions with Cormac, the Ambassador of the Guild. Even though, he could take Adelice's life at any moment, I couldn't quite figure out his feelings towards her. While he was probably old enough to be her grandfather, I couldn't help but wonder if he had a romantic interest in her?
I wasn't impressed with the world building of Crewel either and found the descriptions of the manipulation of the weave hard to visualise. At one point, Adelice questions if it's all real, and these were exactly the thoughts I was having. Earth appears to be somewhere beneath the world they inhabit now, which is known as Arras. To be honest, I found it all a bit confusing.
My favourite part, and where I perked up a little bit would have been the ending, which will probably lead me to pick up the sequel. We'll see....
Buy the book: The Book Depository/Amazon
