Crewel (Crewel World #1) – Gennifer Albin

Crewel (Crewel World #1) – Gennifer AlbinTitle: Crewel (Crewel World #1) by Gennifer Albin
Publishing Info: October 16, 2012 by Macmillan
Genres: Dystopian, Science Fiction, Time Travel, Young Adult
Find it on the web: Buy from Amazon // GoodreadsDate Completed: September 13, 2012
Related Posts: Unraveled (Crewel World #3)

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 with matter, she’s exactly what the Guild is looking for, and in the world of Arras, being chosen to work the looms is everything a girl could want. It means privilege, eternal beauty, and being something other than a secretary. It also means the power to manipulate the very fabric of reality. But if controlling what people eat, where they live, and how many children they have is the price of having it all, Adelice isn’t interested.
    Not that her feelings matter, because she slipped and used her hidden talent for a moment. Now she has one hour to eat her mom’s overcooked pot roast. One hour to listen to her sister’s academy gossip and laugh at her dad’s jokes. One hour to pretend everything’s okay. And one hour to escape.
    Because tonight, they’ll come for her.

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Okay, first things first — I love the colors on this cover! The face on it kind of weirds me out, but without that cover design and the awesome flowing rainbow of colors, I don’t think I would have been able to picture the loom, the weaving, or the strands of time as well as I did.

Now for the review — How excited was I to read this? The answer is MEGA excited. I love dystopians, I absolutely love anything where the characters manipulate time or alternate universes, etc, AND it’s YA. Yeah, I was pumped.
In all honesty, the beginning moved a little slowly for me. Maybe it was my overexcitement – I’m not sure. But okay, we know Adelice is going to get taken from her family (it’s in the summary, after all) and it seemed like the whole set-up to the readers, describing the setting, Adelice’s family — it really just took too long for everything to get established and our real story to start taking off. I was 130 pages into the book before I really felt like we were going places.

Once we did start moving a little faster, I really got sucked into the plot. Adelice was finally taking shape in my mind and becoming a real character, she ran into conflicts with other characters and finally got over being overwhelmed by her surroundings and started to take charge. I was really most interested in anything that involved manipulating the time aspect more than the world of Arras. We know that the Spinsters can “rip” people from the fabric of life (effectively removing them from the world), they can control rations, create buildings, and in contrast, destroy these things as well. For more complicated things like nature, the Creweler is able to create lakes and landscapes and assist with people by using the raw materials as well as working more with the time aspect. THAT’S what I was really looking for! Once we finally got to the whole time part, I was sucked in. Actually building a world didn’t really interested me terribly.

I didn’t particularly care for the romance half of the book, but I didn’t really have that  much against it. It was kind of take-it-or-leave-it in my opinion. But I’m glad it wasn’t technically a love triangle (although there are two “interests”, Adelice really only has true feelings for one — see this awesome post on love triangles from The Housework Can Wait and you’ll see what I mean).

Overall, I really enjoyed it! I’m kind of disappointed that I was a little bit bored until a third of the way through the book so it kind of brought down my overall opinion. If it had taken off running, it would have easily gotten five stars!

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Adelice: Adelice is our MC and at first, I didn’t get much from her in the very beginning. It felt like there was a lot of set-up and not a lot of me getting to know her as a character and so she fell a little flat. Then all of a sudden, she was a total and complete sassy-pants to the authority figures and in a 180, her personality takes shape. I was a little confused in the sudden change, but at least we got somewhere and stuck with it! After that, I wouldn’t say we’d be BFFs, but I got to understand her a little bit more.
Jost: Hmm how do I feel about him? I liked the back-and-forth between him and Adelice, but in the very beginning, I was confused between him and Erik. Their sarcastic interactions with Adelice along with their physical descriptions were SO similar that I was getting them confused just a bit – although that is the point at one point in time – but still.
Cormac: I kind of liked him as the Guild official throughout the story. He seemed very consistent as the appointed villian, but in a way, I almost liked him. It was like he was supposed to be the bad guy but was almost nice in a certain way, and I think it made it that much better. It had me questioning if he really was supposed to be “bad” or if there was something good that would be revealed later.
Maela: Loved her as the lower-level villain (not as high up in the rankings).

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READ IT!

I really enjoyed CREWEL! I was hoping to fall in love just a BIT more but overall, it was a great way to kick-off the series and I am DEFINITELY interested to see where this trilogy goes!

book_recommendations1BOOKS LIKE CREWEL

These are some of the comparisions I made while reading this book (there were a lot):

The Beginning:

The Middle:

The End:

Hi, I'm Brittany!
Hi, I'm Brittany!

I'm an avid reader, candle-maker, and audiobook lover! Here you'll find book reviews, fun blog posts, and my other loves of photography & craft beer!

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12 thoughts on “Crewel (Crewel World #1) – Gennifer Albin

  1. Tammy

    I need to read this. I bought it on my kindle but haven’t started it. Now with the second book I figure I can read them back to back.

  2. KateB

    I never even noticed the face on the cover.. all I saw was the gorgeous colours but now it’s all I can see! I feel very non-observant.
    It sounds great. I really enjoyed reading the review.

  3. Lucy

    The cover is really pretty and the concept is so unique. I’m looking forward to reading this one, but thanks for the heads up that it’s slow in the beginning. I love all the read-alike books you mention so I’m optimistic.

  4. Quinn

    Holy cow, I didn’t realize there was a face on the cover until you pointed it out. I always just saw the swirly covers. Haha.

    Although I think this book sounds interesting, I know it isn’t for me.

    And, yay for boyfriend supporting your reading habits!!! 🙂

  5. Kelsey

    I’ve been wanting to try this book out, I really love the colors and design of the cover too 🙂 That sucks that the beginning is so slow, sometimes that doesn’t come across well for me in a book, but will see what I think of it when I get a chance to read it. Thanks!

    1. Brittany

      I hope you enjoy it! The beginning is all important info, but I felt like there was too much set up and not quite enough action during that time!

  6. Adina

    I never noticed the face on the cover until you pointed it out Brittany. Wow, how did I miss that. Nice review. I’m really looking forward to reading Crewel.

    1. Brittany

      Thanks! Hope you enjoy it 🙂
      I actually didn’t notice the face on it for the longest time! I almost wish I hadn’t. I think it would have been a bit better without it.
      Happy reading!

  7. Elizabeth

    Hmmm, if I could skip the first 100+ pages, then I might actually read this. Unfortunately, I have very little patience with slow beginnings in books.

    And the part where you say you ignored your boyfriend? This morning I was reading and my husband came in the room and I got to the end of a chapter and told him good morning. He told me I’d already said hi to me when he walked in the room. I guess I was so wrapped up in my book, I didn’t even realize he was there!

    1. Brittany

      Haha I hear ya! Me too. There have been SO many books I’ve read lately that start out slowly and end awesome, but I’m so tired of having to wait through all that to get to the good part.
      That’s so funny about your husband! I felt really bad with this one too because I thought I’d finish in line 15 min and I was finally done, looked at the clock and it was like 45 minutes later. Oops!!

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