Crewel (Crewel World) [Hardcover]

Gennifer Albin (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 16, 2012 | Series: Crewel World (Book 1)

Enter a tangled world of secrets and intrigue where a girl controls other’s destinies, but not her own

Sixteen-year-old Adelice Lewys has always been special. When her parents discover her gift—the ability to weave the very fabric of reality—they train her to hide it. For good reason, they don’t want her to become one of the elite, beautiful, and deadly women who determine what people eat, where they live, how many children they have, and even when they die.

But Adelice is forced to into this powerful group, and she must learn to navigate the dangerous politics at play. Caught in a web of lies and forbidden romance, she must unravel the sinister truth behind her own unspeakable power. Her world is hanging by a thread, and Adelice, alone, can decide to save it—or destroy it.

TESTING

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Crewel:

 

"The halls of Coventry are dark and twisted places readers will want to visit." —The New York Times Book Review

 

“Albin has created a unique world that is as fascinating as it is frightening. Absolutely thrilling!” —Josephine Angelini, bestselling author of Starcrossed

 

“I love how time in Crewel is a physical, shimmering line that can be touched and woven into a pocket of safety in a lethal world. Original, artistic, layered, and nimble, Albin’s novel is a compelling read.”  —Caragh O’Brien, author of the Birthmarked trilogy

 

"“Crewel is a book about romance, knowing who to trust, and destiny.” —Seventeen.com

 

“The next big YA thing-to-come.” —The Atlantic Wire

 

“An incredibly interesting mix.” —Hypable.com

 

“Unusual, brilliant.” —MTV’s The FabLife.com

 

“If you liked The Hunger Games, try Crewel.” —Redbook.com

 

“The next big dystopian blockbuster.” —Booklist

 

"Captivating and intense, the right balance of mystery, romance, and drama.” —Publishers Weekly

 

"Aspects of Crewel bring comparisons to The Hunger Games." -- VOYA

About the Author

Gennifer Albin  holds a master’s degree in English literature from the University of Missouri and founded the tremendously popular blog theconnectedmom.com. She lives in Lenexa, Kansas, with her husband and two children. Learn more about her at genniferalbin.com.

 

Q&A with Gennifer:
Would you describe the world of Arras?
Arras is a world of cocktails, beautiful women who hide deadly secrets behind their made-up faces and silk stockings, and men who fear women so much that women have been forced into powerless roles. No one is quite who they seem and in the middle of it all, sixteen-year-old Adelice has to navigate a tangled web of lies and conspiracy to unravel the truth about her world and her identity.

 

What inspired you to create such a world?
I wanted to create a world that wasn't anything you might expect from a story about girls weaving the fabric of life. Weaving, sewing, and other needlecraft have always been considered womanly arts, so I chose to build Arras into a glamorous, but very Mad-Menesque world. There I can explore how girls feel about traditional jobs and responsibilities as well as the temptation of luxury and fame. And let's face it, writing characters in fedoras and pin curls is fun.

 

Are you like any of the characters in the book?
Eventually a high school teacher of mine is going to expose that Adelice gets her penchant for challenging authority from me. I've always been a big fan of the comeback, but as I get older I'm learning to bite my tongue. I think Jost would be proud.

 

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Age Range: 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR); 1 edition (October 16, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374316414
• ISBN-13: 978-0374316419
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (137 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #161,683 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Gennifer Albin is a recovering academic who realized she could write books of her own and discovered to her delight that people would read them. She lives in Kansas with her family and writes full-time. Her debut novel, Crewel, the first in a trilogy, will be published in October 2012 by FSG/Macmillan.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Incredibly Original Debut November 20, 2012

By Miss Bonnie

Format:Hardcover

'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.

18 of 22 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful! October 27, 2012

By D. Chapman

Format:Hardcover

Not only is the cover of Crewel beautiful and striking, but the story inside is as well. This is one of those wonderful YA books that as soon as your eyes hit the very first page you find it very difficult to put it down. In fact I didn't put it down and ended up falling asleep reading it and woke up to find my poor Kindle on the floor. Never fear, I keep a pillow on the floor beside my bed for times just like this.

Before I started reading I already knew what crewel is. Crewel is a form of embroidery, one I had tried when I was younger. It is not my favorite kind of needlework but it is never less a lovely one when completed. As far as I know and understand, crewel is not used when you are weaving on a loom. So I found it very interesting that while the name was used, the technique really wasn't.

From an early age Adelice's parents realized that she was special. That she has a gift for weaving. While many would have loved their daughters to have such a gift, Adelice's parents taught her to hide hers. During her testing she makes a mistake and reveals that she has the gift. That night they come for her and her parents try to get her away. Unfortunately they take her and kill her father. Now Adelice must try to figure out who to trust and do her best to stay alive in her new privileged and yet dangerous world.

Crewel is the first novel in a YA Dystopia/Matrix like series. While the story is fresh and creative there was one thing I didn't like, the proverbial love triangle. Crewel also left me with a lot of unanswered questions and a desire to read more in this wonderful series.

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars dystopian goulash November 8, 2012

By Madame X TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

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.