**REVIEW** Crewel by Gennifer Albin

Enter a tangled world of secrets and intrigue where a girl is in charge of 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 a Spinster — 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.

Thrust into the opulent Western Coventry, Adelice will be tried, tested and tempted as she navigates the deadly politics at play behind its walls. Now 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.

Release Date: October 16th 2012

Published by: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

Review Copy:  Hardcover, 368 pages

*purchased

Trailer

Review

  Holy!  I just have to say did that seriously just happen?!  Admittedly I did have a problem with the first few chapters getting into the book but really it is setting up a solid background and I believe maybe just a little more than that.  Once I got through them I was completely pulled in by the strong characters and wondrous world that Albin created because they are truly worth every moment that I spent reading.  Actually it was worth more because once I got through the first few chapters I just could not put it down.

  Wonderful and unique, the world created within Crewel is like nothing I have ever picked up before and I can't imagine anything like it coming after.  A dystopian where the world we live in is monitored and regulated by the people that can end you faster than they can create you.  Time, people and everything else that exists is represented by its own shimmering and colourful lines that are woven together to create and taken away to destroy.  It's terrifying that the people of this world live with a false sense of security and don't really know how fine the lines that they walk and live are. Developed well and executed perfectly Albin has created a world I am hopelessly addicted to and yet have a healthy dose of fear of.

  Adelice was a wonderful and well fleshed out character.  She is a fierce and determined girl that will not be broken.  Not that there wasn't moments that I wouldn't have blamed her for giving in but instead she would become more defiant.  She started out showing what she believed was wrong openly but when it became destructive she started thinking a little differently.  By no means did this girl compromise who she really was or forget exactly where she came from and she wasn't willing to forget no matter what privileges were put in front of her.  Adelice also wasn't a character to recklessly endanger herself or others to gain what she wanted, this girl thought thing through. 

  The romance is something else to appreciate because really it didn't take away from the story itself but it was enough to have me wanting things to turn out okay.  I'm not sure if some would consider there to be a love triangle but seeing she only kissed Erik I don't consider it a triangle by any means. Jost was really the love interest and I understood why.  He understood Adelice, wanted her to continue as herself but to survive.  I loved him for so many reasons but the biggest one was how he treated Adelice but his good looks helped for sure.  If you want to count Erik then I am totally Team Jost.  Admittedly he is funny but it always seemed like he may have some other agenda.

  It's not hard to love this book.  Albin's writing is absolutely superb and the voice that she has given Adelice is spectacular.  Not to mention all of the amazing world building that I spoke of earlier.  This is a gem in the current sea of dystopian novels and it will hold its own with its unique story without a doubt.  The end completely blew my mind and I am left all but begging for more!  If you are one of the lucky ones with an ARC of Altered have I told you lately that I love you?!  Don't pass this one by especially if you happen to be a fan of the dystopian genre.

Quotes

I want to refuse the food and the fancy room with its luxurious furnishings.  I want to crawl into a hole and starve slowly, but if I do I won't be in a position to protect Aime or to find out where my mother is, so I turn away instead.

"Something like that."  Enora grins, and I feel trust growing roots in my belly.  Despite my best attempts to remain weary and detached, I like Enora.  Maybe this is how they'll break me- by giving me a friend.

Jost's lips crush into mine, and I reach out without thinking and pull him closer against me.  My hand tangles in his hair, and the web shimmers around us.  The rest of the world is perfectly still, but we are in motion, crumbling into one another.