published by: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
publish date: October 16, 2012
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 as a Spinster is everything a girl could want. It means privilege, eternal beauty, and being something other than a secretary. It also means the power to embroider the very fabric of life. 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.
I liked this book overall, but I found some of the concepts to be a little difficult. Perhaps maybe a little beyond the comprehension of some young readers.
Adelice knows at an early age that she has the gift to see the weave that makes up Arras. She can manipulate it and change it in ways that no one else can. Her parents know that she will be picked to be a Spinster unless they can teach her how to hide her skill. Her skills are too strong to hide and she gets picked anyway and taken away to become a Spinster. The Spinsters are responsible for taking the raw materials that make up Arras and weaving them into everything that comprises the world they live in from the ground they stand on to the food they eat to the children they bear.
The idea that there's an abstract idea of a weave of time and place and it can be manipulated by a group of specially trained women might be beyond the average young teenager. At times, it didn't make much sense to me. Why couldn't the citizens of Arras just get pregnant whenever they wanted? Why couldn't the plants just grow wild? Arras was build upon the ruins of Earth after something cataclysmic had happened and the ending hinted at things that might happen on those ruins.
Other than abstract issues, it has all the other typical YA dystopian markers. There's an evil government plot. There's the almost prerequisite love triangle. Also, her younger sister gets taken away and she's desperate to find her. All the big bases are covered for a successful YA. AND it's the start of a series. No info yet on the follow up book.
1 comment:
It took me a little while to get into this book but once I did, I didn't mind it.
A great review :) thank you for sharing.
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