Crewel by Gennifer Albin

I think our school librarian must see me coming and groan a little. On the inside, anyway. Lately, I've been combing through the school's collection to get a good feel of what we have and what gaps we should fill. The big gaps I've been attacking just lately are when I find that we have a first book in the series but are then missing the rest of the series. I've spotted several in the last few months.

Crewel is one of those books. It's the first in a series and I suspect that Susan either bought it when it first came out or it was a donation. I don't know if any of the kids have read it, but it's in the same dystopian vein as the Matched Series or even the Divergent Series. Maybe with a little Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale thrown into the mix.

Adelice lives in a rigid world controlled by the Guild of 12 and the Spinsters. Spinsters are young women with the talent to see the pattern of the world woven together like threads. More than just see it, given the right tools that can manipulate it. People can be added and removed, weather created, and materials moved from one place to another with little trouble. A young woman with the talent has no choice but to become a Spinster. Most young women dream of this. Spinsters are pampered and given the best of everything. They are also not allowed to marry or have children...which is a nice play on words really.

For Adelice though, she's not just talented, she can see the weave of the world without the specialized equipment and her parents question many of the government's rules. So when Adelice's gift is discovered, they try to hide her. It doesn't work of course and it sets her apart in a world that she is simply ill equipped to navigate.

Definitely aimed at the high school set and at a female audience. It's a decent pick for those who got into Divergent and Hunger Games.