Approx halfway “Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh…Zzzzzzz…(Only I wasn’t smiling)” Approx 50 pages in “Uh oh I have a feeling I’m gonna be in here a long time.” In fact I’m sure this story is inspired by the strings theory… So that’s what the description of this book reminded me of…

It discussed how future civilizations could escape to other universes or perhaps even CREATE their own universe/reality. Lots of theories were discussed, one of them was about the destruction of this universe (entropy) in the far future. Plus a few years back I remember watching a documentary about time travel and parallel universes. It’s a very clever idea to think of the world as one big tapestry. It definitely made me think about the makeup of the world around us. I found those ideas very clever and interesting. About three quarters of the way through there was a really good, shocking revelation about Arras and how it’d been woven… Spinsters are the only people that can alter the Weave, that’s why the Guild treasures them. Adelice is a spinster, a girl who has a gift to weave the threads that make up time and matter. Everything has a thread and the Guild can alter or get rid of threads therefor altering and controlling the world around them. In Adelice’s world, Arras, the Guild controls and monitors everything via the Weave (a tapestry of threads made of time and matter). The concept and storyline was very different indeed.

It took me ten days yes ten fucking days! I had to force myself to finish but I’ll start by describing the (few) things I liked. One hour to listen to her sister’s academy gossip and laugh at her dad’s jokes. Now she has one hour to eat her mom’s overcooked pot roast. Not that her feelings matter, because she slipped and used her hidden talent for a moment. 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.

It also means the power to manipulate the very fabric of reality. It means privilege, eternal beauty, and being something other than a secretary. 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. But sixteen-year-old Adelice Lewys has a secret: She wants to fail. That’s what the other girls whisper behind her back.

Gennifer albin