Altered

by Gennifer Albin
3.5/5 stars
Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2013
387 pages
YA Dystopia

Source: Won from Heather at The Flyleaf Review

Yay-how fortunate am I to win a copy of this (and first book with the redesigned cover so at least I have matching copies). I was absolutely astonished at how Crewel ended, leaving me with the best cliffhanger I've read in recent memory.

My memory of the first book's ending meant that I expected we'd pick up right where Crewel concluded. However lacking the time to reread, I'm not quite sure if that happened. What I do know is that this book takes place in a brand new setting (leaving Arras behind) with a lot of new characters excepting our heroine and her two traveling comrades.  Because of this change, there is a lot of new information thrown at Adelice and the reader in regards to the creation of Arras and how it operates as well as the actual strands that can be weaved. I feel like almost everything that was shared was completely brand-new to add on to what we already knew from book one so there was no repetition but rather always moving forward. Consequently this book had a very different vibe from other second books because so much new information was shared but it also means that fans of book one might be disappointed. The overall vibe is less fantasy and more post-apocalyptic. Personally I was not always on board with the plot but...

What really surprised me about this book was my changing perspective on the romantic love triangle between Adelice and brothers Erik and Jost. I normally hate brother love triangles though I can tolerate the ordinary kind. Overwhelmingly my initial impression was that both boys were dull and Adelice needed to find some new companions. However my feelings rapidly shifted in this book and all of a sudden, I am Team ERIK :) Did anyone else come to share my appreciation whether or not you began the book that way?

Returning to the plot, though this book's cliffhanger is not as killer as its predecessor, the stakes are certainly raised and I am anxious about what will happen. Particularly the difficulties of communicating between Arras and Earth have me concerned about what will occur for Adelice especially as time continues to pass.

Cover: Groan-I am so unenthusiastic about this change. Crewel had one of my favorite covers (to my surprise as you know I'm a sucker for a girl in a pretty dress) and I find this so much blander. I think I would have liked this design more if I hadn't had the chance to fall for the original.

Other Opinions:
Great Imaginations
I Swim for Oceans
Princess Bookie
The Best Books Ever
The Flyleaf Review

Crewel

Crewel by Gennifer Albin
4/5 stars
Farrar Straus Giroux, 2012
357 pages
YA Fantasy Science-Fiction Dystopia

Source: Received an e-ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I found Crewel to be a refreshing breath of air amid a lot of books that left me disappointed. I was first attracted to the cover as well as wondering about the title-what does crewel mean? Turns out it is an embroidery term and I am interested to learn more about the practical side of that as my crafty self is flaring. I thought it was a very solid book with a lot of potential to be unraveled in the rest of the series.

I felt like this book drew from science-fiction, dystopia, and fantasy for an overall magical story. Although vastly different, I was especially reminded of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale with severely circumscribed roles and rights for women and jealous protection of those few areas where they do reign. Most frightening of those aspects is the government which uses the weaving abilities of its citizens to "rip" dissidents out of existence if complete brain remapping proves insufficient to tame them. Even as humans prove resilient, those in power want to crush them. This is one evil government with some surprising origins. One genre I had hoped to see more of was fairy tale due to the presence of the spinning-that makes me think of "Sleeping Beauty" and "The Three Spinning Fairies" but oh well.

Three last things I liked would be the sister-sister relationship, the character Cormac, and the ending. Adelice loves her younger sister and that is unfortunate for her because it makes the sister a tool the government can use to force Adelice to use her power for their own ends. As long as Adelice cares and cannot protect the sister, it puts them in an awful situation. I've mentioned before that I have a younger sister and reading about protective older sisters is a good way for me to bond with a character. Second is that I loved villainous power-hungry government official Cormac; I don't have much to say about him beyond that but I thought he was just great for his purpose. I also have a few (non-spoilery) things to say about the ending: Well then...WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT?

But (you knew there had to be something I really didn't like) there were these two competing love interests. Now I think one definitely has Adelice's heart but there's a lot of tension between the three of them. I am not going to ding this book for the two guys but I will ding it for not getting me interested in either guy. By which I mean, they did not bring the swoon.

Overall: Although this was less fairy-tale than I had expected, it ended up being a really enjoyable read with a good MC and a great set-up for the second book.

Cover: I would say this is pretty much what first drew me to the book-I love the swirl of colors and am surprised to like a cover that doesn't feature a pretty dress!