Altered (Crewel World, #2)

by Gennifer Albin

Sixteen-year-old Adelice Lewys is called upon to harness her power in a battle for control of Earth, but as she uncovers the truth about her own history she learns that everyone holds secrets, some of which may drive her from her love, Jost, into his brother Erik's arms.

Sixteen-year-old Adelice Lewys is called upon to harness her power in a battle for control of Earth, but as she uncovers the truth about her own history, she learns that everyone holds secrets, some of which may drive her from Jost, her love. Book #2

• ISBN10: 0374316457
• ISBN13: 9780374316457
• Publish Date: 29 October 2013
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Byr)
• Format: eBook
• Language: English

Reviews

[ladygrey]

As far as second books go, this isn’t terrible. It isn’t great either.

The pacing really isn’t great. The beginning is mostly short scenes that feel like they end before actually going anywhere. And then there’s weird jumps in the chapters with no transition—like she’s in a garden..... for no reason at all with no one and not going anywhere or waiting on anyone. She’s just there because Albin needed this plot things to happen and had no idea how or what to get from here to there. So let’s just make it a new chapter with no explanation.

Also its missing everything that made the first one fun. There’s no banter with Cormac (or a reasonable facsimile with Kincaid). The first almost two thirds there’s no banter with either Erik or Jost. No relationship dynamic at all with either Erik or Jost or any character arcs. Its all world building and Adelice stumbling through scenes asking questions and learning new things.

Then when she actually starts talking to Erik it gets more interesting. Whatever love triangle Albin’s trying to build there’s always been more substance in Adelice’s interactions with Erik; more of a relaxed and easy dynamic; more fun. This book highlights how little she talks to Jost—there’s kissing and there’s sweeping overviews of “and then we talked about everything that happened the last four scenes” but so little really happens between them on the page, no matter how much Albin tried to tell us is happening in the story.

And so much of this book doesn’t make any sense. The conversations are... off... disjointed.... completely jumbled because the emotional motivation doesn’t make any sense. Like how is that a betrayal by the pool? A secret maybe but how does that secret betray you in any way? Especially when you already knew? And what did you think you were talking about that night? And even before that, why start something you’re going to avoid? It’s a complete mess for the longest time.

Also, they hint at what the Guild does with Tailors and it’s oh so awful. But if you don’t actually give us a hint of exactly what then it doesn’t seem all that bad at all. I liked the time displacement, though, and thought it served the story well. Not just with Dante but with the twist in the world.

Then it recovers. There’s actual conversations between the characters. And most of the emotional motivation makes sense. And the world building is woven with a bit of character dynamics and more interplay between them instead of all the internal monologue. So it ends stronger than it began. Which is better than the other way around and makes it more enticing to dive into the third book.

[lindsey]

Warning: This review will have spoilers.

I had a hard time deciding on a rating for this book. On the one hand, it's a very creative world and I loved reading about it in Crewel. On the other hand, the love triangle in Altered really annoyed me, to the point where I almost didn't care about any of the characters involved. In Crewel, I felt that Adelice had more chemistry with Erik, but then she fell for Jost, and I had no problems with that. However, after arriving on Earth, it was like she couldn't make up her mind. The love triangle became the focus of the book, and it was like the important plots, such as Adelice being the Creweler, were pushed to the side. I realize that love triangles are big sellers in books these days, but I just didn't like the way Adelice went from being completely heartbroken by Jost breaking up with her, to being in love with Erik within a day. It was a little far-fetched, and I think the book would have been better without all the drama.

That being said, the book wasn't all bad. I did enjoy the addition of the Tailors, as well as learning a little more about what the Spinsters do. While the book started off pretty slowly, it picked up the pace near the end. Unfortunately, it picked up a little too much, and the final scenes seemed too rushed. Despite not being impressed with Altered, I am looking forward to finding out what happens in the next book in the Crewel series.

[Angie]

Altered is definitely an interesting sequel. I'm not sure if I liked it more than the first book, but I think I may have. It's been awhile. It provided the extra world building that I craved, but I won't even pretend to understand everything. It kind of makes my brain hurt to think about weaves, strands, threads, matter, time, souls, whatever! It's fascinating, but it's a lot to take in. Anyway, Altered picks up immediately after Crewel, with Adelice, Jost, and Erik on Earth. They're brought into the only functioning city in the area known as the Icebox. It's always night time without the help of lighting, since Arras sits directly overhead. Now Adelice needs to figure out how to get back up there so she can set things right.

My favorite part of Altered was the romance, or the end of a romance, so I'll start with that. I was on team Jost, but now I have switched! Adelice and Jost do have some scenes together that started to get a bit steamy, but he puts the breaks on that, which I was surprised by. But he has reasons, and they're legit, selfish, and misguided reasons, but he's sticking to them. Then they have this awesome fight, which totally makes sense, since it's a slightly different version of a fight I had with my long time boyfriend before we broke up. I was like, wow, real relationship problems! Not some stupid, out of nowhere fight! Of course, Erik is looming in the shadows of this love triangle, and we actually get to know him better! Hooray!

Now for the world building portion. Things get even more sexist in Altered! One of my biggest questions was why only women are spinsters, and it gets answered. I did like the answer, once everything was out in the open, since it makes a lot of sense. I won't talk about that part, since you'll probably want to read and find out on your own. But I do need to talk about the whole issue of men being more powerful than women. Part of the explanation for the female only spinsters was because men don't need more power. What?! So women with awesome world manipulating abilities are fine, but a man with the same abilities would be too powerful, since they're already more powerful than women. Wow. Spinsters can rip your ass out of existence, I'd say that's pretty darn powerful! I don't see how a man could be better than that? Oh well. Sexist world is sexist.

A lot of stuff happens in Altered, so it always held my attention. There's fights and explosions and unwinding and all kinds of mayhem. This certainly doesn't suffer from middle book syndrome. However, I was annoyed that every single character had some big reveal about them. No one was who they seemed, and that was a bit much. And there's some really weird twist about when this is all taking place, and there's a cameo from the real life person who is supposed to be responsible for the weaving technology. I did roll my eyes at this bit, but I think it worked in a way. Over all though, Altered is definitely a worthy sequel and I'm eager to find out how this all ends!

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[Joséphine]

I had such a tough time finishing this book. So many times did I consider just not finishing it but I told myself I should give it another chance. I know I had trouble with Crewel but this whole weaving business that supposedly kept order in Arras was too original for me not to continue with the series. I thought I could overlook my gripes with the sexist overtones for Altered. Turns out I could. What I couldn't overlook was this underdeveloped love triangle.

Love triangles can be tiresome to read because they feel like such clichés but I usually don't mind if they're well-executed. While I've thankfully never gone through one, I know of people who had. Deriding them then for being "unrealistic" is pointless. What bothers me is when the parties involved don't have any reason to be. If two people are going to be besotted with the same person there better be something about that person that makes me believe that anyone would go through the agony of possibly having to watch that person be romantically involved with someone else, or worse, swing back and forth like a pendulum with both love interests involving themselves anyway.

Then there was this whole plot I just couldn't work with. It bored me. A lot of parts were messy. Perhaps a few more rounds of drafting before publication could've redeemed all these pieces. To make matters worse, somehow Albert Einstein got involved in all this. He was one of the originators of Arras because he discovered and taught how to weave the fabric of reality. Somehow this just left such a bad taste for me. Using his name but retaining nothing of who he was or what he did besides the fact that he was a great scientist did not sit well with me at all. It's all well and good to come up with a fictitious character based on a historical one but to warp and twist that historical character so much just doesn't work for me. I would've rather this person carried a different name in the book.

Needless to say, I will not be reading the last book in this trilogy. Frankly, I'm amazed I even managed to finish reading the second book.

This review is also available at dudettereads.com.

[Sam@WLABB]

Eagerly awaiting the next book