Altered

October 1, 2013
Creweler-to-be Adelice, her lover, Jost, and his brother, Erik, have fled Arras (Crewel, 2012) and seek to fight the Guild on Earth. Earth is divided between the Guild and its mining operations and the Sunrunners who control the solar-energy trade. In fairly short order, the trio meet Dante, a friendly Sunrunner, and are attacked by a band of Remnants--the living shells of humans left behind after a Spinster has "ripped" their souls. (Horrifyingly, one is what's left of Adelice's mother.) The plot thickens when Dante takes them to Kincaid, the megalomaniac at the top of the Sunrunner organization. (In a nice touch, his headquarters is Hearst Castle.) Relationships and alliances develop and shift at a dizzying rate. Most notable is the tiresomely predictable triangle among Adelice, Jost and Erik, but the bond Adelice discovers she shares with Dante calls her entire past into question. In dialogue, Adelice demonstrates spunk and a sense of humor, but unfortunately, this does not inform her flat, standard-issue-dystopian present-tense narration. Albin provides further background on the physics and history of Arras, but just exactly how Adelice is able to see and manipulate the raw strands of energy that form Earth's reality as well as the construct that is Arras are still left for readers to accept on faith, frustrating those who like science in their science fiction. For fans only, a bridge between Crewel and Book 3. (Dystopian romance. 12-16)

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December 1, 2013

Gr 9 Up-In this sequel to Crewel (Farrar, 2012), Adelice, a talented 16-year-old Spinster, leaves behind her life in Arras, along with brothers Jost and Erik, for the damaged Earth. There, she finds that her ability to weave the threads of life together is thwarted. She discovers gifted men called Tailors-beings who are able to alter and piece together the fabrics of individual lives. Erik hides the fact that he is a skilled Tailor, and Adelice is one of the rarest beings: both Spinster and Tailor. The story is about survival and romance (Adelice is drawn to both Jost and Erik). As the heroine's feelings intensify, she challenges the idea that Spinsters who consummate a romance will lose their ability to weave. Albin aptly weaves her unique vocabulary into the complex plot. Adelice fights the Guild, the powerful leaders of Arras, and the Remnants, soulless former humans, and struggles to understand herself and her abilities. "How can I discover who I am when my world is built of secrets and shadows?" she asks herself. The loose ends involving Adelice's family and a world-saving creation called "The Whorl" will leave fans waiting eagerly for book three. Altered is a mix of romance and adventure that will be most enjoyable for readers of the first novel.-Maggie Knapp, Trinity Valley School, Fort Worth, TX

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2013
Grades 7-10 Oh, what a tangled web we weave. Albin's story of Adelice, the talented spinster of Crewel (2012), picks up right where it left off as she and the brothers Jost and Erik escape the controlled fibers of Arras for a hope of freedom on Earth. Turns out Earth is not abandoned, danger lurks everywhere in the form of Remnants who have been sent to hunt her down, and a foil for Cormac Patton awaits to exercise his own form of control and domination. The setting is a darker postapocalypse world than in the first installment, with interesting new developments and a host of new characters, whose secrets impact Adelice. Much of the world building unfolds in murky exposition, and it eventually takes Albert Einstein (seriously) to explain it. A tighter reweaving would make this a better book, but the continuing saga of the love triangle and another dramatic ending will leave fans of the series wanting more.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)