Both Uses

alternative
in
The Color of Water
(Edited)

Of course the alternative was Tateh would pull his belt off and skin you alive.
Chpt 7 *

alternative = other possibility
Over the years we assembled a stable of pets that resembled a veritable petting zoo: gerbils, mice, dogs, cats, rabbits, fish, birds, turtles, and frogs that would alternatively lick and bite us and spread mysterious diseases that zipped through our house as if it were a Third World country, prompting health clinic visits chaperoned by Ma where bored doctors slammed needles into our butts like we were on a GMC assembly line.
Chpt 8

alternatively = as another possibility

Definitions:

(1) (alternative as in: an alternative plan)
a different choice or possibility, or describing something that offers a different choice or possibility
(2) (alternative as in: alternative medicine)
non-traditional or non-standard
(3) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)