Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Synopsis:
From the #1 New York Times best-selling author of The Darkest Minds comes a sweepingly ambitious, high-octane tale of power, destiny, love and redemption.
Every seven years, the Agon begins. As punishment for a past rebellion, nine Greek gods are forced to walk the earth as mortals, hunted by the descendants of ancient bloodlines, all eager to kill a god and seize their divine power and immortality.
Long ago, Lore Perseous fled that brutal world in the wake of her family’s sadistic murder by a rival line, turning her back on the hunt’s promises of eternal glory. For years she’s pushed away any thought of revenge against the man–now a god–responsible for their deaths.
Yet as the next hunt dawns over New York City, two participants seek out her help: Castor, a childhood friend of Lore believed long dead, and a gravely wounded Athena, among the last of the original gods.
The goddess offers an alliance against their mutual enemy and, at last, a way for Lore to leave the Agon behind forever. But Lore’s decision to bind her fate to Athena’s and rejoin the hunt will come at a deadly cost–and still may not be enough to stop the rise of a new god with the power to bring humanity to its knees.
Review:
Huge thank you to Disney Publishing, Hyperion, and Netgalley for providing this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.
I was lucky enough to receive an advanced copy of Lore by Alexandra Bracken. I was so excited to receive this arc because I am a big fan of Bracken’s The Darkest Minds series. I also am fascinated by Greek Mythology so I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this book.
I don’t really know how to review this book because it’s super complex plus half of it was brutally slow and hard to get into, but the other half was fast paced and totally awesome! It took me a couple weeks to read the first 50-60% of the book, but then I literally read the last 40-50% in one afternoon. I’ve been going back and forth between 3-3.5 stars.
Lore is basically the Greek Mythology Hunger Games! The synopsis summarizes the basic concept so well . . . “Every seven years, the Agon begins. As punishment for a past rebellion, nine Greek gods are forced to walk the earth as mortals, hunted by the descendants of ancient bloodlines, all eager to kill a god and seize their divine power and immortality.” There is so much more to it, but our story centers around Lore, who is from the line of Perseides. We follow Lore as she is thrust back into this violent world with her heart set on revenge. There are fantastic messages of feminism, deciding your own fate, and the importance of being surrounded by loved ones.
This world is incredibly complex. The first half of the book is basically a massive information dump. There is just so much to remember . . . the original mythology, the new gods (plus the new names they have taken), the families, the powers, etc. etc. etc. It was honestly a lot to keep straight while reading. This is part of the reason why the first half of the book was so hard to get into. I was honestly a little bored because of all the information being thrown at me. I feel like all of the world-building, history, and info should have been more a part of the story and less just the characters reciting off info to each other. Although one exception to that is that I did love how the flashback chapters were woven into the story.
One other random minor dislike is that Lore is written in third person. It’s fine, but third person narrations are not my favorite.
Now all that being said . . . the second half of the book was awesome! Like I said, I literally read the second half in one sitting! The first half was a slow walk, but the second half took off running!! The story picked up and did not let go! The plot was fast paced and action packed! There were some truly great twists, turns, and reveals. I was finally completely pulled into the world of Lore. I couldn’t stop reading because I had to know what happened!
I really like that Lore is a standalone. It’s nice to read standalones sometimes! The story wraps up nicely with a definite end. I do think that there is an opening for Bracken to write some companion novels perhaps featuring Miles? Or maybe the other old gods? I think it would be fascinating to find out what the other gods were up to all this time!
I feel like I may need to reread Lore to fully appreciate it. Now that I have a grasp on the world and all its complexities I think I’d enjoy the first half more. Good news is that several book sub boxes are doing Lore for their January box so I will have a physical copy!!
Tales of an Avid Reader 