Lore

Title: Lore
Author: Alexandra Bracken

Publisher: Hyperion
Year: January 2021
Pages: 466
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Reading Time: 11 - 31 Mar
Binding: Owlcrate Hardback
Goodreads

Stars:
★★★★☆

Blurb:

 Every seven years, the Agon begins.

 As punishment for a past rebellion, nine Greek gods are forced to walk the earth as mortals. They are 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, turning her back on the hunt's promises of eternal glory after her family was murdered by a rival line. For year she's pushed away any thought of revenge against the man - now a god - responsible for their deaths.

 Yet as the hunt dawns over New York City, two participants seek her out: Castor, a childhood friend Lore believed to be dead, and Athena, one of the last of the original gods, now gravely wounded.

 The goddess offers Lore an alliance against their mutual enemy and a way to leave the Agon behind forever. But Lore's decision to rejoin the hunt, binding her fate to Athena's, will come at a deadly cost - and it may not be enough to stop the rise of a new god with the power to bring humanity to its knees.

Review:

 If I needed anything to remind me of my love for Greek mythology, it was this. Greek mythology entwining with the modern day world is not a new concept (I still really need to finish those various Percy Jackson series) but this is a very different way I'm seeing it integrated. Violence is a given and in an event that only occurs every seven years giving Hunters the opportunity to obtain the power of the gods? Bloodshed, references to the myths and allegiances we can't be sure to trust, it's all good for me. 

 There are some mixed responses and I can see where they're coming from. Pacing was a little slow in some places and I could put it down without the burning desire to start reading again. We got a lot of information and history, my top tip would be to use the character listing provided at the back. I got mixed up in the similar names a bit. I found the revelations of old and recent history unravelled in good timing along with the plot.

 We've got a little bit of diversity in our characters, though if I'm remembering correctly it was rather put on the back of two characters to show a lot of the representations. I really liked those particular characters and the rest of our characters presented a good range of personalities. Lore is all rage and violence, Castor is gentle and unsure whilst Athena is strong in many senses of the word. I wish there was a tad more romance but that would probably have resulted in another hundred pages or so.

 I enjoyed the fact that real work issues like misogyny were part of the book and addressed differently as the story was told from different points in time and recalled by different characters. In a current day setting it feels appropriate that a female main character would have issues with old mythology and growing up with those beliefs still ingrained in her world's beliefs despite the rest of the world moving on from this. Let's also face it, there are some bad-ass female characters in this book.

 Our plot is not as simple as it seems from the beginning and I'm glad to say that I didn't really predict any of the twists and revelations in this book, or any suspicions I had were not for the correct reasons. I have to say there was a lot of lying and manipulation to the point I'm not entirely sure what the truth actually was. . .

 Regardless, it's a strong book and it's been a while since I read anything that was so clearly a standalone from a book box. It's both sad I won't get more and excellent that it's not being overstretched. Seems like I still haven't gotten round to The Darkes Minds despite it having been on my TBR for a very long time. Maybe now I've read one of Bracken's books I'll be more likely to dip in to that series!