I was born knowing how to do three things – how to breathe, how to dream, and how to love you.
lore, alexandra bracken
Author: Alexandra Bracken
Publication Date: 5 January 2021
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Page Count: 494
Reading Method: Digital ARC
Synopsis:
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 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 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 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:
My first read of 2021 and it was sooo hyped! I am forever grateful for receiving an arc in exchange for my honest opinion.
I’ve seen this one described as Greek mythology meets the hunger games and I could definitely see that being true. I was so dang excited to read this one; it sounded right up my ally. Unfortunately, I struggled with it. Like, a lot. There are so so many positive reviews for Lore that I would encourage you to read because many people really enjoyed it. It just wasn’t quite for me. That’s not to say it wasn’t enjoyable – it just took me a bit longer to get into it than I would have liked.
Let’s start with the plot. Essentially, all the original gods are battling it out in the Agon – a battle that occurs every seven years where they must walk the earth as mortals. The hunters are descendents of ancient bloodlines who are granted immortality and power if they kill a god. Lore is out of the game, and intends to stay that way. But through an interesting turn of events, she gets roped back into the hunt alongside Castor and Athena.
All of this makes perfect sense, right? But the way it’s all explained in the book is so confusing and convoluted. It would be easy to take a chapter or two to really explain the history of the gods and what all goes into the Agon, but it seemed like we only got little pieces of the history and how everything works scattered throughout. I don’t think I fully understood what was happening until about 60% of the way through the book. It felt like once I was starting to get the hang of things something else was thrown in that messed it all up and took me back to square one. There was so much flipping back and forth between pages to try and understand what was happening and how everything tied together. There were so many names, so many histories, so many allies and enemies that it was initially difficult to keep it all straight. Ultimately it all does come together and it’s entirely possible that I am the odd man out here. Something just wasn’t clicking in my brain to make it all work until closer to the end.
Moving on, let’s discuss the characters. Our main character is Lore – a tough fighter with a brilliant mind who wants nothing to do with the hunt. She is fierce and strong and she has to deal with her past trauma – which is dangled in front of the reader for soooo long before being revealed. But I genuinely did like her character for the most part. But the love interest, Castor, fell really flat for me. At the end of the book I didn’t feel like I knew much about him, I didn’t feel the connection between him and Lore, and certainly no personal connection to him. I did, however, really like Miles. Miles is Lore’s human friend who gets roped into assisting throughout the Agon. He was funny, loyal, and brave. He had a little romance that I would have been much more interested in reading about, but he only gets a tiny little portion of the limelight – which is a real shame.
Maybe I shot myself in the foot with this one a little bit. I went in with such high hopes. While it didn’t blow me away, it was still an enjoyable read (once I had sorted everything out). There were moments of intensity, times where I experienced real shock at the turn of events, and I often found myself rooting for them to succeed in their mission. I also think it was wrapped up quite nicely, which is always a bonus in a standalone novel. This is certainly many people’s cup of tea, it just wasn’t everything I had hoped it would be.
