#Review - Lore by Alexandra Bracken #Fantasy #Contemporary #YA #Mythology

Series: Standalone
Format: Hardcover, 480 pages
Release Date: January 5, 2021
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy / Contemporary / Legends, Myths, Fables / Greek & Roman

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. 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.

 

Lore, by author Alexandra Bracken, was created out of the authors own childhood love of Greek mythology as well as her own Greek heritage and the stories of her immigrant grandparents, to dream up a secret network of ancient families--descendants of Greek heroes--battling for immortality and dominance. This novel turns the misogyny and violence against women running through Greek mythology on its head, reclaiming the hero's journey and reversing our ideas about heroes and monsters. Thousands of years ago, 9 gods—Athena, Artemis, Poseidon, Dionysus, Apollo, Hermes, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, and Ares—staged a failed revolution against Zeus. 

As punishment, they are doomed to face the Agon every seven years. “For 7 days every 7 years, the Gods walk the Earth as mortals. If you can kill one, you become a new God and take their power and immortality. But you’ll be hunted again and again until only one remains whole.” Only 4 bloodlines still participate in the Agon. Aphrodite (Heartkeeper), Dionysus (The Reveler), Poseidon (Tidebringer), and Ares (Wrath) are deceased as the current Agon begins and replaced by so called new Gods. Melora (Lore) Perseous is the last of her line from the legendary hero, Perseus and is largely alone in the world after hiding from the Agon and its members for many years once her family was murdered by their opponents.

Lore thinks she has escaped the Agon until one day she returns home and finds the goddess Athena, mortal and open to attack and the theft of her powers by anyone who kills her, bleeding out on her front porch. After binding her fate with Athena, she goes into the hunt to fight a new God to avenge her family and save her home, New York City. With the upcoming hunt, comes the reappearance of her childhood friend Castor. Lore discovers that Castor, the childhood friend she believed was dead, actually ascended as the new Apollo seven years ago.

I am going to actually say that this book is on the dark side. This is, after all, a sort of last person standing war with plenty of blood and death. If you are a lover of Greek Mythology, you are going to really enjoy this YA standalone. As fragile alliances are formed and Lore struggles to keep those she cares about safe until the end of the Agon, she can't help but remember the heinous crimes done to her in the past and the person she used to be. Except for Miles who she took in, Lore has been alone for many years and only survived because she was kept hidden. Until now.

Lore is complex, flawed, has a temper, has lots of baggage, and struggles to process her guilt, past traumas, and grapples with the idea of destiny (or the "Fates") and whether she is truly in control of herself. The entirety of this story takes place over 7 days, so the action is hot and hectic and for a book that is almost 500 pages long, nearly continuous. The ending is both surprising and open ending. Yes, there really could have been a different ending, and yes, there really could have been a sequel had the author and publisher desired.  

 

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