LORE

By Alexandra Bracken. Pub Date: January 5th, 2021

Four and a Half Stars! Best enjoyed when you’re in the mood for some serious vengeance!

The Agon takes, an ancient practice that involves the hunting of old gods, takes place every seven years. During these hunts, differing factions of Hunters track down and kill the gods, the strongest member of their faction absorbing the powers and immortality of the god and becoming a new god who can rule over and bless the members of their faction.

Lore Perseous was only a child during that last Agon, but it changed her life when a rival faction brutality murdered her parents and younger sisters in cold blood in order to wipe out the line of Perseus. Running from her old life, she has learned to live in a world that is a far cry from the one she used to be a part of. She has pushed any notion of revenge from her mind and has developed friendships, like the one with her roommate turned best friend Milo. However, although she is done with the brutal world she left behind, it is not done with her. When her former training partner Castor turns up at one of her underground fights, he drags with him not only the realization that he is not in the grave, but also the pain of the past. Although it’s still not enough for her to consider going back into the family business, the bleeding body of a barely alive and brought-to-mortality Athena shows up on her doorstep and forces her back into a place she wanted to forget forever. With Castor alive and the threat of a new god bent on destroying the entire world and remaking it in his image, Lore must stop the turning tide before it destroys not only the history she hates but the people she has come to care for.

Lore is a driving adventure from page one. The brutal life that Lore Perseous lived in the past is interwoven with the current time, helping readers further understand what the culture of the cult-like groups that make up her family legacy are all about, and why she chose to turn away from it. Although Lore seems to be a hard person, her characterization is well rounded and the revelations of her past shed light on why she feels as she does. It’s an origin story wrapped up in an almost superhero-like tale of a group of people having to use what they can to save the world from an evil god bent on destroying everything they hold dear.

This book has everything. Betrayal, love, ambition, power, mystery, forgiveness, vengeance, redemption, and explosive adventure. Bracken brings us a true feast of the imagination with this one.

Thank you to Netgalley and Disney Hyperion for the advanced copy in exchange for a fair and honest review!