Lore Paperback – International Edition, January 7, 2021

Title: LoreAuthor: Alexandra BrackenAge Group: Teen/Young Adult/New AdultGenre: Fantasy/HorrorSeries: Lore, book oneStar Rating: 4 out of 5 StarsI bought this book and reviewed it.Trigger Warning: * Rape, mentions of rape off-page, graphic violence, blood and gore, kidnapping, gaslighting, murder, sex, and abuse. If any of these topics are sensitive to you, I would suggest not reading this book! Your mental health always matters. *Alexandra Bracken stole my heart with her sci-fi trilogy, The Darkest Minds, and later with her second series, which began with Passenger. So, when I found out she was writing a brand-new book, I was over the moon excited about it. I ordered it with my Christmas money, given to me by my mother-in-law. I’d been hearing from my Booktok and Discord friends about Lore, and I was curious. So, I decided once I was finished with A Heart So Fierce and Broken and Yolk, that I would dive in. This book... I finished it over a month ago and frankly, I’m still chewing on it. I really feel like this book should not have been marketed to the young adult sector; this book would definitely be shelved in the new adult or adult section of the store. I loved it, definitely, but I will say that this book is not for everyone; it contains very sensitive material. Nonetheless, I’ve been seeing comparisons to the Percy Jackson series, and I would say that those are accurate. Nonetheless, this book needs to come with a trigger warning, if only so people know what they’re getting into. Regardless, this story was dark, bloody, and surprisingly hopeful. I’m not sure if this is a series or not, but I’ll wait and see. Bracken has penned another knockout, and this is definitely one of my favorite novels of 2021.Perseous Lore has spent the majority life pursuing one thing and one thing only: vengeance for her fallen family and friends. At seventeen, she is out of the game, as they say. Every seven years, a powerful and mythical tournament called The Agon takes place, and in it, demigods from powerful and magical bloodlines fight for ultimate supremacy. If the demigods take the gods’ power and succeed in slaying them, they become the new god. When a mysterious new god named Wrath shows up, Lore becomes even more obsessed with revenge. When the last of the old gods, Athena, offers to ally with her in pursuit of revenge, Lore reluctantly agrees, but only to avenge her fallen family. But in Lore’s pursuit of a childhood friend, she finds dark and dangerous secrets, hidden within the ancient tradition of The Agon. When she begins to dig deeper into the dark and violent roots of her past and the reasons her family died, Lore realizes that it’s more than her life at stake in this war: plunging back into her bloody past may cost her more than she can possibly give...I’ll be honest: I finished this book a little more than a month ago. And I had mixed feelings about it because BookTok has long been buzzing about it, the good and the bad. I couldn’t take my curiosity anymore, so as soon as I was finished with A Heart so Fierce and Broken and A Vow So Bold and Deadly, I plunged in, unsure of what to expect. The prose was beautiful, and the pacing was instant. I read this book over the course of a week and a half, and I will admit, there were times that it was hard to get through. At times, it was very triggering; I had to read another book alongside it to just not be depressed. Nonetheless, I liked it. But I really think this should have been marketed as new adult or even adult; there was pretty graphic violence from the start. And that wasn’t a bad thing, necessarily, but people need to know what they’re getting into. To call this the dark and bloody adult sequel to Percy Jackson would be in my opinion a fair assessment. I was captivated by Lore, and her dark, bloody quest for vengeance. At times, this book was very difficult to get through: death, blood and gore await the reader on every tautly written page. I wanted to love this book, and I did, somewhat, but there definitely needs to be a trigger warning so people know what they’re getting into. Next on deck: A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas and A Heart So Fierce and Broken by Brigid Kemmerer!

This book has officially made it into my top 5 favorite books! Let me clarify though I love fictional books so only fiction books are on my list! But I need more !!!! I need a TV series ! Not a movie, nope do not rush this piece of art ! I definitely recommend!

The book came in great condition and with quick delivery.

The cover was beautiful, pages were perfect, and the dust cover was in top condition.

I was not sure what to expect going into this- I had read reviews with high praise and some that DNF'D it.Melora "Lore" is a fictional character living in modern day NYC. I was pleasantly surprised by the way the author was able to weave Greek mythology into the story- partly as history, partly present day.The Agon is a week long event that happens every 7 years where certain Greek Gods, being punished by Zeus, come to Earth without their powers as a mortal and, should anyone (persons from descendant's bloodlines known as hunters) kill a God, that person takes their powers and essentially becomes that God; but, the catch is seven years later they take that God's position being hunted as a mortal in the Agon.Melora's family was killed when she was young and, although she wants revenge against those responsible, she does not want to become a God. She spent years in hiding making a new life for herself because as one of the last descendants of her bloodline, one of the most feared new Gods wants her for a powerful weapon only she can wield.She and some of her friends want to end the Agon so that she, and many others, can be safe.There was a lot of action, betrayal, honor and sacrifice- a good versus evil tale. I loved the ending- there was no rushing it or dragging it out. The pacing was consistent and I felt everything was explained well.This was a creative and satisfying tale.

I.... can't believe the things that happened in this book. I really, truly, cannot believe them. Partly because of the sheer confusion I felt throughout the entire book, but also partly because Alexandra Bracken decided - at the last possible second - to rescind on everything she'd spend 500 pages building up and make her characters do a complete 180. I just... don't have anything positive to say about this book and that genuinely pains me as it had so much potential.I'm a huge fan of both Percy Jackson and the Olympians and The Hunger Games, so seeing Lore marketed as the dark, gritty, urban fantasy love child of the two, I started getting excited. I was instantly let down, as I could not for the life of me understand what was going on or wrap my head around the plot. Nothing was explained well enough for me to fully follow, and the way information was revealed drove me up the wall. Things would constantly be teased as being important and integral to the story, but then would be brushed aside for numerous chapters, only for there to be an info dump that was both too late and too intense to be of any use to you. It's as if there was a hint of world-building and this epic game of life and death, but the execution fell too short for it to have any real impact on the reader.Add to that the fact that a lot - and I mean a lot - of the 'major' plot points were just... forgotten about until the final twenty or so pages. I mean, what?! Not only have I just spent 500 pages confused, I now only get a rushed answer?! Sloppy. And unsatisfying. There were far too many loose ends and half-baked concepts for me to feel any real sense of closure or understanding, and I genuinely could not tell you what the plot of this book is. There were far too many things crammed into one book, so nothing quite got the page time it needed. Castor's storyline, for one, got an extremely rushed ending that fell short of the big build up throughout the rest of the book, and began to introduce a new explanation for things literally in the final five pages. What?!The characters, too, left a lot to be desired for me. Most notably, Castor just felt very flat to me and I didn't buy his relationship with Lore at all. The combination of them being apart for seven years, and then not actually having that much time together on page, meant the chemistry was lacking and I just... didn't believe or care about them together. A lot of the female characters also felt as if they'd been slighted to me, and I have particularly strong feelings regarding Athena. For a book that tries to send out a feminist message and respect women and advocate for their rights, there was far too much focus on women being the villain for me. It completely went against the message and rendered all the heart-warming little monologues about men being the real monsters redundant. And do not get me started on how both Athena's and Lore's personalities and beliefs flipped 180 degrees at the pinnacle of the plot!I genuinely, genuinely thought that I was going to enjoy this. I wanted to enjoy it. But my god did it make it hard.

Initially I was a confused by all the houses and decendants of the gods in the way they were presented from the first chapters. Passages that read e.g. the old god did this, the new god did that, the imposter etc were a little trying to get my head around, but as the story progressed it was easier to follow the events and characters. The keys at the start and end of the book explaining the houses and characters also helped and I suggest they be read.The characters were written naturally, flawed but ultimately likeable. My favourite being Van (Evander Achilleos - decendant of Achilles.The eponymous character Lore (Melora Perseous - descended from Perseus) was both strong and weak which made her an interesting protagonist. Her internal struggle in regards to her past and future really helped to drive the story forward and added a feminist perspective.I don't expect or require authors to be overtly political in their writing and where there was, what I perceived to be, instances of this in the book it came across more like appeasement rather than a statement, so for anyone who cares more about a good fantasy story than reading an author's socio-political opinions, you won't feel preached to.There are two main romances in the book (m/f & m/m) and both were so sweet and endearing, playing into the opposites attract cliché which is by far the most stimulating pairing (imo) I was really rooting for both couples and after almost 550 pages of tense action and uncertainty, I was more than satisfied with the book's ending, which I galloped towards with palpitations.A lot of readers have likened the book to Hunger Games and I suppse that's a fair comparison, but they differ in one major aspect, this is not a dystopian novel. This is less concerned with humanity's future and rather our past. I love ancient mythologies, particularly Greek, and the stories and legends woven into this contemporary novel is really well done. It proves their relevancy even thousands of years since their conception.

I wanted so badly to like this book. Female-lead YA fantasy with a greek mythology flavour is right up my alley. And there is the bones of a really good story here... it's just not very well written.I didn't care enough about any of the characters to feel anything when they were in peril, and I found the scene setting/descriptions confusing. Frequently found the mental picture I'd been given didn't make sense with character interactions.Needs a really good editor to get this into shape, or someone to just adapt it for a TV show... which the cynic in me thinks could have been the original aim.

I went into Lore thinking Greek Mythology meets The Hunger Games and left in a schooling of historical stories. I give this book 4/5 stars simply due to the lack of romance, a personal favourite of mines, and for having to stop reading to jump to the ‘house’ descriptions at the start of the book to keep myself on track of who was who. I do however blame that entirely on my own memory. I love how each character grew from nothing and they become more human and relatable as the book progresses. The bad character not being 100% bad also adds depth to the unexpected plot twists. And the breakdown into ‘part one, part two etc’ allowed me to stop and process what I had previously read. The glorious artwork was also a bonus!I loved this book overall, and look forward to future novels by Alexandra Bracken. This altogether took me four days to read and arrived in perfect condition on time.

I found this book very good but the characters and their various names a bit bewildering. There are a few points when the story steps back in time but apart from that the majority of chapters just continue into the next one, so I couldn’t see the point? They often end on cliff hangers which are then immediately resolved on the next page. Maybe this was written with serialisation in mind.