Lore by Alexandra Bracken

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.

Let me just start this review by saying that I was addicted to this book from start to finish. I haven’t read anything related to Greek mythology for quite some months, but this book was the Greek fix I didn’t know I needed until I read it. Lore is not your usual book involving the Greek gods. Alexandra Bracken weaves a fantastical story about a Greek hunt of epic proportions in modern times.

The story follows Lore Perseous, a hunter who does her best to distance herself from the Agon after the hunt, and one of the legendary objects related to it, were the reason her family was brutally murdered. Unfortunately for Lore, the Agon doesn’t seem to be done with her. While participating in an underground fight on the first night of the Agon, Lore gets a visit from a ghost she thought she’d never see again: Castor, her childhood friend that she had thought dead for seven years. Later that night she finds Athena, goddess of wisdom and defender of cities, wounded and dying on her doorstep. Athena demands Lore’s aid and offers a bargain Lore cannot refuse; if Lore shelters Athena, Athena will kill the man, now god, responsible for the death of Lore’s family, Wrath, the possessor of the power of Ares. Lore finds herself entangled with the gods and the hunt she tried so hard to escape, but the game has changed. A new version of the edict of the Agon had been found detailing the end of the hunt. It has now become a race to find the new iteration of the poem and find a way to end the Agon once and for all.

Melora, known as Lore, Perseous is the main character of the book. Lore is witty and hot headed, a woman not afraid to charge right into the middle of the fray. She fights against the notion of fate and against the strict ideals of her upbringing, though she once was devoted to them herself. I found Lore to be extremely relatable as a character. Her emotions, even the extreme ones, are easy to relate to. While Lore does not have a large circle of people to fall back on, the few she does have she does her best to protect. Lore’s relationships are genuine and diverse; her friends are loyal to her and come to her aid even in the toughest of times. Athena, goddess of wisdom, crafts and war, is one of the many new wrenches thrown into the machine of Lore’s life. Due to her domain, it is not hard to determine that Athena is always ten steps ahead. She is not easy to get a read on as a character; until things came to light near the end of the book, I honestly was not sure how many strings Athena was pulling. The characters of this book are diverse and complex. There are no characters I truly disliked.

Lore is a well written book. Bracken’s writing is easy to read and the pacing of the story is well done. There are no moments where the story lulls for too long and the action we see is gripping from start to finish. However, Lore is a very lore heavy book. Pun intended. Many Greek myths are referenced directly and indirectly throughout the book. While I have a decent knowledge of Greek mythos, I know many people don’t. The references are far more enriching if you know the Greek myths attached to them, but I don’t believe it would take away from the story if someone didn’t know the myths.

Lore is by far my favorite read of the year so far. It is a fantastic book that I would recommend to anyone wanting to read a good, epic fantasy novel.