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Title: Lore
Author: Alexandra Bracken
Sub-genre: Urban Fantasy
I was super interested to read this book when I first heard about it in the Owl Crate announcement post (and thank you to everyone in the comments who filled me in on what book it actually was!). I like Greek mythology and the concept seemed really interesting. I didn’t love Passenger, but I was at least hopeful about this one.
Every seven years, many of the Greek gods are sent down to Earth as mortals for one week, a punishment for some crime against Zeus, a week of warfare called Agon. During this time, the gods are hunted because if they are killed, whoever killed them absorbs their powers and becomes the new version of this god. There are several families who are tied to Greek mythology heroes (like Achilles) who remain on Earth and train for this one week and the chance to become a god. Lore is a teenage girl whose entire family was killed during one of these weeks of war and has since removed herself from any communication with anyone in her former life. But when Athena shows up on her doorstep, broken and bloody and begging for help, Lore agrees to do what she can to keep her alive. In the meantime, Lore’s long lost childhood best friend reenters her life, and the new goal becomes finding a way to end Agon for good.
Alright, there are a lot of things I really enjoyed about this book. I think anyone who has any sort of interest in Greek mythology is going to find all kinds of interesting tidbits and easter eggs throughout the story. There is tons of great action and some pretty good twists and turns throughout the course of the book. I really liked Lore and following along on her journey to self discovery. In particular, I loved the group of friends she surrounded herself with because I am all about the found family.
The only thing that made this not a five star read for me was the sheer density of the world-building. There are a lot of characters and houses and original gods and imposter gods and new versions of gods and it was a lot to keep straight in my head. There were definitely moments when my brain was overwhelmed or I was confused. But in spite of that, I still overall found it to be an enjoyable read.
Overall Rating: 4 stars