REVIEW: Lore by Alexandra Bracken

Described as Greek mythology meets The Hunger Games, Lore by Alexandra Bracken didn’t disappoint.

A long time ago the gods rebelled and as punishment for this, the Agon was created. The Agon takes place every seven years, for seven days. During this event, the Greek gods must walk the Earth as mortals while being hunted by the descendants of these gods.

The main protagonist Lore tries to stay out of all this, but she finds herself face to face with a thought-to-be-dead childhood friend, who tracks her down and asks her for help. Then she finds the goddess, Athena, bleeding out at her home.

Previous to this book, I had never read anything by best-selling author Alexandra Bracken. However, the synopsis and positive reviews caught my attention.

In terms of the reviews, I do agree with the description of it having a similar vibe to The Hunger Games. This is because of not only the Agon feeling very much like the Arena, but it felt like a late 2000s Young Adult novel.

“Alexandra Bracken is able to weave Greek mythology into a contemporary setting flawlessly”

Alexandra Bracken is able to weave Greek mythology into a contemporary setting flawlessly. Her writing kept me engaged throughout. At its core, it is a gripping revenge story with high-intensity action which helps the plot move forward. It had its fair share of twists, turns and betrays to keep you turning the page.

You don’t need a lot of knowledge of Greek mythology to read this book and enjoy it. However, if you have no knowledge of Greek mythology you may be slightly confused throughout the book. This is because when a god is mentioned, Bracken doesn’t go into detail about their background or who exactly they are. At the front of the book, there is an explanation of which lines are still alive in this world and which aren’t, which is helpful.

“It is an intriguing combination of the mortal and immortal world”

It is an intriguing combination of the mortal and immortal world, with the story set in New York. This familiar setting helps you to picture the scenes due to a mix of not only knowing what the city looks like and Bracken’s world-building and mentions of famous landmarks that you know.

“the story would have benefited more from a narration of the history of certain relationships”

The only thing that felt like a let-down is that I wish I felt more of a connection with the characters. I loved the characters and the relationships they had with each other, but I felt like the story would have benefited more from a narration of the history of certain relationships. An example of this would be more history of Lore and Castor’s relationship before he went missing.

Even though it did end in a way that felt like everything was wrapped up, I couldn’t help but think that there was more of this story and the world to explore. I felt like it would have been better as a series, rather than a standalone. This would have provided more details throughout the story instead of sometimes feeling rushed to get to the next plot point.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, and now I really want to discover some more of Alexandra Bracken’s past and future works.

Chelsea Bailey

Featured image courtesy of Chelsea Bailey. Permission was granted by the author for the use of this image.