Reviews with content warning for Suicide - Lore

Lore follows its titular character Melora as she is dragged back into a borderline magical world that she has spent her young adult life trying to escape. The story mostly follows her and a small group of friends as they try to figure out why people in that world are looking for Melora and eventually doing everything they can to save New York City from a threatening force. The story includes flashbacks to formative moments in her childhood when she was still involved in this world and training to be a god hunter.

There are several surprises and twists woven into the story and the modernization of and constant references to Greek Mythology is fun. Bracken artfully brings various ancient myths up in a way that always gives the reader a chance to figure out if they know the story before she gives the sparks notes version for anyone who can't quite remember the details. Characters are all strong-willed people who have values that they adhere to rigidly, which means that there isn't much in the way of character-building, but the plot moves quickly under the choices made by our leading characters.

I did find my interest in the story flagging toward the end of of the book. This could just be a result of me trying to finish the entire thing too quickly and it was just too much all at once, but the story leaps from one brutal killing or assault or attack to another and that gets exhausting.

Being who I am, I don't love that all of the main characters are shipped, but I wasn't surprised that Bracken made those choices.

I think I was also hoping for a book that was more empowering - I don't find stories that are constantly fighting misogynistic structures and people to be that empowering because they lean so hard on the existence of misogyny on the first place.

I listened to the audio book, which I'm not sure if I would recommend. I liked the narrator, but I had trouble keeping track of all the different houses and weapons and whatnot.

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cassy_smith's review against another edition

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adventurous tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Really enjoyed the start of the book. The story drew me in right away. However that draw didn’t stay. While the book always kept my attention while reading, I forgot about it when I put the book done. I didn’t need to know what happened to these characters. Still a solid, fun read. Kinda if about the last few chapters though.

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blissofalife's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Bracken does a wonderful job weaving a new story out of Greek mythology and explaining background while not treating the reader like someone completely unfamiliar with the tales. No loose ends.

Content Warnings

gen_wolfhailstorm's review against another edition

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adventurous tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

Buddy read with Deborah from HillsOfBooks!

<b> The Details: </b>
<i> Narrated by Fryda Wolff
Unabridged </i>

Unfortunately I struggled with this one.
I found it hard to get into and at chapter 19 I switched to the audiobook. It got me through it quicker but it didn't increase my engagement and enjoyment of the story.

I didn't really care much for the setting. I've never read the Hunger Games before, but that sort of set up has never really interested me and this theme in modern day, but with the Ancient Greek pantheon just didn't blend well for me and felt jarring a lot of the time.

I wasn't keen on Lore as our main character. I just didn't mesh with her.

I thought it was helpful to have the '7 years earlier' flashback chapters to slowly peeter out the history before this Agon.

Gutted this one didn't do it for me. I think this is my first foray into this authors works, but I own a copy of The Darkest Minds, which I'm sure I will still try out at a later date.

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