A review by supaanhanh
Lore by Alexandra Bracken

adventurous dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Greek mythology meets The Hunger Games is how many have described it and I'm apt to agree with them. It is definitely not of the Percy Jackson vibe despite having the same publisher, it's much darker and much more violent. Blood flows like water and a lot of people die. It did take me awhile to really get into the story because the entire story is driven from Lore's POV. There's no backstory about the Agon, only that it came from Zeus' decree that every seven years, nine of the Olympian gods (Poseidon, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Ares, Dionysus, Apollo, Artemis, Athena, and Hermes) who had rebelled would be stripped of their immortality and hunted by the descendants of ancient Greek heroes (Odysseus, Perseus, Achilles, Kadmos, Herakles, Bellerophon, Jason, Meleager, and Theseus). Those mortals who were fortunate to slay a god would inherit their power and immortality and thus the cycle would begin anew. At the start of this Agon, Lore Perseus is the last mortal of her bloodline, her family brutally murdered at the end of the last Agon seven years prior, and she believes that new Ares, Aristos Kadmou aka Wrath, is responsible. Then Athena, one of the last of the original gods, who had managed to escape and outlast every last Agon, turns up mortally wounded at Lore's doorstep and asks for her help. And also, her childhood friend, Castor, who she believed dead also turns up, now imbued with the power of Apollo and no recollection as to how he managed to kill the god of prophecy. 
Questions are asked and they aren't necessarily answered in the most straightforward of ways nor in a timely way. Because we depend on Lore's POV, we don't necessarily see why or how Castor made his miraculous recovery from childhood leukemia and lucked out with Apollo's powers until the very end when he somehow is able to beat through his memory block and recall Apollo's last moments.
I did enjoy the plot twist with Athena's betrayal and how Gil, the kindly old man that Lore took care of was actually Hermes in disguise.
But aside from that, there was a lot of killing and trauma and grief to work through. The setup to the many climaxes would be intriguing enough to make me want to read more but the payout was "meh". The plot had a lot of potential but it probably needed more polishing, especially if the author's intention was to attempt to reclaim Medusa's story and make it a feminist take on Greek mythology and the Greek gods. It failed to deliver on that. 
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