Lore [Alexandra Bracken]

How we are remembered is less important than what we do now.

It’s safe to say, at this point, that Alexandra Bracken is a phenomenal writer. I was pretty on board with Lore from the start, preordering myself a copy immediately after I read the excerpt. But I did also give a bit of a warning in my review of the first six chapters from the sample, noting that this was a novel filled with violence. Immediately upon starting, you’re thrown straight into an incredibly bloody battle. What’s striking is that the novel was just so thoroughly gripping you couldn’t turn away.

Those edge of your seat moments

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Despite the incredible excess and shock of violence, Lore is the kind of book that really pulls you in. You spend the majority of your time reading with your nose almost touching the pages, that’s how engrossed you are. In the span of an instant, you are in this world with the characters. And there’s a visceral feeling to it all.

Lore takes place in a modern day arena, that which exists because Zeus cursed a select number of gods as punishment for their greed and anger induced behavior. This punishment forces them to spend seven days fighting for their lives as mortal decedents of famous Greek heroes fight to kill them for their powers. Every seven years, the Aegon begins. Those with the power of the gods lose their immortality for one week and the bloody vying for power is repeated.

The Aegon Arena

Of course, our story really begins with Lore. She’s done everything she can to distance herself from her family’s legacy and the world that killed them after they were brutally murdered in the previous Ageon. But when her childhood best friend–a boy she believed dead–and one of the original gods forge paths into her life, Lore finds herself once again entrenched in the horrors of the Aegon.

What ensues is a violent and terrifying game in which family houses vie for the powers of the gods, intent on killing the gods of the other houses. One house, that of Kadmos, seeks to destroy all the other gods entirely. In ending the Aegon, he intends to rule over them all. And Lore? She wants revenge upon the one who made her the last of her line.

However, revenge can only get one so far when they have people to protect.

Lore is it for me in 2021

Lore is an amazing novel, filled with utterly brilliant characters. Better yet, it has plot twists even I didn’t see coming. As an avid reader, I’m very rarely shocked by a plot twist. And this may very well be the second time Bracken has taken me by surprise. I genuinely felt as though I were living through the story with these characters, engaged in the very moments they experienced. I recall, even, shouting out at the novel at various points while reading it. My emotions were in complete turmoil.

There are many ways in which Lore turned out to be an excellent story. Braken wove together a tale of immense power with one of the most amazing feminine heroes I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. I really fell in love with these characters, the world, and all the twists and turns they encountered. I’m only one month into the year and already certain this book is it for me in 2021.

If you’ve not read Lore already, you’ve done a disservice to yourself. And I suggest you go pick it up as soon as you possibly can.