Review: 'Lore' by Alexandra Bracken, narr. by Fryda Wolff

Imagine if your entire life you've trained to take part in a a contest with the gods, with the one goal to slay them and ascend yourself. When tragedy strikes you have to leave that life behind, except that it comes to find you nonetheless. Meet Lore and the predicament she finds herself in! I have seen Lore around for years now, always wanting to read it and never getting around to it. And then for Christmas I treated myself to the audiobook and had a lovely time.

Audiobook Pub. Date: 07/01/2021
Publisher: Quercus Children's Books

Every seven years, the Agon begins. As punishment for a past rebellion, nine Greek gods are forced to walk the earth as mortals, hunted by the descendants of ancient bloodlines, all eager to kill a god and seize their divine power and immortality.
Long ago, Lore Perseous fled that brutal world in the wake of her family's sadistic murder by a rival line, turning her back on the hunt's promises of eternal glory. For years she's pushed away any thought of revenge against the man--now a god--responsible for their deaths.

Yet as the next hunt dawns over New York City, two participants seek out her help: Castor, a childhood friend of Lore believed long dead, and a gravely wounded Athena, among the last of the original gods.

The goddess offers an alliance against their mutual enemy and, at last, a way for Lore to leave the Agon behind forever. But Lore's decision to bind her fate to Athena's and rejoin the hunt will come at a deadly cost--and still may not be enough to stop the rise of a new god with the power to bring humanity to its knees.

As a Greek mythology lover I somehow found myself straying away from actually reading any adaptations of Greek mythology. I very much enjoyed the first wave of books which took up Greek myths and legends and reinvented them for a new age. Now it feels like every Greek heroine has received her own "upgrade" which either turns her into the perfect victim or a girl boss. I know that judgement is unfair, but there are so many of them that I'm beginning to wonder what each of them is adding to the conversation. Also, in my research I spent a lot of time with interesting female characters from the past and I like exploring them in all their nuance. Bringing modern conceptions about gender, power, etc. into the balance doesn't always help, and I'm therefore hesitant with these books. I have been burned, is what I'm saying, so while I wanted to read Lore, I was very hesitant. Turns out that for what it is, it is great fun.

Lore has left the world of gods, warriors, and the Agon behind. Her family was brutally murdered during the last one, eight years ago, and although she is burning for revenge, she knows she is better off far away from all of that. She found refuge with a kindly old man in New York and has even found a friend, Miles. But on her way back from a fight, she finds the goddess Athena bleeding to death on her doorstep. On top of that, she finds out that her best friend, whom she thought dead, is very much alive, and now Lore is right back in the middle of all the chaos and violence. Over the days of the Agon, Lore reconnects with old friends and enemies, faces dark memories, and has to choose where her loyalty truly lies. I enjoyed Lore as a main character. She is clearly highly capable and skilled, but she is also incredibly torn and conflicted, which ensures some lovely tension throughout the novel. Lore has a lot of things buried in her past and I enjoyed how Bracken moved back and forth in time, with the past always informing the present. The characters surrounding Lore are also interesting, although they are at times a little rote, especially the "bad guy" of the book. Athena was very intriguing and I enjoyed Bracken's take on her.

Going into Lore I wondered how Alexandra Bracken would balance her adaptation of Greek myth, where the focus would lie. I was very happy to see that Lore is mostly character-driven. The mythology is in service of the tale Bracken wants to tell about Lore herself and so she gives herself the freedom to play with the ideas of the gods and heroes as well. One thing that did strike me is that it is amazing Lore is in any way standing at the halfway point of the book. There is so much fighting and running and hardly any sleeping and healing. The recovery period of these characters is insane and kind of threw me out of the tale. In fact, I did also slightly lose track of the number of days that are meant to pass. The romance-element of the story was also not necessary for me, but that is a me thing. Overall I did very much enjoy Lore and am definitely going to check out more books by Alexandra Bracken. Fryda Wolff was also excellent as a narrator. I've enjoyed her narration before and I liked how she brought Lore's internal conflict alive. Her narration of the action scenes was also excellent.

I give this novel...

4 Universes!

Lore is a delightful novel which plays with elements of Greek Mythology, while solidly telling its own story. Bracken has a great knack for action scenes and creating atmosphere through her descriptions.