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verypeculiarpages 's review for:
Lore
by Alexandra Bracken
3.5 stars. eARC provided by the publisher through Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
I think my expectations were a bit too high for this one and I continue to go back and forth over whether to rate this 3 or 4 stars. I love love LOVE any and all things Greek myth, so this book quickly shot to the top of my anticipated books for next year, even after reading the short chapter sampler and realizing that this wouldn't be what I initially thought. Maybe I'm just too picky about my Greek myth stories now. But though I still managed to enjoy most of this book, it fell a little flat overall.
Most authors who write fictional stories involving Greek myths can please me by just GIVING ME MORE GODS. I WANT ALL THE OLYMPIAN CONTENT. When I read the chapter sampler, and *slight spoilers here* realized that most of the OG gods were already dead, I was disappointed, especially after Hermes (my FAVE god) is killed literally in the first five pages. And then most of the "new" gods weren't even heavily featured or fleshed out at all. I also felt that the background of the Agon and what Zeus and the other remaining gods do could've used more detailing. The gods that take center stage in this are Athena, Apollo and Artemis.
Which, lemme go on a slight tangent about: I am getting SO SICK of Athena and Apollo being the featured gods in every myth-inspired story I read. MY GOD AM I SICK OF THEM. They're two of my least favorites yet every author seems to loooove writing about them. Give me someone else, PLEASE. MORE HERMES! ARES! APHRODITE! ANYONEEEEE. Athena managed to be a bit more palatable to me in this one, surprisingly, but it didn't last.
OK, back on track. I did like Lore, though it was frustrating to see how many straight up DUMB decisions she makes. I also liked Castor a lot too, and their romance was one of the highlights of the book. Miles and Van were suuuch great side characters, too! Overall the premise of the Agon was really fun and exciting but the background info just made it a bit confusing, and there was too much information about all the different bloodlines. There were parts of the first half that felt a bit slow, but the second half really picks up and it's FULL of twists. *THAT* betrayal was a punch in the G U T, even for me. But the ending was also a bit flat and kind of random. I wish we got more closure about what happens afterwards, especially in terms of the gods.
This seems like a looot of nitpicking for a book I ended up rating 4 stars, but these are fairly small problems that seem bigger to me because of how much I love the subject matter. Overall, I did enjoy this despite my grievances and will probably look to try out another Bracken book in the future. Heads up that this book was a bit darker and more gory than I expected, and there's a lot of violent language and descriptions of murders/injuries!
TW: blood, death, murder, rape, terminal sickness, gore
I think my expectations were a bit too high for this one and I continue to go back and forth over whether to rate this 3 or 4 stars. I love love LOVE any and all things Greek myth, so this book quickly shot to the top of my anticipated books for next year, even after reading the short chapter sampler and realizing that this wouldn't be what I initially thought. Maybe I'm just too picky about my Greek myth stories now. But though I still managed to enjoy most of this book, it fell a little flat overall.
Most authors who write fictional stories involving Greek myths can please me by just GIVING ME MORE GODS. I WANT ALL THE OLYMPIAN CONTENT. When I read the chapter sampler, and *slight spoilers here* realized that most of the OG gods were already dead, I was disappointed, especially after Hermes (my FAVE god) is killed literally in the first five pages. And then most of the "new" gods weren't even heavily featured or fleshed out at all. I also felt that the background of the Agon and what Zeus and the other remaining gods do could've used more detailing. The gods that take center stage in this are Athena, Apollo and Artemis.
Which, lemme go on a slight tangent about: I am getting SO SICK of Athena and Apollo being the featured gods in every myth-inspired story I read. MY GOD AM I SICK OF THEM. They're two of my least favorites yet every author seems to loooove writing about them. Give me someone else, PLEASE. MORE HERMES! ARES! APHRODITE! ANYONEEEEE. Athena managed to be a bit more palatable to me in this one, surprisingly, but it didn't last.
OK, back on track. I did like Lore, though it was frustrating to see how many straight up DUMB decisions she makes. I also liked Castor a lot too, and their romance was one of the highlights of the book. Miles and Van were suuuch great side characters, too! Overall the premise of the Agon was really fun and exciting but the background info just made it a bit confusing, and there was too much information about all the different bloodlines. There were parts of the first half that felt a bit slow, but the second half really picks up and it's FULL of twists. *THAT* betrayal was a punch in the G U T, even for me. But the ending was also a bit flat and kind of random. I wish we got more closure about what happens afterwards, especially in terms of the gods.
This seems like a looot of nitpicking for a book I ended up rating 4 stars, but these are fairly small problems that seem bigger to me because of how much I love the subject matter. Overall, I did enjoy this despite my grievances and will probably look to try out another Bracken book in the future. Heads up that this book was a bit darker and more gory than I expected, and there's a lot of violent language and descriptions of murders/injuries!
TW: blood, death, murder, rape, terminal sickness, gore