Lore by Alexandra Bracken Review

 Title: Lore 

Author: Alexandra Bracken 

Age Group: Teen/Young Adult/New Adult 

Genre: Fantasy/Horror 

Series: Lore, book one 

Star Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars 

I bought this book and reviewed it. 

Trigger Warning: * Rape, mentions of rape off-page, graphic violence, blood and gore, kidnapping, gaslighting, murder, sex, and abuse. If any of these topics are sensitive to you, I would suggest not reading this book! Your mental health always matters. * 

Alexandra Bracken stole my heart with her sci-fi trilogy, The Darkest Minds, and later with her second series, which began with Passenger. So, when I found out she was writing a brand-new book, I was over the moon excited about it. I ordered it with my Christmas money, given to me by my mother-in-law. I’d been hearing from my Booktok and Discord friends about Lore, and I was curious. So, I decided once I was finished with A Heart So Fierce and Broken and Yolk, that I would dive in. This book... I finished it over a month ago and frankly, I’m still chewing on it. I really feel like this book should not have been marketed to the young adult sector; this book would definitely be shelved in the new adult or adult section of the store. I loved it, definitely, but I will say that this book is not for everyone; it contains very sensitive material. Nonetheless, I’ve been seeing comparisons to the Percy Jackson series, and I would say that those are accurate. Nonetheless, this book needs to come with a trigger warning, if only so people know what they’re getting into. Regardless, this story was dark, bloody, and surprisingly hopeful. I’m not sure if this is a series or not, but I’ll wait and see. Bracken has penned another knockout, and this is definitely one of my favorite novels of 2021. 

Perseous Lore has spent the majority life pursuing one thing and one thing only: vengeance for her fallen family and friends. At seventeen, she is out of the game, as they say. Every seven years, a powerful and mythical tournament called The Agon takes place, and in it, demigods from powerful and magical bloodlines fight for ultimate supremacy. If the demigods take the gods’ power and succeed in slaying them, they become the new god. When a mysterious new god named Wrath shows up, Lore becomes even more obsessed with revenge. When the last of the old gods, Athena, offers to ally with her in pursuit of revenge, Lore reluctantly agrees, but only to avenge her fallen family. But in Lore’s pursuit of a childhood friend, she finds dark and dangerous secrets, hidden within the ancient tradition of The Agon. When she begins to dig deeper into the dark and violent roots of her past and the reasons her family died, Lore realizes that it’s more than her life at stake in this war: plunging back into her bloody past may cost her more than she can possibly give... 

I’ll be honest: I finished this book a little more than a month ago. And I had mixed feelings about it because BookTok has long been buzzing about it, the good and the bad. I couldn’t take my curiosity anymore, so as soon as I was finished with A Heart so Fierce and Broken and A Vow So Bold and Deadly, I plunged in, unsure of what to expect. The prose was beautiful, and the pacing was instant. I read this book over the course of a week and a half, and I will admit, there were times that it was hard to get through. At times, it was very triggering; I had to read another book alongside it to just not be depressed. Nonetheless, I liked it. But I really think this should have been marketed as new adult or even adult; there was pretty graphic violence from the start. And that wasn’t a bad thing, necessarily, but people need to know what they’re getting into. To call this the dark and bloody adult sequel to Percy Jackson would be in my opinion a fair assessment. I was captivated by Lore, and her dark, bloody quest for vengeance. At times, this book was very difficult to get through: death, blood and gore await the reader on every tautly written page. I wanted to love this book, and I did, somewhat, but there definitely needs to be a trigger warning so people know what they’re getting into. Next on deck: A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas and A Heart So Fierce and Broken by Brigid Kemmerer!