Audiobook Review – Lore by Alexandra Bracken, Narrated by Fryda Wolff (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Length: 15 hours and 47 minutes
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Release Date: January 06, 2021
ASIN : B08S998B21
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 4/5 stars

“Every seven years, the Agon begins. As punishment for a past rebellion, nine Greek gods are forced to walk the earth as mortals. They are 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, turning her back on the hunt’s promises of eternal glory after her family was murdered by a rival line. 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 her out: Castor, a childhood friend Lore believed to be dead, and Athena, one of the last of the original gods, now gravely wounded.

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

Series Info/Source: I got this as an audiobook from Audible. This is a stand alone book.

Audiobook Quality (3/5): The audiobook quality here was not the best. The narrator reads very clearly and has good tone and inflection but does a poor job with distinct character voices. Lore, Miles, and Castor all sound the same and I struggled to figure out who was talking more than once. The voices of the different gods are over characterized and sound almost silly.

Story (4/5): Bracken has been a bit hit and miss for me. I enjoyed “Brightly Woven” and thought “The Darkest Minds” first book was okay but didn’t enjoy (or continue with) the rest of the series. I never tried reading “Passenger”. “Lore” is definitely one of Bracken’s better books.

I liked the twists and turns to the plot, the book was hard to predict and engaging but never felt contrived. This feels very YA but also had a bit of an adult urban fantasy edge to it as well. I like that there was a point to the story rather than just having gods and mortals fight each other for power. This story is about the establishment behind that godly power and does address things such as women’s rights too. I really enjoyed that this was a stand alone book and I liked how the story wrapped up.

Characters (4/5): There is a lot of action here and all of the characters are very complex and have good depth to them. Even the side characters are very well done. I didn’t really like these characters but they were intriguing to read about.

Setting (4/5): The world-building here is well done and I love the idea of the Agon and gods taking on mortal forms for a limited time. The story is set in modern day New York City and that was a fun place to have this set.

Writing Style (4/5): This jumps between Lore’s past and present, although we spend most of the time in Lore’s present. That format worked really well for this book (I feel like I am reading a lot of books with that sort of format lately). There is a good balance of world-building, complex plot, interesting characters, and action here. The story moved along at a good pace and was easy to read. As I mentioned above this is one of Bracken’s better books.

My Summary (4/5): Overall this was a good book and I enjoyed it. I love how the Greek mythology was woven into our modern day world. I also love how complex the characters were and all the action. This has a well done plot with some good twists and turns. I would recommend it if you enjoy books about Greek gods in a modern day urban setting.