If a God is killed during the Agon, the hunter responsible for their death gets to seize that God's powers and more importantly, their immortality, thus becoming a New God. I don't know what it was with this one, because I should have loved it. Greek mythology is right up my alley, I've loved it since I was a child. My name comes from Greek mythology for crying out loud! But somehow, this was still a miss. Perhaps I wasn't in the right frame of mind? Others sure seem to like it, anyway - I'm just not one of them 🤷‍♀️ I had been wondering where the Medusa hair on the cover came in, until I read that part about her being called “Little Gorgon”. Not that Lore actually has snakes in her hair (at least as far as the sample goes). Also it is said that the Perseides (Descendants of Perseus), were given the Aegis, the shield of Zeus which had belonged to Athena until Zeus created the Agon as punishment for the Gods. The shield was taken when Lore’s family was murdered. The shield has special powers and bore the head of Medusa on the front. This book has interesting and intriguing plot line but the execution of the idea and overloading of action scenes make you roll your eyes! Too much happening in a short time period! You just get agitated at each second with too many triggering, ultra depressing subjects including terminal illness, gory, bloodshed for fight scenes, extreme violence, rape, sexual assault, slavery etc. The Hero: Not sure yet. Probably Castor will be the Hero, he is an old friend to Lore (Malora – last mortal descendant of Perseus). Castor is also from one of the bloodlines, descendants of hero’s that are now hunting the Gods while they’re in mortal form. Though Castor trained as a healer not a hunter.

Recommended for anyone looking for a super fast paced book that kinda reminds you of the Hunger games! Mystery": There is a central mystery to this book that didn't feel like a mystery to me at all, because I had it figured out from the beginning. It only took one sentence (of course I won't say which) in one of the first chapters to lay the whole thing bare for me. Its been 7yrs since Lore fled the Agon, seven years since her family died and seven years since she started a normal life. But now as the Agon approaches, Castor her friend whom she long gave up for dead, and the Greek goddess Athena seek out her help. With a new shot at revenge for her family, Lore enters the Agon to finally settle the score and prevent great loss. grass mingling with faint sewage. The sound of traffic in the near distance. The electric, restless don’t you just love it when one of your most anticipated releases of the year is not that good? anyways i’m still debating about my star rating. probably two stars. maybeee three. i’ll think about it. rtc.

im not gonna do my character analysis that i would usually do for each character, because honestly i felt detached from them all. not one of the characters in this book had consistent personalities. the love interest was all over the place, the main character started out as this bad-ass fist fighter and then turned out to be annoying, and the side characters had no depth. Can we talk about the interactions between Castor and Lore for a minute? This is how most of their conversations went: Van ! First I was scared tht he would because a love triangle. But the moment he started talking to Miles, the energy was palpable. I started loving him and his relationship with Miles is awesome! From the number-one New York Times best-selling author of The Darkest Minds comes a sweepingly ambitious, high-octane tale of power, destiny, love, and redemption.

When Athena and Lore find Tidebringer, Athena kills the goddess and reveals to Lore that she was manipulating Lore to get the aegis all along. It is also revealed that it was Athena, and not Aristos, that killed Lore’s family seven years ago. Lore tries to kill herself, as it would kill Athena too, but the goddess says that the bond was fake and Lore is dying for nothing. Athena leaves but Castor finds Lore in time to save her. Lore is a nice character (once you get to know her, which does take a while). She can take care of herself, is a fierce fighter, but still has a good heart and all she wants is to live a quiet life far away from the Gods and hunters after being the only survivor of the massacre of her family seven years ago. She ends up being part of the Agon once again because of unforeseen events, and we can see how conflicted she is. She wants revenge for the murder of her family, but she also wants to protect the quiet life she built for herself in the last 7 years. She realizes that she can't be part of both worlds, and she needs to find a way to stop the Agon for good if she hopes to live a normal life. 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.

When I first read what Lore was all about, I was sold. A mix of Medusa (who is one of my faves, I must say) and The Hunger Games set in the present world?? Descendants of the OG heroes trying to kill the old gods to steal their powers of godhood?? That's nuts...and I loved it! I loved the relationships within this story as well. The friend group, made up of Lore, Castor, Van, Miles and Iro, was so great to read. I loved their dynamic and the way their personalities played off of one another; particularly Miles, the only one not from an ancient bloodline. Aptly described as Greek Mythology meets The Hunger Games, it's a meshing of ideas that truly worked for me.