Quercus Lore: from the Number One bestselling YA fantasy author

I.... can't believe the things that happened in this book. I really, truly, cannot believe them. Partly because of the sheer confusion I felt throughout the entire book, but also partly because Alexandra Bracken decided - at the last possible second - to rescind on everything she'd spend 500 pages building up and make her characters do a complete 180. I just... don't have anything positive to say about this book and that genuinely pains me as it had so much potential.I'm a huge fan of both Percy Jackson and the Olympians and The Hunger Games, so seeing Lore marketed as the dark, gritty, urban fantasy love child of the two, I started getting excited. I was instantly let down, as I could not for the life of me understand what was going on or wrap my head around the plot. Nothing was explained well enough for me to fully follow, and the way information was revealed drove me up the wall. Things would constantly be teased as being important and integral to the story, but then would be brushed aside for numerous chapters, only for there to be an info dump that was both too late and too intense to be of any use to you. It's as if there was a hint of world-building and this epic game of life and death, but the execution fell too short for it to have any real impact on the reader.Add to that the fact that a lot - and I mean a lot - of the 'major' plot points were just... forgotten about until the final twenty or so pages. I mean, what?! Not only have I just spent 500 pages confused, I now only get a rushed answer?! Sloppy. And unsatisfying. There were far too many loose ends and half-baked concepts for me to feel any real sense of closure or understanding, and I genuinely could not tell you what the plot of this book is. There were far too many things crammed into one book, so nothing quite got the page time it needed. Castor's storyline, for one, got an extremely rushed ending that fell short of the big build up throughout the rest of the book, and began to introduce a new explanation for things literally in the final five pages. What?!The characters, too, left a lot to be desired for me. Most notably, Castor just felt very flat to me and I didn't buy his relationship with Lore at all. The combination of them being apart for seven years, and then not actually having that much time together on page, meant the chemistry was lacking and I just... didn't believe or care about them together. A lot of the female characters also felt as if they'd been slighted to me, and I have particularly strong feelings regarding Athena. For a book that tries to send out a feminist message and respect women and advocate for their rights, there was far too much focus on women being the villain for me. It completely went against the message and rendered all the heart-warming little monologues about men being the real monsters redundant. And do not get me started on how both Athena's and Lore's personalities and beliefs flipped 180 degrees at the pinnacle of the plot!I genuinely, genuinely thought that I was going to enjoy this. I wanted to enjoy it. But my god did it make it hard.

Initially I was a confused by all the houses and decendants of the gods in the way they were presented from the first chapters. Passages that read e.g. the old god did this, the new god did that, the imposter etc were a little trying to get my head around, but as the story progressed it was easier to follow the events and characters. The keys at the start and end of the book explaining the houses and characters also helped and I suggest they be read.The characters were written naturally, flawed but ultimately likeable. My favourite being Van (Evander Achilleos - decendant of Achilles.The eponymous character Lore (Melora Perseous - descended from Perseus) was both strong and weak which made her an interesting protagonist. Her internal struggle in regards to her past and future really helped to drive the story forward and added a feminist perspective.I don't expect or require authors to be overtly political in their writing and where there was, what I perceived to be, instances of this in the book it came across more like appeasement rather than a statement, so for anyone who cares more about a good fantasy story than reading an author's socio-political opinions, you won't feel preached to.There are two main romances in the book (m/f & m/m) and both were so sweet and endearing, playing into the opposites attract cliché which is by far the most stimulating pairing (imo) I was really rooting for both couples and after almost 550 pages of tense action and uncertainty, I was more than satisfied with the book's ending, which I galloped towards with palpitations.A lot of readers have likened the book to Hunger Games and I suppse that's a fair comparison, but they differ in one major aspect, this is not a dystopian novel. This is less concerned with humanity's future and rather our past. I love ancient mythologies, particularly Greek, and the stories and legends woven into this contemporary novel is really well done. It proves their relevancy even thousands of years since their conception.

I wanted so badly to like this book. Female-lead YA fantasy with a greek mythology flavour is right up my alley. And there is the bones of a really good story here... it's just not very well written.I didn't care enough about any of the characters to feel anything when they were in peril, and I found the scene setting/descriptions confusing. Frequently found the mental picture I'd been given didn't make sense with character interactions.Needs a really good editor to get this into shape, or someone to just adapt it for a TV show... which the cynic in me thinks could have been the original aim.

I went into Lore thinking Greek Mythology meets The Hunger Games and left in a schooling of historical stories. I give this book 4/5 stars simply due to the lack of romance, a personal favourite of mines, and for having to stop reading to jump to the ‘house’ descriptions at the start of the book to keep myself on track of who was who. I do however blame that entirely on my own memory. I love how each character grew from nothing and they become more human and relatable as the book progresses. The bad character not being 100% bad also adds depth to the unexpected plot twists. And the breakdown into ‘part one, part two etc’ allowed me to stop and process what I had previously read. The glorious artwork was also a bonus!I loved this book overall, and look forward to future novels by Alexandra Bracken. This altogether took me four days to read and arrived in perfect condition on time.

I had very high expectations for this book. like really high. it’s been one of my most anticipated reads for a good while and it brings me so much joy to say that my expectations were met. ⁣⁣The book surrounds a game called the agon, which was an idea zeus created to punish the gods, who for seven days, every seven years, become mortal and are hunted down for their godly powers. ⁣⁣The agon was a really unique idea with how it was portrayed and the characters were written very well. bracken really stuck true to how devious and sneaky some of the gods could be and i was left shocked at some of the twists that crept up on me. ⁣⁣I think one of my main positive points was how much i adored the main character, lore. she was written so brilliantly, she was strong, she fought tooth and nail, and there wasn’t a moment of “damsel in distress.” ⁣⁣the only con I have is that the ending felt a bit abrupt but it didn’t bother me much at all, so i’m not letting it affect my review score. ⁣⁣I can say with confidence that this will be in my top reads of 2021. I absolutely adored this book, i loved the different takes on mythology and it was overall a really exciting and fulfilling read.