Percy Jackson who ? Collective Review : Lore - Alexandra Bracken

Welcome back to another Collective Review. Solene and I did a great job in reading a book together each month (which is not the case for the end of 2021 because we had a lot of work) so let's celebrate this time we had together. Here is the review :

• Why did you decide to read this book?

E.: I received this book in both my Owlcrate and FairyLoot subscription boxes so I decided to offer one book to Solene and keep one for me. We put the book on our collective list to read together. Solene and I are big Percy Jackson’s and Greek Mythology -in general- ‘s fan so we knew we had to read this book.

S: Eponine gifted this book to me to celebrate our love of greek mythology. We both saw the hardcover versions and they were incredibly beautiful, so it was one of our must-reads of the year.

• Before reading it, what were your expectations?

E.: I had not seen that much hype for this book. I did not see any friends review it so I was in the dark in terms of expectations. However, I was a fan of the premise and was quite excited to start reading this book.

S: My expectations for Greek mythology are always high, but I was really looking forward to reading it because of how beautiful it was - yes, I like to judge my books my their covers.

• After the first chapter, did you wanted to read more?

E.: Yes and no at the same time which is weird! On one hand, I wanted to learn more about the story, but one the other hand, the prologue feels quite vague and I was already a bit lost with the story.

S: The prologue did hook me in. It was quite mysterious and I wanted to read more and understand the story.

• Rate this book on a scale from 1 to 10?

E.: This book is a 7/10 for me, I think. I think that if I had been in another mood, my rating might have been higher. I was very interested in the story towards the end of the book after the big plot twist. It is overall a good and well-written book.

S: A 5.5/10. I think, perhaps, I expected too much so I set myself up for failure, sadly. Maybe it wasn’t the greatest time to read it, I’m not sure, but at the end of the day reading this left me quite indifferent.

• Favourite character? Most hated character?

E.: My favourite characters were Athena and Castor. Athena has always been my favourite goddess and Castor was quite interesting. I wanted to learn more about the both of them and boy was I not disappointed. To be fair, I also liked Miles, Lore and Van. For my most hated character, it has to be Kadmou/Wrath because he is the villain of the story. There is also another character that I hated towards the end but can’t say or else it will spoil the book for you…

S: What Eponine said, word for word.

• Would you recommend this book?

E.: I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes Greek Mythology, badass female character (and goddess) and cute LGBTQ+ representation (side characters).

S: I think it’s a good fantasy book and a good standalone, so yes. It’s still good read, but I believe you have to be willing to sit down and read this in a few sittings at most.

• What could have been done by the author for you to enjoy the book even more?

E.: There were quite a lot of names thrown at you at every chapter and I had quite a hard time remembering who was who. I only discovered at the end that there were pages dedicated to characters which would have helped me while I was reading. It was my own fault, I guess the author is not to blame for this. There were moments while reading where I was so confused that I was re-reading to try and understand better. Solene and I kept texting to see if we understood the same thing.

S: There were so many names, families, gods, stories within stories … Everything felt very thrown at the reader and it was very hard to follow at times. It made it very hard for me to read more than a few chapters at a time, so the entire thing lacked fluidity in my opinion.

• Final thoughts:

E.: I feel like this book is really good but because I was not in the mood to read it, it was harder to follow the story and to enjoy the book. Lore is quite big; it can be a little discouraging to read. I liked that the book was separated into different parts. I enjoyed the characters and their story. I would not mind a short story about what happens after the event of Lore.

S: I liked the more adult take that this book had on mythology, and how the subjects were treated. The premise in itself was quite nice, very original, and I appreciate the fact that it’s a standalone because I have the nasty habit of never finishing my sagas (oops). The lack of fluidity really got to me, but apart from that, it’s a fun read.

• What’s next?

E.: Between work and my personal life, it is hard at the moment to read books. I started Any Way the Wind Blows by Rainbow Rowell but it is taking me quite some time to read. However, I have found a new passion for Webtoons. I have been an avid reader of Lore Olympus and decided to search for more story on the website. I am currently reading multiples Webtoons and it’s quite refreshing because it is easy to read.

S: I’ve been trying to finish series I’ve started, so right now I’m reading the two last installments in the Shades of Magic trilogy. I’m also really into audiobooks these days so I’ve been listening to Sapiens, which is an incredible book.