Lore - Alexandra Bracken

Initial Draw: ☆☆☆☆
Character Development: ☆☆☆☆☆
Plot/Writing Style: ☆☆☆☆☆
Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"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 Lore 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."

📚📚📚

 Dude...the plot twists in this book. I knew it would be good, and I'll tell you what, it did not disappoint. It isn't often that a twist throws me for a loop, but Lore left me reeling MULTIPLE times. It helps that there's like...deep deep lore (ha...pun not intended) that the reader is learning as they progress through the story, so sometimes it felt like I was just barely keeping my head above water with all of that, but MAN. Truly got me so good, in the most satisfying ways. Truly, reading this felt like swinging along a series of ropes or something, trying not to drop, and as soon as you thought you were in a rhythm and had a grasp on things, it was like NOPE! So masterfully done.

I want to talk details, but I don't know how to without potentially spoiling things, so I'll just say the characters - top notch. The plot develops at a great pace, with more detail revealed at intervals where you're juuuuuust starting to get frustrated, and then ope, here's another little kernel for you, my desperate reader, I hope you enjoy! 

I think my one wish after finishing this is that there had been a little more actual God lore included, not just the house lore, but honestly, this book was SO long, I truly don't know if that would have been feasible. And I think if it came down to more details about the pantheon and maybe making this a duology or less and keeping it a standalone book, I would come down on the side of standalone book. There are so few standalone fantasy books with solidly developed worlds, I really loved that. Plus even though we didn't get a lot of pantheon lore, what we got...was good. So hey, maybe I have no wishes. This was a great book!

The Only Road by Alexandra Diaz and musings on empathy

 This isn't even a review, I don't know what it is...but I finished reading The Only Road last night, and I don't know if a book has ever made me so emotional. It took me a while to finish because I had to take so many breaks to process those emotions, and I think more people should read books like this. It's a prime example of what freedom to read folks talk about when they praise the way reading exposes people to other viewpoints and helps (kids especially) learn and develop empathy. It puts you in the shoes of someone you may not otherwise understand in a way that just...frankly tore my heart out.

That said, I was thinking about some people in my life that I wish would read a book like this, and I realized that truthfully, even if they did I don't think it would make them feel any type of way. I don't think it would make them take a look at their attitudes about immigration, particularly people who come into the United States "illegally" (no one is illegal on stolen land, abolish ICE, our legal immigration system is a joke and seeking asylum is a fucking human right), and I think many of them are so dug in to their hateful rhetoric that they would manage to find a way to blame people in positions like the characters in The Only Road for the situation they were in.

And that just makes me sad and confused. I genuinely don't understand how people can hold such hatred in their hearts and be so closeminded and cruel and then just...walk around like normal. How do you exist like that? How do you justify it? It baffles me.

I don't know. This isn't a book review, and it's mostly me having a rambly existential crisis, I guess. It's just weighing on my mind, and I figured why not put it out there. I wish more people were willing to commit the sin of empathy.

Monthly Mystery Read

Shortly before the 2024 holidays, a meme started going around where as a "gift" someone was given 12 wrapped books from their TBR shelves, each labeled for one month of the year. Two of my sisters and I decided to do that for each other, and so far it's a lot of fun looking forward to unwrapping my new book on the first of the month to discover what it is. My January book was #VeryFatVeryBrave by Nicole Byer, which was SO good. It's also pretty short and is a photography book, so has lots of (incredible) pictures, which meant that I finished on January 1st and have been impatiently waiting for my next book reveal for the rest of the year that has been January.

And at last, yesterday was the day.

At long last, the February book reveal! And the February book is...

Drumroll, please...

🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁

Yessssssssss, I'm so excited! I've read a time travel duology by Alexandra Bracken and really enjoyed it. This one is modern day Greek mythology, which like...what's not to love? I'm definitely looking forward to it - will report back when I finish!