Been on a bit of a mythology kick lately, and this title was recommended to me, so I took a swing.
Lore Perseous is the last of her line. Her parents and sisters were brutally murdered by a rival line at the tail end of the Agon: a “tournament” of sorts that happens every seven years wherein descendants of ancient bloodlines hunt nine of the Greek gods in mortal form for a week. If someone is able to kill a god, they get their immortality and power.
After her family’s death, Lore ran away from the Agon and started over in New York City: hiding from everyone in her previous life.
Here it is Agon time again, and, as luck would have it, it is in New York City. Determined to stay out of it, Lore keeps doing what she’s always done, but is approached by her old training partner, Castor, and then a very wounded Athena shows up on her doorstep.
Lore can run no more.
By and large I enjoyed this book, and it was a fast and easy read. There were some stumbles in the worldbuilding, but nothing Earth shattering to note.
The action builds up, and the intrigue gets deeper and deeper. There are so many more conspiracies than anyone would have imagined, and more and more of Lore’s life gets dragged into the fray.
Then I got to the end, and was so incredibly disappointed. In a matter of paragraphs, Ms. Bracken took this well-developed story, and quite literally shat on the effort of the characters. Yeah, I get the intentionality of what happened, but that was a serious groaner. Yes, this is a Disney Hyperion released book, but it could have retained a little edge until close.