LORE

This book just released on the 5th and it was a must have for me. It's a little longer and I've been working, so I couldn't devour it in a day like I wanted to. But it is SO GOOD. 

The premise is that the Greek (and other) deities actually exist. Zeus got pissed at them centuries ago and created the Agon. Once every seven years, certain deities become mortal and can be hunted and killed by the bloodlines of various heroes. If you kill a god, you take their power and become the new version of them. 

So this hunt has been going on for ages and the story is set in the modern age. It centers on Lore (short for Melora), who is the last of her Perseus line. She thinks she's escaped from the horrors of the Agon and the life of the Blooded, but she gets roped back into it when the goddess Athena comes to her for help. 

I loved this so much that I'm not going to spoil much of anything at all, so not many plot details here. I liked a lot of the characters, but discussing them is also spoilery. 

I will say that if you liked Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Hunger Games, Divergent, and other teens save the world-type of novels, you'll want to check this out. It's definitely more mature than those series. It's got world-building that reminds me of Game of Thrones. Game of Thrones lite maybe. I mean, the book is nowhere near Martin's typical A Song of Ice and Fire lengths. But the different bloodline houses are definitely reminiscent of GoT, as well as a lot of the more antiquated viewpoints that the Blooded are stuck in. 

If you're curious about the Bloodlines, they're descendants of Herakles, Cadmus, Perseus, Odysseus, Jason, Theseus, Achilles, Bellerophon, and Meleager. 

There is definitely a lot of misogyny in the story. It's blended into the world of the Blooded. Women aren't supposed to ever kill the gods and take their powers. They're not supposed to be the archons of the houses. They can fight and several are hunters or "lionesses" who fight for their archons but won't take the killing blow. There are also some traditions that still remain from the old days, like having groups of young girls in each house for breeding purposes and marrying at the fabulous age of...twelve. So yeah, expect misogyny. It's presented as a bad thing, so don't think it's not, but there's some uncomfortable stuff here. Lore even addresses it with Athena, asking her why she never mentored a female hero and questioning her about the Medusa myth. My only nitpick about this is that there's a bit of backstory where Lore's a sexual assault survivor. It almost plays into her character more than coming home and finding her parents and little sisters murdered. I feel like it could easily have been taken out and not changed the story at all. The trauma of her family's murder is enough to drive Lore. She doesn't have to be an assault survivor, too. Not to say those aren't traumatic events, but they're so often used as character development or defining features of strong female characters. It's a trope to have rape or sexual assault be part of a female lead's tragic past. You don't see male leads with rape as part of theirs, so why is it so often used for women? I honestly liked everything about the book except that one bit.

Speaking of female heroes, they could easily have included Atalanta instead of Meleager. I don't recall her even being mentioned. Hmm.

The whole thing reads like an action movie. I could see this easily being turned into a series. I don't think a single movie would do it justice. I definitely give it a very high recommendation.

MUSE SQUAD 1

 
I think this was an Amazon suggestion for me and boy, was it a good one. 

I'm a sucker for anything Greek myth-based so of course this is right up my alley. 

The main idea is that the power of the muses lives on throughout different women. Each woman has different abilities based on the muse she represents and all nine aren't always active at the same time. They're mortal, so they can die, and it can be a while before the next muse awakens her powers, something that usually happens during a time of dire need. 

Our main character is Calliope, called Callie, an eleven-year-old Cuban-American girl from Miami. She represents, duh, Calliope, the muse of epic poetry. Calliope is supposed to be the oldest and most powerful, so Callie's ability is to create heroes, people who discover how to be their best selves basically. Every muse inspires, but she REALLY inspires. 

The other members of the "junior muses" or Muse Squad are:

Thalia, the redhead from London, who represents Thalia, the muse of comedy. She's the comic relief and her powers are mostly used to make people laugh or act silly as a distraction, but she could easily make you laugh yourself into an asylum if she had to. 

Nia, a science-obsessed black girl from Chicago, who represents Urania, the muse of astronomy. She's more general science here, though Nia is really into NASA and space. 

Mela, the cat-obsessed, bird-hating, country music-loving girl from New Delhi. She represents Melpomene, the muse of tragedy, so she and Thalia are an amusing pair. Mela's powers are the most terrifying, because she brings tragic moments into people's minds and cripples them with grief. (She's my favorite.)

The older muses are led by Clio (representing Clio, muse of history), who works at the Victoria & Albert Museum that the muses use as a headquarters. Their HQ is always in a museum with magical entry points for each girl to travel to from her hometown. Then there's Etoro (love poetry), who's an old woman from Nigeria, and Paola from Colombia, who represents Polyhymnia (sacred poetry). The remaining two are college-age. Tomiko is from Tokyo and she's representing Terpsichore (dance) while Elnaz from Istanbul is Euterpe (she's supposed to be flutes and lyric poetry, but they're using "music" for the book).

The four younger girls are tasked with protecting a Fated One from the sirens, who are three shapeshifters that love to cause chaos and sow doubt. The mission has a lot of ups and downs, but as you can imagine, it does end successfully. All the problems are solved in typical middle-grade dramatic action style. Yeah, I'm being very vague to avoid spoilers. 

I really enjoyed this. I liked a lot of the characters and it's got good diversity. The vast majority of the characters aren't white, which is really nice. Thalia might be the only one actually. And maybe Clio? I can't remember if Clio's ever really described that thoroughly. There are a lot of Hispanic characters from many different countries and a couple Haitians, too. I'm not sure I've ever read a book of this type with one Haitian character much less two. 

My only real nitpick is the same problem I have with a lot of these. I love Harry Potter and Percy Jackson and all that, but I do get tired of children being given extraordinary power and being stronger than the adults. Why is an eleven-year-old girl made into the strongest muse? Why couldn't they all have equal power levels? I feel like that would make more sense instead of falling into the pattern of The New Kid Is Really Strong and Saves the Day. 

It's a minor nitpick though. Really it is. I'm looking forward to a sequel.