Lore

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2021

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Download PDF

Part 2, Chapters 16-18Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 2: “Carrying Fire”

Part 2, Chapter 16 Summary

Castor and Lore take a cab to Martha’s diner as to not leave a trail of Castor’s godly aura along the streets. There, they use the back bathroom to clean up. Lore tries to convince a distraught Castor that he had to run to stay alive, but he still feels as if he abandoned the Achillides. He thought becoming a god would finally change how the house felt about him and is disappointed that it didn’t. Lore tells him he’s always been strong because, even when he fell, “you fought your way back up” (142). Castor doesn’t believe her.

Van arrives at the diner, and Lore leads him and Castor to her apartment, filling them in about Athena. When they get there, Athena hurls a spear at Castor, which he catches “just before it lodged in his heart” (148).

Part 2, Chapter 17 Summary

Van treats Miles like dirt because Miles isn’t of the Agon, and Athena wants Castor dead, forcing Lore to work quickly to prevent bloodshed. Lore tells Athena that Wrath killed both Hermes and Tidebringer. Van adds that only 27 members of the House of Achilles remain alive and outside Kadmide control. Finally, Castor relents, telling Athena he “cannot—and will not—allow you to die” because her life is tied to Lore’s (154). Athena agrees, and Castor heals her.

Van’s sources told him the Kadmides plan to move against the Odysseides that night to capture and kill Heartkeeper (the new Aphrodite), which means they need to find any information the Odysseides have about the origin poem before then. No one knows where the Odysseides headquarters in New York is located. After the death of her family, Lore lived with the Odysseides for a while but betrayed them. She had one real friend among the Odysseides, a woman named Iro, but it’s likely Iro would kill Lore on sight. Still, Lore agrees to hunt down the Odysseides’s location. After everyone, including Miles, takes a job for the night, Lore catches a nap, her last conscious thought a memory of Iro smiling at her when she was still “oblivious to the monster in their midst” (160).

Part 2, Chapter 18 Summary

Lore wakes not feeling rested but gets out of bed anyway. She finds Van in Gil’s old room and confronts him about touching things that aren’t his. Van confesses he’s always been jealous of Lore for being fearless and, even more, for freeing herself from the Agon. He leaves Lore with the warning not to let Miles get dragged into their world. When Lore tells Van he can get out at any time, he responds that he chose to stay and isn’t leaving “before I get the ones who caged me” (164).

Downstairs, Lore finds Athena making preparations. She converted curtain rods, mops, and other regular household items into weapons and insists Lore and the others carry them, even though it is “a thousand years past when it was socially acceptable to casually carry one of these around on the street” (165). Lore disguises the weapons as mops and dusters so the group can pretend they are a cleaning crew. Armed and disguised, they leave to find the Odysseides.

Part 2, Chapters 16-18 Analysis

In Chapter 17, Lore thinks of herself as a monster because she killed the Odysseide leader. Even though the man tried to force himself on her and Lore’s act was self-preservation, the Agon’s world is so deeply engrained in Lore that she believes protecting herself makes her a monster. The Agon values men far more than women. When a man kills in battle, it is glorious. Lore faced a battle for her body and freedom. Killing her opponent made her a monster, both to herself and the Odysseides. The double standard of violence in the Agon’s world makes Lore’s reasonable action unconscionable, and it shows how a widely held belief can damage part of a population.

Van’s attitude toward Miles builds on the double standard within the Agon. Within the Agon, there is a hierarchy, but those in the Agon’s world also think themselves better than unblooded (regular) mortals. Miles is also gay, and since he and Van end the book as a couple, Van is either also gay or bisexual. In addition to women, the Agon’s world looks down on the weak (such as Castor) and those who don’t embody the ideal male leader (straight men). Bracken uses these characteristics of the Agon and ancient Greek culture to comment on how modern-day sexism, ableism, and privilege lead to fewer opportunities for marginalized groups.