This is book 2 of the series. For our summary and review of book 1, The Games Gods Play, check out this link for our spoiler-free review or this link for our more in-depth review!
Book Stats
- Format: ebook
- Chapters: 104, with 1 epilogue
- Pages: 671
- POV: 1st person, told from both Lyra’s and Hades’s POVs
Book Rating
Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Spice: 🌶️🌶️/5
Summary
This review DOES contain spoilers from the book. If you’d prefer a review without spoilers, please check out this post instead!
The Things Gods Break is the second book in the Crucible trilogy. It is a romantasy and a modern-day retelling of Greek mythology. In the first book, Lyra Keres was forced to compete in a deadly competition as Hades’s champion. The goal was to try to survive, of course, but also win Hades the title of King of the Gods. After winning (barely), Hades made Lyra Queen of the Underworld in order to save her.
Additionally, Boone takes over as the God of thieves and Hades uses his power as King of the Gods to demand Pandora’s Box, which he planned to use to save Persephone from Tartarus, the prison world that houses the titans. Unfortunately, the first book ends with Lyra and her best friend, Boone, getting pulled into Tartarus, trapped with violent and destructive beings.
This is where our journey starts in The Things Gods Break. Lyra and Boone were pulled into Tartarus by Cronos, king of the titans and Hades’s father. Right away, Lyra sees the door to leave Tartarus is closed and locked. She also notices that Persephone isn’t around, only Cronos. Persephone was meant to be waiting for Hades to pull her out.
As Lyra talks, Cronos shushes her, informing her that if she isn’t quiet, she’ll wake “them”, some sort of creature. This, of course, makes no sense to Lyra so she believes Cronos is just going a little mad after being trapped in Tartarus for so long. We eventually learn that the chiming of the bell causes the titans to all run and hide. The bell signals the release of the Pandemonium. Evil, invisible creatures that cause pain and mayhem.
Right after her arrival, Cronos picks up Lyra, telling her she’ll be their savior. Then as a bell rings out, he throws her right off the edge and into an abyss of nothing. It’s during this fall that Lyra experiences her first time travel event. Throughout this book, there are several times that red glowy crystals show up and transport Lyra to another place and time. During these encounters, she sees Hades at various ages. He is suspicious of her and she had been informed by the titans not to interfere with time or give Hades much information, as it could alter everything. But the less she says, the more weary Hades becomes.
After her little time travel adventure, Lyra arrives in the first of seven locks which she must unseal in order to gain freedom from Tartarus. Unfortunately, this means that the Titans would also be freed, so she’s trying to figure out a way to keep that from happening.
While struggling to survive each lock, as well as Tartarus itself, Lyra learns devastating truths about what really happened with the titans and gods all those years ago. The titans aren’t the villains everyone believes them to be. Someone had cast glamours on all the gods, forcing them to believe horrific lies that led to the war with the titans and their imprisonment.
We also encounter Persephone, who we learn was brought to Tartarus 150 years ago, but she isn’t sure by who or why. Lyra discovers that she has been to Tartarus before, facing these locks many times in alternate lives. She obviously hasn’t succeeded, as the titans remain trapped. We learn that every time she fails, Cronos resets time. They knew Lyra would be the one to save them because it was prophesied, so they kept ensuring she would live and come back to Tartarus. But during this visit, everything changed. This is the first time someone came with her – Boone.
We also learn that when Persephone first arrived in Tartarus she, like many of the titans before her, had used the time crystals to leave for brief periods of time. She would always appear near Boone, however. They recognized each other upon Boone’s arrival to Tartarus, but Boone refused to discuss anything with her. His encounters with her had him believing she was a thief who continuously foiled his scores and then ditched him after an intimate encounter they shared.
Several times that Lyra time travels to other locations, so does Boone. They don’t travel together and they’re gone for varying lengths of time. Sometimes it’s minutes, sometimes a week. Time is different in Tartarus, though, and sometimes they appear in the same moment they left, though sometimes it’s much later.
During her time traveling, we learn many interesting things, such as Aphrodite is not a goddess, but rather a titaness. Her powers were somehow bound by Rhea, Hades’s mother. We also learn that Cronos’s father attempted to kill Hades as a child, due to a prophecy. But Lyra had traveled back to that time and saved child Hades. Additionally, we learn how one of Hades’s axes went missing and how it ended up as Lyra’s relic 10 years ago.
The titans help train Boone and Lyra for the upcoming locks. Past versions of Lyra have made it through the various challenges, so they know what to expect. Except for the very last lock – Aphrodite’s. She never made it out of that one.
The first lock: Hestia’s
In Hestia’s lock, Lyra appears in her old room in the Den of Thieves. Hestia claims it can only be opened by one willing to give up what they want most. She states that within the lock, Lyra will be tested without powers, so they’re stripped away and she becomes mortal again. This is why the Titans can’t open the locks. Without their powers, they’re nothing. A couple had died trying before they realized.
More than anything, Lyra had always wanted a family to belong to. In Hestia’s lock, her parents show up to take her home. She also had felt she belonged within the Den of Thieves, as a master thief and Boone’s partner. With her memories fading away, she has to fight to remember what’s real.
Once making the decision to give up the life she had always wanted, she is able to see the glamours and enchantments. Her parents become gray, sinewy creatures that her and Boone must defeat.
The second lock: Hades’s
In this lock, Lyra and Boone appear at a racetrack, where they see 4 horses made of smoke. To pass this test, Hades states that they must beat his Hell horses in a race of 7 laps. Hades states that Lyra can drive a chariot, calling on any god or goddess’s powers. They don’t have to use the same horses for entire race and Hades states as long as his team loses, it doesn’t matter if Lyra or Boone crosses first.
Lyra and Boone call on the powers of several gods and goddesses, working together to win the race.
The third lock: Demeter’s
To unseal this lock, Lyra must make it through 3 stages of a test. At the start of each stage, she is required to drink a hallucinogenic drink, making each stage more difficult. To open this lock, Lyra must face her own hatred. The first test is her mother showing up, forcing Lyra to relive the day that her parents gave her to the Order of Thieves. Lyra must decide whether she will save her mother, despite the pain and anger she caused. The second test is to save Chance, the bully pledge from the Order of Thieves or let him perish. For the third test, she is transported to Athena’s labor in the Colosseum, right when Dex was about to kill Meike. This Lyra wanted to save Meike, but Hades stopped her. When she transports back to Demeter’s lock, the person she must save is the past Lyra who just completed Athena’s labor and let Meike die.
The fourth lock: Poseidon’s
We don’t actually get a lot of detail about this lock. This is the main one the titans helped train Lyra and Boone for. It’s explained that it’s a type of obstacle course that has large moving/spinning hammers and if Lyra or Boone fall off the course, they land in electrified water that is very painful. Due to the training, Lyra and Boone were ready and able to unseal the lock.
The fifth lock: Hera’s
Based on information provided by past Lyras, the titans knew this was a test of optimism and Lyra had to endure child birth. However, this time the lock changed its test. Lyra and Boone had to get to land by steering a ship through stormy waters, with only the stars to guide them. Thankfully, something had changed and time now reset prior to Hera’s lock, since it took 23 times to complete this challenge.
The sixth lock: Zeus’s
Lyra was in another time and Boone didn’t know how long she would be gone, so he went ahead and attempted to unlock this one himself. Boone was thrown in the middle of the power of nature, forced to outrun 4 elements: a volcanic eruption, a tornado, a tsunami, and an earthquake. There were safe places to hide if Boone could find them, but the safe areas were constantly moving around and changing, making it difficult. Boone unsealed the lock, but was severely injured doing it.
The seventh lock: Aphrodite’s
Right before they plan to jump into this lock, Cronos takes Boone’s place, even knowing the titans can’t survive having their powers removed in the locks. Cronos and Lyra had grown close and this was a heartbreaking moment, but it was the only way to succeed.
For her lock, Aphrodite says that it takes sacrifice to test the purity of Lyra’s intent. Two hearts must enter, one for the fire and one to be set free by the ultimate act of pure love. Cronos sacrifices himself for Lyra.
After this lock is unsealed, Lyra receives a final parting gift from Cronos. His power of time is transferred to her, making her the goddess of time. The door to Tartarus unlocks and the titans, Persephone, Lyra, and Boone are able to leave.
Upon entering the Underworld, there’s a group of glamoured gods and goddesses who plan to fight the titans and force them back into the prison. They don’t attack Lyra though, as they need her to calm Hades, who has been destroying Olympus. His fear and worry about Lyra being trapped in Tartarus spiraled into destruction and until he knew Lyra was safe, there was no stopping him.
Lyra, having traveled back in time to meet and train with Cronos, learns how to use the power of time. She is able to reverse time before Olympus and Tartarus were destroyed, but without resealing the locks in Tartarus. The gods all remember what happened before the time reset, though, and they strip Hades of his power and immortality. Zeus states they must have a God of Death, however, so it’s decided that they will hold yet another competition.
My Review:
This story includes time travel, which was fine at first, but increasingly became more confusing and overwhelming as the story went on. I was able to follow along, but at times the story just felt a little too chaotic and messy. That’s the primary reason I’m giving 4 stars instead of 5. I loved the story and the characters, but things started to feel rushed, with too many points being thrown together. I did love that throughout this book, we got some chapters with Hades’s POV. That gave his character more depth and explained some of the situations that took place in book 1. It was also fun to see that there was something going on between Persephone and Boone, so hopefully book 3 will give us more details on that.
Based on our spice rating, I gave this 2 chili peppers. There were a few intimate scenes, though they were minimal and only vaguely descriptive. However, it was more than just kissing or fade-to-black.
Abigail Owen does a wonderful job of writing a romantasy that includes plenty of tension and strong, enjoyable characters. I enjoy the romance aspects of the book and I love that the main focus isn’t spice, but rather the plot and the constant struggle to survive. The scene with Cronos in Aphrodite’s lock was heartbreaking, but so well done. I had hoped he’d survive and reunite with Hades, but I think the sacrifice being part of the lock was a beautiful idea.
Now I just have to impatiently wait for book 3 to come out!
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