



I built an EPUB reader that helps you keep track of characters while reading
I've been working on an EPUB reader called Lore, mainly because I kept running into the same problem with books that have large casts: forgetting who a character is, what they've done before, or whether two different names actually refer to the same person.
The idea is that you can import an EPUB and, while you read, Lore builds a companion for that book.
Some of the main features:
- Character tracking — see the characters in the book, their descriptions, aliases, relationships, and role in the story.
- Character timelines — follow what has happened to a specific character in chronological order.
- Character portraits — characters get visual representations based on how they're described in the book.
- Talk to characters — you can have conversations with characters or ask questions about the book.
- Spoiler protection — information is limited to the part of the book you've already reached, so character pages and answers don't reveal things that happen later.
- Quick character lookup — if a name appears while you're reading, you can quickly check who that person is instead of searching through previous chapters.
I also made a couple of web demos so you can see the core idea without downloading anything:
A Game of Thrones:
https://lore-demo.web.app/?book=a-game-of-thrones
The Count of Monte Cristo:
https://lore-demo.web.app/?book=the-count-of-monte-cristo
And here's the app itself:
Lore:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lore-dive-into-book-worlds/id6757860326
I'm still actively working on it, especially on making the character extraction and spoiler protection as reliable as possible.
I'd genuinely be interested in hearing what people who read EPUBs think about the idea — particularly whether character tracking is something you'd actually use while reading, and what you'd want an EPUB reader like this to do differently.