Publisher: Little Brown
Pages: 428pgs
The Story
Everything changed on The Day. The day the windows shattered. The day the power stopped. The day Dol's family dropped dead. The day Earth lost a war it didn't know it was fighting.
Since then, Dol has lived a simple life in the countryside -- safe from the shadow of the Icon and its terrifying power. Hiding from the one truth she can't avoid.
She's different. She survived. Why?
When Dol and her best friend, Ro, are captured and taken to the Embassy, off the coast of the sprawling metropolis once known as the City of Angels, they find only more questions. While Ro and fellow hostage Tima rage against their captors, Dol finds herself drawn to Lucas, the Ambassador's privileged son. But the four teens are more alike than they might think, and the timing of their meeting isn't a coincidence. It's a conspiracy.
Within the Icon's reach, Dol, Ro, Tima, and Lucas discover that their uncontrollable emotions -- which they've always thought to be their greatest weaknesses -- may actually be their greatest strengths.
Your heart beats only with their permission.
Everything changed on The Day. The day the windows shattered. The day the power stopped. The day Dol's family dropped dead. The day Earth lost a war it didn't know it was fighting.
Since then, Dol has lived a simple life in the countryside -- safe from the shadow of the Icon and its terrifying power. Hiding from the one truth she can't avoid.
She's different. She survived. Why?
When Dol and her best friend, Ro, are captured and taken to the Embassy, off the coast of the sprawling metropolis once known as the City of Angels, they find only more questions. While Ro and fellow hostage Tima rage against their captors, Dol finds herself drawn to Lucas, the Ambassador's privileged son. But the four teens are more alike than they might think, and the timing of their meeting isn't a coincidence. It's a conspiracy.
Within the Icon's reach, Dol, Ro, Tima, and Lucas discover that their uncontrollable emotions -- which they've always thought to be their greatest weaknesses -- may actually be their greatest strengths.
The Review
After already being a fan of the Beautiful Creatures series, it was a nice change to see how Margaret Stohl writes for herself and how she will branch out into her own story rather than being known as a co-author of a book series. For her own debut of sorts, ICONS, I thought it was the type of read where I wasn't sure what to expect from it at first since the genre is quite a popular one, but in the end I'm really glad that I decided to read it anyway despite the average reviews it's been receiving lately because this book actually surprised me in many ways and I really enjoyed it. Loved it even.
Now from what I've just read of the book, the author is such a splendid storyteller and knows how to take on her own original ideas and make them interesting. Or rather make them pop out to the reader. While Stohl's world-building wasn't necessarily her strongest suit as I still had so many questions about the origins of the 'aliens' that have invaded the Earth (because from what I understand of the series it had many things to do with aliens and yet we saw none at all which was a shame really considering I love aliens and all) but what made this story flow, exciting and fast-paced was the characters that we were soon introduced to. They, in my opinion, made the story for what it is and I loved them all in their own special way. Especially Dol, Ro and Lucas. Those three were one of the most interesting characters in the entire book and I can't wait to see how they will develop in the future books of the series.
Overall, ICONS is a wonderful start to a YA series and for what it's worth I think it was a great sci-fi book with plenty to love about it so I'm looking forward to the sequel now!
The Rating
4/5 stars