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Thursday, March 20, 2014

Book Review: Icons (Icons #1) by Margaret Stohl

Title: Icons (Icons #1)
Author: Margaret Stohl
Pages: 448
Publication: May 7, 2013
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Summary taken from goodreads:
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. 
Bestselling author Margaret Stohl delivers the first book in a heart-pounding series set in a haunting new world where four teens must piece together the mysteries of their pasts -- in order to save the future.
3 STARS - I LIKED IT

MY REVIEW:

Last year, I tried to read BEAUTIFUL CREATURES, which Margaret Stohl famously coauthored. Unfortunately, I couldn't get into the book. It was just too slow-paced and I felt like it was trying too hard being mysterious.

That's why I was a little wary about reading ICONS. However, I was pleasantly proven wrong once I started reading the book. It was interesting and fast enough paced that I was quickly speeding through the book to finally get some answers.

The concept of the story itself was pretty cool and original. I liked that this was about another species that took over the Earth, but the way they were explained was so vague, I hardly knew anything about them other than the fact that the Icons were--and continue being--the reason why no human has been able to fight back. However, like most series, nothing is ever fully explained, especially in the first book.

Anyway, I also liked how there were files and notes in between each chapter. They either added to or help slowly solve the mystery.

While I liked all of the characters, especially Doc, I felt like I didn't know them that well. Even though ICONS takes place from Dol's point of view, I never really knew much about what she was thinking. There were so many things going on one after another, she never had much chance to think about things. And she was always repressing her feelings and in a constant state of confusion because no one ever explains what's going on, so I feel like I didn't really get to know her that well until the very end. And that goes for the other characters too; I got to find out about their pasts, but there weren't many details and I didn't get really know them that well besides from what Dol felt from them. Hopefully they will be clearer in the next book.

If you have enough time, I would definitely recommend this book. Although it's pretty thick, it doesn't take too long to read once you get sucked into the story.

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