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Icons

Icons is a YA post-apocalyptic sci-fi novel by Margaret Stohl, of co-author of Beautiful Creatures fame.

Dol is haunted by vivid memories of The Day.

Of her father, her mother – her family – dying in that moment that took so many lives.

The Day the world changed.

Even though her life now is simple and quiet, hidden in the countryside along with her best friend Ro and others, the memories still hit her hard and strong, all these years later.

It’s because of what she is.

Telepathic-like abilities and the power of feeling others emotions plague her, just as strong anger and violent tendencies do Ro
They’re different. And they don’t know why.

But when she and Ro are captured on one initially normal day they’re taken to the Embassy where they meet Lucas and Tima – both with abilities of their own.

Questions, secrets, and dangers abound as they search for answers and a chance of survival under the shadow of one of the largest Icons…

I have a copy of Beautiful Creatures that I’m going to read here as soon as I can. I’ve heard so much good about it, and I’m excited. With Icons, though, since it was sent to me for the purpose of review I needed to get to it first.

I’ll admit… I hope that Beautiful Creatures is better.

Icons
has a startling, grim, intriguing prologue as we witness Dol’s terrible memory of The Day. Quickly thereafter we are introduced to a romantic triangle that is initially relatively effective. And though confuddling, it’s fast-paced and interesting from the get-go.

My issue was that I felt Icons was lacking real grounding in characters. I didn’t feel like I was getting a good feel for them, except for their abilities that are rooted in overwhelming emotions. It wasn’t long before the romantic triangle started feel a little The Hunger Games-lite, too.

At first the plot was holding the course for me, keeping me in the book despite my ho-hum feelings about the people involved.

However, that even started to crumble for me, unfortunately. The plot continued to be unclear, in my opinion. I kept waiting for more world-building, more explanation or flashbacks or something to make this novel’s present-day more clear. That would have been, I think, extremely beneficial.

Instead, terms are thrown about and The Day is bandied around without me ever really feeling like I had a handle on it. Because of that, the action portion of Icons fell flat, as I didn’t really know what was going on.

Icons began to jump all over the place, I became more and more lost, and eventually boredom started to sink in during the last quarter.

I have to say I was rather disappointed. In fact, I’m not real confident I’ll be interested in reading the next book.

You could come to completely different conclusions and be absolutely thrilled from start to finish, though. So, read Icons for yourself, bibliophile!

I’d love to hear what you think!

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