Book Review: Icons by Margaret Stohl

Published May 7th, 2013
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
448 pages (Hardcover)

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. (From Goodreads)

The idea behind Icons is fantastic.  Aliens have taken control of Earth.  Great, I love dystopian.  I like aliens.  We're all set.  Unfortunately, I don't feel that that fantastic idea panned out.

The world that was created was very confusing.  Some parts were explained thoroughly  while others weren't.  Events were mentioned without any explanation whatsoever, yet it still felt like a ton of the book was dedicated to world-building.  It got confusing and frustrating trying to make sense of everything.

Dol wasn't my favourite characters ever.  In fact, she might be one of my least favourite characters ever.  She was scatterbrained and confusing and didn't make me want to read the book.  The rest of the characters were fine.  I actually really enjoyed Ro, Lucas and Tima.  I also enjoyed the "superpower" aspect of the story, and the way that was ingrained with their personalities.

World-building was this book's downfall.  There were just too many question and too few answers.  Maybe future books will remedy this, but for now, I am left unsatisfied.

Much love, Samantha