Icons by Margaret Stohl

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 Day. The Day refers to when the alien lords descended upon earth, planting Icons within thirteen major cities. The alien structures ensure compliance, the thread of a repeat of The Day looms over the heads of the remaining population. The Day brought instant death to anyone within the city... Except Dol. Dol was found as an infant, alone with two deceased parents. She was taken to the wild grasslands, to a small community living outside of the Icon epicenter.

Ro is an orphan, and sees a kindred spirit in Dol, having both grown up under the watchful eye of the grassland community. Ro and Dol aren't your average teens, they're different... Very different. Dol is sorrow, she can sense emotions, thoughts and feelings. She can lessen the heavy emotional burden for Ro. Ro is full of anger and rage. He can snap at a moments notice. It isn't until the embassy soldiers storm the grasslands successfully capture Dol, that they realise just how special they are.

The ambassador has sent for them, the icon children, with the full set of four now within the confines of the embassy. It seems the teens have more in common than they realise, all born on the same day, a year before the invasion. With only an A.I computer and a travelling Merk who is willing to tell them who they are, what they are  and how they may just be humanity's last hope.
 
Icons reminded me of And All The Stars by Andrea K Höst, where alien towers had risen throughout the cities, specifically Sydney. Same premise, but Icons didn't feel as engaging. Up until I was half way through, I really couldn't comprehend the concept of the Icons, the Lords and The Day. The data reports throughout the book, where we see numerous correspondences to the Ambassador, only aided my confusion, also why the majority of characters were of Latino or Mexican decent.

It wasn't until I was through around three quarters, that it begun to engage me and the concept started clicking into place. Perhaps my thoughts were clouded due to a recent science fiction, alien invasion novel I recently read as well.

Well written, but it was too frustrating. I needed more of an explanation earlier in the novel to invest in the complex storyline.

Goodreads
Icons
(Icons: Book One)
Written By Margaret Stohl
Published: 07 / 05 / 2013
428 Pages 

2 comments

  1. This sounds pretty interesting, but I don't think it's for me. I always need my explanations beforehand, or else I go mad trying to figure it out on my own. xD Awesome review! :D

    Daphne @ Reading Until Dawn

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    Replies
    1. Hi Daphne and thanks for popping by.

      It wasn't terrible by any means, but I would only really recommend it for science fiction fans. There was just too much going on within the storyline for me. Modified supernatural kids, alien invasions, a dystopian world. I think readers wont be able to help compare it to The 5th Wave, which was incredible.

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