Review: Icons by Margaret Stohl

Title: Icons (Book #1)
Author: Margaret Stohl
Paperback, 433 pages
Publication: May 2013 by Little, Brown Books

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 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 were their greatest weaknesses - may actually be their greatest strengths.

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REVIEW:

I always get excited when I learn books are part of a series (and then a little sad knowing I have to wait about a year to learn what happens next). In Stohl’s new series we follow four teenagers and their struggle against the almighty Embassy. You may think you’ve read this story-line before (and maybe you have), but not like this.

Stohl takes an interesting approach with this book... First of all, the book is narrated by the character Dol, so we see everything from her perspective. She lives a simple life after surviving a devastating past. What’s different with Stohl’s style is that at the end of each chapter, she’s attached a communication of some sort from the Embassy. The accompanying text are emails, reports, handwritten notes, etc. that are related to Dol in some way but of which she is not an active participant. What’s also interesting is the text varies from the past to future events, giving the reader insight to this other world Dol and her friends know nothing about but fears so greatly. It teases the reader and sometimes even makes you worry about the future of these four individuals. It seems like a jumbled mess, but helps you slowly piece everything together.

Icons only came out in May, so you won't see book 2 until next year... but I can’t wait!