Icons
by Margaret Stohl
Published: May 2013 by Harper Voyager
Version: Paperback from publisher (all views are my own, honest opinion)
Rating: 3.5 sofas
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.
At first it sounds very War of the Worlds-esque, as we learn of the icons that have descended around all the major cities on Earth. On The Day, a billion people were killed instantly, including Dolly’s parents. Since then, the icons have been in charge of all power. Anyone who gets close enough is wiped out by an electrical pulse.
From the beginning we know that Dolly and Ro are different, bonded together by the dots on their arms. With only each other to rely on, immediately I am backing their side. But when they are captured by the Embassy, Dolly starts to really think about and question the way icons changed the world, and her purpose in it.
This book was paced really well, it made me want to continue reading. As the book progresses it involves quite well, and we begin to know more about the Embassy and the world as whole, rather than being thrown into it at the beginning.
Character wise, Dol is the only real likeable one out of the bunch. There is the classic love triangle going on, and I can’t really understand Tima’s motive. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, I’m not even sure whether I’m meant to like her or not. Baring in mind they are meant to be the ‘good’ team, I expected to like them more. As such they are just irritating. I’m also not really sure if the meaning (point?) of the binding of dots, but I hope this is explained more in the next book.
This is a dystopian I would definitely recommend for fans of War of the Worlds. Although I found the characters quite unlikeable, I did enjoy the world building. I will be picking up the sequel to find out more about the aliens and how the story ends up. 3.5 sofas!
Snuggling On The Sofa 