Review: Icons

Info:

Title: Icons
Author: Margaret Stohl
Series: Icons #1
Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: May 7, 2013
Source: I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:

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.

Review:

This is one of those books that's tough to review. On one hand, I like the idea of an Earth that's been invaded by aliens and has descended into a dystopian state. On the other hand, I wasn't a fan of the writing style and occasionally felt like I didn't know what was going on.

I think my biggest issue was with Dol, our narrator. Dol has a "gift" which allows her to feel other people's emotions. However, in general, this power paralyzes her, since she is easily overwhelmed by other people's sadness. So, Dol's power can be kind of crappy, but you can imagine how powerful it could be. However, for most of the book, Dol just kind of moped around and went with the flow of things. She was fairly useless for about 90% of the book. And when she stops being useless, it's very sudden and kind of hard to believe.

Dol's voice as a narrator also didn't impress me. It's really choppy and involves a lot of feelings (which makes sense, based on her power). Sometimes, it made me confused about what was actually going on because I got bogged down with how Dol was feeling. And weird usage of commas. Here's an example:


I feel both of them, and it's not hard to sort out the emotions.

Hatred and anger, from Ro.

Fear and confusion, from the boy.

And another thing.

Something I encounter very rarely.

It bubbles up and out, radiating from him, filling the cave. I can practically see it.

- quote from uncorrect proof


Besides Dol and her childhood friend Ro, we meet two more special children, Tima and Lucas. Each of them have different powers, but only Lucas's is clearly explained. And, at least to me, it's way more powerful that Dol's. My favourite character was Doc . I think he is the shining point in novel.

A couple other things that bothered me were: a love triangle which didn't make sense to me (but apparently I was wrong in the end anyway ... stupid Dol) and a lack of ever seeing any actual aliens.

This review comes off a bit harsher than I meant it to. However, this one had so much potential and maybe I'm judging it more harshly because I really wanted to like it. And it wasn't terrible, by any means, but it just had so much more potential for me.

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