REVIEW: ICONS BY MARGARET STOHL.

Title: Icons (Icons #1)
Author: Margaret Stohl
Edition: Paperback
Published: May 7, 2013
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Pages: 428
Source: Bought from National Book Store
Category: Romance, Paranormal, Dystopia
Trailer: Here.

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.

*ALERT: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.*

Icons is ummmm, an okay read, I guess.

When I first learned that Stohl was going to have another published book, I was honestly doubtful. Not because I don't like the author but because I had issues with Beautiful Creatures series. I wasn't sure if I should go and still read her next series but upon seeing the cover of Icons, the synopsis and a lot of bloggers raving about it, I thought I should give it a try. But after reading it, I was again faced with another disappointment.

Aliens invaded the earth and when the resistance tried to fight for the human race's salvation, a billion people instantly died. Several years after The Day, whatever left of the human race still tries to live day by day. Ro and Dol are teenagers marked with colored dots they don't know what represents. All they know is that they have a distinct connection with each other. On Dol's birthday, they were attacked and she was captured by the Ambassador's army and Ro almost got killed from saving her. A merk helped them escape in exchange of something valuable and Dol gave the book she received as a gift. It contains information about the Icons children. They didn't expect though that they would meet the Ambassador's son with the same dot mark and they learned they were more than what they were told.

Icons is 400 plus pages and believe it or not, the plot kind of unveiled during the last hundred pages. It wasn't slow at all, it was just the development of the story was somehow prolonged. Did that make sense? There were a lot of unnecessary things exposed but with less back up of the plot. Honestly, I didn't quite get it. Maybe am really that stupid but I don't know. I couldn't picture the plot as crystal clear as I want to. I kept asking what are the Icons, what are these characters really for, what was the invasion about (aside from the obvious), who are these Aliens or how do these creatures look like, why are these children immune to whatever electro-something these aliens make, who is Doc and how was it made super intelligent, etcetera. The world building was okay for me, wasn't really mesmerized about it. I was really expecting something different from this novel but didn't get anything except for the unique "reports" from Doc.

Dol is the main female protagonist and her "powers" were really consuming. Feeling sorrow of everyone around you and hearing their thoughts could be very tiring and I don't know how she handles it but it just didn't make sense to me. It wasn't clearly explained how these characters got their powers (or again, I might just be too stupid I didn't not understand it). She's too weak and easily manipulated. She pretty much irritated me when she was all too trusting! Come on! Would you just really trust someone who has allegiance with the reason why people suffer? Why your loved ones got killed? It was just a terrible decision! Not to mention FALLING IN LOVE WITH A STRANGER!! HOW CAN SHE CHOOSE SOMEONE SHE DOESN'T EVEN KNOW OVER HER BEST FRIEND WHO'S WILLING TO DIE FOR HER? Ugh! I can only shake my head. Good thing though, she was willing to sacrifice herself for everyone's welfare because if not, I would totally hate her. I just can't believe she did that to Ro. Ro was I guess too sensitive because of his power. The rage he feels for the simplest things was unreasonable. But I pity him. He was so clueless about his past and most of the things around him. So as Lucas. WHAT WAS HIS SIGNIFICANCE IN THIS STORY? I just can't explain enough how much I loathe how he sold the only chance of human survival! Whatever he did at the end wouldn't justify/compensate it at all!

Overall, Icons is insuperably dull. Sorry. Why am I giving it two stars instead of one? I just appreciated Stohl's attempt in trying to make a unique novel and am giving that to her because it shows. I hope the sequel would redeem itself.

"I am powerful because of who and what I am. Not because of who I am not."