Tuesday 16 April 2013

ICONS - MARGARET STOHL - REVIEW

Book: Icons
Author: Margaret Stohl
Publisher: HarperVoyager
ISBN: 9780007520831
Rating: A

The first book in a breathtaking new series from Beautiful Creatures co-author 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. 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.

Where do I begin with this. I was anticipating this for a long time and the moment it arrived I read it in a night. This book is crammed full with every single thing you could want. Action, romance, sic-fi, dystopian. Just everything.

The plot was really interesting, because although it was dystopian it had a sic-fi crossover which was really nice. In fact sci-fi is starting to make a break in the YA market and surprisingly I'm loving it! The  story is really unique and is set in a sort of post apocalyptic world, in which aliens have taken over and there are four children with marking that save them. To sum it up it's I am number four meets the host meets divergent. Three of my favourite book so naturally I loved it.

We followed a girl named Dol [oria] and how she is ripped from the safety of the hideouts and plunged into a the governments hands. We follow her as she makes allies and enemies and learns to use her powers.
The plot is so fun. Fun is because i mean it has absolutely everything. It's such a unique idea and so perfect in every way. It satisfied all my needs, with action, tech, dystopia, romance and powers. I couldn't stop reading. Every way through the book i was intrigued and every chapter had me reading the next. Impossible to put down. Every last drop of it. It thrilled me, it made me sad, it evoked everything a book should and at the end I was lost, because an amazing book had ended I had nothing left to do.

I knew that the writing would be different, because this time it was all Stohl and no Garcia. I was not disappointed. The writing held a certain charm about it, whimsical yet hard hitting and fast. It build vivd and crisp images in your mind and scenes which played out easily. The description was so beautiful and because of the focus of the book being on emotions, the emotional description made you so connected. The dialogue was perfect and each characters really shone through.

Stohl handled action scenes really well, because sometimes authors an pace them too fast, but not once did i find me self wanting to go back or pace down. Every single page of this book had me going and drinking the novel up. 

Setting. As for setting the world is overrun and destroyed and thirteen main cities remain, governed my ambassador chosen by the aliens. The book is predominantly set in LA, or what's left of it, but in the government building, not the ram shackled down under city called the 'hole'. Though in the beginning we find ourselves in a rebellion hideout, so the speak. The locations were so perfect In every aspect, that you wanted to be there every part of the way. Just the way Stohl created this world had me intrigued and captivated.


All the characters in this book were created to perfection. I really think the focus of emotion helped us to connect to the characters and become them and although Dol was written in first person, i felt he unique power helped us to slip into the shoes of any of the characters. The charatcers were all built up extremely well, and as the book progressed we knew them better, as they came out of their shells. That's something I loved the Stohl did. She kept the characters reserved and hostile and opened them up as the book opened up. all the characters became my friends and I loved being beside them all the way till the end.


Over all this is a stunning book and a terrific addition to the YA genre.  It was the most amazing exhilarating thrilling unique book I've read for a long time! I Loved it to smithereens and I am raring for number 2.

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