Review: Icons

Title: Icons

Author: Margaret Stohl

Rating: ★★★★ (4/5 Stars) [A definite must read]

I just finished reading Icons by Margaret Stohl, who was also the co-author of the Beautiful Creatures series (before we start, let me take a second to gush about how much I loved the Beautiful Creatures series). Hearing that Stohl was going out on a limb and publishing something on her own actually really excited me. I wanted to see how well she wrote on her own, without the help of another author like Kami Garcia (up until Icons, I've never read anything that Stohl has written by herself). I'm glad to report that I really enjoyed the story!

Basically, the story is about the world in the future, where thirteen Icons descend from the heavens and land in different cities. The world is turned upside down and is dictated by the Lords--these Icons have the power to stop a heartbeat and destroy everything. Unless you're one of the Icon Children, you'll die if you get too close to the field of energy pulsing from one of the Icons. The Icon Children, of course, are exactly what our four main characters (Tima, Lucas, Ro and Dol) are. After an interesting turn of events, they become part of a rebellion to take down all of the thirteen Icons--but will they succeed?

I thought this was a very good book--it was well-written, it was different, and it was interesting. Props to Stohl. The only thing that I wasn't entirely keen on was the way that Lucas was so flighty in the decision of whether or not he wanted to be a part of the Rebellion. I kept finding myself getting almost annoyed with him--why can't the dude just pick a side?

So, onto my ever-famous list of pros and cons!

Pros:

It kept me hooked. Lately, it's been becoming increasingly more difficult for me to be able to find a book that I really get into. I've been reading boring fluff and those sleepy books that we have to read in English class--I missed something gripping. My mood instantly shifted from bored to excited when my library called me and told me that yes, Icons had finally come in for me! The plot was interesting enough that whenever I'd put the book down to do something else, I'd constantly be itching to pick it up again. 

Note: I also had a lot of "Oh, I'll just read one more chapter!" moments. Which, of course, resulted in sitting and reading 5-6 chapters instead of just "one more." Sometimes it just gets too good to stop!

Cons:

Some things were a bit unclear. *SPOILER ALERT* When the Padre died, I had to go back and re-read those paragraphs a couple of times, because it happened so fast and wasn't entirely clear, so I kept saying, "What?!" One minute, Dol was daydreaming, and the next, the Padre was smiling and just...dead. I originally thought that it was part of Dol's freak daydream-nightmare. So in the next chapter, when I realized that he's really dead, I was just very, very confused.

All in all, a good story. :) I was glad that I fought with my library to be the first one to read it when it came in! I really hope that this wasn't the only book and that a series is going to stem off of this one--because it was just that good!