Icons by Margaret Stohl Review

"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."

Icons has to be great. That was my thinking in the beginning. After Margaret Stohl is the author who co-written Beautiful Creatures. (Remember how horrible Beautiful Darkness and Beautiful Chaos was.) Well, Icons turn out to be similar to Beautiful Creatures. There's differences, of course (like the main character being a girl [Dol] instead of a boy [Ethan] and Icons is mainly technology while Beautiful Creatures is magic). 

Icons is blah! (It totally reminds me of Beautiful Creatures. It's like a combination of Beautiful Creatures, Beautiful Darkness, and Beautiful Chaos all combined into one.) Icons is somewhat different than futuristic books. I know, I know. Men in Black come and kill all the aliens. Aliens come and try to make peace with humans. Humans killed all aliens. Aliens take over. Blah, blah, blah. There's a lot of plots with books involving aliens. Icons is mostly an "aliens take over the world" book. And it's...well, let me break it down for you.

In the beginning, Icons is an exhilarating book, with logical details and statement. Occasionally, the descriptions of Icons get out of hand, but it isn't too serious. (Like when you end up asking way too many questions because the author didn't explain the story well enough.) The writing in the beginning is addicting and holds a mysterious tone, giving a book that makes readers ask, "What will happen next? To Dol? To Ro?" 

The middle starts drying. Yes, drying. The hot stuff in the beginning of the book starts to fade and readers end up with questions like "What's the difference between Icons and Icon Children?" and "Who exactly are the Lords?" Yep, there's a lot more question and very little answers. I guess, this calls for a "Buckle Up" yell because there's no more answers. 

Then the ending. Well, there's some answers, but not enough. What happen to the dead people. How do people survive a suicide bomb without killing themselves? How do certain characters survive? And please don't say it was became of the holy light from Dol.

The plot is quick and thrilling, but there isn't a lot of answers to the questions the book leaves unanswered. It's a great pain to not know yet only know so little. (Okay, I'll admit it, that previous sentence is bogus.) I hate the unanswered questions and I am most likely not reading the next book. 

Rating: Two out of Five