Common Sense Media Review
By Julie A. Carlson
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Confusing tale of aliens and government conspiracies.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 14+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Read
What's the Story?
In a futuristic United States, a teen girl named Dol is living in a peaceful Spanish Mission outside Los Angeles. She seems content to have a home with her makeshift father, the Padre, and her best friend, Ro. But, suddenly, things go awry and Dol and Ro are taken to the Embassy, off the coast of what was once L.A., which is controlled by aliens who took over the planet and the government years before. Ro makes friends with the ambassador's son, Lucas, and feisty Tim, who both want to start a revolt. Dol just wants to have peace in life and get the heck out out of there, but she's also falling for Lucas. Throughout the novel, the four cohorts discover they are all Icon children (aliens) who can control just about anything with their emotions -- which can lead them into further trouble or save them.
Is It Any Good?
Icons is very confusing: It doesn't really know what it wants to be -- dystopian or post-apocalyptic. Author Margaret Stohl should have picked one sci-fi genre and gone with it. Instead, we get a mashup of The War of the Worlds meets just about every dystopian novel in today's teen market. It starts out strong with an interesting world and a compelling heroine who's grown up isolated from the outside world in a Spanish Mission and doesn't know her true identity, but has always wondered why she and her friend Ro are different. Yet, once she's taken to the mysterious Embassy, she suddenly knows all about technology and is using all the tech lingo.
At first readers might be geared up for an exciting dystopian novel, but they end up with a confusing tale about aliens and government conspiracies. The characters are constantly at odds with each other, fighting and arguing, and seem always annoyed, especially Tima, who is hysterical and smug the entire book. Readers may quickly become annoyed themselves.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about why stories about aliens are so popular. What other ones have you read or seen in the movies?
How do you feel Margaret Stohl did without her usual writing partner, Kami Garcia? How is Icons different from the Beautiful Creatures books?
What do you think about having "classified" medical and research documents at the end of each chapter? Do they give you better insight into the story?
Book Details
- Author :
- Genre : Science Fiction
- Topics : Friendship , STEM
- Book type : Fiction
- Publisher : Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
- Publication date : May 7, 2013
- Publisher's recommended age(s) : 12 - 17
- Number of pages : 428
- Available on : Nook, Hardback, Apple Books, Kindle
- Last updated : October 1, 2025
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