Caighlan Smith

"First published in 2016 by Curious Fox, an imprint of Capstone Global Library."

Children of Icarus

Sheila Goicea

See my FULL review of this book on my blog along with others at: shesgoingbookcrazy.com



Content Warning: Bullying, Abuse, Gore, Attempted Rape, Borderline Masochism

⇒ To disclose this a little further, there is a weird, "rape-y" vibed scene between the main character and another character named Ryan. The main character's response reveals a masochistic-like quality to her which appears later on as well.
”I can feel his ragged breath down the front of my shirt. Something about how it gets quick when I twist the dagger excites me. He’s terrified me and treated me so cruelly, and all it takes is me doing one thing to make him this weak.”
In an unrelated incident, another character tries to rape the main character as well. 


  Initial Thoughts


Before I really got into this book, I was pretty excited to read it. However, at only ten percent into it, I realized it was going to be a very different read that I had expected. Sure, mythology has it's creepy, and rather gory moments, but  Children of Icarus takes it to a new level. 


  World Building
 

The story begins in the city of Daedala and gives only brief accounts of its makeup, history, and societal functions. The scene quickly shifts to inside the labyrinth as it follows the main character for the remainder of the book. While some details are given in both settings, vague terminology and direction give the reader a sense of being lost. Which, for a book like this, I guess is appropriate--seeing how the characters are lost in a labyrinth... 

The most page time for world building is spent on identifying the creatures in the labyrinth and developing the social hierarchy among the Icarii. 

Society is structured upon, and orbits around an interpretation of the Greek mythology story of Icarus and Daedalus (aka Daedala in this version).
"The gods have always been cruel, always tricksters. The sun was no gateway, but poor, young Icarus could not have known the gods’ plan for him. He flew into the sky until his wings caught fire and he plummeted back to the earth.
In this book, Icarus is initially depicted as a young angel. Also being the last free angel, he was tricked by the gods to come to their land and rescue the angels that had been captured. But the gods tricked him into believing that the sun was a portal to their realm. 

Daedala, a representation of Daedalus from the original story, retains the same vocation and identifies as a craftswoman. She mourns the death of Icarus. Hoping he may regenerate, she built Icarus a tomb.
"Daedala knew she would not live to see Icarus fly again, and so built for him two more gifts, to protect him from the ruthless, relentless gods. She constructed a giant city over the tomb of Icarus, with walls and towers so high they threatened the territory of the gods themselves. And then, around this city, she built a labyrinth that was thought to never end.”
To the residents of Daedala, Icarus is a sort of god. The people of Daedala would choose a select number of children between the ages of ten and sixteen each year to become “Icarii” and enter the labyrinth in order to find the end of the maze. Once through, they would enter into Alyssia--the land of the angels and have the honor of welcoming Icarus home.


  Pacing & Readability


While this book starts off with a bang, the entire body of the text was so slow and tediously uneventful. There are some creature attacks and what-not here and there, but not a lot happens for the majority of the book. It gave a disjointed feel to the book because the beginning and end had so much going on, that the middle was the exact opposite. 


  Point-of-View & Characters


The point-of-view is told from the perspective of the main character, who happens to remain unnamed for the entire book. While I thought this tactic was clever, I didn't care for her character very much. The fact that I wanted to find out who she was battled with her being unlikeable, and made me more aggravated with her character than anything. 
”I grew up in this building and I was supposed to die in this building. Now I’ll never die. Now I’ll become an angel. So why is my heart in my throat?”
Our unnamed narrator is clearly a "follower." From the first page, her adoration for her best friend Clara is clear. Without Clara, she doesn't know what to do or how to handle herself. This element of her personality gets her into tight places when she finds herself alone, unsure of how to process the situation in front of her. Several times instead of facing what was actually going on, she instead wishes that she is home and back behind the curtains of safety. This "smoke screen" tactic pushes her to act before she thinks about the repercussions of her decisions. 

Clara is the main character's best friend. She's outgoing, fearless, but also dominating, over-confident, unrefined, and self-centered. While she's not very nice to her friend, she naturally falls into the leader role and expects "unnamed" to take the backseat willingly. Eager to become one of the Icarii, she instantly shows her true self when "unnamed" is chosen first. 

Some of the minor characters, like Ryan and the Executioner, was the most interesting of them all. Both Ryan and the Executioner are difficult to make out. While Ryan's character isn't explored much (and comes off way worse than I think he actually is), the Executioner's true nature is revealed more towards the end and remains to be the most complex characters of them all. 

The main antagonist is shared between the labyrinth, and later on, with Collin. While the labyrinth poses a constant threat to the Icarii, Collin becomes a threat to the main character when he discovers that she is not who she claims to be. Collin turns from a pleasant person to a despicable, tremendously cruel human. 


  Major Themes


⇒ Bullying

Bullying is very visible throughout this book. The main character is thrust into a situation that she doesn't want to be in in the first place and is not prepared for the challenges before her. While she doesn't handle herself well, she also doesn't deserve the treatment that people give to her. I cringed at the way Collin would treat "unnamed," and it nearly made me stop reading this book altogether. The interactions between these two characters (along with "mob mentality") show just how dangerous bullying can be when no one decides to stand up for what's right and for the person being bullied.

⇒ Fending for oneself

There isn’t a good example of friendship in this book. The closest glimpse the reader gets into a "friendship" is between the main character and the Executioner. While a sense of comradery is attempted to be built in Fates, the moment someone does something wrong, they are thrown to the wolves...quite literally. 

⇒ Facing Reality
"I didn’t mean to trick you. I didn’t want to, but you were so kind, and I was so scared, and I didn’t know what to do. And then it was too late and I couldn’t find a way to tell you the truth because I...I didn’t want to think about her being dead, and I knew if I told you it would hurt you even more than it was hurting me. She was my friend. My best friend. Pretending to be her, it was almost like it kept her alive, and I know that’s no excuse, but I wasn’t ready to face it.”
The main character has a major issue with facing the reality of her situation. While her reactions are understandable, they still aren't right. She spends a majority of the book wishing for everything to be different, which inhibits her from being able to grow, adapt, and move on.

⇒ Paying for your Mistakes 
"You’re just like all the monsters in this graveyard. You’re worse than the monsters, because they can’t help being disgusting and vicious and cruel. You chose to do this. You ruined my sister’s name and memory.”
Another rather negative theme visible was paying for the mistakes that were made. Instead of any type of decency or attempt to understand where a person was coming from, a cruel punishment was given instead. Several characters experience this treatment, especially the main character.


  Overall Feelings


Things that I liked:

⇒ The way the plot was constructed around the original mythological tale.
⇒ The Executioner's character complexity.
⇒ For the most part, it was romance-free.

Things that I didn’t like:

⇒ The overall brutality.
⇒ The major variation in pacing.
⇒ The feeling that the backstory was somewhat incomplete and therefore, left unexplained.
⇒ The main character’s passiveness when she was being bullied and abused, her general character being rather annoying, and the weird masochistic qualities that surfaced at a few points in time.
⇒ There is little detail given on character description across the board.

Overall, I wasn't a fan of this book. The gore and dismal atmosphere overpowered anything else in the story and kept me from enjoying it much--not that I found much to enjoy. While I liked how it was a creative twist on the original mythological tale, I felt that a lot of the plot was left unexplored, the characters underdeveloped (and unlikeable), and uncomfortable topics being focused on that weren't redeeming in any way. This may be a case of "it's me, not you," but I also don't think that action scenes and suspense make for a solid plot alone. 

Vulgarity: Surprisingly, none!
Sexual content: As stated in the content warning at the beginning of this review, there was a scene that felt like it was leading up to something, and then another scene where rape was actually attempted.
Violence: Quite a lot, including very gory scenes.

My Rating: ★★

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Jolie

Before I start my review, I want to thank NetGalley and Capstone for allowing me to review Children of Icarus by Caighlan Smith.

**All opinions stated in this review are mine and mine alone. I received Children of Icarus from NetGalley via Capstone as an ARC for my honest and unbiased review**

Now, onto my review:

This has to be one of the best YA books that I have read in a while. Put it this way, I read it in one sitting. Usually, I will read at night, take notes and put it away. Not this book. I was engrossed by the story.

The book is based upon the myth of Icarus and Daedalus (I will include links to the myth at the end of the story) and the myth of the Labyrinth.

In this story, a whole society has formed around that Greek myth. The society, as a whole, never go outside but instead live within numerous skyscrapers. Once a year, 6-7 children, ages 10-16, are chosen to go run the Labyrinth and to go find the Angels (or Alyssia).

The main character of the story is Nameless and she is a bit of a wuss, to be honest. She lives in her best friend, Clara, shadow. So, when she is picked to go into the Labyrinth along with Clara, she is excited and afraid. See, Clara is everything she isn’t. Beautiful, creative, brave….

But once they get into the Labyrinth, everything changes for the worse. See, what happens in the Labyrinth is awful and these children…well they are an annual sacrifice. A lucky (or unlucky…depends on how you look at it) few are rescued by a group of children who have survived in the Labyrinth who are called The Fates (again more Greek mythology).

I am not going to go much into about the book other than to say from the moment that Nameless enters The Fates to the ending (which totally screwed with my mind) was unbelievable. I ran the full gauntlet of emotions. From happy to sad to upset to disbelief. Let me just say…..read the book. Seriously.

Now, like I promised here are the links to the myths:

Myth of Icarus and Daedalus

Myth of Labyrinth

How many stars will I give Children of Icarus? 5

Why? Like I said above, this is one of the best YA dystopian books that I have read in a while. The storyline is amazing, the writing is vivid and the character jump off the pages into your brain and stay there.

Will I reread? Yes

Will I recommend to family and friends? Yes

Age Range: Teen on up

Why? Lots of graphic violence and one scene of attempted rape

Children of Icarus

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