IDOLS

Following Icons (2013), the Icon Children run for their lives while the mysteries behind the alien invaders unravel.   

With only the briefest of recaps, the narration drops the readers straight into action. Dol, the other three fleeing Icon Children, and their mysterious mercenary guide, Fortis, aren’t flying a Chopper; they’re crashing it. Evading the extraterrestrials so they can use their special powers to destroy the growing Icons—alien technology deadly to all but these teens and used to control the human population—the ragtag band on the run encounters cool locations such as an underground mountain bunker and Eastasia. They move with a specific purpose: Dol’s dreams are visited by a fifth Icon Child, and they wish to find her. That is, if there really is a fifth. The extraneous-but-apparently-necessary love triangle among Dol, Ro (childhood best friend) and Lucas (new hot guy) is shoehorned in, as the nonstop plot doesn’t leave much room for emotional arcs or character development. Continuing from Icons, nifty top-secret documents appearing between chapters flesh out the invasion—this time they’re frequently transcripts of communications between Earth and the invaders, pre-invasion. These documents explicitly reference science-fiction classics—a bonus for genre fans—and keep readers a step ahead of the characters. Last-minute twists create a cliffhanger.

A fast, fun read for fans of the first.