3.5 stars, in the same way “Stars In Your Eyes” was for me(but rounded down this time). I’ve seen a lot of divisive reviews on this one, as to whether you will or *won’t* enjoy this one entirely depends on your preferences as a reader (which can be argued with anything, but I think especially “Icarus”. More on that later).

I’ll start with what I liked! There was a found family aspect with Icarus’s friend group throughout the course of the novel, and I thought that was super cute. They loved each other in the way that only teenagers attentive to each other’s struggles really could, the overall highschool environment was one of my personal highlights. A bulk of “Icarus” is character-focused, which made the parts focused on Icarus’s life outside of thievery vital.

I also liked the complexity in Icarus’s relationship with his dad. He begrudgingly loves him (as he’s his son, y’know), and it’s clear that his father cares for him in *some* way even if he’s not very good at showing it, but Icarus also has some valid anger and resentment for him. His thoughts on his loneliness and the revenge he’d been forced to be part of seemed appropriate for the kind of stress (and internal conflict) a teenager would’ve experienced. Of all the parent-child (or familial) relationships in the narrative, that one had the most dimension to it. 

But I have some mixed feelings on the writing itself. There’s these short chapters that are only a couple pages long at most, which when combined with the pretty writing style, make it feel like a novel-in-verse when it’s not one. I found it disjointing at first. And secondly, the story is sometimes poetic to a fault. There were certain sentences or descriptors that left me confused. (Like when Helios and Icarus are in the pantry, tf does “twisted like girls” mean, male scissoring??😭ALSO THE “and wondered—violently—“ MADE ME LOL) Things like “confessed sweetly” being used made me remember some of the pining fics I’d read on Ao3 when staying up late on a school night. 

And other fanfic-reminiscent things, there was the way that Icarus’s touch sensitivity was written… I was under the impression that it was going to be shown to be a) a method of showing how alien physical affection is for Icarus, b) included to add romantic/sexual tension to his relationship with Helios, c) maybe revealed to have some kind of fantastical explanation? (but also I had some batshit predictions) And then it was revealed to be part of the EDS rep, a symptom for it is skin sensitivity. It was a little much, for that being the reason. To be clear, I knew that there would be disability rep based on Booksta posts, I just thought the physical sensitivity was executed strangely(like a wonky choice for the rep). 

My feelings on the romance are also mixed? There wasn’t as much development for the romance with Helios as there was for Icarus’s friendships, but I did like their parallels, and I thought overall their relationship was sweet. Although, because of the emotional and plot significance of Helios, much of the more poetic parts were for/with him(which I’ve already mentioned that I had my share of gripes with).

I don’t hate this book, though. I just have criticisms. My preferences don’t really fit the style of this book and that’s okay lol. (Maybe I’ll still check out the rest of K. Ancrum’s stuff? A couple people who disliked this one were fans of her other work.)