Icarus

Icarus steals art and Kayla Ancrum stole a piece of my heart with this book. The beautifully written retelling of the Icarus myth with a lot of nuance captured my heart and my attention from the first page. We follow Helios and Icarus and get to see how their friendship slowly blossoms into something more. What follows is heartfelt,tender and of course a little bit heartbreaking.A love that is either destiny or doom. What will it be?

"Icarus was his father's son." Both artists, both thieves, both quiet, both friendless - until Icarus runs into Helios, the son of Mr. Black, a man, his father and Icarus have been stealing art off for years. Helios asks him to be his friend and this breaks every single rule Icarus had ever set up for himself. He wants to escape his thief life. But can he do that as well as saving Helios from Mr. Black? Kayla Ancrum wrote a masterpiece. The modern retelling of a myth I've always loved in a way that's just amazing. With a poetic language and short chapters from Icarus' Point of View Ancrum creates an atmosphere you just cannot escape. Helios and Icarus are meant for each other and all the characters are planned out so well. I just could recite this book over and over again. Usually I'm not a person who annotates books but I couldn't help myself picking up a pen for this one. The amount of great quotes in this book is unbelievable! And why did no one else ever write a gay love story about a couple that's so obviously meant to be written about? I'm glad K. Ancrum wrote it. And I'm glad I read it.

Icarus and Helios, the thief and the sun, the star-crossed lovers who will melt your heart. This book was just beautiful. Not your typical YA novel, it gets deep under your skin. It was soft and delicate, poetic and heartbreaking – an outstanding piece of art. Such a wonderful read!

A modern, exciting and heartwarming story, inspired by the greek myth! The combination between newfound friendship and a first queer love was wonderful to witness. This story shows that, in a world of darkness, every little act of kindness matters and I very much agree.

...sadly I struggled a good three months with this book. The chapter lenght that rapidly varies from one short sentence to multiple pages was something that I just couldnt warm up to at all. But I know that this is something you either like or dont. My fellow colleague for example actually loved this especially. Besides that the story and characters somehow never really managed to grow on me. Despite liking art and loving the topics and themes of the book itself, especially the interpretation and connection to the myth of Icarus and Helios itself, I couldnt get myself to read for more than a few chapters at a time before loosing interest. Only towards the, for my taste, too short endling of the book it got really captivating and I started to cheer for them both. But while the book may not have been the right one for me I am still sure that the story about Icarus and Helios complicated but loving relationship will certainly be suited for many young and old readers out there!