Title: Icarus
Author: K. Ancrum
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, LGBTQIA, Thriller
Pages: 382
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Copy: Review copy provided by publisher
Availability: Available now
Summary: Icarus Gallagher is a thief. He steals priceless art and replaces it with his father’s impeccable forgeries. For years, one man—the wealthy Mr. Black—has been their target in revenge for his role in the death of Icarus’s mother. To keep their secret, Icarus adheres to his own strict rules to keep people, and feelings, at bay: Don’t let anyone close. Don’t let anyone touch you. And, above all, don’t get caught.
Until one night, he does. Not by Mr. Black but by his mysterious son, Helios, now living under house arrest in the Black mansion. Instead of turning Icarus in, Helios bargains for something even more dangerous—a friendship that breaks every single one of Icarus’s rules.
As reluctance and distrust become closeness and something more, they uncover the gilded cage that has trapped both their families for years. One Icarus is determined to escape. But his father’s thirst for revenge shows no sign of fading, and soon it may force Icarus to choose: the escape he’s dreamed of, or the boy he’s come to love. Reaching for both could be his greatest triumph—or it could be his downfall.
Review: [Icarus contains scenes of physical and verbal child abuse and mentions of past intimate partner violence. There are also some intense scenes of violence between an unrelated adult and a teenager, as well as underage drinking, smoking, and drug use.]
I went into Icarus expecting a thriller based on the publisher’s summary. And while there are multiple scenes of excellently done high-tension thievery, Icarus is a far more character-focused work than I anticipated (and a wonderful one at that). You’ll be spending far more time with our protagonist in high school than sneaking through the Black house. I was not at all disappointed by the discrepancy, but I just wanted to flag that for other readers who may be interested in the book.
Icarus, our protagonist, has lived most of his life in service of his father’s elaborate and time-consuming revenge scheme. He has built himself a distant, calculated life, one carefully engineered to prevent others from seeing anything other than what he wants to project. Author K. Ancrum excels at exploring the emotional toll that maintaining that distance requires and does a masterful job of developing Icarus’s relationships anyway. There are multiple scenes where Icarus’s acquaintances from school prove themselves to be true friends or even just capable of seeing who Icarus is, when his father is incapable of it. Icarus’s romance with Helios is one of the main drivers of the book, but the love Icarus’s friends have for him is of equal importance to the story, and I adored Celestine and Luca in particular.
Icarus and Helios are a fantastic pair, and I was very happy with how their relationship developed. The way they slowly opened up to each other and revealed their secrets was wonderful, and I loved their moments of emotional—and physical—connection. The looming threat of Helios’s abusive father, Icarus’s father’s obsession, and Icarus’s eighteenth birthday combined to heighten the tension around them as they got to know each other. Some of Ancrum’s best work was in quiet scenes between Icarus and Helios, and by the end, I was desperate for the two of them to escape their fathers together.
Recommendation: Get it now if you like character-focused books. While there are great thriller/heist elements in Icarus, author K. Ancrum’s work shines in the titular character’s development. This introspective book explores characters’ relationships in lovely and surprising ways, and Icarus’s friendships are just as important to Icarus’s arc as his romance with Helios. I am definitely interested in picking up K. Ancrum’s other work after finishing Icarus.
Extras: The Art of Icarus (twitter thread)