A review by readerpants
Icarus by K. Ancrum

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This is one where I just want to write "review to come" but I know I'd never get to it, so I'll jot down some disconnected thoughts instead. 

- shout out to that cover designer who was like "the body keeps the score cover but make it an intense YA" - good job, we see you what did there and also it looks fantastic

-Kayla Ancrum's storytelling is so particular, I feel like I'd recognize it anywhere. There's a blend of found family, explicit mutual caretaking. The unpredictable threat of adults and a sense of creeping dread from their power and unpredictability but then also some who are there offering support and insight from the edges. There was a moment in this one where a character said something like "I talked to my mom and she said that especially if something has been iffy in the past you need to ask for explicit consent each time," and that felt so much like many teens I know (and their moms) - not every kid can trust or talk to the adults in their lives, but many can and do, especially now. 

-the particular fraught, overwhelming, almost drowning role of Feels - the mortifying ordeal of being known - there are other YA authors who do this, but I still think that Ancrum's style is one I'd recognize immediately. 

-so very queer. Not just LGBTQIA+ rep but with a specifically *queer* sensibility. It's queer in the way adrienne maree brown's work is queer, with a throughline of future dreaming for collective liberation. 

I'm going to have to think about readers to search out and rec this to, but I know it's gonna happen and it'll be 🤯😍😭.