How Icasia Bloom Touched Happiness- Book Review

How Icasia Bloom Touched Happiness by Jessica Bell

Publication Date: 21st September 2021
Genre: Dystopian, Social Drama

3.7 Stars

*The review contains a few spoilers*

Icasia Bloom lives in a Globe that’s controlled by an elusive leader, Jacobson. They have to adhere to the Rules and follow the protocols. People like Icasia find a way to rebel without entirely breaking the rules.

However, for people to move from First Life Phase to Second Life Phase they need to find Happiness and a Letter that says they have been successful in finding happiness. It’s a dystopian world with rules of its own.

Icasia isn’t bothered much about her happiness. She only cares for her son’s happiness and future. Being a single mother isn’t easy either. She meets Selma, another woman who has been straddling the Rules.

Selma needs to find a way for Jerome to get his Letter of happiness before his 40th birthday. If not, he’ll lose his life and has no say in the matter. Nothing seems to be working, and Icasia promises to help. This results in some vital questions and rule-defying answers that change the way the Globe looks at happiness.

The title and the cover attracted my attention. Dystopian isn’t my genre, but I’m glad I requested this one. The story starts almost straight away and goes on to share details in bits and pieces. That prevented information dump and kept me interested.

The narration jumps from the second person to the third person to omnipresent. Luckily, the chapters are titled (Listen/ Watch/ Chronicles) to alert readers to this fact. The story walks a fine line between dystopian and philosophical. Things are different yet the same.

The characters are flawed, but most of them don’t appear silly or stupid. Leila, Selma's teenage daughter, was a typical teen, which meant some of her actions don’t make sense unless there’s a proper backstory and complete arc.

The theme of the book hinged on what happiness is and how one should find it. As with the dystopian trope, the government has a role to play in most decisions. It isn’t anything new, to be honest. The author makes it interesting to a major extent by using the setting to her advantage.

However, I felt she hasn’t delved deep into the concept. It could be because she didn’t want to risk being preachy. Lord knows how hard it is to maintain balance. Still, the characters needed more exploration. Some of the scenes feel disjointed, as if there’s a missing link. This link doesn’t appear elsewhere to complete the connection. Nor do we find answers to certain questions about why the Rules were established that way. (It sounds vague because I’m trying to avoid spoilers).

The premise is excellent, and the use of the bluebird is worth mentioning. The characters needed more effort. They are good, but they had to be better to elevate the story. Some of the scenes felt too distanced to feel for the characters. I don’t usually relate to most characters, so that’s not an issue. But I do like to feel for them.

It would sound better to call the swastika a Hindu symbol rather than a Sanskrit symbol. Sanskrit is our ancient language with a script and symbols of its own. There is no difference per se, but it’s important to us. It is a part of our culture; we like to not be disassociated from the sacred symbol or our sacred language the way it is being done with yoga.

That said, the presence of swastika adds no value to the story. It was used more of a prop to show that the character knew the difference between the Hindu swastika to the Nazi symbol and maybe to bring a sort of inclusivity in the book. After that, there’s no mention of it again. It doesn’t feature anywhere else in the book. I don’t think the book would be the least affected if that scene mentioning the swastika tattoo was removed.

And Eve could have been the reader. In fact, I preferred it that way. The last chapter could have been better without Eve being a victim of a car accident or losing her memory.

Also, the ending wasn’t too great. It sort of diminished the emotions evoked until then.

To sum up, How Icasia Bloom Touched Happiness is a decent novel with multiple aspects to ponder about. The book is fast-paced and worth a read.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and Vine Leaves Press.

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