Really good depiction of what I imagine Tourettes is like. Not a great book. I don't really care about the characters or look forward to listening to it. (I'm listening to it on CD). (Edit after it was over: Hated it!!!!! I didn't care about the characters, the story went no where, and it was so boring!!!! BLAH and BLAH.)

Happened to really enjoy this book,ending was a bit weird,but touching.would recommend.

Icy Sparks lives in Appalachia (rural Kentucky) with her grandparents as her parents had both died. It is the 1950's and Icy's life becomes conflicted when she develops violent tics and uncontrollable urges to curse. No one knows what is wrong. She is shunned by everyone. Not until her adult life does she discover a name for her ailment - Tourette's Syndrome.

This is a very touching book that brings out joy, laughter and sadness.

I couldn’t decide between 3 and 4 stars. Some of it was 4 other parts a little slow or disjointed for me.

I actually enjoyed this book before getting to the very strange and ill-fitting Jesus-freak bit at the end. I liked the way the author describes nature/mountains and the all around setting of the book. I also grew to love the main character, Icy, and enjoyed reading about how her perspective on her disorder changed and evolved throughout the years. However her character was sort of ruined for me in the end when she suddenly became extremely religious after having criticised the hypocrisy of the church all her life.

I found it extremely strange that in the end god was the answer to all of her problems. It didn't really fit with the rest of the book, and I found that the last couple pages of this book were badly written and the overall ending was very unsatisfying. I was totally on board for singing to be an outlet for Icy and a possible cure (not really of course, but maybe just something that helps ease the symptoms of her disorder), but the fact that she basically gave herself to Jesus made absolutely no sense for her character and just kind of threw me off.

I would still recommend reading Icy Sparks, as I did enjoy it most of the time, just please keep in mind that some of the depictions of mental illness/psych wards are very (!) painfully incorrect.

I REALLY liked the first half of this book. The experience of a young girl with Tourrette's was fascinating and plausible. The author's poor conveyance of dialect was distracting but forgivable, mostly due to the overaching sparkle of the main character's wit. Ten-year-old Icy is precocious and interesting, if a little too perceptive and articulate to be believed.

However, her transformation upon returning home (I'm being vague to avoid spoilers) defies her character and any patience the reader might have with the writing flaws. After that point, my rating quickly spiraled downward.

I'd recommend the first half of this book to anyone who is interested in what those with Tourette's experience. Aside from that, I would suggest skipping it.

The main character is interesting, and so is the concept and setting of the book, but the end of the story takes a nosedive into pages and pages of Christian preaching at a revival meeting, to the point where it felt like the author is trying to convert her readers. Made me sick to my stomach and I had to scan to the end. (Until that point the Jesus stuff woven into the plot has felt like a reflection of the culture of 1950s rural Kentucky.)

The other thing that got on my nerves was this author is committed to using as many “action verbs” as possible, including “screamed” - people are screaming thing at each other the entire book and it’s pretty clear they are not actually screaming, the author is just trigger happy with her “exciting” verbs.

This is a book for anyone who has ever felt like they didn't fit in.

While I don't have Tourette's Syndrome, I have definitely felt before like I didn't fit in, and this book spoke to me. So many times as I was reading it I thought, "How does she know what's going on in my head?"

It was a raw but beautiful story that captured not only a story of a remarkable girl-turned-young-woman, but also a time and a place and a unique family. It made me think deeply about the way we treat others who are different from us, and I'd like to think it softened my heart and helped me look outside of my own experience, if nothing else by helping me realize that my own experience is more than likely one that's shared by the people around me, more than I ever knew.

When I started this book, it was a little slow. I got into it after a few chapters, and then I really enjoyed it...until the last third of it or so. I was hoping they’d dive a little more into her disorder, but instead they dove into the church nonsense. It was so annoying and preachy that I ended up skipping PAGES, not even skimming them. It wasn’t what I was hoping for and if I wanted to read that much about goofy people wailing and dancing to Jesus, I would have read some fanatic christian book. And then the epilogue was two pages of nothing really. Just noting that she was diagnosed and had gone to college. Nothing about her treatment or anything like that. I was left very unfulfilled and was very glad when it ended. I gave it two stars instead of one because I did like a little of the book. I have others issues with it, but since this book was written LITERALLY 20 years ago, I’m sure my opinion doesn’t matter. Haha

Until I reached the last 30 pages, I really enjoyed this book and was prepared to give it a rating of 4. The religious fervour that came out of nowhere had me feeling as if I had missed something in the story. But I hadn't. The feeling at the end is that the author needed a quick and tidy way to wrap up Icy's story, it felt like a cop out..after years of struggling with Tourette's Syndrome (undiagnosed) it takes one reluctant trip to church to discover that Jesus is the answer. I could buy into the idea that community support and an outlet (singing) could help with the symptoms of the disorder, but I could not buy into the complete and total turnaround that seemed to happen for Icy.
Before the last 30 pages, I enjoyed Icy's story. She is 10 years old when she starts to manifest symptoms of Tourettes. It is Kentucky in the 1950's and no one, least of all Icy, understands what is happening to her. Icy displays determination, spirit and resilience in dealing with her symptoms. She is a bright, articulate child who survives the loss of her parents at a young age, abuse at the hands of a teacher, a stay in an asylum and isolation. She handles it all with strength and humour. However, the story is almost entirely focussed on Icy. I would have liked to gain a little more understanding of the supporting cast in this book. There could have been more development of several key characters: Matanni, Emily, Mamie and even the teacher. I think that understanding them would have given me a better grasp on life in Kentucky in that era, particularly life for someone who is different.
So...the book was entertaining and enjoyable until around page 271. From that page on, the story was disappointing.

One of the best pieces of odd story-telling I've read in a long time. Take a little girl in the country who's trying to fit in as best as she can. Add the fact that she has Torette's Syndrome (sp?), and you have fodder for a painfully funny yet touching comedy.

Little Icy finds comfort in the form of an adult, Miss Emily, a grossly obese woman who runs the local seed corn mill where they have tea parties with Miss Emily's cats. What you end up with is unusually unique story-telling style that is hard to find in NYC's "push the plot points" style fiction. It's one of those remarkable novels that you're shocked and pleasantly surprised to find that some big NYC editor had the foresight to discover this.

It's a fabulous journey into life of the non-ordinary.

Sometimes when I come to the end of a good book I feel a little sad because I've enjoyed the story so much and now it's come to an end. That's how I felt when I closed the book on Icy Sparks by Gwyn Hyman Rubio. I'd picked up the book because it was one of Oprah's selections and the book jacket sounded interesting--a little girl with a troubling affliction grows up in 1950s Kentucky. As one growing up with deaf parents, I felt very different from the others as a child. I would be able to relate to this character.

Icy Sparks is going to be one of those memorable characters for me, like Scout Finch and Francie Nolan. Orphaned at a very young age, spunky Icy is raised by her loving grandparents. When she is about 10, she begins to struggle with a frightening condition--she'll get an urge to tic, pop her eyes, or croak. She tries really hard to hide what is happening to her but it all comes out in the presence of one very cruel teacher.

Icy spends time in a mental institution which seems brutally cruel but, after all, this is the 1950s when people didn't understand about these kinds of things. They didn't accept people's differences as easily as they do today.

Luckily, Icy is surrounded by enough love from her grandparents, her friend Miss Emily, her principal Mr. Wootten and the hospital aide Maizy that she isn't lost forever. She's got a gift that helps her deal with what's happening to her--a lovely singing voice.

I thought this book was fantastic and definitely recommend it as an excellent read!