This one gave me Demon Copperhead vibes for its nuanced hilarity about southern culture. And the language … my god, the language. So good. I really liked this story and felt attached to many of the characters for their relentless love for the main character. I wished Icy earned redemption before she got it — that part made this a hard read — but it was worth it. 4.5 stars.

Set in rural Kentucky in the 1950's, Icy Sparks is soon orphaned and raised by her mother's parents. By the time that she starts school she is having to go into the ice house to have "fits." In this setting there are only a few people who reach out to connect with a young girl who is so different from others while the bulk of the population shuns her.
Icy's undiagnosed Tourette's Syndrome shapes her life in unpredictable ways. Rubio does a great job of putting the reader into the head of a young girl facing this mysterious disorder.

The author did a wonderful depiction of what a family probably went through before Tourette's Syndrome became public knowledge. It was a heartbreaking story to me because the girl seemed to suffer from guilt of her actions, fear of not knowing when she would have a "spell" & bullying from others. Although Tourette's is more accepted today, I believe someone with it would still experience the same shunning. A good book to teach awareness.

Good concept, bad execution. Couldn't care about any of the characters. DNF.

And someone owes the entire state of Kentucky a deep apology for the rendering of their dialect in this thing. I've lived in Kentucky; the overblown caricature dialect in this thing makes the most backwater bluegrass hillbilly sound like an Oxford scholar. I was insulted for KY natives because of it.

So this book was weird for me because I genuinely enjoyed reading it - I wasn’t bored out of my head. But I thought there’d be more discussion of the diagnosis etc and there was none whatsoever, then the epilogue is like “yeah I have Tourette’s” and goes on about the diagnosis that we never got. The end seemed surreal to me? Very out of place. My rating for this book changed every like 80 pages or so lol

I fell in love with Icy and just wanted to jump into the pages, give her a hug, and tell her that I would be her friend. My only criticism is that the ending was a bit slow and drawn out. Aside from that, I really enjoyed it.

I picked this book because it one of Oprah's book club selections. In the beginning of the book I found her story a bit amusing, but towards the end I just wanted to finish the book just to end it. The last few chapters were a complete drag, I found myself scanning and not reading each word just to get through the pages without throwing it across the room. Overall, I didn't like this book.

I have to say I didn’t love this book but in saying that I finished it. The story that sang out to me is one of acceptance. Each of us need to both accept others but we also need to accept us for who and what we are.
The religion that so many were against in this book showed just that. When one is accepted in a community so many beautiful things can happen.
Would I recommend it? I think so.

I can't pinpoint why this didn't work for me. I'm still thinking about it so that I can give an honest opinion for book club.

The book still gets five stars despite the fact that I felt some parts were a bit sensationalized. Once I put it into context of being a coming of age novel it made more sense. Just a personal preference. I still enjoyed most of the book. I’ll always give Appalachian literature a try.

What. In. The. World.

This book was going along ok… then like a flaming fiery crash went down so fast.
I didn’t finish. Interesting story, not fantastic but it was ok,… but then went on a weird twist of hymnals? I have no clue what happened. The book’s storyline and agenda were hijacked by someone else, like they passed the half written book to someone else and just let them add their own ending.

I can't say I really enjoyed reading this book. But that doesn't mean I didn't appreciate the book and the meaning of Icy's story. Sometimes I feel like it just tried too hard to paint the picture, and Icy herself was frequently not the most sympathetic character for me. In the end, I loved her epilogue, but I also felt like there was a "message" to the whole thing. Not sure I would recommend this, but I'd love to hear your thoughts if you choose to read it.