Icy Sparks

Rating:
Summary: Contrived and trite
Review: I bought Icy Sparks because Oprah recommended it. Now I wonder what she could have been thinking. This is some of the most contrived, trite, cliched and redundantly written prose I have ever read. Pursing lips, heads whipping back and forth, fists thumping chests, pointing fingers, stomping feet -- Argh! Halfway through this book, I got the feeling that the author was determined to write a book about a character with Tourette's Syndrome and strain her way through it no matter how stiff and unrealistic it became. I very rarely stop reading a book, but I am tempted not to finish this one. The only reason I'm staying with it is to learn what poor writing is like, and hopefully, not to make the same mistakes. Gwyn Hyman Rubio is a wonderful writing teacher -- in reverse. (If she can get a book like this published, I know there's hope for me.)

Rating:
Summary: Poor Performance
Review: After the first few chapters I really struggled to continue reading. I agree with a number of other reviews that it lacked depth and purpose after those first few chapters. I have purchased many of the "Oprah" book club books and found this the most disappointing or all.

Rating:
Summary: An interesting insight into tourettes
Review: Having a child with tourettes, I read this book with interest trying to see, hear and feel what he feels. I enjoyed reading it and was, in fact, able to understand in a small way what she (and my son) might be thinking and feeling. It was a good read and is recommended by me to anyone curious about what goes on inside the head of a child with this neurological condition.

Rating:
Summary: Ends in disappointment...
Review: I really loved the begining.. started off really emotional. It was actually very good at detailing the way Icy Sparks felt. It made me able to see things from the eyes of someone who felt an outcast. But in the middle, i found her stay at the hospital too long and pointless. Then all of a sudden, she leaves even thought they did not help her one bit. She stuggles some more after going home. Then all of a sudden, as if the author got tired of writing, the story just wrapped up and finished. I thought is was unrealiztic to have her all of a sudden heal emotionally and mentally after going to a revival. She realize that people cared about her even though that fact was obvious throughout the book. She didnt need a revival to tell her that. I was expecting her to get better by some really dramatic experience. Yea, i really felt the ending was disappointing. But over, the book is decent...not too bad...

Rating:
Summary: Gives you a picture inside her head
Review: I really enjoy it so far. Im only half way thru bt so far, it has been one of those books that makes me care about the character. Its about a little girl who has tourettes syndrome but doesnt know it. She lives in Kentucky in the 50's. No one understands her so she feels like an outcast and a freak. I really feel for her the way she has no one who understands.

Rating:
Summary: an excellent read
Review: If you loved kay Gibbons' ELLEN FOSTER , you will love ICY SPARKS. This book is told from the innocence of a child. I found it to be very entertaining. You will feel great compassion for Icy, as well as finding yourself wishing her the very best.I love to read southern fiction, and felt that this was truly a great find. I will recommend it to all of my friends

Rating:
Summary: Seeing the Truth About a Young Girl
Review: I really enjoy reading this book that had a real meaning to it that could raise many people's self-esteem. It was a very easy book to read. There are many people who try to hide certain traits about themselves. Reading this, you will realize you are no different from anybody else. Also you will reconize that there are many people out in the world that have many of the same kind of problems as you may. I recommend this book to everyone. Written from a child's point of view, you get to see how us kids feel and the emotions we have against many situations. To many times, we try to kide the real us from people due to being afraid of what others may say... you can't judge someone by the way they look, or some traits they have. The real them is the only thing that matters.

Rating:
Summary: I don't get it.
Review: ... I wish I'd read the editorial reviews before I bought it. And because it is now an Oprah pick, I got the book out and wasted valuable time reading it, (trying to) again. It is a boring, distasteful read. I finished it because I couldn't believe a book that had been accepted for publication could be as bad as I thought, so therefore, it must, I reasoned, get better. It never did. At first I thought it must have started out as a case study of Tourettes and then someone had the bad idea to fictionalize it. Then I quit trying to characterize it. I don't know whether this book helps or hurts victims of Tourettes. The only person I ever knew with Tourettes was nothing like Icy Sparks -- he definitely lacked her rage (which was about the only real emotion the writer managed to convey in the whole book).

Rating:
Summary: Nice read
Review: My best friend has a bad habit when it comes to buying birthday presents. He keeps picking up random books and giving them to me (at least he knows I enjoy reading...). He's always been fairly successful, however with Icy Sparks, he made a great, if unsupported, choice. From reading other reviews, I'm sure you get the general idea that this novel deals with a young girl with Tourette's Syndrome. The reader follows Icy as she deals with rejection from society, her experiences with her own and others' disabilities, and her own fear in rejoining the world. I feel there is a lot of courage taken when confronting the topic of a disability, as well as Rubio's look at group care of the disabled at one point. It isn't pretty, it isn't familiar, but it's realistic and makes for a compelling read. Although I did not have much in common with Icy, I was with her emotionally the entire book. I felt her frustration, confusion, and lonliness. Please don't take that as an indication that this book is all depression... very much to the contrary. Please give Icy and her story a try. I think you will feel, if not entertained, at least enlightened.

Rating:
Summary: Luke warm for Icy
Review: This book has been heralded as a wonderful examination of a young girl's life who happens to suffer from Tourettes. Unfortunately it does not live up to the hype. The back of the book describes and interesting story about two "misfits" who find each other and find solace in a relationship that they form. That has promise. What you end up getting is something all together DIFFERENT. The characters are mostly one diminsional, either VERY GOOD or VERY EVIL. the conversation is flat, we never learn people's motivation for WHY they are good or evil, and then just as the reader becomes mildy interested, poof, that character is gone, no explanation, nothing. I must admit, I really enjoyed the inner struggle that Icy experienced, fearing that there are two sides of her, and that what she considered her "pokeweed" would over come the "good" parts of her. That was wonderful, but then why were all the other characters so flat? they were good or evil, they were never both. The scenery descriptions were superb, i felt like i was in the country, but that does not make this novel any better. I could go on about the holes in the story, but there's no need. If you want some light fluff, go ahead and read. If you want some interesting character development, I suggest going somewhere else. At times this reminded me of a BAD version of "Flowers in the Attic"