Rating: 
Summary: Not Up to Oprah's Usual Picks.....
Review: Without fail I have enjoyed Oprah's choices and I purchase each as soon as they are announced. This is one I wish I had borrowed. The Appalachian setting provides a backdrop for the story of Icy who is afflicted with an unknown malady. We see her struggles with "croaking", eye popping, and the like as she grows up in a small community. This had the potential of a great story, but the plot lost me completely as Icy was continuously mistreated by the townspeople and teachers. I fail to believe that this many people could so badly treat anyone. Eventually even the Tourette's syndrome became hard to believe. The reader is led to understand that Icy could control her symptoms and that all her symptoms came over her at one time, lasting for an hour. Is this really how Tourette's inflicts itself? I have to agree with People magazine's review of this book. It seems to follow a "Pick me" formula to become an Oprah book - without the normal great story line.
Rating:
Summary: Unfortunately Flat and Disappointing
Review: Our book group chose to read "Icy Sparks" due to it's being an Oprah choice, and the reviews I had read made me look forward to this book. Not far into it, though, I found it very disappointing and one-dimensional. Although some parts are satisfying (her relationship with her grandparents), numerous characters are totally one-dimensional and unrealistic. The plot starts and stops at times, going nowhere. Her stay at the mental hospital seemed pointless. The end of the book sees her suddenly get religious, solving everything. I think this is most likely due to inexperience on the part of the author. Yet, she does seem to have promise in that her writing can flow very nicely and her descriptions at times are lovely.
Rating: 
Summary: Very nice
Review: The book is very nice. The cover page is very much opt to the content in it.
Rating: 
Summary: Magnificently touching!
Review: I read this book in 2 days! It was DEFINITELY a "can't put downer". Anyone that read Where the Heart Is, and liked it, should read this book. I think you'll enjoy it just as much.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: What started off as a good premise, never fullfilled its potential. We ever feel the experience, just get a narration of the main character's life. The relationship between the young girl and her grandparents makes a pleasant tale but certainly not a compeling one. The manifestations of Tourette Syndrome are never clearly detailed. The book gives the impression that the disorder comes and goes (especially when convenient for the plot of the book). Perhaps the author make a mistake writing in the first person, as the young girl. How can the reader feel and understand the emotions of the characters when the narrater is only able to relay events with minimal emotion. The ending of the book was especially disappointing and I took it as an easy way out. Beware...just because a book is in Oprah's Book Club does not make it good.
Rating: 
Summary: Icy Sparks
Review: For english class we had to pick out a book to read and do project on it. Well I, chose "Icy Sparks" because it sounded interesting. You see the book is about this 10yr. old girl who has violent tics and uncontrollable cursing, symptoms of Tourette Sydrome. At 10, she gets put into one of those hospital for sick kids to at least try and help her with her problem. She gets out, and her illness goes undiagnosed till her adult hood. Everyone in her little town all try and give their opinion's what's wrong with her, as she grows up she matures into a successful young girl and controls her tics and cursing. Icy Sparks is very good book, and if your gonna do like book report you should read this book.M. Vega 17 Orlando, FL
Rating:
Summary: Well-drawn characters ... transformed into caricatures
Review: I've got nothing against religion, but puh-LEEZ. Sometimes, enough is enough. This book was going along well enough until all of a sudden, Icy "gets saved" and it's all downhill from there. It's like she embraces Jesus, finds her voice and her life goes from hellish and weird to peachy-keen in the span of about two pages and a chapter break. Now, it's true, I've heard remarkable stories from Oliver Sacks and others about people with Tourette's who take comfort from music or religion, who find it helps them control their urges, at least in public. But somehow, I didn't need this kind of "wrap-it-all-up" ending to Icy's story. A happy ending, sure. Finding herself, sure. Even finding Jesus; sure. But it's like at the last minute Rubio decided to sugar-coat the characters she'd previously drawn so vividly in all their sometimes-ugly Appalachian detail. I'd rather have stuck with those REAL characters right through 'till the end than wound up with the artificial caricatures she'd transformed them into by the end of the book.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I usually love the recommended selections, and with the synopsis on the back of this book, I was expecting something as good as Wally Lamb's "She's Come Undone". This book was disappointing, however. I felt the prose was overdone and the characters were one-dimensional and would not be that purely evil in the real world (the teacher, and the aide in the Mental Institution, for example). The worst part, however, was the ending. I felt as though I had been tricked into reading what I thought was a novel, but in the end turned into religious proselytizing. It was a thoroughly unsatisfactory ending with not enough about the changes WITHIN the character.
Rating:
Summary: Being different
Review: Being different is what alot of us have to deal with. See icy had to go through life being different which people thought was funny. I have been looked at different because of the color of my skin and reading this book made a lot of people know that it is ok to be different you don't have to fit in all the time with all the people.Icy didn't figure this out till later on in her life but she did and this is what made this book so good. With the loving care of her grandparents it made it better plus she had a friend in ms emily that also helped when there was things that she could't discuss with her grandparents that she discussed with ms.emily. I was also happy to see her become close with god because that is also helpful in dealing with these kind of ordeals and with help from god she has learned how to cope with her difference from other people and not just fall in to a oel and be left out of society.I have only one thing that i didn't like with the book is that it ended too quickly and they never went on more into her life and plus they never said how the grandfather died but other than that i would say that this was a very good book and i recommend it for everyone.
Rating:
Summary: Intense and powerful!
Review: Basically, if you like tightly written, intelligent, character driven books, you'll like this novel. It's the best book I've read since Wade Bradford's "Enjoy your Show."
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