Icy Sparks

Icy Sparks is the first novel by American writer Gwyn Hyman Rubio. The story follows Icy, a young girl in rural Eastern Kentucky during the 1950s and 1960s, whose Tourette's syndrome is misdiagnosed as mental illness — until she discovers that many of the people at a revivalist tent meeting exhibit similar tics, leading her to believe it may be something spiritual rather than medical. Told in alternating first-person chapters from Icy's childhood and adulthood, the novel blends memoir-like intimacy with fiction, exploring themes of identity, faith, and belonging.