Reviews - What Made Maddy Run: The Secret Struggles and Tragic Death of an All-American Teen

410 reviews for:

What Made Maddy Run: The Secret Struggles and Tragic Death of an All-American Teen

Wow. I finished this book in one reading and sobbed at the end. Fagan did an amazing job telling Maddy’s story.

Madison Holleran’s story is one that will stay with me forever. While I can’t even begin to know or imagine how she may have felt, Fagan’s words resonated with me. As someone who has been in positions before where they try to explain the depth of what their feeling or struggle to convey how bad it really is, I feel for Maddy and what she must have been going through. To not be able to put into words how low you feel and to constantly be asking yourself, “what’s wrong with me,” is one of the worst feelings in the world. I empathized with the stress, confusion, and pain that consumed Maddy as she tried to delicately keep up the facade that all was well.

Fagan did a fantastic job at respectfully telling Maddy’s story, weaving together a picture of what could have lead to this outcome and combining it with research and personal anecdotes.

I cannot recommend this book enough.

cfliegler's review against another edition

4.0

This was an exellent, sensitive, informative read fit for any parent, and really anyone who works with youth. It's not just helpful to those who work with athletes. Highly recommend.

hayleyski's review against another edition

3.0

I am more so the person to grab for a romance but when this book arrived in my mail, I felt obligated to read it. (p.s. thanks goodreads for putting this book in a giveaway) I am not disappointed in this book in the slightest, all I can say is that it is what I expected. It left me both informed and heartbroken over the story of a hurting college student. I was not a fan of the fact that the author alternated chapters, one relating to Maddys story, and the other more of an analysis mixed with personal anecdote. I believe that I would have enjoyed this book more if it dug deeper into the life and struggles Maddy faced rather than the incorporation of the authors college experience.

smirk's review against another edition

5.0

Exceptional. Heartbreaking. The author does an excellent job of making reader better understand what Maddy MIGHT have been feeling by interweaving her own struggles as a student-athlete with Maddy’s story. As the mother of a college student-athlete, this really opened my eyes and helped me to see the issues that my kid is currently facing. My heart ached/aches for Maddy’s family. This is an excellent read and I recommend it for anyone struggling with mental health issues, the uncertainties of high school/college, and family members of the same. This is a story that
will stay with me forever.

likethegeneral's review

5.0

I could not put this book down. But I had to collect myself before I wrote a review. This book is heartbreaking. It’s informative. It gives many different perspectives outside of Maddy’s story. I love that Kate Fagan discusses her own struggles, the struggles of others with depression and mental health diseases. A woman who survived suicide. Psychologists. She doesn’t leave a page unturned. She talks to Maddy’s parents and friends and family friends.

It shows the quick progression of mental health diseases. And it describes the lack of psychological help available to not only athletes and college students but for Americans in general.

I learned a lot from the statistics in the book and in the end, I saw some of myself in Maddy. My heart broke, I was crying by the last chapter. But I’m glad I read it.