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412 reviews for:
What Made Maddy Run: The Secret Struggles and Tragic Death of an All-American Teen
Kate Fagan
4.2 AVERAGE
412 reviews for:
What Made Maddy Run: The Secret Struggles and Tragic Death of an All-American Teen
Kate Fagan
4.2 AVERAGE
fast-paced
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
fast-paced
WOW. What a powerful story. This is an important read for anyone who is or works with young adults — high school seniors/college freshmen, teachers, coaches, parents. Maddy’s struggles are not unique & it’s the sharing of stories like hers that help move the conversations forward to helping & empowering young people that experience mental health issues. Kate Fagan did a careful & honest job writing this. The forward was also poignant!
This book is so much more than a story of an amazing young girl and runner's suicide. It is about the larger systemic and epidemic issue of mental health in the United States (specifically problems that college students deal with). I highly encourage this book! Also Kate Fagan is one of my favorite writers/sports reporters/feminists.
This book left me frustrated as the story at the center of it is a powerful one, but I don't feel like that story was given a chance to be fully fleshed out. The resulting book was half case study about Maddy, and half unnecessary introspection from the author that at times felt completely at odds with the experience Maddy had.
Numerous times throughout the book Fagan criticizes that the youth of today have too much dependency on their parents, while at the same time Maddy is going through a difficult transition in her life where her relationship with her parents seems to be the only constant. If she can't lean on her parents in her darkest hour then who is she supposed to seek that support from?
Especially in Maddy's case where her parents weren't being overbearing and trying to fix the problem for her, but rather providing her with guidance, encouraging her to seek professional help, letting her lead the conversations about quitting track.
I never really felt like I got to know Maddy or the actual specifics of her struggle. Instead much of the book felt like wading through the authors own hangups around social media. I was hoping for a more holistic approach and a closer look into how the system failed Maddy and what changes need to be made to protect other young people at this vulnerable time in their life.
Numerous times throughout the book Fagan criticizes that the youth of today have too much dependency on their parents, while at the same time Maddy is going through a difficult transition in her life where her relationship with her parents seems to be the only constant. If she can't lean on her parents in her darkest hour then who is she supposed to seek that support from?
Especially in Maddy's case where her parents weren't being overbearing and trying to fix the problem for her, but rather providing her with guidance, encouraging her to seek professional help, letting her lead the conversations about quitting track.
I never really felt like I got to know Maddy or the actual specifics of her struggle. Instead much of the book felt like wading through the authors own hangups around social media. I was hoping for a more holistic approach and a closer look into how the system failed Maddy and what changes need to be made to protect other young people at this vulnerable time in their life.
challenging
reflective
sad
fast-paced
This is an important topic to be aware of, especially if you coach or are in a leadership position with youth. I don’t mean to belittle the subject or the author’s impact on bringing attention to this social issue through my review. Having finished the book, I would love to find shareable resources for mental health awareness.
The book’s format isn’t ideal. It makes sense for Madison’s story to be central, because it is so tragic and alarming. But the real thesis statement of the book is not that a beautiful student athlete took her own life, but that serious mental health concerns are contributing to a rise in suicides in young adults and student athletes across our nation. Madison didn’t leave behind a memoir, so Fagan pieces together emails, letters, conversations, and texts to humanize this tragedy and give the reader a sense of where Madison was coming from. The unfortunate result of this is that I had the sense I was being told to think a certain way about Madison rather than having Fagan lead me to her desired conclusion through just a presentation of facts. Chapters switch from Madison’s story to Fagan’s personal account. If I were to guess why Fagan included so much of herself in this book titled for Madison, I would say it’s because 1) Fagan wanted to alert the reader to the broader mental health trend among athletes, 2) Fagan needed to describe a part of the story on her own terms rather than jump to potentially inaccurate conclusions about Maddy, or 3) this topic was so heavy and the ending looming that Fagan needed to break the tension.
While I would certainly encourage everyone to become more educated on suicide prevention, I can’t say I would recommend this book as your first source. However, I do recommend this book or perhaps Fagan’s article to coaches and sports medicine physicians, who might benefit from reading these personal perspectives to better recognize signs, overcome barriers, and advise those in their care regarding mental health concerns.
The book’s format isn’t ideal. It makes sense for Madison’s story to be central, because it is so tragic and alarming. But the real thesis statement of the book is not that a beautiful student athlete took her own life, but that serious mental health concerns are contributing to a rise in suicides in young adults and student athletes across our nation. Madison didn’t leave behind a memoir, so Fagan pieces together emails, letters, conversations, and texts to humanize this tragedy and give the reader a sense of where Madison was coming from. The unfortunate result of this is that I had the sense I was being told to think a certain way about Madison rather than having Fagan lead me to her desired conclusion through just a presentation of facts. Chapters switch from Madison’s story to Fagan’s personal account. If I were to guess why Fagan included so much of herself in this book titled for Madison, I would say it’s because 1) Fagan wanted to alert the reader to the broader mental health trend among athletes, 2) Fagan needed to describe a part of the story on her own terms rather than jump to potentially inaccurate conclusions about Maddy, or 3) this topic was so heavy and the ending looming that Fagan needed to break the tension.
While I would certainly encourage everyone to become more educated on suicide prevention, I can’t say I would recommend this book as your first source. However, I do recommend this book or perhaps Fagan’s article to coaches and sports medicine physicians, who might benefit from reading these personal perspectives to better recognize signs, overcome barriers, and advise those in their care regarding mental health concerns.