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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
reflective
sad
The way Kate Fagan inserted herself into the story was a bit much and felt like it took away and just added too much fluff. Her writing the story from Maddy's perspective including personal thoughts and feelings that nobody could have known, but written like Kate knew somehow creeped me out. I disliked her research aspects as well, I wanted more professional and actual interviews and research and less over twitter DM research.
Such a powerful read. Every parent regardless of having a teen/college that plays sports should read this. An eye opening look at the image one conveys on social media and the difference in real life to the struggles of depression.
Such a heartbreaking story but I am glad I read it and thought it was a touching and yet still respectful look at Maddy’s life and untimely death. The sections detailing the potential outsize influence of social media when it has always been a constant in someone’s life, possibly at the expense of one’s mental health and well being, were particularly well done.
Very interesting read, especially given the times we are raising our children in.
⚠️ [TW: suicide, blood, death, death of a loved one, eating disorders, pain, alcoholism, anxiety, depression, guilt, mental illness] ⚠️
The fact that I didn't know what happened to Maddie is really surprising and it shocks me & scares me to know that they are so many others like her with similar and different stories whose voices are not heard.
Plot
What made Maddy run is a magnificent story about 18-year-old Madison Holleran who has had a perfect life; she was a freshman at an Ivy League school, recruited for the track team, who is also beautiful, popular, and furiously intelligent. Madison has succeeded in everything in her life but college has been a problem for her. She is used to being what her family calls "the best" and when she's recruited in a college with all "the best" people she finds that it's not easy to be herself anymore / happy. Madison has been struggling for a while and takes her life. But it is much more than that there is much more than just this All-American team who has been struggling. What a lot of people don't know about suicide is that there is often more than one reason. And in this glorious book, Madison's reasons are discussed.
Discussions
A lot of things are discussed in this book some of the things that were discussed are how people (like some parents) think that this generation is soft or weak somehow just because they are hurting and the suicide rates and everything is going up. The author (Kate) discusses that just because most of this generation has everything like enough food or shelter and clothes that doesn't mean that everything is good, well, and perfect. I loved how this book separated the physical life from the mental life and showed that just because you have everything in the breach of your palms doesn't mean that everything is going well. So there is a difference between physical and mental health, it isn't what most people want to talk about these days but it is something that is very important and it's FINALLY getting the light it deserves but still not enough.
Madison
Madison was represented perfectly, she was described perfectly everything like her feelings and thoughts were all thought out so well by Kate. It's just so honest and brutally truthful to know how much Madison struggled on the inside but was doing so well on the outside. I loved learning and seeing how Madison was growing on the outside but shrinking on the inside. Also seeing the pressure she had to be perfect and everything was just so realistic about what most people go through today and are so quiet about it. This book is soo perfect and showed how NO ONE can BE perfect. And of course, most of us already know that, but it is different to know something and see it for yourself PERFECTLY.
Overall
Overall this was a touching book that definitely made me cry and ball my eyes out. I definitely recommend this book to everyone and anyone to whom this subject is not too sensitive.
Quotes
- DrHibiscus
Page: 112-113
- Peter Gray
Page: 121
- Kathryn
Page: 122
The fact that I didn't know what happened to Maddie is really surprising and it shocks me & scares me to know that they are so many others like her with similar and different stories whose voices are not heard.
Plot
What made Maddy run is a magnificent story about 18-year-old Madison Holleran who has had a perfect life; she was a freshman at an Ivy League school, recruited for the track team, who is also beautiful, popular, and furiously intelligent. Madison has succeeded in everything in her life but college has been a problem for her. She is used to being what her family calls "the best" and when she's recruited in a college with all "the best" people she finds that it's not easy to be herself anymore / happy. Madison has been struggling for a while and takes her life. But it is much more than that there is much more than just this All-American team who has been struggling. What a lot of people don't know about suicide is that there is often more than one reason. And in this glorious book, Madison's reasons are discussed.
Discussions
A lot of things are discussed in this book some of the things that were discussed are how people (like some parents) think that this generation is soft or weak somehow just because they are hurting and the suicide rates and everything is going up. The author (Kate) discusses that just because most of this generation has everything like enough food or shelter and clothes that doesn't mean that everything is good, well, and perfect. I loved how this book separated the physical life from the mental life and showed that just because you have everything in the breach of your palms doesn't mean that everything is going well. So there is a difference between physical and mental health, it isn't what most people want to talk about these days but it is something that is very important and it's FINALLY getting the light it deserves but still not enough.
Madison
Madison was represented perfectly, she was described perfectly everything like her feelings and thoughts were all thought out so well by Kate. It's just so honest and brutally truthful to know how much Madison struggled on the inside but was doing so well on the outside. I loved learning and seeing how Madison was growing on the outside but shrinking on the inside. Also seeing the pressure she had to be perfect and everything was just so realistic about what most people go through today and are so quiet about it. This book is soo perfect and showed how NO ONE can BE perfect. And of course, most of us already know that, but it is different to know something and see it for yourself PERFECTLY.
Overall
Overall this was a touching book that definitely made me cry and ball my eyes out. I definitely recommend this book to everyone and anyone to whom this subject is not too sensitive.
Quotes
"I am sick and tired of hearing the facile, tired response that my generation is too "soft" and has been ill-equipped by cold coddling "helicopter parents." My parents and those of my peers do not fit the strawman caricature and my peers are extremely hard-working, intelligent, and ambitious. What I learned about myself and about my peers was that our main source of stress was that we are simply not allowed to be human... My generation is not suffering because we didn't learn how to lose a game of flag football. We are suffering because everything we do is filtered through the lens of consumerism. We see ourselves as products to be "branded" and "marketed" in all venues of our lives: social, romantic, and professional. This has been a mindset inculcated into us from an early age."
- DrHibiscus
Page: 112-113
"We're teaching young people what to think not how to think."
- Peter Gray
Page: 121
"Who can find a soulmate when her own soul is still such a work in progress?"
- Kathryn
Page: 122
You pick this book up to hear Maddy’s story but that’s not what you get. Instead, you get a half-assed story about Maddy and a rant from the author on her personal life. The author tries to connect her story to Maddy’s and at times it seems disrespectful because the author’s story is nowhere near as devastating as Maddy’s. 75% of the novel is the journey of writing the book, but honestly? It felt like the book could have been slapped together in an hour. The writing itself was so condescending, demeaning social media and constantly trying to teach a lesson in every sentence, even if it was talking about the most minute thing
Maddy's story is heart breaking. Her's is a story I want my high schoolers to read as they head off to college. My problem with this book is Fagan's interjecting her own experiences in between chapters. There was no need for Fagan to discuss her own athletic career; all it did was take away from Maddy's story. If Fagan had kept herself out of the story, the book would have easily been a five star story.
A heartbreaking but very important read for any parent of a teen. It applies even more to parents of athletes or other highly motivated students who are college bound. I would recommend that coaches and youth mentors read this book. Basically anyone who is around teenagers. It is a very real look at the struggles that can happen with mental health. Very powerful!