Kate Fagan (1) (1981–)

I'll start by saying I received this book in a giveaway, and it is absolutely one I needed to read. While this story is heartbreaking, it is a real tragedy and not an isolated incident. Fagan wrote phenomenally and, above all, respectfully. Every millennial (or parent or just person who regularly interacts with individuals in that generation or younger) should read this book. This book isn't just about a tragic suicide, but about the many things that led to it and the facade we put up to show more hide the pain and convince others (and ourselves) that we are okay. Numerous times it is mentioned that the conversations regarding mental health need to be reframed and become less stigmatized - I believe this book is a step in the right direction. show less

"We have translated expressions and emotions into emojis, and simply using an emoji seems to tell the recipient that all is okay. The inclusion of even one of those animated faces signals ease and lightness, regardless of what emotion the emoji represents, even if it represents crying... Very little of what we say in text is a literal representation of how we feel, what we're doing, how we're behaving. It's an animated, easy-to-digest version: an exaggeration or a simplification, but not a show more reflection. And that would be fine if it weren't the main way we now communicate with one another. We believe we're communicating with the humans we love and adore, and we are. But we aren't absorbing their humanity."

This was just one of the many passages in this book that resonated with me. What Made Maddy Run is the true story about a talented Ivy league athlete and her descent into the darkest of places. It is a book about lack of awareness, miscommunications, secrets, suicide rates amongst young college students, about friendships and sports, social media profiles that hide truth, and a myriad of ethical questions people want to avoid in this culture of busyness, competition and virtual identity.
Fagan tells a sad story and raises many questions for readers, alternating chapters between Maddy's story and her own. She includes some transcripts of interviews and quotes from friends. It's certainly a disturbing subject but nevertheless important and sadly necessary, as we lose so many of our youth to suicide. If it raises awareness and improves communication for just one person, this book will have been worth it. Highly recommend this book to everyone. show less

I picked this book up from the library knowing nothing about it. Except the inside flap "appealed" to me. It is difficult to say that a book about suicide and the mental illness problem in the United States is appealing....but because I struggle with my own mental illness battles (and I'm a Psychology minor) I wanted to read the book.

Maddy's story is a sad one but not surprising either. We are driving athletes to perfection. We demand them to focus on their on-field performance and don't show more care about much else. We also are afraid to talk about mental illness. I can only imagine how difficult it is for athletes when success is glory is what gives you the win. Mental illness is not glory....it sucks.

Kate Fagan, in my opinion, did her best to do justice to Maddy's story. I did not think the writing style was always amazing. In fact, I thought it was quite poor sometimes. Her "personal experiences" occasionally were out of place but I do get why they were there--other people understand the thoughts that took place in Maddy's head.

This book doesn't give answers. I felt like every conclusion was an obvious one. And no changes were proposed either. So the reader almost felt as if we were rehashing pain for no apparent reason. Yet I did figure out the reason....eventually. Maddy's story deserves to be told (and in greater detail than a ESPNw article). Other athletes need to know they are not alone. Other PEOPLE need to know they are not alone. But I also hope this book gets people angry enough to start making changes. We do have a problem in this country. It's bad everywhere and REALLY bad on college campuses. Let's stop with the stigma and start doing something. show less

Kate Fagan started out with an article ("Split Image") about Maddy Holleran's suicide in an ESPN publication and then turned it into this book.

I found Maddy's story interesting, and the book was a mostly enjoyable read for me (if enjoyable is the right word to use here), but some things didn't work for me.

First, Fagan inserts herself too much into the story. There are whole chapters about Fagan's struggles as a college athlete and how she almost quit as Maddy tried to do. That's fine, I show more guess, but I'm not here to read about Fagan's story. Plus, with all of the stress on college athletes, it seems likely she could have found someone else to talk about their experiences with the pressures of playing sports in college and left her own feelings and experiences out of it.

In addition, Fagan includes interviews poorly. Instead of taking what was said and putting it in a narrative form---and taking herself out of the conversation---she just writes out the interview like dialogue in a play, with each speaker's name in bold, followed by a colon and what they said. It's boring to read and just seems sloppy, I guess, like maybe she was pressed for time and so just dropped in the interviews with a little preamble about how nervous she was or where she sat in the cafe waiting for the interviewee.

Related to the "pressed for time" hypothesis, Fagan repeats sections from Maddy's texts, journals, and letters, particularly the letter Maddy wrote to her track coach, and she includes texts that have no discernible connection to the points she's making or to any of Maddy's friends she's referred to before.

But the thing that really irritates me is that, while Fagan goes into great---anecdotal---detail about the effects of social media on developing psyches, she completely glosses over Maddy's high school and college binge drinking as something that might have been related to her depression and anxiety. Some alcohol use in adolescence appears to be both caused by and a cause of mental illness---particularly depression. (Here's a quote from that last linked article, in case you're interested: "Deykin et al...found that 16 to 19 year old females were more than six times as likely to experience depression if they were alcohol abusers than if they were not.")

Lots of teens drink in high school and college, and most of them are fine (or at least don't commit suicide in college; who knows what happens later), but what if a teen already has a predisposition to depression and/or existing but undiagnosed depression (or another mood disorder) or anxiety disorder and then routinely exposes their brain, which is in a period of intense development during adolescence, to alcohol?

The link between alcohol use and depression among teens is at least as strong as the link between social media use and depression, yet Fagan just breezes right by Maddy's "partying."

There. Now that bee's out of my bonnet.

Something I do appreciate about the book is Fagan's inclusion of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention's do's and don'ts for writing about suicide and has the contact information for crisis lines and other suicide prevention organizations at the end of the book.

I'm still not sure it's really a book (rather than just a padded article), but mostly Fagan handled the subject well and gave a sympathetic and not overly dramatic view of one young woman suffering with a complex problem, and I am glad that I read it. show less