Book: More or Less Maddy

 Book: More or Less Maddy

Author: Lisa Genova

Pages: 368

This is my 84th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Maddy Banks is just like any other stressed-out freshman at NYU.  Between schoolwork, exams, navigating life in the city, and a reent breakup, it's normal to be feeling overwhelmed.  It doesn't help that she's always felt like the odd one out in her picture-perfect Connecticut family.  But Maddy's latest low is devastatingly low, and she goes on an antidepressant.  She begins to feel good, dazzling in fact, and she soon spirals high into a wild and terrifying mania that culminates in a diagnosis of bipolar disorder.  As she struggles to find her way in this new reality, navigating the complex effects bipolar has on her identity, her relationships, and her life dreams, Maddy will have to figure out how to manage being both too much and not enough.

This was an interesting book.  I usually like Genova's books - she is a Harvard trained Neuroscience that has made quite the career of being a fictional writer about very real neurological disorders.  But this one missed the mark just a bit for me.  This is a tough subject and I think I learned a lot.  I just didn't like the Maddy character.  It gets a bit repetitive and the comedy bits are cringy.  Didn't connect with any of the characters and just was hoping for more.  I wanted to root for Maddy, but this particular character - it was too hard to do.

Stars: 3