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

Written by Kate Fagan

Narrated by Kate Fagan

The heartbreaking story of college athlete Madison Holleran, whose life and death by suicide reveal the struggle of young people suffering from mental illness today in this #1 New York Times Sports and Fitness bestseller.

If you scrolled through the Instagram feed of 19-year-old Maddy Holleran, you would see a perfect life: a freshman at an Ivy League school, recruited for the track team, who was also beautiful, popular, and fiercely intelligent. This was a girl who succeeded at everything she tried, and who was only getting started. But when Maddy began her long-awaited college career, her parents noticed something changed. Previously indefatigable Maddy became withdrawn, and her thoughts centered on how she could change her life. In spite of thousands of hours of practice and study, she contemplated transferring from the school that had once been her dream.

When Maddy's dad, Jim, dropped her off for the first day of spring semester, she held him a second longer than usual. That would be the last time Jim would see his daughter. What Made Maddy Run began as a piece that Kate Fagan, a columnist for espnW, wrote about Maddy's life. What started as a profile of a successful young athlete whose life ended in suicide became so much larger when Fagan started to hear from other college athletes also struggling with mental illness.

This is the story of Maddy Holleran's life, and her struggle with depression, which also reveals the mounting pressures young people -- and college athletes in particular -- face to be perfect, especially in an age of relentless connectivity and social media saturation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hachette Audio
• Release date: Aug 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9781478964780

Kate Fagan

Kate Fagan is an Emmy Award–winning journalist and the #1 New York Times bestselling author of What Made Maddy Run, which was a semi-finalist for the PEN/ESPN Award for literary sports writing. She is also the author of three additional nonfiction titles, a former professional basketball player, and spent seven years as a journalist at ESPN. Kate currently lives in Charleston with her wife, Kathryn Budig, and their dog, Ragnar. 

Reviews for What Made Maddy Run

[Surbhi KitKat · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The writing was terrible. For such a poignant subject matter, the author robbed it of emotion. Her distance trivialized the life of this beautiful young woman. The family trusted this author. I feel sorry that she made such a mess of the book. Her inability to deal with the immensity of the events leads her to lecture on social media and irrelevant facts of the unrelated world. She spends at least thirty percent of the book talking about her own irrelevant life. I could not give a shite about the author’s life. I read the book for Maddy. I hope this author never gets the privilege to write another book about someone else. She is very deficient of writing ability and imagination and creativity.

[dele2451 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An important story, well researched and respectfully told. A valuable addition to the reading list of anyone involved with college athletics in any capacity.

[homeschoolmimzi · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

"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 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.