More or Less Maddy by Lisa Genova ~ Book Review

Maddy is a young adult trying to navigate the world of post secondary school at NYU.  As if that isn't stressful enough, her boyfriend just broke up with her.  And coming from a picture perfect Connecticut family where she always felt out of place, there are  standards to uphold.  It is just all so overwhelming.  As she goes emotionally from highs to lows this most recent low has been devastatingly low and Maddy is put on anti-depressants.  Now Maddy is feeling super great.  So great in fact, that she starts to experience a crazy, terrifying mania doing things that her family is shocked to learn about, especially her mother who is all about appearances.  That is when Maddie is diagnosed with bi-polar disorder.  And to make matters worse, this is when Maddie discovers a love for stand up comedy.  Now her sole focus in life is to make it in that world.  But that comes with it's own challenges.  

Author Lisa Genova holds a degree in biopsychology and a PhD in neuroscience from Harvard so her stories come from knowledge and experience.  In her stories she delves into many of the diseases that most of us don't understand and brings a compassionate to the face of those suffering from them.  I like how her stories are from the point of view of the person suffering from the disease and not just from the perspective of others around them.  In this novel, bi-polar disease is explored.  I learned a lot, as usual, from the story without it being dry like a text book.  And while I have loved most of this author's stories for the story's sake, this one was not one of them.  There is lots of swearing and F bombs and promiscuousness, none of which I like in my reading.  The whole stand up comedy world was not to my liking, I just don't find it funny.   Yes, I'm the person who fast forwards stand up comedy in .......'. Got Talent shows, but I pressed on for the sake of learning about bi-polar disease.  Though I felt for her, I found it hard to find connection with the main character and her obsession with Taylor Swift grew tiresome after a point.  I'm passing the book to a friend who loves stand up comedy and will be interested to see what she thinks of the story.  

Unfortunately because of all that I didn't like I gave it a  7/10