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A "riveting page-turner" (Jean Kwok, New York Times bestselling author of Searching for Sylvie Lee) about a young woman diagnosed with bipolar disorder who rejects the stability and approval found in a traditionally "normal" life for a career in stand-up comedy.
Maddy Banks is just like any other stressed-out freshman at NYU. Between schoolwork, exams, navigating life in the city, and a recent 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, convincing her to go on an antidepressant. She begins to feel good, dazzling good 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 dream, Maddy will have to figure out how to manage being both too much and not enough.
With her signature "deep empathy and insight" (Booklist), Harvard-trained neuroscientist and New York Times bestselling author Lisa Genova has crafted an "affecting, harrowing, beautiful, and enlightening" (Shelf Awareness) novel that makes complicated mental health issues accessible and human. More or Less Maddy is destined to become another classic like Still Alice.
2026 first quarter besties
TIME OF THE CHILD by Niall Williams BECOMING MADAM SECRETARY by Stephanie Dray MAD HONEY by Jodi Picoult & Jennifer Boylan MORE OR LESS MADDY by Lisa Genova THE FAITH CLUB by Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver, & Priscilla Warner THE CORRESPONDENT by Virginia Evans THE ROAD TO TENDER HEARTS by Annie Hartnett TH...
-Marie_Webb
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (10/09/2025)
I am reading More or Less Maddy by Lisa Genova….i loved her her book Still Alice
-Kathleen_Quirk
What are you reading this week? (04/24/2025)
*Kim, These are the last few books I've read: More or Less Maddy by Lisa Genova The Women by Kristin Hannah Wednesday's Child by Yiyun Li (short stories) The Hypocrite by Jo Hayma
-Kassapa
What are you reading this week (1/2/2025)?
I'm reading advance copies of More or Less, Maddy by Lisa Genova and The Unbecoming of Margaret Wolf by Isa Arsen.
-Cindy_R
"Genova paints a realistic and often painful picture of the toll mental illness takes on both the affected person and loved ones, making for a visceral, harrowing, and undeniably powerful read." —Booklist
"As ever, Genova brings both an expert understanding of the neuroscience and a masterful eye for compelling characters in an emotionally textured narrative. Maddy's story is completely absorbing; it may keep readers up all night... Affecting, harrowing, beautiful, and enlightening, as well as a great pleasure to read." —Shelf Awareness
"Stirring ... Maddy is a well-drawn character, offering readers a sympathetic look at what it's like to live with a bipolar diagnosis, and Genova's signature empathy and insights are on full display. It's a remarkable achievement." —Publishers Weekly
This information about More or Less Maddy was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Acclaimed as the Oliver Sacks of fiction and the Michael Crichton of brain science, Lisa Genova is the New York Times bestselling author of Still Alice, Left Neglected, Love Anthony, Inside the O'Briens, and Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting. Still Alice was adapted into an Oscar–winning film starring Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, and Kristen Stewart. Lisa graduated valedictorian from Bates College with a degree in biopsychology and holds a PhD in neuroscience from Harvard University. She is featured in the documentary films To Not Fade Away and Have You Heard About Greg. Her TED talks on Alzheimer's disease and memory have been viewed over eleven million times.
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