Blurb:
University of Pittsburgh
law student, Maggie Hovis, battles an enemy she cannot escape—her own brain.
Her family calls her a drama queen. Her fiancé, Sam, moves out after she throws
a shoe at his head. Maggie knows there is only one way to get him back—control
her moods. So she takes the step most of her family is against: therapy. After
a diagnosis of Bipolar II Disorder, Maggie begins to investigate her family
tree—which is plagued by mental illness and hidden relatives—and develops
empathy for her deceased Great Aunt Ella, who lived her life in a mental
institution. But Maggie’s journey leads her into fear and insecurity, afraid
she’ll end up like Ella and never get Sam back. But what about Nick, her
super-sexy old flame, who wants to reignite their passion? And does it even
matter, anyway? Won’t mental illness stop any man from loving her?
Review
by Rochelle Weber:
Being bi-polar and
having gone through a couple of medicinal cocktails as well as several rounds
on locked wards, I thought I knew a lot about my disease. But Ms. Sofayov has apparently
done a lot more research than I have. In Defective
I learned the meaning of a word I’d just drifted across and to which I had not
paid much attention—hypomanic.
Like me, Maggie Hovis is
a Bi-Polar 2 with Hypomania. Her disease does not manifest itself in long periods
of great elation and creativity followed by long periods of deep depression
bordering on catatonia. It shows up more as temper tantrums followed by abject
apologies and then sleeping it off like an alcohol binge, and walking around
like a zombie the rest of the time, sometimes taking to one’s bed, sometimes
just wallowing on the couch with the TV on, sometimes managing to put one foot
in front of the other when absolutely required to survive, but with one’s very
own cloud surrounding one. Bi-polar 2’s have brief flashes of the happy,
creative kind of mania during which they may go somewhere fun or start a
project, but they rarely finish these things. Maggie’s boyfriend, Sam, referred
to those times as “Beautiful Maggie.”
[My first “book” was
actually a collection of first chapters. I had about 300 pages of the
beginnings of books, most of which I threw away. Goodness, I wish I’d kept
them, but when one is sofa-surfing homeless, one can only carry so much luggage.
You can’t be a hoarder on your friends’ couches.]
Maggie also has voices
in her head telling her people will find out what a fraud she is when she does
something right, or chiding her when she doesn’t quite do something perfectly,
just like mine. I just never realized they were part of my disease.
[“A 3.25 grade point
average. Couldn’t make cum laude, could you? You’re a failure.” “Yeah, but to
be fair, I did that one semester working full time while going to school in a
wheel chair with my leg in a cast, and the CTA not-so-Special Services kept leaving
me sitting in that cold corridor and caused me to miss three classes because
they went to the wrong building in my office complex. If they’d missed me one
more time, it would’ve been an automatic fail.” “Lame excuse for getting two Bs
that semester if you ask us.” [My voices, not Maggie’s. I call them The
Committee.)]
The information about
the disease is woven into a search for Maggie’s family history, a manic
obsession with getting her boyfriend back, and the reappearance of an old
flame, all tempered with the words of her cousin. “Face it, Mags. We’re
defective. No one’s ever going to love us.”
Well, I loved Maggie
Hovis. She and her family were fascinating, well-drawn, three dimensional
characters—even Aunt Ella who died before Maggie was born. The villain in Defective was one with whom I am all too
familiar and Ms. Sofayof definitely did her homework to bring it to life in
dazzling HD-3D. I could not put this book down, except when it took me into my
own head and I stopped to ruminate about my own struggles with B-P 2 and
hypomania.
Yes, Maggie, I loved
you. Enough to give you five [Yes, 5! Ignore the Committee and just say “Thank
you.”] Roses. Whether you’re bi-polar, living with someone who is, not related
to but curious about the disease, or just looking for a good romance with real
demons, Defective is a great read.
Length: 308 Pages
Prices:
Print: $11.53
Digital: $2.99
Thanks for visiting. Rose,
Julie, Donna, & Rochelle
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