Really Good, Actually: The must-read major Sunday Times bestselling debut novel of 2023

Product Information

I've been seeing this gorgeous cover all across Bookstagram and Goodreads so I'm hoping it's good! I just DNFed my last read, and I'm actually really proud of myself for that because I was genuinely not invested in it! With that, another #tandemreadalongis done and dusted. This time, the group ventured into the rapidly falling apart world of Maggie. She finds herself in her late 20s, staring down the barrel of divorce. We follow her throughout the year of her separation, between split and divorce papers. I'll begin this review by stating what I think is v important: this book is not for everybody. I know my mom would hate this book, as would probably most folks over the age of 50. But- BUT- I will say I think I am the target audience. Not just, like millennial white women in their early thirties; I honestly felt at times like the book was made for me and me alone. I related so much to Maggie, even though I'm happily married and not going through a divorce like her.

Maggie’s marriage has ended just 608 days after it started, but she’s fine – she’s doing really good, actually. Sure, she’s alone for the first time in her life, can’t afford her rent and her obscure PhD is going nowhere . . . but at the age of twenty-nine, Maggie is determined to embrace her new status as a Surprisingly Young Divorcée™. The action is interrupted by chapter breaks with titles such as “Selected Correspondence, Tinder, August 20” and “Well-Meaning Conversations With Loved Ones, Truncated at the Exact Moment They Start to Bring Up Kintsugi”. These lists, which read like parodies of themselves (one involves a “fantasy” in which Maggie is dating Harry Styles), break the narrative tension that ­Heisey otherwise sculpts carefully. Maggie is getting divorced at 28. This book is the most hilarious break up commentary, alongside the funniest observations from her friends and we even see her attempt to find a new love 👀 I've never been through a divorce, but they happen every day to the people we love around us... it was a great insight into what people really go through in cleaving their life from someone else's. I think the reason I had a hard time with this, even though there are some great insights... so much of this is a rambling mess?i would compare this book to a mixture of ADELAIDE and ROMANTIC COMEDY but tbh i liked it a lot more. i believe i read somewhere that it was being adapted into a movie or series and i think it would translate very well! Vacillating between the cringe-worthy/second-hand embarrassment-fueled moments of a person with no self-awareness.. and absolute heart-wrenching grief and denial... this story is hard to read. Somewhat in a good way, somewhat in a bad way? It's categorized as a novel, but most definitely makes you wonder how much of was real for the author. stars: 2 stars for the book itself, but a million stars for goddess Julia Whelan's narration of the audiobook, so I'm rounding up.

I am awake WAY too early because I accidentally took a weeeee depression nap after learning about a family member's illness. 🥺🥺I think my mind just needed to take a break to process so here I am awake at this unGodly hour. They say nothing good happens after midnight and I 100% agree with that. I think the problem with this book is that it’s not in its ideal format. This would have worked a lot better as a short story/essay collection. As a novel, it drags and meanders without a real sense of purpose or plot. Nothing really moves forward and it feels like a collection of comedy routines on a shared topic. The zany one liners also work a lot better in that medium I think. With this being a full length novel, endless jokes about the same topic get tiring. All the bookstagrammers I love have been talking about this book for months and over the last couple of weeks, pretty much all of my favourite podcasters have either been talking or interviewing Monica Heisey about her debut novel for their shows.

I’m giving it 2 stars because I managed to finish it, but I expected something good to happen at some point. I’m sad to say I regret the investment. This kind of book doesn’t usually make it on my top 10s of the year lists. If it didn’t terrify me, make me cry or make me gag because I was so disturbed, then it probably wasn’t for me. I like a book that gives me a literal physical reaction. But this book made me laugh so much and made me so happy??? That never happens! So it might just end up in my top 10 🥰🫶🏽 Monica Heisey was born in Toronto at the very end of the 1980s and has spent most of her adult life in London, after moving there in 2010 to pursue an MA in early modern literature. She is an author, screenwriter, essayist, and occasional comedian. She works mostly from bed and has accepted that this will impact her posture.