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

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If you want to read about the realities of modern life, love and friendship and it’s ups and downs, with plenty of humour thrown in (it felt a bit Bridget Jones’ esque in the funny but not funny situations of Maggie’s life), then you won’t want to miss this one!" Three woman who join together to rent a large space along the beach in Los Angeles for their stores—a gift shop, a bakery, and a bookstore—become fast friends as they each experience the highs, and lows, of love. You know how every funny book about a single woman who is a ‘bit of mess’ is compared to Bridget Jones? Well, comparatively? Bridget: step aside babes. A hilarious and painfully relatable debut novel about one woman’s messy search for joy and meaning in the wake of an unexpected breakup, from comedian, essayist, and award-winning screenwriter Monica Heisey

Her first book, I Can't Believe It's Not Better, a collection of essays, short stories, and—in an unlikely twist—poems, was published in 2015, and was a Globe & Mail, National Post, and CBC “Best Book of the Year.” This was also the year of her first television job, as a member of the writing room for the sketch comedy series Baroness von Sketch Show (CBC/IFC). She worked on all five seasons of Baroness, and, with the rest of the writing room, was awarded four Canadian Screen Awards for comedy writing. Swipe to see some bits I thought were great especially the one about how being thirty one is the same as being twenty six except you’re hotter and smarter and know a little bit about tiles. That got a small chortle from me🤣 and I was thinking oh ok good to know. I look forward to knowing a bit about tiles💀."The author also writes with astute observation at the absurdity of how life goes on despite big devastating life events that you can experience personally, and we see how Maggie tries to navigate the ‘normalness’ of the lives of her family, friends and work colleagues, and convincing her and everyone around her that she is happy and ok. I particularly enjoyed the impact of Maggie’s situation with her close group of friends (and how their friendship is tested by Maggie’s destructive behaviour) as well as Maggie’s relationship with Simon (Maggie’s self-preservation and detachment in this relationship was definitely relatable). My marriage ended because I was cruel. Or because I ate in bed. Or because he liked electronic music and difficult films about men in nature. Or because I did not. Or because I was anxious, and this made me controlling. Or because red wine makes me critical. Or because hunger, stress, and white wine make me critical, too. Or because I was clingy at parties. Or because he smoked weed every day, and I did not think it was “actually the same thing” as my drinking two cups of coffee in the morning. Or because we fell in love too young, and how could our actual lives compare to the idea we’d had of what our lives could be when we were barely twenty and our bodies were almost impossibly firm? Or because we tried non-monogamy for three months in 2011, and it was just fine, not great. Or because he put hot sauce on everything, without tasting it, even if I’d spent hours balancing the flavours from a recipe I’d had to scroll past a long and detailed story about some woman’s holiday to find. Or because he forgot our anniversary once. Or because I did our laundry never. Or because his large Greek family had not quite accepted me as one of their own, even after I learned his yiayia’s favourite poem for her birthday. Or because he walked in on me shitting that time. Or because, in 2015, we attended nine weddings and got carried away, and a big party where everyone told us we were geniuses for loving each other then gave us three thousand dollars seemed like a great idea. Or because we went to Paris and had an argument instead of falling more in love or at least rimming each other. Or because I’d stopped imagining what our children might look like. Or because he’d never started. Or because I was insecure, and sometimes petty. Or because he kept insisting we go vegan, then sneaking pizzas into the apartment while I slept. Or because we finished watching The Sopranos and never started The Wire. Or because when we were first getting together, I’d kissed someone else, and sometimes still thought about her. Or because he was needlessly combative, with a pretentious streak. Or because I was a coward, whose work did not “actively seek to dismantle the state.” Or because I scoffed when he said that and asked about the socialist impact of his latest McDonald’s commercial. Or because he called me a cunt. Or because sometimes, I was one. Anyway, it was over. Maggie is fine. She’s doing really good, actually. Sure, she’s broke, her graduate thesis on something obscure is going nowhere, and her marriage only lasted 608 days, but at the ripe old age of twenty-nine, Maggie is determined to embrace her new life as a Surprisingly Young Divorcée™. 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. 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.

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 🥰🫶🏽 It’s a book that falls into the sad (but not sad) girl lit pile and follows our protagonist Maggie, a 29-year-old PhD student who is newly separated from her husband after 608 days of marriage. While she is determined to embrace this next chapter of her life, this is a book that is introspective and centres more around Maggie’s thoughts and feelings rather than what she intends to do next. 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'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!anyways, i really liked this one! and it's one of those books that feels weird so say you "liked" or "loved" because of the flawed main character ... and boy is she FLAWED! i agree that there were a lot of moments that i cringed through while the FMC self sabotaged her life, but something about it felt relatable? plus (while it does take a while to get there) her character growth is EVERYTHING. i was so pleased with the ending and to see how far maggie had come. and not to mention this book is FUNNY. the sarcasm, wit, and dry humor sprinkled throughout was top notch.

Laugh-out-loud funny, razor sharp and painfully relatable, Really Good, Actually is an irresistible debut novel about the uncertainties of modern love, friendship and happiness from a stunning new voice in fiction, Monica Heisey. I had high hopes for this Canadian writer and comedian, a writer for the show Schitt’s Creek which I LOVE! First of all, the positives as I see them. The premise is a creative one and I do enjoy the new chaotic life Maggie now lives though the standout feature that appeals to me the most is the ironic, sarcastic tone and the social commentary. The friendships are good and there are some scenes that are entertaining as Maggie employs a multitude of diversionary tactics. The Google searches she does a funny too! The author has my attention at the start with the opening section which is really good but then she loses me. Whilst there are some laughs and also some heartache I struggle to get through this.

There were a few stand out, hilarious lines (Harry Styles anyone?), but overall this book wasn’t really for me. It’s probably just my preference for a plot driven story rather than a character driven one. If you’re into what some people in the group chat called ‘sad girl fiction’, or a character development driven story, this one would be up your alley!" Through way too many misadventures, Maggie FINALLY ENTERS THERAPY(!!!) and starts to gain some clarity. She definitely hasn’t figured her shit out, but there is a light at the end of the (probably very long) tunnel. Kind of. He’d moved out, taking the cat (for now) and a gaming system and three acoustic guitars. The idea of Jon writing breakup songs in some dark sublet filled me with equal parts deep despair and incredible relief—despair, to think that I had caused him such pain he’d been driven to experimental songwriting; relief, that I wouldn’t have to listen to it. Here's a list of alternate titles that went through my head while I was listening to Really Good, Actually: Maggie’s marriage is ending only six hundred and eight days after it began (despite being together nearly a decade) . . .

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. The reader gets inside the chaotic and often contradictory thoughts swimming inside Maggie’s head, which anyone who has gone through a heartbreak will relate to Maggie’s self-destructive behaviour and the way she questions her life choices, in this case marrying in her 20s, and if she is worth loving. The short extracts of text messages, notes, fantasy scenarios, google searches and other forms of writing that illustrate Maggie’s internal dialogue (that are included at the end of most chapters) were hilarious to read and painfully relatable. The toaster line is typical of Heisey’s style: mostly ridiculous, yet with an emotional core that appeals to the heart. And Heisey knows how Maggie is feeling. The London-based Canadian author, who has worked as a screenwriter on the sitcom Schitt’s Creek, was herself married at 26 and divorced at 28. Here the immensely recognisable experience of heartbreak is heightened to a painful degree: how does someone who once seemed to have a relationship so perfect she made it legal, reappear into the world now she is divorced – and still in her twenties? However, it just goes on and on. It’s way too long as it’s all basically the same theme so there’s a lot of repetition. There isn’t a plot as such as it’s just Maggie‘s exploration of various things which eventually gets tedious. I can’t say either that I especially like her as a central protagonist and this is one of those occasions where I think that is important. She tires me out, wears me down quite simply drives me round the bend. Some references mean nothing to me as a reader in the United Kingdom but will mean something to North American readers. 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.

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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. The whole thing is a bit of a ramble, really. We’re with Maggie and she’s spiralling and then not spiralling and then spiralling some more. It’s fun and relatable in a chaotic sort of way which is realistic if you think about it. There’s plenty introspection and the kind of deep thought that happens when your life is collapsing. Plenty drama. It would make for light (?) reading. At least to me, it was light ish. I recommend.