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

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Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over. I was very sold on the set up though: a young, pithy woman goes through a divorce and has to cope with all the changes that brings. But all in all, Really Good, Actually is a witty and perceptive account of modern love and all its foibles. Maggie is a 29 year old struggling to come to terms with a fresh divorce and for some reason has zero self restraint.

Really Good, Actually: The must-read major Sunday Times

I went through a major break up at that age, and it wrecks you, like any break up does, but the fact that your 30th birthday is around the corner adds a very specific sort of stress for women, even if you have spent most of your adult life railing against ageist stereotypes. 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 Divorcee(TM). Really Good, Actuallyis a hilarious look at divorce, friendship, identity, and the many ways we try and fail to take care of each other. There were some problems, sure: in addition to the eating in bed, I had no indoor voice and did not respect his fridge organisation system; he had a temper and wanted us to take up running.Really, Good, Actually is also an incredibly powerful reminder that people don't need to be fixed, but they do need support, and they best possibly loving intervention you can provide if you have the energy to give? Jon and I fell in love at university, his cheerful nihilism a surprising complement to my chronic nervous overthinking. like i previously mentioned, i read the audiobook and i highly recommend going that route if you decide to pick this one up. Fans of My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Queenieor shows like HBO's Girlswill want to give it a read.

Really Good, Actually – HarperCollins Publishers UK

Somewhere in the midst of Maggie’s adventures – flirtations with bisexuality, frantic spin classes, recreational axe throwing – she is grappling with the question of responsibility. A smart and funny coming-of-divorce novel, a story of self-reckoning with a likable heroine to root for .

Or because I scoffed when he said that and asked about the socialist impact of his latest McDonald’s commercial. Reading like a millennial Nora Ephron, everyone will fall in love with the messy and relatable heroine.

Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey | Goodreads

There isn’t a plot as such as it’s just Maggie‘s exploration of various things which eventually gets tedious. The morning Jon leaves, Maggie takes a selfie of her sad face and immediately downloads Facetune to edit the dark circles under her eyes. Instead she's a hot mess and even though you might not make the same choices as her, on some level she is relatable. Monica Heisey has given us a modern-day Heartburn, a brilliant, unique, charming novel that I will be recommending to every single person I know.I’m giving it 2 stars because I managed to finish it, but I expected something good to happen at some point.

Monica Heisey About | Monica Heisey

I don’t know if predictable is quite the right word for “Really Good, Actually”, but it does sound like a story you may have heard before. Her voice is so fresh and funny and true, it feels like you've never heard it before, yet so familiar that you will follow it anywhere.This novel is wildly funny andcompulsively readable, the kind of book you immediately share with your best friend. Smart, bighearted, and hilarious…[ I Can’t Believe It’s Not Better] stands out both because it’s laugh-out-loud funny and because of the artful way Heisey reveals that her heroine is most definitely not OK.