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

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Call it what you must, but you need to practise walking around and living life and being heartbroken at the same time. Not in an exciting way, where you're in the thrall of some new person, or buying something outrageous, or terrorising Jiro, but in the way where you still have to go to work when you have a toothache.’ I give the author a lot of credit because she took a subject that is explored frequently in fiction, divorce, and yet came up with a story that felt fresh and new. That's a pretty big feat to pull off. Regardless of whether you have experienced a significant break up or not, there's some value here for any reader. 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? Also, to not mention any kind of random Japanese pottery theory about broken people... Really, though, let's all encourage our friends to seek professional help when we can see they're clearly struggling and we don't have the tools to help them. 🥺🥺 Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.

From the rating alone, it’s obvious this was NOT for everyone, but oh how I loved it. There’s nothing like making an imperfect fictional friend and this was another example of a “romdramedy” that had me laughing out loud one minute and “bless your heart”-ing Maggie the next. A prime example of how a storyteller's voice can pull you right in and keep you clinging to every sentence. . . . This is a book I will give to my closest girlfriends and say, ‘You have to read this.’” — Zibby Owens, GoodMorningAmerica.comMaggie’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™. Freshly divorced Maggie is open to trying and doing new things, including dating, journalling, working out and standing up for herself. With all of this, she crumbles weekly and spends days indoor hiding away from the world. With the help of friends she slowly faces her situation and make plans for next step. Laugh-out-loud funny and filled with sharp observations, Really Good, Actually is a tender and bittersweet comedy that lays bare the uncertainties of modern love, friendship, and our search for that thing we like to call “happiness”. This is a remarkable debut from an unforgettable new voice in fiction. rating — rating up — because I can understand that some people (maybe need to be in the goofy mood or YOUNGER than 70 years and 11 months old) ….. You know those miserable friends you avoid at all costs? This book was like being forced to listen to one for 5 hours straight. Painful.

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. It turns into a superbly cutting, self-aware list, detailing everything from him putting hot sauce on every meal she lovingly crafts to her never doing the laundry and that his weed habit not being, in her view, ‘actually the same thing’ as her drinking two cups of coffee in the morning. She ends with a brilliantly sardonic shrug. ‘Anyway, it was over.’Of the 43 most stressful events that an average adult might contend with in their lifetime, “divorce” and “marital separation” rank at Nos 2 and 3 respectively, grimly sandwiched between “spousal death” and “imprisonment”. (“Vacations” and “frequency of family reunions” make the list too – useful to remember in the wake of the holiday season.) It’s a nugget of popular psychology with which Maggie, the heroine of Monica Heisey’s debut novel, Really Good, Actually, would be familiar.

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. Meh that was boring. The main character was so irritating and insufferable it's no surprise her husband left her. In fact, I'm surprised he didnt leave her earlier. I feel like when you get a divorce everyone’s wondering how you ruined it all, what made you so unbearable to be with. If your husband dies, at least people feel bad for you.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! However, all that being said I have little doubt this but will be a hit if not because of the authors script writing credentials. One of the most hotly anticipated, hilarious and addictive debut novels of 2023, from Schitt’s Creek and Workin’ Moms screenwriter and an electric new voice in fiction, Monica Heisey.