Really Good, Actually

by

Hardcover, 384 pages

English language

Published Jan. 17, 2023 by William Morrow.

ISBN:
978-0-06-323541-0
Copied ISBN!

View on OpenLibrary

3 stars (2 reviews)

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™.

Now she has time to take up nine hobbies, eat hamburgers at 4 am, and “get back out there” sex-wise. With the support of her tough-loving academic advisor, Merris; her newly divorced friend, Amy; and her group chat (naturally), Maggie barrels through her first year of single life, intermittently dating, occasionally waking up on the floor and asking herself tough questions along the way.

7 editions

reviewed Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey

Review of 'Really Good, Actually' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

A bit shocked to read the reviews on this page, as if they didn't read the blurb or have any concept of the genre before digging in. This book does exactly what it says on the back and is a fairly typical book of the genre.

Heisey writes a funny, coming of second age book about a woman navigating adulthood, depression, and being a young divorcee. I see other reviews call the protagonist 'insufferable', another typical aspect of the genre. I'm sure if someone could read your every thought they may also think you're insufferable. At (most) times the decisions she made were cringy or objectively wrong, but to me, that's quite relatable. If it's not for you, congrats on being perfect!

reviewed Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey

Really not

1 star

Apparently this is a Sunday Times Bestseller and our library has a least two e-copies in stock but I got about a third of the way through before giving up.

For me it fails in two ways. Firstly it's just not that well written and considering this is a first person narrative it doesn't feel that way.

Second, and this is just me, but I really didn't like our hero that much, and if you're going to live with her ramblings through an entire book you really need to I think.

Anyway, moving on.