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). We liked enough of the same things and made each other laugh, and our arguments were only as dramatic as the arguments of all our other twentysomething friends. Plus we are mainly stuck with Maggie’s repetitive and self-deprecating thoughts, and the supporting characters don’t get enough spotlight to be dynamic (although I loved Amy, what a weird little ray of sunshine).

Really Good, Actually – HarperCollins Really Good, Actually – HarperCollins

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. 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. 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. 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.It's incredibly funny, but it's also very honest about selfishness, and about being the heartbroken one in a group of friends. Fans of My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Queenieor shows like HBO's Girlswill want to give it a read. Heisey is exploring loneliness in an internet age, the vulnerability of being uncoupled in a culture that prizes relationships, and the fear and helplessness of separation that hits Maggie like a blow. Heisey’s pen is by turns relentlessly sharp, incisively funny, sneakily disarming and heartbreakingly tender. Instead she's a hot mess and even though you might not make the same choices as her, on some level she is relatable.

Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey | Waterstones Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey | Waterstones

The sense of a story being told from a distance made me not care about anyone in the protagonist’s orbit. In the aggregate, they suggest a relationship that has collapsed for a whole lot of reasons and no particular reason at all, and they make it clear that the story Maggie is going to tell is defined by that loss. 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™.

It’s a nugget of popular psychology with which Maggie, the heroine of Monica Heisey’s debut novel, Really Good, Actually, would be familiar. And while her marriage might have been short, her voice is enduring, and her journey is engaging, surprising, and fresh.

Monica Heisey - Wikipedia Monica Heisey - Wikipedia

Or because we finished watching The Sopranos and never started The Wire” is difficult to categorize.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? An impromptu celebration on the beach at sunset with champagne becomes a weekly touchpoint to their lives as they learn more about each other and themselves. 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. 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.