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

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This book made me feel like the boy in Matilda who is forced by Principal Trunchbull to eat that entire chocolate cake. At first you think, oh yay cake. I enjoy this. But then you realize you are forcing yourself through more of the same with no new development until you are ready to just explode. It is much easier to digest in a more bite sized portions. 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.

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. Heisey was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. [1] She has a twin sister and a younger sister; her father was a lawyer and her mother was a public servant. [2] Heisey completed undergraduate studies at Queen's University in 2010. [3] Following graduation she moved to London, England where she obtained an MA in early modern literature from King's College. [4] Career [ edit ]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!" 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.

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. 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.’ 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.a b c d Ermelino, Louisa. "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do in Monica Heisey's Bittersweet Debut Novel". PublishersWeekly.com . Retrieved 7 July 2023.