Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey – Book review

Really Good, Actually couldn’t be a more fitting title. This book shoots straight into my top reads of 2023 (so far) list, I just loved it! As you might be able to see from the below picture, I read Really Good, Actually by a pool. It was an impulse airport purchase and I’m so glad I went with my gut – it’s the perfect holiday (or anytime, actually) read.

Opening sentence: My marriage ended because I was cruel.

A debut draws from real life

Set in Toronto in 2018, this is the story of Maggie and how she puts her life back together after her unexpected early divorce from Jon. She has a group of close friends in Calvin, Lauren, Emotional Lauren, Amirah and Amy who help her navigate things. She takes up hobbies, she goes on dates with men and women, she tries to work out who she is now.

I’ve heard that an author’s debut book is often inspired by their life and this is the case with Really Good, Actually. I listened to a podcast (this one – Sentimental Garbage, more on that later) with author Monica Heisey and she says that like lead character Maggie, she got divorced in her late 20s.

I told her I was sick of feeling like the biggest woman Emilio Zara could imagine.

‘Emilio…?’

‘Oh,’ I said. ‘That’s what my friends and I call the head designer at Zara. I don’t think that’s his real name, but we needed somewhere to direct our rage.

LOL

My notes for Really Good, Actually were basically a list of page numbers with lol written next to them as the reference. It’s the painfully relatable angle of the comedy in this book, the acute observations on life that juxtapose the loss and heartbreak Maggie is going through that rings so true. You might not personally have been through divorce but you’ve been lost and lonely, leading to questionable decisions…

I was being forced to take him on a tour of my insanities, to show him their contours and detail their depths.

I love the structure of this book too. For example, mini-stories are told through Maggie’s list of Google searches – these honestly had me cracking up. There are other asides like fantasy sequences and a section called: ‘Well-Meaning Conversations with Loved Ones, Truncated at the Exact Moment They Start to Bring Up Kintsugi‘.

There are just so many funny separate story moments – sections of Maggie’s life – from the burger delivery man contacting her ex to the appeal of yoga being structured lying down. I know they sound random here but that’s why you must read this book and discover more.

All the reasons I love this

This is Monica Heisey’s debut novel but her previous writing credits include Schitt’s Creek (a show I am obviously obsessed with) so I guess I always knew I would love this book.

Another reason I adore it is that it introduced me to this truly amazing sequence of things… First up – Sentimental Garbage, a podcast hosted by another brilliant author – Caroline O’Donoghue (whose books I have read and loved but I didn’t know about her podcast). Caroline interviewed Monica about Really Good, Actually and along the way mentioned that they are in a WhatsApp group with Dolly Alderton. She, in turn, I discovered, does Sentimental in the City, a Sex in the City episode-by-episode analysis podcast with Caroline O’Donoghue. The amount of new amazing content I have to consume now is truly joyful.

Really Good, Actually is absolutely one of my 2023 highlights – you must read it!

• Get your copy of Really Good, Actually here;
• Published by HarperCollins January 2023;
• 384 pages;
• My rating: