Really Good, Actually
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3.4 • 61 Ratings
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- £13.99
Publisher Description
THE NO. 2 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
LONGLISTED FOR THE COMEDY WOMEN IN PRINT PRIZE 2025
The Times Popular Fiction Book of the Year
‘A heartbreaker of a book’ THE TIMES
'Alarmingly relatable' MARIAN KEYES
‘Hilarious and profound’ DOLLY ALDERTON
The hottest debut novel of 2023 from Schitt’s Creek and Smothered screenwriter and an Observer debut author of the year, Monica Heisey.
Maggie’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 and 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™.
As Maggie throws herself headlong into the chaos of her first year of divorce, she soon finds herself questioning everything, including: Why do we still get married? Did I fail before I even got started? And how many 4am delivery burgers do I need to eat until I am happy?
Really Good, Actually is an irresistible debut novel about the uncertainties of modern love, friendship and happiness.
'Hilarious, heart-warming, wise' PAULA HAWKINS
‘Heisey makes me laugh hard and often’ ROB DELANEY
‘A Sex and The City for social media-obsessed millennials … Irresistible’ METRO
‘Wry, modern, self-deprecating’ INDEPENDENT
‘One of the most talked-about releases for 2023’ EVENING STANDARD
About the author
Monica Heisey is an author and screenwriter from Toronto, now based in London. She has written for television shows including TOO MUCH and Schitt's Creek, and her writing has been published in the New York Times, Vogue, Elle and the Guardian, among others. Her debut novel, Really Good, Actually, was a Sunday Times Bestseller. She was chosen as an Observer Best Debut Novelist of the Year 2023.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Comedian and writer Monica Heisey’s debut novel, based loosely on her own experience of being married and divorced before she turned 30, documents a year in the life of newly-single Maggie, starting from the day her soon to be ex-husband moves out of their shared apartment. Interspersing the narrative with snapshots of Google searches, snippets of online communication, itemised lists of things that make Maggie cry, and so on, Heisey stitches together a tapestry of emotional upheaval, barely concealed behind a whirlwind of Tinder dates and adult hobbies. Despite Maggie’s valiant facade, her heartbreak begins to manifest as mood-killing cynicism and self-sabotage, jeopardising her friendships and potential love interests, putting her on a collision course with rock bottom. Sharp, witty and, on multiple occasions, laugh out loud funny, Heisey’s appraisals of the way we approach our relationships with ourselves and each other sketch out a deeply relatable rendering of modern romance.
Customer Reviews
Really depressing, actually
Thought this book would at least have SOME levity, the nearest thing to humour it gets is a wry smile at the occasional bit of sweary word play. This is a deep dive forensic take on a woman with obvious substantial pre-existing mental health problems getting dealt a blow and not coping at all, spectacularly. It’s just page after page of abject misery - I hated reading it, and it never got better. Even the ending is depressing. Not sure what I was supposed to have gained from reading this but the marathon is not worth it at all. Think this is the first book I honestly wholly regret reading? Everyone has experienced low mood at some point or other, why plunge yourself back into it when you don’t have to just to hear someone reiterate all the life lessons you’ve probably already learned?
Terrible narrator doesn’t suit the story
Funny book but the narrator doesn’t suit the tone AT ALL and makes it hard to listen to.
So funny.
Loved this, loved the lists of google searches, loved the fact that it showed real friendships. Laughed a lot.