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

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Laugh-out-loud funny and filled with sharp observations, Really Good, Actually is a tender and bittersweet comedy that lays bare the uncertainties of modern love, friendship, and our search for that thing we like to call "happiness". This is a remarkable debut from an unforgettable new voice in fiction. (From HarperCollins)

Gardner, Suzanne (16 July 2015). "I Can't Believe It's Not Better: A Woman's Guide to Coping with Life". Quill and Quire . Retrieved 7 July 2023.I write a lot of short-form humor pieces, so these short chapters felt very comfortable for me.” Some tools, of course, simply don’t translate. “Television writing is so collaborative,” Heisey says. “There was definitely a point about halfway through the novel where I realized no one else was coming. It’s just me! On some days that was really tough and on others really empowering.”

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. People in general were very keen to suggest I hang out with other people they knew who'd divorced before they'd gotten gray hair. Sometimes it felt like a gesture of support, and sometimes it felt like loading

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I’m giving it 2 stars because I managed to finish it, but I expected something good to happen at some point. I’m sad to say I regret the investment. Swipe to see some bits I thought were great especially the one about how being thirty one is the same as being twenty six except you’re hotter and smarter and know a little bit about tiles. That got a small chortle from me🤣 and I was thinking oh ok good to know. I look forward to knowing a bit about tiles💀." Maggie’s therapist sort of calls her out on this in the novel,” Heisey says. “But as a character she’s someone who’s running from self-knowledge, running especially from intimacy. And ultimately, it isn’t a story about a woman grappling with her sexuality, it’s about a woman grappling with her relationship to herself.” A book begging to be read on the beach, with the sun warming the sand and salt in the air: pure escapism. The author has my attention at the start with the opening section which is really good but then she loses me. Whilst there are some laughs and also some heartache I struggle to get through this.

Heisey's writing has appeared in Vogue, Elle, Glamour, and The New Yorker. [3] Her first book I Can’t Believe It’s Not Better: A Woman’s Guide to Coping with Life, a collection of essays, was published in 2015. [7] The book was based on her blog-based advice column She Does the City. [1] She published her first fiction novel, Really Good, Actually, in 2023. [2] It was inspired by her divorce at 28 years of age and the absence of that experience in popular culture. [5] The book was written over the course of 2020 and has been optioned for a television series. [5] Monica Heisey is a Canadian writer, screenwriter and comedian. She has written for Schitt's Creek, the Baroness von Sketch Show and Workin' Moms. Her first novel Really Good, Actually was released in 2023. You may not think you know author Monica Heisey, but if you’ve watched the comedy series “ Schitt’s Creek,” “ Baroness von Sketch Show” or “Workin’ Moms,” you know her writing well.The author also writes with astute observation at the absurdity of how life goes on despite big devastating life events that you can experience personally, and we see how Maggie tries to navigate the ‘normalness’ of the lives of her family, friends and work colleagues, and convincing her and everyone around her that she is happy and ok. I particularly enjoyed the impact of Maggie’s situation with her close group of friends (and how their friendship is tested by Maggie’s destructive behaviour) as well as Maggie’s relationship with Simon (Maggie’s self-preservation and detachment in this relationship was definitely relatable). One of the most hotly anticipated, hilarious and addictive debut novels of 2023, from Schitt’s Creek and Workin’ Moms screenwriter and electric new voice in fiction, Monica Heisey. Maggie is an interesting character in that she is more complex than first meets the eye. I'll admit to getting frustrated with her at times but to be honest that's kinda what made the book special. Had Maggie been written as a one-dimensional character , it would have been a fluffy, mindless read. Instead she's a hot mess and even though you might not make the same choices as her, on some level she is relatable.