Genre Fiction
![Monica Heisey - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_a_monica_heisey.jpg)
Really Good, Actually: A Novel
"Very funny-think Bridget Jones meets ‘Broad City'. . . . Heisey is making a career out of guiding characters through the kinds of crises we can laugh at and sympathize with all at once, while upending enough rom-com tropes to keep things interesting." – Bethanne Patrick, Los Angeles Times
"One of the most hilarious and barbed accounts of unexpectedly starting over I've ever read. . . . If you've ever felt lost and hoped that it was leading towards wisdom, Really Good, Actually is your novel." - Stephanie Danler, New York Times bestselling author of Sweetbitter
Recommended by Los Angeles Times • Washington Post • GQ• Elle • Good Morning America • Guardian • The Times • E! News Online • The Globe and Mail • Toronto Star • The Week • Shondaland • and many more!
A hilarious and painfully relatable debut novel about one woman's messy search for joy and meaning in the wake of an unexpected breakup, from comedian, essayist, and award-winning screenwriter Monica Heisey
Maggie is fine. She's doing really good, actually. 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™.
Now she has time to take up nine hobbies, eat hamburgers at 4 am, and "get back out there" sex-wise. With the support of her tough-loving academic advisor, Merris; her newly divorced friend, Amy; and her group chat (naturally), Maggie barrels through her first year of single life, intermittently dating, occasionally waking up on the floor and asking herself tough questions along the way.
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.
"A prime example of how a storyteller's voice can pull you right in and keep you clinging to every sentence. . . . This is a book I will give to my closest girlfriends and say, ‘You have to read this.'" - Zibby Owens, GoodMorningAmerica.com
"Tremendously funny and thoughtful." –GQ
"One of the most hilarious and barbed accounts of unexpectedly starting over I've ever read. . . . If you've ever felt lost and hoped that it was leading towards wisdom, Really Good, Actually is your novel." - Stephanie Danler, New York Times bestselling author of Sweetbitter
Recommended by Los Angeles Times • Washington Post • GQ• Elle • Good Morning America • Guardian • The Times • E! News Online • The Globe and Mail • Toronto Star • The Week • Shondaland • and many more!
A hilarious and painfully relatable debut novel about one woman's messy search for joy and meaning in the wake of an unexpected breakup, from comedian, essayist, and award-winning screenwriter Monica Heisey
Maggie is fine. She's doing really good, actually. 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™.
Now she has time to take up nine hobbies, eat hamburgers at 4 am, and "get back out there" sex-wise. With the support of her tough-loving academic advisor, Merris; her newly divorced friend, Amy; and her group chat (naturally), Maggie barrels through her first year of single life, intermittently dating, occasionally waking up on the floor and asking herself tough questions along the way.
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.
"A prime example of how a storyteller's voice can pull you right in and keep you clinging to every sentence. . . . This is a book I will give to my closest girlfriends and say, ‘You have to read this.'" - Zibby Owens, GoodMorningAmerica.com
"Tremendously funny and thoughtful." –GQ
Editorial Reviews
"A tender yet sharp novel that tells the heartbreaking and hilarious tales of a young woman going through a divorce." - Entertainment Weekly
"One of the most hilarious and barbed accounts of unexpectedly starting over I've ever read. Monica Heisey isn't just interested in the romantic side of divorce, but in how our identities collapse and the freefall that accompanies it. If you've ever felt lost and hoped that it was leading towards wisdom, Really Good, Actually is your novel." - Stephanie Danler, New York Times bestselling author of Sweetbitter
"I absolutely loved it, it's so funny and so astute . . . Hilarious, heartwarming, wise." - Paula Hawkins, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Slow Fire Burning
"Funny. Astutely observed. I loved it. Monica Heisey is a star writer." - B.J. Novak, #1 New York Times bestselling author of One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories
"Really Good, Actually is a goddamn delight. Heisey doesn't shy away from any of the hard stuff, showcasing the myriad ways people turn into little monsters when their hearts get broken and lose sight of themselves. This novel is wildly funny and compulsively readable, the kind of book you immediately share with your best friend. I adored it." - Kristen Arnett, New York Times bestselling author of Mostly Dead Things
"Monica Heisey is a very funny writer, which would be enough for me to recommend this book. But you have to remember: humor isn't a supplement to realism; it's a necessary component of it. Really Good, Actually may start out like a light-hearted not-so-romantic comedy, but it quickly transforms into something more tense and existential, a realistically absurd portrait of a woman who has no idea who she is or what is going on. And yeah, it's really funny." - Lauren Oyler, bestselling author of
"One of the most hilarious and barbed accounts of unexpectedly starting over I've ever read. Monica Heisey isn't just interested in the romantic side of divorce, but in how our identities collapse and the freefall that accompanies it. If you've ever felt lost and hoped that it was leading towards wisdom, Really Good, Actually is your novel." - Stephanie Danler, New York Times bestselling author of Sweetbitter
"I absolutely loved it, it's so funny and so astute . . . Hilarious, heartwarming, wise." - Paula Hawkins, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Slow Fire Burning
"Funny. Astutely observed. I loved it. Monica Heisey is a star writer." - B.J. Novak, #1 New York Times bestselling author of One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories
"Really Good, Actually is a goddamn delight. Heisey doesn't shy away from any of the hard stuff, showcasing the myriad ways people turn into little monsters when their hearts get broken and lose sight of themselves. This novel is wildly funny and compulsively readable, the kind of book you immediately share with your best friend. I adored it." - Kristen Arnett, New York Times bestselling author of Mostly Dead Things
"Monica Heisey is a very funny writer, which would be enough for me to recommend this book. But you have to remember: humor isn't a supplement to realism; it's a necessary component of it. Really Good, Actually may start out like a light-hearted not-so-romantic comedy, but it quickly transforms into something more tense and existential, a realistically absurd portrait of a woman who has no idea who she is or what is going on. And yeah, it's really funny." - Lauren Oyler, bestselling author of
