Really Good Actually tells for the story of Monica Maggie, a junior academic living in Canada who after around two years of marriage but many years together is divorcing from her university boyfriend turned husband Jon. The novel follows Monica Maggie's attempts to deal, or not deal, with the emotional fall out of this decision; based on Heisey's own experience as a young divorcee (her author photo and the cover photo bear striking resemblances to each other, as do other aspects of Maggie's story).

Given the low rating on here I went into this with low expectations (I'd received a copy as part of a subscription) and so this wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Heisey is mostly experienced in writing for screen and so it feels like the novel comes more to life in its dialogue then it does in its prose.

As an examination of a woman falling into a complete black hole of her own creation, this is pretty good. However, I don't think we got enough information about the good bits of her and Jon's relationship to know why she was so devastated by the breakdown of the relationship. From what I could understand Jon seemed to be a bit of a douche, and I couldn't work out why Maggie was so sad to see the back of him.

The side characters are not always that well developed - although we are in Maggie's self-centred head which may be impacting on this - and often feel like they're rooted in stereotypes (gay bestie, emotional pal, two other friends who feel interchangeable). The only two who really feel developed are Amy - a fellow young divorcee who is a chaotic sunshine ball - and Merris, Maggie's boss turned landlord.

Whilst I think this novel did shine a light an underwritten experience, it felt like this could have been shorter and also a little deeper in the way it explored its issues.