Praise be to long train journeys as I tore through this novel in a couple of sittings, and so enjoyed it. I'm a huge fan of Dolly Alderton's non-fiction, but found Ghosts kind of forgettable so was a little nervous about Good Material. But I needn't have been.

Good Material follows Andy, a would-be comedian in his 30s, who is reeling from his break-up from his girlfriend of almost five years Jen. The novel follows him over the course of 2019 as he attempts to come to terms with the break-up, what could have caused it, and what life could look like alone.

I just found so much connection to the emotions in this novel. Andy isn't particularly likeable, but I recognised a lot of his behaviour, granted from break-ups in my early 20s rather than now, so was perhaps more tolerant of his actions than others...until we get 200 pages in and he's still unable to do any self reflection. The other characters that we meet feel well-crafted too; Andy's friends embody toxic masculinity in a deeply frustrating way, as the idea of being vulnerable is just the worse possible thing, the women Andy dates are portrayed in a complicated way (that he consistently misses) and I loved his professional sceptic housemate/landlord Morris.

The change in perspective we get in the final part of the novel is a lovely twist as Jen gets to take more of a centre stage - again, the decisions she makes felt so true that it gave me a mild existential crisis (as someone who has also been single for most/all of their 20s and entered a relationship in my 30s) but I guess that's a credit to Alderton's ability to really nail those complicated feelings.

Good Material is just that, and I'm glad to have read it as my first truly 2024 read.