Book Review: "Really Good, Actually" by Monica Heisey

I'm trying to read things that are at least, remotely funny at the moment. Right now whilst writing this, I am over-caffeinated and I have a headache. But instead of not drinking more coffee, I am having another cup of coffee to try to get rid of the headache. I know, it's silly but hey, if I don't drink coffee then I'll get a headache from caffeine withdrawal. I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. Really Good Actually is a book about millennials, for millannials and possibly, insulting millennials as well. It's definitely funny and a book I would recommend for anyone just looking for a laugh.

The book starts with Maggie telling us that her and husband Jon are recently divorced. He's moved out and she explains that much of the furniture and random stuff around the house was his and not hers. Be that as it may, he leaves a lot of stuff behind even though she feels that it is totally wrong for him to do so. She takes her time eating through the random crappy food in the cupboards and drinking wine. She reflects back on her relationship - her and her husband fell in love in university and now that she's 29, she admits they were married for only 608 days before divorcing. The author writes Maggie's life as something that is both in free-fall and something that is just beginning again. She finds consolation in the fact that she is still young and she starts putting stuff in her home that her husband didn't really like that much. Maggie is on the up and down at the same time. It's quite funny actually.

However, she starts expecting quite a large amount of emotional labour from her friends - and then she starts ordering burgers at 4am. There's a whole lot of stuff not quite right here and her life begins to break down. As someone who's life broke down last year, I can definitely relate (my life is still breaking down, desperately trying to rebuild but I'm not sure how possible that is anymore). Needless to say, her postgraduate studies are going nowhere, her job is not going anywhere and she is constantly making excuses for not doing anything. The author writes this with surprising consolation for the reader. I think that there's something really weird about growing up in the sense that nobody ever tells children that one day, some day, nobody knows when or why, you will have to start over from the ground up. It could really be because of anything. But nobody ever tells school children that. Most every adult goes through it though in some way.

Money becomes a huge stressor for our main character because she is now struggling to pay the rent. Does she bother about it? No. She's drowning in herself and she continues buying things she doesn't need and eating burgers from delivery apps at 4am. Eventually, I think she is all of us - finally, we have to admit that we aren't doing well even if nobody else cares whether we are. We must go out there and seek help because of the huge amount of hurt we are going through. But we all try to hold it together by as few threads and for as long as physically possible. This book really hit me because sometimes, I felt like there were things I could draw upon in my own life recently. This book proves that sometimes, even if it still hurts really bad, it can still make you laugh. And isn't that the best way to look back on horrific trauma? Well, I'm not sure - but it helps to have a good laugh now and again.

I'm not going to lie, this book took me a little bit longer than I would have liked. I really just didn't want to let go of the main character even at the end of the book. Funny and relatable, this book really encapsulates what it means to have to start over at everything, to take yourself into account. It's all 'mental health' until you break - and all of a sudden the 'mental health' doesn't stay in its lane and it becomes 'physical health' too. I just think that if you're struggling right now, maybe this could be a book to relate to, to escape into and to laugh along with. The main character almost feels like a close friend. I very much enjoyed this one by the end