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A review by themermaddie
Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey
4.0
this book was really good, actually
listen, i know comedy is subjective and all, but i really enjoyed this. maggie's life is so truly depressing at points but her perspective still wryly funny in a peeking-through-your-fingers-during-cringey-parts-of-the-movie way. i appreciated the earnestness of maggie's depression and self-loathing, and i feel like this book did a great job of outlining both the beauty and the pain of day to day existence. being an adult is hard and sometimes we all feel like we're the only people to ever go through bad times, and we're selfish and miserable and conceited and it's so human. i appreciated maggie's little ruminations on the random things that occur to her; in that way, the book meanders a little bit, and because these are just a series of thoughts that a depressed chronically online person has, it felt very relatable anyway. maggie struggles with purposelessness, ageing, being a person in society, and just general cynicism and low self esteem, and somehow it's both moving and at times laugh-out-loud funny. i leave you with one of many interactions that made me giggle.
I wandered into the kitchen and told my father that I was experimenting with interiority. He looked up from the crossword only briefly.
'Oh?'
'This sounds very basic,' I said, 'but you don't have to say everything you think and feel to everyone around you all the time. Even if you want to, you can keep it to yourself. Sometimes, that feels better.'
'Teaspoon,' he said, filling in 10-down. 'That's lovely, sweetheart.'
listen, i know comedy is subjective and all, but i really enjoyed this. maggie's life is so truly depressing at points but her perspective still wryly funny in a peeking-through-your-fingers-during-cringey-parts-of-the-movie way. i appreciated the earnestness of maggie's depression and self-loathing, and i feel like this book did a great job of outlining both the beauty and the pain of day to day existence. being an adult is hard and sometimes we all feel like we're the only people to ever go through bad times, and we're selfish and miserable and conceited and it's so human. i appreciated maggie's little ruminations on the random things that occur to her; in that way, the book meanders a little bit, and because these are just a series of thoughts that a depressed chronically online person has, it felt very relatable anyway. maggie struggles with purposelessness, ageing, being a person in society, and just general cynicism and low self esteem, and somehow it's both moving and at times laugh-out-loud funny. i leave you with one of many interactions that made me giggle.
I wandered into the kitchen and told my father that I was experimenting with interiority. He looked up from the crossword only briefly.
'Oh?'
'This sounds very basic,' I said, 'but you don't have to say everything you think and feel to everyone around you all the time. Even if you want to, you can keep it to yourself. Sometimes, that feels better.'
'Teaspoon,' he said, filling in 10-down. 'That's lovely, sweetheart.'