Point Form Book Reviews are my way of reviewing books that I don’t necessarily have a lot to say about but still want to share a little on. So here are my thoughts on Really Good, Actually:
- I finished this about 2 weeks and I can’t remember anything about.
- What is the main character’s name? Molly?
- She’s 29 and newly divorced. She and her husband had been married for not quite two years.
- She (and everyone around her) thinks it’s wild that she got married so young.
- Which I think is funny because I got married at 24.
- And am still married. To the same person.
- What was her husband’s name?
- She stays in their apartment but can’t afford it and also she never goes to work and yet eventually moves into her boss’ basement which seems like a bad idea and then becomes a bad idea.
- There is a dog named Lydia.
- Ok, I looked it up. Her name is Maggie.
- She has some very nice and very patient friends but having been married and then divorced in their circle is very weird and Maggie is very self-destructive and most people around her lose patience with her over the next year and you can’t really blame them.
- Oh yeah, she eats a lot of burgers.
- This is a very “messy woman” book. Maggie is relatively young and something devastating happens to her and she cannot carry on with her life but most of the tension of the book comes from her own poor choices.
- I don’t know if books like this want me to feel sorry for Maggie – I want to feel sorry for Maggie – but it’s really hard to feel sorry for Maggie.
- Maggie, just go to work and eat some vegetables. It will make such a difference!
- My experience with divorce is very limited so perhaps others will find more to appreciate here?
Karissa Reads Books 
I’m sorry this book ok didn’t work for you.
The cover art seems quite descriptive of what you recall about the plot. And I think you’re right, vegetables help!
The older I get the more I realize that sometimes all I need is some sleep, some sunshine, and a square meal!
Your aside about the author/character thinking 27 is young to get married made me laugh! It’s been my lot to be surrounded by mostly very unhappy couples, and due to various past experiences I am now cynical even when people appear to be quite happy together – but one of the very few couples I know who I think genuinely still like each other got married in their teens due to a surprise baby! That baby is now in her mid-twenties and they’re still going strong. So I can’t really credit the idea that getting married at 27 is a recipe for disaster…
In religious circles, Peter and I had a long engagement and we’re not particularly young to get married but I also remember that all my co-workers at the time thought we were a bit nuts! The summer we got engaged and the summer we got married, we attended a LOT of weddings. Some of those couples are still together and some are not. In my own experience, I do feel like Peter and I kind of grew into adults together. We met when we were 21 and a big part of our marriage still working has been the willingness to grow and learn things together. Some people can do that in tandem and some can’t and I don’t know that the age they met has that much to do with it. It would have been interesting to me if the book had delved into that more rather than just seeming to base Maggie’s divorce on the fact that she was too young to get married.
Haha, great review! Loved that you had to check the main character’s name but remembered the dog’s. Too young to marry at 27? Good grief – in Austen’s day she’d have been considered an ancient spinster!
It’s such a cultural thing, really. Within the church, Peter and I had a long engagement and were bot young at all. While my coworkers thought we were so young!
I love this point form review! It’s like train of thought reading, very fun. I know what you mean about ‘messy women’ books. It’s just too much sometimes.
Thanks! I’ve just read three in a row that could maybe qualify as “messy women” and now I’m thinking of writing something about what I mean by that! It does seem to have become a trend.
Like Anne, I love the point form review, especially when we get gems like this: “Maggie, just go to work and eat some vegetables. It will make such a difference!” 😂
I had just turned 24 when I got married and have no clue why someone would consider that young. My classmates get married at 20 and then continue to live with their parents, which I find bizarre.
24 seems entirely reasonable to me. At that age, I hadn’t lived with my parents in 6+ years, I had a university degree and a full time job, and I’d spent time travelling on my own. If you think you’ve found the person you want to marry, why not marry them? Do your classmates keep living with their parents for financial reasons? I know some cultures that would be normal to have multi-gen families.
My the time I was 24, I had 2 1/2 degrees and hadn’t lived at home in 6 years. I’d also moved to a new state with Nick.
It seems like the leading cause of living with parents is financial. I just can’t imagine being newly married and you have to live by your parents’ rules.
Maybe it feel different if you’re 20 and have never lived away from your parents? I wouldn’t want to do it but I can see why it could be financially necessary.
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