Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster | Summit Books for gifting me a digital ARC of the debut novel by Katie Yee. All opinions expressed in this review are my own - 5 stars!

A man and a woman walk into a restaurant. The woman expects a lovely night with her husband. Instead, he tells her he's having an affair with a woman named Maggie. Then she finds out she has breast cancer and decides to name the tumor Maggie.

First, how could you not want to read a book with this title? And that cover? I really loved this quiet, introspective novel as the narrator (unnamed) walks through her new life as a single mom and breast cancer patient. But the best part is it never goes into the blaming, hating, nasty way it easily could, but instead she deals with her feelings internally, with humor and sadness, and with only one close friend she relies on. She even goes so far to make a list for Maggie (the woman) of things she should know about her husband. She acknowledges the good in her husband, his abilities as a father, even while she is hurting. She talks to Maggie (her tumor) as she learns to live with her. And there are beautiful Chinese folk stories told to her children at night, passed down from her own mother. All the stars for this book - highly recommended!

This book is told through a series of vignettes, which gives it a dreamy, fragmented quality. While the writing style is engaging, the story felt like it was constantly in motion without ever truly arriving anywhere. The lack of a clear narrative arc left things feeling unresolved by the end. I found myself wishing for a more solid timeline, rather than the frequent jumps and non-sequiturs used to fill out the main character. It wasn’t bad—I finished it—but it didn’t quite stick with me either. Ultimately, it felt more like a character sketch than a full story..

Absolutely terrific. The unnamed narrator (for whom names are important) is coping with both impeding divorce and breast cancer with the help of her best friend. Her husband takes her to dinner to tell her that he's having an affair with Maggie and then moves out to one of homes owned by his incredibly wealthy parents so of course when she finds the lump, she names it Maggie. This hits themes of mothering, racism, classism, and so much more as she navigates her new normal. Note that she never tells either her kids or her soon to be ex about her diagnosis. She's got a terrific voice and is keenly observant about so many things both big and small. She's snarky in spots but never too much and it's never, oddly, bitter about her circumstances, just sad. It's funny, it's sad, it's poignant and I'll bet some readers will see themselves in her. I found myself wrapped up in her life and turning the pages. It was so much more than I expected. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. A wonderful debut and a read I highly recommend.

4 ⭐️. a raw narrative following a women headed through a divorce and navigating a cancer diagnosis, all while trying to be present in her "normal" mom duties.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster | S&S/Summit Books & NetGalley for the advance reading copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a short novel about a woman going through a divorce. The plot was good, but overall, there was a lack of emotion that made it hard for me to connect.

A wonderful original novel a book that reads like a memoir told through the voice of a woman whose husband suddenly tells her he is having an affair and wants a divorce.At the same time she is diagnosed with breast cancer.Surprisingly this is not a depressing novel but a well written thoughtful look into the mind of this character.#netgalley

This is very different from what I normally read, and I really enjoyed it. The narrative is written as though I was reading someone’s diary or their stream of consciousness. I was engaged with the MFC life throughout the novel and interested in how she was dealing with major life events. I appreciated her dark sarcastic humor as she dealt with divorce and cancer. I found the ending hopeful. I loved how the MFC applied myths, fables, and Chinese folklore to her own life and situations.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster/Summit Books for this e-ARC. All opinions are my own.

I just loved the way this novella told the story of a woman who was left by her husband for another woman named Maggie. Then adding insult to injury, she is diagnosed with breast cancer. Definitely a topic that can be quite morbid. But the way the author writes about it is with humor and creativity. It's a quick read capturing her thoughts about things that happen once her husband leaves and how she handles her feelings to do with her life, their two children and her relying a lot on her amazing best friend. It's more like vignettes than a single cohesive story and I am a big fan of that style. If you've read Goodbye Vitamin, it's like that. Very well done! very short and a little quirky.

I seldom regret the time spent in the pages of a book or resent the sleep lost, but I do today. I guess I am just so disappointed. I was so excited to read Maggie; or a Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar by Katie Yee. So excited about it that I picked it as a Book of the Month selection even though I have an advanced digital copy and read it right after it arrived. I was so sure I would love it. I did not and I don’t really think that will be a wildly unpopular opinion once the book comes out on July 22.
‌
The first line was fun, it drew me into the story. Not too far in the author quotes an old joke I loved when my kids had told it, then things fell apart for me.
‌
What I did NOT like:
*I had zero sympathy for this woman whose husband has an affair and she finds out she has cancer. I don’t even know her name.
*The story is fragmented and the timeline seemed a mess.
*Most importantly, and this is my major complaint, the main characters seemingly detached attitude about her cancer even though she named her tumor Maggie and talked to it, seemed harmful. Avoiding the doctor, the unrealistic timeline between diagnosis and surgery/ treatment, too tidy cancer depiction seem dangerous in a time when early detection and prompt treatment are known to save lives.
*The husband is a boring, entitled, idiotic jerk.
*The MC doesn’t have a job and it appears she has no concerns over finances with divorce and it is never addressed-unrealistic divorce scenario.
*so many holes and no depth
‌
What I DID like:
*great supportive best friend
*imaginative tales, Chinese myths and unfunny, funny jokes throughout
*MC has amazing children’s book ideas
* I had a friend who named her tumor, that was relatable
‌
It is, thankfully, a short book, written in a stream of consciousness style that can be good if done well. I am not one to tell anyone not to read a book. This has some great reviews, just not from me.

I featured Maggie; or, A Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar [cannot get over this title] in my July 2025 new releases video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5JWYTfUVq4, and though I have not read it yet, I am so excited to and expect 5 stars! I will update here when I post a follow up review or vlog. I also got this as my BOTM option!

Our main character walks into a restaurant with her husband, thinking it is a wonderful date night-- and then he tells her he is having an affair.

I knew this wasn't going to be an uplifting book-- there would be heartbreak and anger... I mean, our main character is literally left in the first few pages. What did we get? Heartbreak... sure. Anger? Not at all. And, honestly, WHAT GIVES??? This read like, "We do not experience negative emotions. Those do not compute, sorry!!" So many times I was waiting for the hammer to drop on Sam (the two-timing husband). But it never came. Not once. He moves out, dates the woman he left his wife for, and then wants everything to be hunky dory. Our unnamed main character never even lets him know she has CANCER. Just handles it with her best friend and moves on. Where is the realistic anger? There was a lukewarm feeling of grief, but overall this was disappointing.

I enjoyed the retelling of Chinese fairytales and lore. That was what carried this book for me, truthfully. It was only during the telling of these stories to her children that I felt that our main character actually showed any emotions.

I don't know if it was meant to be poetic, but I did like the fact that our main character didn't have a name. It's like her husband owned everything about her (he really wasn't great, let's be real here) and her identity is so erased that she doesn't even reveal her name. She even tells us that her real name was scrubbed from her by a Kindergarten teacher. Our main character has no name, no husband (good riddance, honestly), but also no personality. WHERE WAS THE PERSONALITY? THE EMOTIONS?

You know you are going to experience something different once you read the title (semi-colon and all) and see the striking cover. You won't be disappointed. A short novel, I read this in practically one gulp. The narrator goes through two major life changes concurrently (read the blurbs if you want to know what they are), all while mothering her small children. I was swept into the story, mostly for the unique voice, with all of its quotidian observations, rather than the slim plot. Can't wait to see what this author does next - I'm sold.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the eARC.

Just not for me. I am not in the right headspace for a book that deals with the aftermath of an affair.

“I’m going to kill him! We could pull a real ‘Goodbye Earl.’ I mean it.“ She begins to pace. “I’m serious.“

“My husband believed you could tell how good a day it was going to be based on how sparkly the water was.”

When I first began reading this book, I was a little bit thrown off by the formatting, there are no chapters or any real breaks within the story.

However, the story definitely drew me in as if I were looking in to the window of someone’s life and following along like a fly on the wall. At least it did for a time. Then everything seemed so disjointed and uninteresting. There were so many things to be addressed, an affair, breast cancer diagnosis, divorce, etc. So much that could’ve been explored but this book seems like a string of random thoughts and feelings. I think the random thoughts and feelings were endearing to a point but then they sort of took over and the actual story got muddled in somewhere. I never really found it again.

However, I loved that she mismatched beer ex’s socks lol.

I also loved that I learned something new, specifically about Schrödinger's Tumor (also see Schrödinger's cat).

This is gonna be a book that people love or hate and I think no matter how you feel it is unique…different from most books.

Much like “Stone Yard Devotional,” Katie Yee’s latest is like reading someone else’s diary. And, as you might expect, sometimes reading someone else’s diary isn’t as exciting as you might imagine. While “Stone Yard Devotional” was particularly humorless, the narrator in “Maggie; Or, a Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar” has a wicked sense of humor. Or, at least an understanding of how the absurdity of life often crosses the line into comedy. I enjoyed this slip of a book mostly because I thought the narrator and I could be friends. She gives us an inside look at how a middle-aged woman handles a year in which her husband has an affair, he files for divorce, and she is diagnosed with breast cancer. Depressing subject matter? Yes. Realistically, and beautifully, told without hubris? Also yes. I recommend spending a few hours in the head of Yee’s latest heroine.

Maggie; or A Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar is introspective and beautifully written. The main character is going through a divorce after her husband cheats and wants to leave her at the same time she is diagnosed with breast cancer. Though it's fiction, it reads like a memoir with the writing style, which I'm still unsure how I feel about.

This book was fine. I struggled to connect with our unnamed narrator, even though the style of the novel, this stream of consciousness, very close first person POV, makes it feel like a memoir. I just found it boring overall and there wasn't anything fresh or super unique about it.

A man and a woman walk into a bar for what the woman thought was going to be a nice date night out with her husband. Instead, he tells her he is having an affair and would like a divorce. Several days later, she is diagnosed with cancer. The next 200 pages is basically a stream-of-consciousness where the woman talks to Maggie - the “other” woman and her cancerous tumor - about the state of her life.

Generally speaking, this book didn’t work for me. I felt no emotional depth to the character or the state of her life. As her world is crashing down around her, I never felt her devastation. She maintains her composure and the story feels no more emotional than if I’d read her grocery list (or, more relevant, the endless made-up bedtime tales she tells to her children! 🥱).

For a story that deals with cancer, divorce, grief, and healing, I expected a bigger emotional connection. Mostly I was bored and never could quite become invested.

Katie Yee's debut novel is a beautiful story about a woman who shortly after discovering her husband Sam is going to leave her, finds out that she has breast cancer. In this book she carefully dissects her husband and her marriage and their cultural differences. I read it quickly as I found the author's story similar to mine in terms of her addressing the feelings being a first generation Asian American.

Beautifully written.

Thank you Net Galley and to Simon & Shuster/Summit for the ARC.

Good debut novel and a quick read. Ending fell flat for me though— but I understand why it was the way it was.