Alongside his personal struggles, Andy's comedy career begins to suffer, punctuated by a scathing viral review that criticises his lack of effort and originality in his performances.

The book concludes with Jen planning a year-long tour of South America in 2020, fulfilling a long-held dream, while Andy prepares to perform his new show at The Fringe Festival in Edinburgh that summer.

[4] Good Material is primarily written in the perspective of the male protagonist Andy, but in the final pages of the novel, Alderton employs a narrative shift, giving Jen a voice and allowing her to share her side of the story.

[5] To authentically capture the male experience of heartbreak and relationships, Alderton conducted extensive research, interviewing around 15 men of various ages, backgrounds, and personality types.

Through these interviews, Alderton discovered a common theme: men often felt they lacked the language or permission to discuss their emotions in detail with their male friends.

'"[6] Alderton's decision to write from a male perspective was also influenced by her desire to challenge herself as a fiction writer and to create a character that could not be easily compared to herself, as had been the case with her previous novel, Ghosts.

"[3] Michael Donkor, writing for The Guardian, highlighted the novel's "bouncy and very British comic sensibility", noting "the overriding impression it leaves is one of a writer comfortably settling into her groove, and very much in control of her material.

"[1] Daisy Lester of The Independent gave the novel a perfect 5/5 stars, calling it "a cliché-avoiding break-up novel" and praising its "whipsmart dialogue and relatable millennial themes.

"[10] Critics drew comparisons between Good Material and Nick Hornby's novel High Fidelity due to their shared premise of a man dissecting a past relationship.

[5] The novel's exploration of themes such as the power dynamics in age-gap relationships, the pain of unrequited love, and the experience of feeling eclipsed by a younger generation in one's mid-thirties was commended.