I was hoping to like this one but it fell a little flat for me unfortunately. But nevertheless, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for gifting me this arc.

This was a silent sleeper. It took me awhile to get into it, but this book took me on a great journey.

Misrecognition by Madison newbound is a book about the human condition. A girl named Elsa is floundering. She’s just gotten out of a relationship with a man and a woman and she now doesn’t know where she fits in. She moves in with her parents and meets a person named Sam, whom she obsessed over.

It is clear from the writing that this author is talented, especially at capturing the ennui of mid to late twenties with no real direction, however, it seems to me that this type of capture may work better as short stories, rather than whole novels. Not much happens, plot wise, and that which does happen, could be cut down to about half and it would probably read the same. I enjoyed the lyrical turn of phrases, but sometimes it seemed that they were used over and over again. My main issue is that the character really didn’t change throughout the book. She continued to be listless, odd, and very self absorbed. She really didn’t go through any changes or awakenings, which leads the novel feeling stagnant. The ending was also jarring as it just ended. This is a 2/5 stars for me.

There were interesting themes presented but I never found them to fully take shape. I enjoyed the main character’s wonderings around her sexuality and attraction to ‘the woman’ as well as the friendship with Caro. However, there was no resolve to either relationship.

The majority of the work seemed to center around a Timothy Chalamet fanfiction/RPF ….which was, bizarre.

Two stars for the well-written musings but I did not enjoy this one overall.

I think that this brand of literary fiction is simply not for me. I was hoping it was, and have read a good deal of it in recent months, but it really just isn't working. This is no fault of Madison Newbound, though, the prose is engaging and the characters are notably complex. I just think this will serve a different sort of litfic audience than me. This book should've been released in time with Challengers, so when people start panicking wanting to read about sort of polyamorous and mostly disastrous relationships, they could've gotten to this one quickly.

(Actual: 2.75⭐, rounded up) Hmmmm. Maybe this is a 3-star after all, but I'm solidly on the fence if I'm being completely honest, which is why I felt the need to preface my actual/fractioned rating. This book started off strong and, let's be real, we all know how much I love a good Sad/Messy Girl™ read.... but this very quickly devolved into a RPF concerning a very specific, very obviously-described current actor.... which I thought was— a choice. Regardless, though not my cup of tea in the end, others may love it so I wouldn't necessarily count it out!

If you like weird sad books about weird sad misunderstood girls, this is for you. Imagine a mix of Emma Cline, Marlowe Granados, and Sally Rooney.

Our protagonist, Elsa, has feelings that any person in their 20s or 30s will relate to, even if the specific subject matter isn't relatable. The author did an incredible job of capturing the visceral sensations that come along with feelings, to the point where the reader feels like they're in Elsa's body, experiencing what she's going through.

Highly recommend. Would have been 5 stars but the ending left me really wanting some sort of resolution (good or bad!)

This novel has lots of potentially interesting ideas and phenomena posited, but ultimately fails to explore any of them. The writing is very level throughout, leaving you a bit un-wowed at any point, our main character has lots of potential for deep development and lore but simply alludes to any other timeline in their life than the one she is in. There is a non-binary character included, which is great representation, but their identity as someone who identifies as non-binary is almost tokenized, referring to them countless times as “the person named Sam” so many times as to feel insensitive to their humanity and reality as a person. I was entertained enough to finish the novel, but at no point was I at either extreme end of the spectrum in terms of emotion about it. The theme of a para-social relationship turned actually social is quite a unique topic in terms of what i’ve seen, but I felt that actually that aspect was the least explored plot of the novel. Overall, could’ve used some focus shifting in terms of what plot points needed development and which ones felt meandering and like filler.

What started as an intriguing premise rapidly dissolved into a self-mythologizing mess that somehow manages to be desperately boring but also Timotheé Chalamet RPF (three words I never though I would type into a Goodreads review!). The best I can say of this is that there are some interesting coming-of-age themes & a subversion of typical tropes you see in queer lit. It is unfortunate that these details are steamrolled beneath approximately 100 other pages of the protagonist 1) wandering aimlessly around Sephora 2) watching beauty influencers on Youtube 3) checking the social media page of the polyamorous couple who have recently dumped her. All of which are described in the extreme, excruciating detail typically reserved for 1000 page epic fantasy novels or gothic literary fiction from the 1800s. A feat considering that this entire book barley surpasses novella length. Are the protagonists's behaviors passably relatable? Perhaps! Does the novel speak on a broader scale to the dangers of being Chronically Online and filtering ones sense of self through social media and dating apps? Yes, in a confusing and abstract way! Does all of this together make for compelling literature? Unforutnalty, it does not! It would be easy to dunk on the admittedly unlikable girlfailure protagonist as the root cause of my problems but my real issue issue is the girlfailure stagnating within a plot that prioritizes performing a critique of society over creating a fulfilling narrative arc. I am however entertained by this book's representation of the specific subtype of fujoshi bisexual attracted exclusively to women, nb folks, and italian-twink era chalamet. Diversity win!

The premise of the book was more riveting than the book itself. The second half of the book is better articulated than the first and I think if the book matched the whole style of the second half my rating might be a little higher.

The biggest thing that didn’t work for me in the novel is the way characters were introduced without actual names: “the actor-character,” “the man and the woman”. Maybe there’s some underlying choice here but it made the writing seem clunky and confusing.

I never found myself rooting for Elsa but I also didn’t mind her as being a wishy-washy protagonist. I think she was written well for a young adult going through so many emotions.

Ultimately I think there was too much going on with the whole story, with some clunky writing. I hope Madison Newbound finds her groove in the next novel because there is definite potential.

Thank you to the publisher for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

3 stars

This book picks up in the second half, with the first half having me think about DNFing it multiple times. There seems to be a thread of books out lately with main cisfemale characters who may or may not be queer, date someone to test the waters, and then the end brings no resolution about this and I'm left wondering if the main character just went back to cismen. I can understand what this book is trying to do, and I certainly appreciate that now people don't have to come out and identify like they did when I was growing up (wow, I'm not that old, but it's true). And at the same time, it is tiring to see books written describing women who are drawn toward out characters who are more comfortable in their identity and then there's no actual resolution in the book about how this changed the main character, or didn't, or how much this was just an experiment or side track. As an out lesbian, this frustrates me because I can identify myself with these side characters. We still live in a world where people hate us for being gay, so what does it mean that there's books like this out now where the main character can seemingly escape the pain of this? And what does it mean that there's books like this out now where the character doesn't -have- to identify one way or another or come to a conclusion about their sexuality?

I appreciated the attempts at describing shopping addictions and those felt very relatable and 21st century. They also seemed out of place with the rest of the text's pace. Is that because that's how the character felt when shopping? Maybe I'm missing something here.

If I am being honest, this book didn't interest me a whole lot. I felt really confused and I couldn't get into the characters mind. We need more of the main characters back story ahead of time in my opinion, that way I can actually connect a bit more and feel more invested in her life.

The best thing about this book is connecting it to Timothee Chalamet. Not sure if that was what this author was going for, but it was so easy to do it!

I think this book was good. I requested it because it sounded interesting, and it was. The cast of characters was interesting and all so different from one another. I love the setting and environment this book created it really helped to create well rounded and dynamic characters

A NONBINARY PROMINENT CHARACTER!!! Sorry, just had to get that out there. As a non-binary person myself, I keenly notice when characters are non-binary. Honestly, it’s not the easiest to find them portrayed as important characters in books, so I was really really excited to meet Sam. Elsa and Sam are boxers, just tiptoeing around each other as a summer passes by. This novel is not action-oriented, but instead is a descent into the mind of Elsa as she navigates loss of love, general life confusion, and the awkwardness of attraction. I normally am the type of reader that struggles with these more introspective kinds of books, but this book had me enraptured from the first few pages. I could gush about Newbound all day, but what I will say is that they elevate the mundane and make it matter. Keep writing, it’s powerful.

Misrecognition is about a young woman who moved back in with her parents after a breakup with a poly couple. While watching a movie with her parents, she develops an obsession with the main character and the actor of this character happens to be in her town for a play. While somewhat stalking this actor, she instead develops a fixation on the actors friend, "a person called Sam."

This novel had so much potential. It reads like watching an indie film and you can vividly imagine each setting the author transitions to which I loved. However, the characters were very two dimensional and I had a hard time connecting with our main character. I could empathize with her and her situation but I could have set the book down and never thought about her again. I did enjoy it enough to anticipate what this author writes in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster, and Madison Newbound for the opportunity to read this book ahead of publishing.

Misrecognition hit a lot (A LOT) of my interests upon reading the synopsis on NG. I’ve been trying to find more queer MC’s that don’t fall into the poorly written queer/questioning category. Unfortunately, I am DNF’ing this book for the time being at 28% (3/12/24).

Much like several other reviewers have said, I’m unsure if this MC’s voice is a deliberate choice or not. I can get where it could be going with the depression aspect, because depression makes people behave in a variety of ways... but she is just so... unremarkable. And the lack of remarkable traits is making this incredibly hard to get through.

The way that Newbound/Elsa presents new characters is ~bizarre~ to me. I’ve honestly been reading this book as someone who’s encountering someone else (Elsa) who has main character syndrome and no one else matters and I’m unfortunately along for the ride. Which would normally be fine if the person with the MCS was interesting... but Elsa is falling incredibly flat and I can’t find it in me to continue trudging through this book because of it right now. I’m also finding it hard to picture any of the characters, they’re just floating orbs in my mind as I read, honestly. There’s nothing about them that conjures any type of character build. You could present me with a group of randomly generated Sims characters, tell me that’s what the characters look like, and I’d shrug and say okay.

The only thing I can appreciate about the writing right now is the vague approach to speaking about social media/pop culture references that has been utilized so far. However, and this is a big however, they’re not vague enough and the references are still going to be outdated within a handful of years or so (the Marie Kondo reference is already dated because I don’t remember the last time I heard anyone bring her up), and the way Newbound writes them (and the way Elsa’s voice presents them) sounds so incredibly insulting? Condescending? I could be reading it incorrectly, honestly... I probably am, but I don’t want to be womansplained as to what an IG story is and how it works as if I don’t spam my friends-only story with animal memes on a daily basis.

The tone for this book right now seems like the author/MC finds the reader stupid, which I am not... so that’s another tick in the dislike column.

Also after reading GR reviews for this book, I’ve come to find out that the actor-character is !!allegedly!! the modern-day embodiment of a sick Victorian child, Timothee Chalamet, and that alone is enough to make me roll my eyes hard enough to induce a Category-5 migraine. I don’t understand the hold he has on everyone, and I am tired of it :) . Maybe if I visualize the actor-character as someone else, I won’t be annoyed.

I will likely let this book sit and come back to it. Right now, reading this is not doing me any favors mentally (because it’s wholly uninteresting and not captivating in the slightest, so it isn’t keeping my attention) and it’s been putting me to sleep whenever I’ve tried to read it.

Hello, me again. It's now the 20th and I am no less confused or annoyed than I was when I started writing this.

Nothing interesting happened until the last 15% of the book. I wish I could have just read that part with zero context needed. It would have been a perfect short story. None of the earlier 85% felt needed, truly. It was so repetitive. SO repetitive. And I understand that breakups and relationships can be very trying. I still find myself psychoanalyzing everything I said and did in my last relationship and wondering what could have happened if I said a different word in a particular sentence. I still find myself unfortunately wondering what they're up to now, even though we ended things under the guise of friendship but don't talk. The ~after~ is weird. But this book lacked any real substance for me and I find that unfortunate. I had moderately high expectations for this book based off of the synopsis.

Elsa doesn't get any less flat as the story progresses. Probably because her character progression doesn't face much change either. Sure she starts to emerge from her shell but it's mayyybe... Five percent of the book?? At the end. I'm not willing to say she gets better as a charter when you compare that five percent to the remaining ninety five.

Between the weird pacing, the weird interactions, the weird way Elsa referred to people (the person called Sam, the actor-character), and the bizarre fragmented sentences/thoughts... I don't know how to really put thoughts to digital paper.

I can't see myself recommending this to anyone I know, unfortunately. There's definitely a niche for this book but I'm struggling to pinpoint exactly what it would be/be called.

Thank you again to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster, and Madison Newbound for the ARC opportunity. I look forward to being given more of these opportunities in the future.

DNF 65%
It’s hard to follow along when there’s nothing interesting to grasp onto. When nothing continually happens in a book I begin to wonder if I’m missing crucial information. I usually don’t and it’s just the protagonist’s thoughts filling most of the narrative but she isn’t captivating.

Misrecognition follows Elsa. She is a twenty something woman who has just been broken up with by a couple - The man and the woman. After this abrupt ending, she moves back in with her parents and takes shelter in her childhood bedroom.
Elsa is just like me for real. Scrolling mindlessly on social media, smoking too many cigarettes, depleting her bank account on frivolous purchases in an attempt to fill the void and dull her pain. It was mundane, boring, familiar.
Elsa becomes obsessed with someone who she calls the actor-character. (He’s literally Timothée Chalamet.) The actor comes into town to star in a play, and brings Sam along with them.
From here, we follow Elsa as she becomes enamored with Sam. Stalking them on social media, trying to find herself and explore her sexuality and what it now means to be alone and rebounding.
This book was an unhurried, dull ache. It truly conveys the loss and heartbreak that Elsa is feeling in such a real and painful way. She is starting from scratch, picking up the pieces and unsure of where to begin. With that being said, it is very slow at times and I can understand those that DNFed it. We are seeing Elsa at her lowest, with minimal hope.
I do wish that we could have had more glimpses into her past relationship with the man and woman. We get snippets, but not enough to truly form and understanding as to why the loss is so great for her.
If you enjoy slow burn reads with no happy ending or true conclusion, this is for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher who provided me with an ebook copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All of these thoughts and opinions are my own.

Listless after a poly breakup, Elsa moves back with her parents. By day she obsesses over the actor-character and by night she consumes mindless videos online. Fans of Monica Heisey's Really Good, Actually, Lillian Fishman's Acts of Service, and/or Emma Cline's The Guest will find something they like in this story, which covers obsession, relationships, and a general lack of meaning in one's early 20s. In general, this is best suited for readers of the New Adult genre.

Yet, I found this wanting. The protagonist is incredibly hard to like. I even enjoy an unlikeable protagonist, but it's not clear that this is intentional by the author. The main character is someone I'm simultaneously uninterested in and embarrassed for, the walking embodiment of cringe. I want to shake her and tell her to grow the fuck up. Usually second-hand embarrassment results in something dramatic and exciting happening, but this story offers very little action.

I love a good commentary about being chronically online, and I thought from the novel's synopsis and Patricia Lockwood comparison that perhaps this book would offer such a critique. Instead, we just watch Elsa scroll on her phone and watch YouTube without any nuance, critique, or insight. The "commentary" provided is akin to "The internet causes alienation," when we're about 15 years into that bandwagon opinion. 

I also had trouble getting into the way this was written. The author purposefully uses strange phrasing about the characters in Elsa's life - "the person called Sam," "the man and the woman," and "the actor-character." I kept waiting for this to be a relevant stylistic choice, but I never found it provided any depth or meaning to the story. This may have worked better if Elsa herself had more depth or personal growth that could serve as a contrast to these fleeting, nameless people in her orbit. 

I nearly DNF'd this a number of times. The story picks up about two thirds of the way through, but never enough that it's worth having slogged through the rest. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the e-arc in exchange for my unbiased review.

To be honest when I started reading the “young actor” allusions I got nervous with how obvious it was but the direction the story went in did not cross any lines. i think the prose was a little clunky and formal even though it mostly worked with her personality. Also the cover is gorgeous. Super quick and readable and enjoyable!

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon Schuster for the ARC!