Misrecognition by Madison Newbound
In Misrecognition, an adrift young woman becomes fixated by a famous actor and his relationships
Single after the breakdown of a relationship with a couple who were also her employers, Elsa is back in her childhood bedroom with very little to do. She retreats into her phone, using “the social media site,” “the video sharing site,” and “the dating app” (Newbound chooses not to name Instagram, YouTube or Tinder, but describes the UX of each in minute detail), rather than reaching out to friends or her worried, non-judgemental parents. Elsa’s best friend Cleo visits for a confusing weekend of whispered conversations and a misplaced kiss, which is immediately laughed off but appears to cause an inviolable rift in a years-long friendship; Cleo disappears from the rest of the novel.
As Elsa drifts between therapy appointments and Marie Kondo-inspired wardrobe culls, her parents tempt her into a movie night, and a new obsession – with “the actor-character,” a CMBYN-era Timothée Chalamet type – forms. Within days, the actor materialises in her small hometown for a summer theatre festival run. Elsa feels drawn to the actor and his entourage, and specifically to “the person named Sam,” one of his most frequent companions.
Despite the Chalamet fanfiction, and with queer representation, polyamory and open relationships abounding, Misrecognition never explores the nuance of internet culture, gender or sexuality, and instead leaves Elsa floundering, in much the same place at the end of the novel as it found her in the beginning.