Introduction
There is a particular kind of loneliness that comes from asking the universe for answers and hearing nothing back.
It’s not the loneliness of empty rooms or silent phones. It’s the loneliness of standing in front of a mirror, having done everything you were told—checked the horoscope, consulted the cards, paid the psychic, waited for the sign—and realizing that no one is coming to tell you what comes next.
This book is for anyone who has ever googled. “Am I happy yet?” at 2 a.m.
It’s for the people who have rearranged their furniture because someone said having your bed facing north was bad for your health.
I wrote Addicted to Signs because I believe that escapism is not shallow when the real world feels heavy. I believe that laughter and tears can live in the same sentence. I believe that a story about a woman who breaks three engagements because of a sycamore tree can be both absurd and heartbreaking—and that readers deserve both.
Jacqueline Prescott is not me. But she is everyone I have known who has ever outsourced their agency to a system, a sign, or a stranger.
This is not a self-help book disguised as a novel. I have no interest in lecturing anyone about what to believe. That’s their perogative.
Addicted to Signs is a work of fiction. The psychics are fictional (though the techniques they use are real). The sycamore tree is fictional (though there is one in my neighbourhood that I now cannot look at without smiling). The characters are invented, but their struggles are very real.
If you have ever asked the universe, “What now?” and hated the silence that followed—this book is for you.
It will be released in the near future.
I hope you enjoy reading the story as much as I enjoyed creating it.
Brendan Dunne
