A Touch of Jen is David Lynch meets Franz Kafka for the Instagram age. Boy oh boy, I was NOT expecting this weird and crazy, horrifying, bizarre literarly thrill ride when I first started what seemed like an innocuous book about a couple's off-kilter obsession with an Instagram influencer they vaguely know. The book starts out about this harmless (or so it seems) obsession with an Instagrammer who seems just a little too perfect, and morphs into a wild, weird, disjointed and humorous (really!) romp of bizarre imagery and weird happenings. I don't have the words to describe this book, as it is wholly unique. There are several ways to look at this book. Maybe it's a sci-fi story. Maybe it's a supernatural story. Maybe it's a story about a mentally ill, obsessed person. Or maybe it's a story about someone who is literally living in another reality. I have my interpretation, but it's open to many. Whatever you decide to believe about the book, the characters are fascinating, and the story is like a train wreck in slow motion that you can start to see coming...but you would NEVER predict that the train, say, turns into a mythological creature.

Beth Morgan has a dark and gritty sense of humor and a warped imagination, both of which I fully enjoyed in this impossible-to-explain book. If you like surrealist, dark, weird, humorous stuff, this is the book for you. Just hang on and enjoy the ride. With an imagination like this, Beth Morgan has quite a future in fiction and I can't wait to see what she comes up with next. One thing is for sure - it will surprise me.

Thanks to Little, Brown, NetGalley and the author for the ARC!

"You can attack me for being lucky and beautiful, or you can decide that maybe that's how I've allowed the love of the universe to express itself in my life."

Are you looking for something completely different? A Touch of Jen is a novel that's part satire and part terrifying horror.

The story follows Remy and Alicia, two dating food service workers who basically are in love because they have the same interest; Jen.
They are both completely obsessed with Remy's old coworker who is now a Instagram influencer. They know her outfits and Instagram captions by heart and roleplay as her.

One day they run into her IRL and she invites them to go to the Hamptons with her and some friends. Obviously they go and things will never be the same!

I loved this book! I cringed, I lol'd, I cringed some more and contemplated my existence.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

If you loved Bunny you will love A Touch of Jen!

A Touch of Jen by Beth Morgan
A Horror (?), Little Brown and Company 2021, 320 Pages

What I Didn’t Like:
-Boring. The entire start of the story bored me. There’s no big events. We’re following mundane lives of mundane people. I don’t mind contemporary if the voice is good or I can relate to the characters. I didn’t relate to them, the voice was very dry, and so I was bored.
-What genre is this? Like I said, the book starts as a slow (boring) contemporary about two people who are obsessed with a social media personality. But then it becomes sort of a paranormal horror halfway through. The thing is, there’s no crossover. There’s no hint of the horror in the beginning and the contemporary boring part is gone from the end. It’s really weird.
-Dry writing. I usually like weird (you know that about me) but I think it was the dry writing that put me off this one the most. The sentences are all very similar and the book suffers from telling (rather than showing) a lot. That makes for dry writing that I just couldn’t get into.

What I Did Like:
-I normally like genre crossing so I like the IDEA of a bring pink cover for a horror book. I like the idea of a seemingly contemporary story devolving into a horror novel. In theory, that should’ve worked for me.
-I like the idea of a woman obsessing so much about a social media personality and taking on aspects of her personality being a horror novel. Again, that should’ve worked for me.

Who Should Read This One:
-Can’t say I’d recommend this one. Like I said everything about this that I should’ve liked fizzled out.

My Rating: 1 star. This one didn’t work for me at the end of the day.

I think I expected more out of this book? The writing was okay and the characters too, but it felt very... different than what I thought I was going to get. I loved the dialogue but couldn't get into the characters. Overall, I'm giving it a 3 stars!

This book about bored me to death. Was it going anywhere with its story? Definitely DNF at 41%, as life is too short for boring books.

Welllllllll, that was . . . . . weird.

I snatched this up instantly upon seeing the cover and the blurb indicating a literal monster would be unleashed. And I read the entire thing in one sitting. Mainly because until about the 90% mark I wasn’t exactly sure what was going on. Smarter readers are sure to comment that this is some sort of social commentary about society’s addiction to social media and haves vs. have nots and blah blah blah. I’m not that smart of a girl so I’m simply going to say this obviously had some page turnability, but it failed to live up to my own expectations regarding the payoff. Probably because of this . . . .

Don’t tease me with “horror” and “Jen” and think my brain will ever go anywhere aside from Megan Fox in Jennifer's Body.

ARC provided by the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The deal: Remy and Alicia are obsessed with Remy’s old coworker-now-IG-influencer Jen. They weasel their way into her life, and then I don’t even know how to tease out the second half, but the book jacket mentions David Cronenberg and psychedelic horror, which I don’t disagree with. (PS - I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for this review.)

Is it worth it?: If only so I have other people to talk about it with. This is far and away the strangest book I’ve read this year. And that’s saying a lot when you remember other books I’ve read this year have included horny frozen yogurt situations, surveillance Furbys, cannibal factory farming, and a lady doing butt stuff with a merman. The bar was high and this baby less-than-gracefully bounded over it.

Pairs well with: the essay “Why Can’t We Be Friends” by Brendan Mackie in Real Life Mag, honestly just Real Life Mag in general

B-

Close to good, close to real, too close to be likable. But I’m anti-influencer culture, so what do I know? This book has an audience. I expect it to do very well among many of my peers.

I almost don’t want to give anything away about A Touch of Jen, the explosive debut novel from Beth Morgan. My advice to those who have not read it is to stop reading this review right now, avoid reading any plot descriptions, and just start reading the book.

I’ve said this before, but I’m a huge fan of how female authors are writing seemingly innocent, predictable novels, which get more and more bonkers as the plot progresses. Two recent examples of this are Silvia Moreno Garcia’s wildly popular Mexican Gothic, and You Let Me In by Camilla Bruce. I love being surprised by a wildly fantastical final act.

On the surface, A Touch of Jen is a fairly uncomplicated premise; a young couple, Remy and Alicia, lead relatively dull lives, and form an odd bond by cyberstalking one of Remy’s ex co-workers, the titular Jen. Remy seems to spend all his mental energy dissecting Jen’s every post. Surprisingly, Alicia is okay with this, even embracing it as part of their sex life.

An unexpected encounter with Jen leads to Remy and Alicia accompanying Jen, her boyfriend, and her close circle of friends on a surfing vacation. There, Alicia begins to embrace Jen’s mindset of “living in the now”, inspired by a popular self-help book called The Apple Bush. Alicia begins a slow transformation into Jen, with weird consequences.

Throughout this whole book, there is a strong feeling of unease. Uncanny encounters with a parrot, actor Jake Gyllenhaal, and strange knocking sounds, give the whole novel a sense that things are “not quite right”. And guess what? They’re not! In the last chapter of the book, things go completely nuts. If you think you can predict how things go, believe me, you cannot. Or, if you do, you either need to urgently seek professional help, or come and have a drink with me and be my new best friend.

A Touch of Jen is an audacious book. Beth Morgan absolutely nails the obsessive, voyeuristic nature of social media, and the cadence of speech of a certain sect of millennials. One character’s outrage at receiving a telephone call, rather than a text, made me laugh out loud.

But it was the last chapter of the book that really blew me away. I had absolutely no idea where things were going, I just knew that I was in the author’s capable hands. Even after finishing the book, I still don’t think I fully comprehend what went down. On the surface, it seems like a complete 180 switch, but things that happen in the final chapter are seeded extremely carefully throughout the entire novel. Morgan is an evil genius, with a deft and delirious hand.

More bonkers books, please! I’m excited to see what Beth Morgan does next.

A Touch of Jen went quite a bit further than the description of the book would lead one to believe. It's a solid recommendation for anyone wanting something different, but dark. They also must be able to put up with an unlikeable MC who is the definition of a mediocre white male failing upwards.

Great writing and very interesting premise. It took a direction I wasn't expecting, but it was ultimately a disappointing one for me. In the end it didn't quite feel like horror or a fun genre combo, though there was an unsettling tone throughout which was primarily delivered via the intentionally awful and depressing main characters, not the supernatural/horror-esque elements (a blend of social media commentary, raging misogyny, self help cultishness and government secrecy that felt a bit messy all together). I didn't get the dark comedy that would have paired well with this, it was just dark in a mundane way that made parts of it a sad meandering read.

The final chunk of the book had an escalation that was meant to be a scary and wild culmination of the strange happenings and technically, it was. It just didn't land as scary or satisfyingly eerie because I think there was too much trying to be done to make it feel like horror or at least a close approximation of it. The early chapters of the book set up what could have been a more simplified and exciting story. It went from social to psychological to maybe body horror to monster gore, and I think I would have preferred to stay in the psychological/body realm. I love weird and bizarre stories that don't quite fit, and it's even better when they're scary. Perhaps that's what this was going for, but even if I look at it through that lens, it didn't quite do it for me.

I love weird but obnoxious is a very close cousin and totally takes over here. These caricatures of people behave badly and then they get worse. Once the body count started rising, it got a little more interesting (which is where the horror comes in) but not enough to make it worth reading. Give this a pass.

I’m judging the L.A. Times 2020 and 2021 fiction contest. It’d be generous to call what I’m doing upon my first cursory glance—reading. I also don’t take this task lightly. As a fellow writer and lover of words and books, I took this position—in hopes of being a good literary citizen. My heart aches for all the writers who have a debut at this time. What I can share now is the thing that held my attention and got this book from the perspective pile into the read further pile.

“He’s talked to Alicia many times about these adult braces. They’ve discussed the spectacular, loopy temerity of a beautiful person like Jen taking such a risk with her appearance. She could have done Invisalign. But no. Now she looks like a hot shark.” Funny.

A toxic Instagram crush creates one heck of a monster in this wild ride! Is this a romance? Is this fantasy? How about science fiction? Is it comical? I don't know how, but it's all of the above and Beth did a great job at that! This book is so unique and makes it a must-read! There truly is no other story like it. It’s addicting!

Get used to the idea of spending a few hours questioning why you decided to read about these boring petty people. For more than half the book, millennials Remy and Alicia obsess over Jen, a beautiful girl with an uber-rich and pretentious boyfriend named Horus. They visit Horus’ house in the Hamptons. They learn to surf. Yada, yada, yada... A Touch of Jen makes the perfect sedative for a good night’s sleep for over half of its pages.

Then, POW!!! Weird stuff starts to happen. Really great weird stuff (that I don’t want to spoil for you). So, here’s is my advice. Skim the first half but don’t quit reading no matter how many times you may drowse off. It’s worth reading this book once you get to the wild ending. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars!

Thanks to Little, Brown and Company and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

This was received as an ARC from Netgalley.

Remy & Alicia are a strange young couple that have a bizarre obsession with a former coworker of Remy's (Jen). They spend their free time scrolling through her posts on social media and discussing every minute detail of the images.

Overall, this is such a strange and bizarre story. They narration is done through a third person perspective that gives us some insight into the thoughts and feelings of both of the main characters. Part one of the story jumps around a lot to help build the world that the story is taking place in. This is a book that demands focus to grasp what the hell is happening. The further you read, the stranger things get. Buckle up for what turns into a ride through a bad acid trip.

I cannot tell you how many times I literally laughed out loud while reading "A Touch of Jen." Did you have a group of friends during and after college who were totally self-absorbed, convinced of their own brilliance, obsessed with projecting themselves in a certain light? Maybe you were kind of a prig yourself? Well, Beth Morgan satirizes the jerks we all were in our 20s and how we're now acting like ding-dongs on social media regardless of age.

The dialogue sparkles. You could insert it into any given film or show and it would get big laughs. Many scenes played out in my mind like a movie - especially the brilliant and absurd one involving an out-of-place celebrity who appears in Alicia's coffeeshop.

Did I understand the ending? Hm, no. But I wasn't even mad at it, I was just happy to be along for the ride and cool with letting the plot twists swirl around in my brain for a few days.

I will 100% be reading any and all future works by Beth Morgan.

Many thanks to Little, Brown, and Co and NetGalley for the copy!

This book has potential, but I thought the pacing was really off. The first part of the book was not enjoyable. I would Remy and Alicia to be insufferable millennials (of which, I am one). It takes far too long to get through the satire of a story and into the second half which is sci-fi / horror. I did enjoy the last third of the book.

I see great potential in Beth Morgan and I look forward to seeing what else she writes!

This is an unusual and creative book that examines what it means to know someone mostly through social media -- and what happens when you then interact with that person in real life. The two main characters, Remy and Alicia, are dating and have become fixated on the social media of Jen, one of Remy's former co-workers who is now an influencer. When they run into Jen in person and she invites them on a trip to Hamptons, they end up going, kicking off a series of events with expected and quite unexpected outcomes. The story goes in an unexpected direction, but one that explores its themes in interesting ways.

Recommended!

Obsessed that’s the narrative that comes through. Two young women struggling to hold onto the lives they are making. Each with dreams that are illustrated by a friend Jen who posts elegant life goals and a life followed by thousands on line. The warped notion is carried further as these two descend into darkness with their obsession.