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A Touch of Jen

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Not that I’ve ever set fire to someone by drawing a sigil, mind you. But the protection spells, sigil writing, and home blessings all felt familiar. Moreno-Garcia did her research when it came to witchcraft. Fun though the end was, the more I think about this book, the more I think that the movie “Save Yourselves!” did everything this book is doing but better, funnier, with less gore and believable characters. NB: not that I, or I’m sure most people reading this, take that kind of overexcited targeted-hype blurb language seriously, but it really isn’t anything like either Moshfegh or Cronenberg, if you were wondering. More like The Pisces meets John Dies at the End.)

Um, holy shit...This novel will be the most fun you'll have this summer." -Emily Temple, Literary Hub BM: I just finished Ted Chiang’s short-story collection Exhalation. In my favorite of the stories, “The Lifecycle of Software Objects,” Chiang imagines the development of these AI pets called digients and the kind of care and nurturing they require to develop their humanlike qualities. The speculative aspects of the story felt very realistic, but I think what really impressed me was that way it gave me a glimpse into what’s so absorbing about parenthood — the wonder of watching a personality come into being. At times, I felt like I was stalking them, as absorbed in the story as I was. I couldn't get enough of Alicia and Remy, crazy and obnoxious as they were. I felt like a voyeur, peeking through their windows every chance I got.Morgan does well to build tension, creating a mindset of “what’s going to happen next” throughout the book. There are atypical horror elements involving a nuanced, gruesome take on the dangers of consuming social media. When we get to the climax, there are sudden cosmic events that take over and drown the story. The buildup to the horror could have been stronger and there could have been less reliance on allegory. However, even when things get messy, Morgan’s writing is vibrant and hypnotic until the last sentence. This deliciously vicious novel, Beth Morgan's debut, is probably best described as what might happen if Ingrid Goes West took place atop the Hellmouth of Sunnydale. The one bright spot in Remy and Alicia's faded relationship is their mutual obsession with Jen, a beautiful former coworker-turned-influencer. When they encounter Jen in real life and get whisked into her orbit, what seems like a dream come true gradually turns into a psychedelic nightmare."-- HARPER'S BAZAAR, Best Books of Summer Part millennial social comedy, part psychedelic horror and all wildly entertaining, A TOUCH OF JEN is a sly, unflinching examination of the hidden drives that lurk just outside the frame of our carefully curated selves.

The weekend at the house, intercourses between bunch of weird guests ( Carla and her clairvoyance skills are the winner of this incredibly strange people competition), the awkward dialogues, ultra absurd incidents they deal were the best chapter of the novel. Then Alicia dies from a freak accident and Remy starts hearing something moving in his apartment at night.Part millennial social comedy, part psychedelic horror, and all wildly entertaining, A Touch of Jen is a sly, unflinching examination of the hidden drives that lurk just outside the frame of our carefully curated selves. This was a tightly written story, and it’s hard to pinpoint anything that stood out as not working. However, I will say this. There is a moment in the story when the tables turn between Victor and Elizabeth. Elizabeth claims to just then realize how many people Victor has killed. I kind of think she probably knew before then. She just didn’t want to. For the most part, I don’t know what to think of this book. I actually don’t know if I can still think at all (see stage 5). For the most part, this book is like reading an indie movie. Like, I imagine reading a novelization of “The Lobster” would feel similar. Nobody talks like real people. Nobody acts like real people. It’s like every character is a funhouse mirror reflection of a human…but you want to punch every single one of those reflections in the face. Most of the time I felt like this book takes itself way too seriously and that drives me nuts. But…there’s more to it than that. A Touch of Jen is an inventive and immersive novel that plays with common horror tropes in a unique, twisted way. It is gruesome, beautiful, cringeworthy, intoxicating. Despite issues that prevent the story from being the best it could be, it is a whirlwind of a book worth reading.

This destructive allure of self-improvement is at the core of A Touch of Jen, the first novel by American writer Beth Morgan. Published mid-July by Little Brown, A Touch of Jen is Morgan’s first novel. Billed as “Ottessa Moshfegh meets David Cronenberg,” it more than lives up to that description一to get specific, it’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation meets The Fly. While many contemporary novels written by millennial women get marketed as Moshfegh-esque, A Touch of Jen shares more than one passing similarity with My Year of Rest and Relaxation: the New York City setting, the unlikeability of the uncanny and bizarre protagonists, a character recovering from bulimia, and a delusional quest towards “wellness” motivated by deep trauma and grief. I figured out the premise of the story fairly early on. I honestly don’t think I’m spoiling anything by telling you that this is a classic tale of human sacrifice to an Elder God for financial abundance to bless a whole town. The same sort of story we saw in Fear Street. But then about 3/4 of the way through, things take a.... an outlandish turn and I was lost. It just didn't make sense. It turned into a horror story. Or something. And all of a sudden, it just felt repetitive and silly and I could hardly wait for the book to end. From there things start to get weird oh so gradually. Some of it is in strange things Remy thinks he sees. But some of it is woven in very naturally through this self-help book that gets passed between the characters and referenced more and more. A kind of The-Secret-esque new age philosophy that keeps popping up until we as readers start to become familiar with it. But much of this goes unnoticed, we are so focused on the inter-character dynamics, so curious to see what will happen when Jen winds up in close quarters with Remy and Alicia. Morgan’s skewering of the fallacy of self-improvement was one of the strongest themes in the novel. In an interview with The Rumpus, she stated that this came from her desire to “portray the absurdity and self-absorption of the personal journey or the hero’s journey.” Hearing the advice from The Apple Bush felt eerily familiar: all of the language used around self-help is now mainstream and no longer derided as hippie “woo-woo,” rebranded instead in masculinist and capitalist terms as efficiency, productivity, and personal success. This was clear when several characters told Remy to “reject the tyranny of money over [his] life,” a line that was painfully real to how many perceive manifestation and “energy” work.Imagine their confused excitement when they run into Jen, in the flesh, and she invites them on a surfing trip to the Hamptons with her wealthy boyfriend and their group. Once there, Remy and Alicia try (a little too hard) to fit into Jen’s exalted social circle, but violent desire and class resentment bubble beneath the surface of this beachside paradise, threatening to erupt. As small disturbances escalate into outright horror, we find ourselves tumbling with Remy and Alicia into an uncanny alternate reality, one shaped by their most unspeakable, deviant, and intoxicating fantasies. Is this what “self-actualization” looks like?

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