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.

Insightful and uncomfortable read, up to the last few chapters, which take a hard turn into strange sci-fi/body horror.

A Touch of Jen is original and clever and heartless. The characters are weird and unique and the reader follows them and their exploits effortlessly. The satire here, of the insincere, performative religion of social media, is sharp and relentless and Morgan does a solid job of ratcheting up the tension as the pages turn. And for all that, this was a fun read. However, at no time did I feel particularly moved. Even as the characters face the most dire circumstances, I found myself watching with a detached curiosity, unable to muster concern for their fates. I think comparisons with Mona Awad's Bunny will be numerous, but Bunny touched me in a way this title did not. I think there is a way to divorce the reader from reality and yet reach them with emotion. If Beth Morgan can figure out a way to do that, she could be a writer to watch.

i thought every page, sentence, word of this novel was perfect, but only if you're the kind of reader who is willing to throw yourself into a story blind, and willing to be comfortable with wherever the story may lead, however unexpectedly. Reading this novel was like being on a rollercoaster and thinking, ok, I'm on this rollercoaster, and so I know where this ride is going...only your car keeps leaping off the tracks and out into space before it somehow finds its course along another stretch of track, one that might just belong to a different roller coaster altogether.

I read breathlessly. The journey thrilled me. The bravery of Beth Morgan, to take this story to the places she did, reminds me of where Flannery O'Connor took Wise Blood or more recently, where Hari Kunzru took White Tears. I'm also reminded of the films of Yorgos Lanthimos, in particular The Killing of the Sacred Deer, for the way this story has an internal logic that works perfectly as art, but that falls apart if taken out of the peculiar reality in which it exists, or forced to bend to the rules of realism, or even to the rules that most fiction is written by.

In addition to being an intense and unique reading experience, along the way the author has some remarkable things to say about faith, solipsism, parasocial relationships, and how we derive meaning (or not) from the barrage of sensory inputs that make up our daily lives.

Also, wow, the dialogue in this story is amazing, as is the way Morgan captures the tiny self-editing/self-blaming/self-conscious thoughts we have, when in conversation with our fellow human beings.

I really loved this reading experience. I'm happy someone with Beth Morgan's imagination and talent lives in the world. I'm so, so happy this book got published the way it did. Yeah. Read it.

This book has potential to be really good. But it was too many things. Too many genres in a single story. I appreciated how weird it was, but the turn it took was strange and the conclusion was just... I don't know.

I would give this author another chance though. Beth Morgan is a pretty good storyteller.

The story takes a long time to pick up the pace and get the action going, but when it does it's a wild and strange ride. The characters are insufferable but also oddly fascinating, you can't draw yourself away from them. This book is like nothing I've read before. Beth has a very fresh and distinctive voice and I'm excited to see how she uses it next.

This novel is about Remy and Alicia, a couple, who become obsessed with a woman named Jen , whom Remy used to work with, who appears to be living her best life on social media. Jen is always jet-setting somewhere fabulous and dons only designer threads. What starts as an inside joke between Remy and Alicia, soon spirals into more of an obsession about Jen that expands to include her in their fantasies and stalking her online. So when they run into Jen in person and she invites them on a Hampton’s getaway, they are giddy. But things aren’t as rosy in real life as they appear online and bizarre things begin to happen verging on the horror / gothic genre. This novel feels fresh and funny. It’s a social commentary on our obsession with online perfection. This was a wild, but exciting ride of a read. Thank you to Little Brown and Company and Netgalley for the advanced review copy.

Dark, funny, ridiculous, disturbing. The first half trundles along on the strength of its satire, but the latter half is where Morgan takes us to a strange new place.

What a totally wild ride. A TOUCH OF JEN is completely unique and bonkers, and I highly suggest not reading too much about it before you dig in (though if you don't like body horror, probably should stay away altogether). This book certainly got me out of my reading slump because the first half was impossible to put down. I had no idea what I was reading, but I was completely intrigued and taken aback. Remy and Alicia are a 30-something Brooklyn couple who are in an extremely toxic relationship, seemingly the only thing holding them together is their shared obsession with Jen who is a former co-worker of Remy's. Remy has a bit of a crush on her still, and Alicia wants to be her, and thanks to a chance encounter with Jen again, she inserts self into their lives in unexpected ways.

The book is very much *of its time* with lots of Instagram references and general millennial malaise. But the twists and turns it takes elevate this general to new heights. It's a quick and fun read, and would make a terrific yet terrifying movie. Truly, I don't read the synopsis from the publisher - I think it would be so much more interesting if I didn't know what was coming! It does read like a debut, but I can't wait to see what else comings from this writers' amazing mind.

A light yet enjoyable read for anyone who wants to detach for a bit and set foot into another world unlike their own. Beth Morgan sets a scene you feel you know intimately.

When I read the blurb for this book, I thought it would be awesomely bizarre or an absolute mess. Well, at least now I know.

The majority of this book is best summed up as: terrible people do exceedingly boring things. Then the plot switches over to a horror story involving a monster. The very ending is kind of satisfying, but not worth reading through the book.

Okay! No, nothing is okay! My brain swims in a ice bucket, already left my head. I’m numb! My entire vocabulary was ejected! I cannot tell how I feel about WTfreakingH I just read!

Is it sci-fi, bleakest-darkest- extra sarcastic comedy? Or is the most disturbing, obsessive love story? Is it surreal fantasy? I think it was combination of all of them!

One thing I’m sure of this book is not for everyone! I felt like I was trapped in a universe created by corporation of David Cronenberg , Terry Gilliam, Alex Garland and Charlie Kaufman.

This book contains weird, quirky characters and weirder dialogues as if they’ve been written by aliens and complex, jaw dropping situations they find themselves into. Even the characters’ reactions were not like normal people. It’s like reading a book takes place in parallel universe with bunch of batsh*t crazy people!

In the first part: we’re introduced not so lovely but absolutely “are you for real kind” of agitating characters: Remy and Alice: looking like boring couple in their thirties, service workers and only thing connects them their obsession to Remy’s former colleague Jen who pursues her dream as jewelry designer. They watch her every move on social media, dragging into her like moth to a flame. Alice acts like Jen to feel more powerful and eccentric!

Remy still thinks Jen and him are meant to be. He sees to be invited a party at Jen’s boyfriend Horus’ house ( actually it’s his mother’s house but it’s still great surf&turf place) he sees it as a sign and he takes Alice with him to spend the weekend at there.

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.

Because after the party time, our boring couple return back to their more boring, meaningless lives and painful, and energy sucking, slowly killing jobs but nothing is the same. Things already got of the rails and ....so many WTH moments later, the story’s direction whirl around just like a car jumps off a cliff and repeat that action over and over again.

You feel like you’re drugged and experiencing a different reality you’d never known.

The horrific, jaw dropping ending is epic final to this intriguing, confusing and unique madness!
I think if you’re open to read something you’d never read before and if you are great fans of surreal, mind blowing fantasy works, you should definitely give this book a chance.

I never read something like that! My head hurts! My grain cells need renewal but overall it was wildest craziest darkest and funniest journey I’ve never had before!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of A Touch of Jen.

First, I really like the cover; its daring, uncomfortable and alluring, among other things.

Second, the story is odd and not for everyone. It took me some time to really get into it.

In the beginning, I found it hard to become involved in the story, much less understand what was going on.

The first half is about Remy and Alicia and their obsession with Jen, Remy's former co-worker. Alicia finds a renewed sense of self esteem and confidence when she acts like Alicia, talks like her, dresses like her.

Remy is convinced he and Jen are meant to be together. When Jen invites Remy and Alicia to her boyfriend's mother's house for a weekend of surf and fun, the first hints of surreality begin to happen.

After an eventful trip, Remy and Alicia continue on with the minutiae of their daily lives, enduring thankless jobs in the restaurant industry when something unexpected happens to one of them. Something I did not expect. That made me sit up and take notice.

Then, things get weird. And you have to read to find out what.

I'm still not sure how to categorize this book, but maybe I shouldn't do that. Yet some people like to group books according to genre and type of story, which I understand. I feel the same.

Is A Touch of Jen sci=fi? Philosophy? Horror? Offbeat? Quirky? Is it all of the above?

Or should you just read it and decide for yourself what it means?

A Touch of Jen is whatever you want it to mean.

This isn't for everyone but if you're open minded and looking for something really, really different to read, unlike a standard genre, then give A Touch of Jen a try.

Weirdly Affecting

This book is oddly stilted and at points almost ethereal and insubstantial. The ending is surreal psychedelic horror, on purpose, but the weirdly passive and exhausted opening section is just as surreal, although that may not be on purpose. Long sections, and most of the dialogue, read like it was written in English, then translated into French and then translated from that into Russian and then back into English. And I mean that in a good way.

Our two main characters, Remy and Alicia, are iGen types who have an oddly low energy relationship and lives. They are obsessed with a former workmate, Jen, and follow her social media posts with unflagging and creepy devotion. They fall into Jen's social orbit, which allows for all sorts of random and disturbingly incomprehensible interactions amongst the various main and supporting characters. The book then transitions into a strange house party interlude before going off the rails entirely. At that point we get a fantasy slasher beast and enter a heightened level of surreal.

The thing is the book is hypnotic and compulsively readable. That's even though most of the characters come across as aliens trying to pass as humans. No one ever reacts to anything in a predictable fashion and much of the dialogue is just competing non sequiturs. That said, every few paragraphs there's an arresting observation or casual throwaway line or darkly comic bit that shines out from the rest of the text.

I finally concluded that this may be the new style of "lost generation" novels. The shallow and neurasthenic characters exhibit a sort of literal, figurative, and emotional chronic fatigue syndrome that in many ways does catch the spirit of the times. Great. Even though this was very entertaining I'm now depressed.

(Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

I really enjoyed this book. Even when the characters are wallowing in meta-ennui there is momentum and push towards the big weird in a way that I found really engaging and charming throughout. The details are tangible and realistically mundane; I'm never going to hear "Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah" without getting a shiver.
A better pop culture comparison than Cronenberg would be Charlie Kaufman takes ayahuasca and rewrites Ingrid Goes West as a novel: hijinks ensue.