To be quite honest with you…… I have literally no idea how to feel about this book. In this book, a couple, Alicia and Remy, obsessively stalks Remy’s former-coworker-turned-influencer Jen. When they run into Jen and she invites them to go on a trip with her, things start to get…..weird. From this point on, A Touch of Jen rapidly changes from what some would call a “millennial malaise” novel to just…. honestly guys I just…. don’t even know how to describe it. A fever dream? I made the mistake of reading this through the night because I was just so confused and lost and really wanted to know how it ended. I’m half convinced I made half of it all up.
**SPOILERS BELOW**
Okay so please, please stop reading if you want any surprises going in to this book because frankly it’s the most shocking way to read it and I’d recommend reading it that way because otherwise you might not get through it because it’s just so damn WEIRD.
Okay, so the people who haven’t read it are really gone now so I can talk about the elephant/xenomorph/universe-hopping-bug-thing in the room. I had literally no idea that this book was turning into a monster book. I love me some monsters but like this book that started out as a social commentary on social media stalking was the last place I expected them to be. I think my one somewhat positive experience with the book was just that it took me completely by surprise. Completely. And I loved it. I loved not being able to see where a book was going for once. But, the surprise felt cheap? almost since there’s no way I could have expected it. It wasn’t beautifully set up in a way that the twist was an “Ah, yes of course!” moment but more of a “what the actual fuck” moment.
I can hear some of you saying that that was the point. And, yes, maybe it was. There are people who are saying this is what Kafka would have written if he was born in the internet age but I would have to disagree. While this text is absurd and as widely open to interpretation as Kafka’s works, A Touch of Jen just feels too random and weird to be compared on the same level. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe I don’t get it. I have never particularly enjoyed absurdist literature. I don’t see the point of reading something odd whose sole purpose for being odd is to show you that life has no point. I think fast-food brand twitter is doing enough for that cause. So, it could very well be that Beth Morgan is a genius and this book just is not for me.
TL;DR: Weird…. please read it so I have someone to talk about it with and know I didn’t just hallucinate this books entire existence. But also… don’t read it because it’s a waste of time. But also, can you read it let me know if I’m missing something?
Dinosaurs and Blueberries 