Morgan masterfully brings dark comedy and psychedelic horror together at a slow-burning pace. Her mundane but over-the-top characters and brilliant dialogue add to the surreal and fantastical tone of this spellbinding book."-- BOOKLIST 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 all have when in conversation with our fellow human beings. 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. KT: Would you say A Touch of Jen is a commentary on young people’s obsession with the curated lives of others (and maybe themselves) on social media? This book started with Remy and Alicia, told in the third person point of view. They were both obsessed with looking at Jen’s photos on multiple social media platforms. Jen used to work with Remy and he’s upset that they didn’t stayed friends after the company closed down. Alicia sometimes pretend to be Jen for role playing with Remy. One day, the couple ran into Jen in real life. Jen reacquainted with Remy and invited both to a surfing trip hosted by her boyfriend Horus. Horus’s a surf instructor so naturally he gave Remy and Alicia lessons because they don’t know how to surf. The story weaved between Alicia and Remy’s thoughts.

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

Other Top Audiobooks

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. Remy and Alicia, a couple of insecure service workers, are not particularly happy together—but they are bound by a shared obsession with Jen, a beautiful former co-worker of Remy’s who now seems to be following her bliss as a globe-trotting jewelry designer. In and outside the bedroom, and Alicia’s entire relationship revolves around fantasies of Jen. When they run into Jen, in the flesh, she invites them on a surfing trip to the Hampton’s with her wealthy boyfriend and their group. Once there, Remy and Alicia try to fit into Jen’s social circle, but violent desire and class resentment bubble beneath the surface, threatening to erupt. As disturbances escalate into horror, Remy and Alicia tumble into an uncanny alternate reality, one shaped by their deviant, intoxicating fantasies. Without going into the actual spoilers, much of the eerieness and creepiness derives from Remy and Alicia in the first 4/5 of the novel. The way the dialogue is written, the blunt and ambivalent attitudes of Remy and Alicia, every interaction and every scene has a slight unsettling nature to it.

After seeing Jen while out and about, the duo get themselves invited to a beach trip with Jen, her partner Horus, and they're group of friends. Shit gets weird. Eccentric Artist: After the trip to the Hamptons, Alicia starts dressing like Jen, acting like her, and going by her name, even with Remy. She also becomes more obsessed with the art project she was always talking about, a sort of hot tub/sensory deprivation chamber, actually managing to build it. 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.)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. The universe is a beautifully arranged place in which even details that seem ordinary are the key to a larger design.” - A Touch of Jen.