A Touch of Jen by Beth Morgan is advertised as a comedy-horror novel, though that’s debatable. The story opens with Alicia and Remy, a dating couple whom I would guess are in their late thirties or early forties. Both work in the service industry, which other characters suggest is a problem because those are jobs for young people. Alicia and Remy are obsessed with Jen, an influencer. In the opening chapters, Alicia and Remy demand to know if the other has seen the most recent Jen picture, and sometimes Alicia roleplays as Jen in the bedroom. What’s odd is that Jen isn’t a random influencer with hundreds of thousands of followers; she was Remy’s coworker two years and seven months ago (not that he’s counting). When they run into Jen at the Apple store where she works her regular job, she flippantly invites them to a beach weekend getaway with her, her boyfriend, and her other friends.
Now, this opening is bizarre to me because I can’t fathom why they’re obsessed with Jen–for all intents and purposes, a regular human. She has braces. She seems really normal. In person, she’s often a jerk. I read A Touch of Jen for a book club, and none of us could agree why Alicia and Remy were obsessed with Jen other than he seemed attached to her at their job nearly three years ago despite the girlfriend he has now. Strangely, Jen seems more obsessed. I also asked the group what is the end game with any internet personality? Do you just keep following them until their kids grow up, or they become wrinkly, or they just disappear on the internet? We discussed how some influencers start with one platform and pivot to another, such as the people who livestream themselves playing video games switching to making music, or John and Hank Green taking on different humanitarian projects after starting with a science program on YouTube. Currently, many authors are adding some element of influencers to their novels, possibly because influencers are ubiquitous, maybe because writers have something to say about them, like in Trad Wife by Saratoga Schaefer. I don’t think Beth Morgan was saying anything about influencers; perhaps she used it as a modern way for Remy and Alicia to spy on one person (I noted that had this book been published twenty years ago, they would have stalked her on Facebook).
However, the influencer stuff appears to be a spring board for a book that Jen and her friends loved called The Apple Bush, which seems to be one of those “manifest your reality” kind of self-help deals. It matters near the end of the novel. At first, I thought they were a bunch of woo-woo twits, whom Remy rightly criticized: “Just in general, Jen, I would imagine the universe conspires to bless you a lot more if you’re hot and your boyfriend is loaded.” After the beach getaway weekend, which was all kinds of awkward because Jen kept calling Remy creepy and Alicia a goblin, Alicia and Remy return home. There, Alicia starts roleplaying Jen out of the bedroom, getting a new job at a store where Jen shops, dressing like Jen, saying her preferred name is Jen. And then something weird and unexpected happens….
Before the weird and unexpected thing happens, back when we were still doing beach weekend, there was a part of me that realized I wasn’t engaged by the plot, but I was smitten with the characterization. I mean, they’re all terrible people, but I found them so funny. I guess the publisher nailed the “comedy” in their horror-comedy label. For example, Remy doesn’t want to go to the beach getaway because Jen is seeing someone. Alicia pushes. Remy yells, “Alicia! I don’t want to wear some wetsuit that rubbed against her boyfriend’s balls! I don’t want to be trapped in some beach house with a bunch of her crusty friends and their…oat milk.” On the same vacation, Jen’s more well-to-do friends chat on the ride to the beach, saying, “Did I tell you that my stepmother just bought a gorgeous George Condo?” Alicia, the outsider, gets exciting, asking where the condo is. I thought Beth Morgan’s humor rather brilliant, mixing these more niche references like George Condo with Remy accidentally quoting Backstreet Boys lyrics to profess his need to be loved unconditionally.
If you want to know what those Backstreet Boys lyrics were because you’re a Millennial, this book might be for you! It’s definitely aimed at Millennials, stuck between an adolescence without much personal technology and adulthood with smartphones. Remy wants to text just the right thing to Jen, but he keeps deleting his sentences. So, after ages during which Jen can see those three text dots bouncing and yet he’s sent no message, she calls him out on it. I felt called out! Or when one character “…makes a face like Obama’s all right then face.” Funny little moments like that made A Touch of Jen relatable.
You may be asking, where is the horror part? Well, the book club was asking that, too. In the last 10% or so of my e-book, things started to get hairy with strange sightings, and the ending does employ some horror tropes, though none of us felt it was satisfying because the author held back for so long. What I came away with from A Touch of Jen was not disappointment or dislike; instead, I realized I enjoyed the author’s writing style and characterization but did not like her plot. She has one other book called The Family Plot, and I plan to read it. My guess is, based on the shape of the novel, that Beth Morgan can write some amazing longer short stories.
Grab the Lapels 
You really do have a good relationship if you struggle with the Alicia, Remy, Jen triangle. All women have issues with the woman their guy has previously been with, and maybe, maybe hasn’t stopped thinking about, AND is still in touch with.
There are no influencers in my life. I should ask my (adult) granddaughter if she has influencers (Maybe she is one).
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I’m pretty sure all guys have issues with the guys his woman used to be with, but that aside, Remy was never with Jen. He just worked with her. And not that long, either, I think? The characters are bizarre.
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I haven’t heard of this book before. I can see how this would be a great book for discussion! Sounds wild. I also was like, where’s the horror?
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It doesn’t super exist. There’s something akin to Stranger Things near the end, but that’s at the very end! My book club had loads of opinions about how much Alicia was into Jen and why. Was she jealous for Remy? Was this bigger than him and between Alicia and Jen?
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Influencers in fiction does seem to be a growing thing. I think as humans we’re fascinated with observing other humans. Just the other day I was talking with a friend about how Facebook feels more like a time capsule of people you vaguely knew in your 20s than an up-to-date way of connecting with people currently in your life. But every now and then you log on and go and see what your co-worker from 15 years ago is up to now. So I feel like I kind of get it. (Though, to be clear, I’m not obsessively following any of these people!) but why would Jen invite these people along on her beach weekend??
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Something weird that I noticed on Facebook is that anyone who creates videos for any reason is listed as an influencer on their profile. There are some people that I thought were the wrong profile because it said their job was influencer, but it’s not. I have no clue what was going on with these characters; however, I did enjoy spending time with them, even though the plot didn’t add up. I can’t think of the last time I experienced a book like that. Love the writing, love the characterization, thought the plot was weird and needed to be better.
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The closest I get to following “influencers” is that I do subscribe to a few knitting and sewing youtube channels where people chat about what they are making, and some of them have sponsorships from companies that also sponsor mainstream influencers. But even then, the “influencer” parts of their content are not appealing and I normally use the ad breaks to get up and make some tea or something! It is very weird to me that people get so invested in strangers’ personal lives, but it is a good opening hook for them to be spying on someone in a contemporary way. Maybe it would have been better for a comedy-thriller instead of a comedy-horror?
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I feel like this was a comedy-LSD trip. I also don’t understand trying to copy someone whose life looks flawless when WE ALL KNOW that they’re using filters and housekeepers and daycare, etc. to make the whole ship look good. I love that you watch knitting and sewing folks. I’ll bet that’s calming, too.
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I think a lot of people honestly don’t know, though! Occasionally I get a student coming to me in floods of tears because they think they’re so behind on their dissertation/no-one else ever studies and yet gets fantastic marks while they are struggling to pass/etc etc. I wait for them to calm down a bit, and say “some of them are lying to you” and the student always treats this like a REVELATION. (I would never name names, obviously, but just saying “I know for a categorical fact that some of your colleagues are in the same boat as you” always helps!) It has really demonstrated to me that a lot of people are very credulous…
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I think what you’re describing is why memes are so popular. Hear me out: we see something, relate to it, notice that it’s all over the internet, and we realize we’re not alone. Same thing with why there are so many niche subreddit forums. People are finding their people, and it makes them feel better, feel seen, feel less like an outsider.
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Interesting! Maybe she’s working on a sequel and will flesh out the horror side of things.
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I hadn’t thought of that, but it does seem like we ended up on a new chapter, so to speak, on that could pick up and carry on with the weirdness. I confess I would go get that book ASAP.
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If the book comes out, then you can post another review and connect the two.
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It’s kinda weird, but I find stories of people becoming obsessed with ‘celebrities’ or influencers make me really uncomfortable. I don’t know, but I just feel very uncomfortable when I hear about it.
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Well now I just want to dig deeper into that. I remember I read that book called This Is Not A Book About Benedict Cumberbatch in which she explains that her (the author’s) obsession with him isn’t really about him. I wonder if that book would make you feel less ick.
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perhaps? the ick meter can be hard to gauge
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