A Touch of Jen by Beth Morgan.
Genre: Contemporary, millennial social satire
Reviewed: May 20, 2025.
4 stars for the first three quarters and 3 for the last quarter.
Remy and Alicia are a couple of insecure, unremarkable twenty-somethings who live in a cramped apartment with their perennially-cheerful roommate, Jake. When not at their serving jobs, they spend their time obsessively looking through the Instagram page of an influencer Remy used to work with — Jen. A chance encounter with Jen leaves the pair with an invitation to join her and her friends on a surf trip to the Hamptons, an invitation which opens the door to cosmic strangeness galore.

I picked this one up because it was available at the library and bore a review by Carmen Maria Machado, and I'm glad I did because I was really pleasantly surprised! I honestly didn't think I would like it at first, and you will think this is a silly reason for why, but it's because there were emojis in the inside cover text. The story itself juggles the topics of authenticity and inauthenticity really well — the whole thing feels a bit like you're looking at the world through an 0.5 camera lense; everything's a bit warped and buggy-looking. It's funny, and hits a good spot for social satire since it's not cloying while still obviously exaggerating its satirical target. I find that's a difficult balance to strike. The movie Bodies Bodies Bodies, which I remember being pretty well-received and is the closest analogue that I can think of right now, felt a bit exhausting at times, but this book maintains itself quite well.

I will say that I liked A Touch of Jen and found it entertaining, but it felt like it came up short of something great. The characters act deranged at times, and it gets bloody later on, and the satire is witty and sharp, but I regularly found myself wishing for more and the book unfortunately never delivered. The dial is cranked a few hairs away from the right temperature. I still thought it was good up until an Event which takes place three quarters in and which significantly changes the story's trajectory. It makes sense that it did, but I feel like the book lost its lustre for me at that point. The ending makes total sense, it just felt a bit underwhelming. Overall, I think this is a fun book and I do recommend it — I just wish it went further!