She still believes in reaching an essential part of herself through discipline: If she does everything right, she’ll find her way to some mystical nugget…a form in which her beauty is self-evident, her destiny clear, her neuroses shriveled and fallen away. Often that version has seemed as concrete as a person sitting in the next room. Murder Is the Best Solution: Taking the advice of Book Within a Book The Apple Bush seriously, Remy interprets events as Signifiers telling him the only way is to kill Horus. A Touch of Jen was well written. I read every word up to 50% of the book. I just couldn’t push further. I loved the cover and the idea of following someone on social media and imitating them but Alicia’s imitation was short to just Jen’s mean personality towards Remy. I will donate this book to the Little Free Library next month and hopefully someone will love reading it. Not that I’ve ever set fire to someone by drawing a sigil, mind you. But the protection spells, sigil writing, and home blessings all felt familiar. Moreno-Garcia did her research when it came to witchcraft. During the trip to Montauk, Jen and her friends introduce Alicia to a self-help book called The Apple Bush. Written by A. B. Fisketjon, “a healer, lifestyle expert, and spiritual counselor,” the book describes manifesting the energy of the universe to become the ultimate version of yourself. Explaining it to Alicia, Jen says,

Imagine their confused excitement when they run into Jen, in the flesh, and she invites them on a surfing trip to the Hamptons with her wealthy boyfriend and their group. Once there, Remy and Alicia try (a little too hard) to fit into Jen’s exalted social circle, but violent desire and class resentment bubble beneath the surface of this beach-side paradise, threatening to erupt. As small disturbances escalate into outright horror, Remy and Alicia tumble into an uncanny alternate reality, one shaped by their most unspeakable, deviant, and intoxicating fantasies. Is this what “self-actualization” looks like? But just when you get into the dreamy, surreal manner in which the characters and dialogue are written, a bit of odd and supernatural tidbits start sprinkling themselves into the novel. I got through 4/5 of the novel, having read some creepy parts but still wondering "How is this horror?" And then something happens like halfway through that flips the entire novel on its head, and that's even before the horror and The Weirdness occurs.

Inspired by David Copperfield, Kingsolver crafts a 21st-century coming-of-age story set in America’s hard-pressed rural South. 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! Speechify AI Avatars & Video Create polished videos without any actors or equipment. Turn any text into high-quality videos with AI avatars and voiceovers – in minutes. Alicia seems to want to both be Jen and be with her. Remy just seems like an asshole ‘nice guy’. Unlike other people in the story he doesn’t seem to have family, friends or much of a personality other than being angry all the time. If a cross between Sally Rooney's books and The Talented Mr. Ripley sounds intriguing to you, look out for this debut novel...supernatural and very funny and spooky and weird."-- BOSTON.COM

BM: That wasn’t my intention, though based on how the narrative is structured, she can be read as occupying that position. There’s this idea in literary theory of “tacit persuasion” — that the structure of a sentence or of a story convinces the reader to take one side or another. But if a writer engages in too much tacit persuasion, it doesn’t give readers a sense of the messiness of reality. Ultimately, I want people to read the book and be free to have their own emotional and moral responses — and to second-guess those responses just like they might have ambivalent, complex responses to real people and situations. Hopefully, the fact that you’re asking the question means that I’ve succeeded in that!I've no doubt the characters in A Touch of Jen would see it as a sign, as they saw everything as a sign, "Signifiiers of the universal flow of energy".

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. 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

You’re in!

KT: I thought you did a good job of quietly illustrating this loneliness that we all can feel sometimes, both in comparison to other people — online and in person — and even in romantic relationships. Was loneliness something you considered a part of this story? Imagine their confused excitement when they run into Jen, in the flesh, and she invites them on a surfing trip to the Hamptons with her wealthy boyfriend and their group. Once there, Remy and Alicia try (a little too hard) to fit into Jen’s exalted social circle, but violent desire and class resentment bubble beneath the surface of this beachside paradise, threatening to erupt. As small disturbances escalate into outright horror, we find ourselves tumbling with Remy and Alicia into an uncanny alternate reality, one shaped by their most unspeakable, deviant, and intoxicating fantasies. Is this what “self-actualization” looks like? The toxic relationship and vulnerability of Alicia and Remy is especially painful to read, and that’s without factoring in their obsession with Jen. It has aspects that I think a lot of people can say is familiar in unhealthy relationships, but boosted 200% to reach wheelbarrow of crazy levels and veering in many deranged directions. 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.)