Disclaimer: I included links to A Touch of Jen by Beth Morgan on Amazon in case you’d like to purchase. I am an Amazon affiliate and earn a small percentage from qualifying purchases. As with all books on my blog, please check parental guidelines and trigger warnings before reading.
A Touch of Jen by Beth Morgan synopsis
In A Touch of Jen by Beth Morgan (on Amazon here), we get to know Remy and Alicia, two isolated millennials who work in service. They’re dating each other but most of their relationship revolves around their shared obsession with Jen, an old coworker of Remy’s. One day they bump into Jen at the Apple store and she invites them to join a surfing trip she had planned with her boyfriend and friends. They go and things get messy.
Quick thoughts on A Touch of Jen *including spoilers:*
The book had a grating quality to it, which was no doubt done on purpose. The snarky, empty, and insecure characters and social commentary took a sharp bite into me, but over time it softened. I both enjoyed this and didn’t, which is why I’m not going to review it. *Spoilers ahead* Sci fi is a genre I avoid, and I was pretty taken aback by it in this book as well. Overall, there’s no question this was a well done book but I personally didn’t appreciate the direction it went in.
Character analysis: Alicia *spoilers ahead*
The main character in A Touch of Jen wasn’t clearly defined. At first, I was curious about Jen along with Remy and Alicia. Why were they so obsessed with her? Then, it seemed like Remy was the central figure, gluing all the parts of the story together. But even though Alicia left halfway though, I began to realize she was the star of the show.
A Touch of Jen told Alicia’s story from the side. Because she saw herself from the side, it was the best way to tell us about her. See, Alicia was alone in the world. Her relationship with her boyfriend was really about their shared obsession with someone else, the way she wanted it to be. Her relationship with herself was about someone else too. It was just easier that way. Where was Alicia? Nobody knew, especially not her.
For example
One example of this is when she put on eye makeup for so long only to wipe it off in tears and cause her and Remy to miss the movie they wanted to see. This showed us a self frustration that was just out of her own reach. Then, she overshared with the group about her bulimia and hospital stays, an attempt to repel and simultaneously give people an opportunity to notice her pain and still accept her. If only she was accepted, by her coworker, or better yet, by Jen. Because whatever she did see of herself she saw as a freak, and maybe if others didn’t then she didn’t have to either. She was disregarded a lot throughout the book, but she couldn’t dwell on it. She didn’t have access to her feelings and chose to escape into her alternate reality as Jen.
A haunting tale
It was a haunting tale because a basic human need is to be seen and heard. Alicia really got none of that in her entire life. She did get a small amount of comfort and love here and there, but just as much as she could accept. Her life was a painful brushing against the surface of what she wanted and needed but she could not take in anymore. Not that there was so much more to be taken, but that’s how she set up her life. She made it so that her relationship was based around Jen so she could take in some love and acceptance from the sidelines. It wasn’t really her that was getting it, and that’s the only way she could let it in.
This is why we saw her as more of a side character despite her being the essence of the tale: She was a side character in her own life, and this was the perfect way to demonstrate that. In her absence, she became somewhat of a main character though. At long last, she couldn’t push herself to the side anymore.
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