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elderwoodreads's review against another edition
I don't know what I was hoping for but this wasn't it, an hour in and I feel like I've barely moved from the start of the book. Might come back to it someday but I don't think trying it on hard copy would help.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal cruelty, Eating disorder, Sexual content, and Stalking
smittenbystories's review
dark
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 — A Touch of Jen was WILD. Think Ingrid Goes West + The X-Files + some Cultish tongue-in-cheek ~*spirituality*~ but much, much darker.
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Couple Alicia and Remy are obsessed with Remy’s old coworker, Jen. They both have notifications set for Jen’s Instagram posts, dissect her content daily, and go so far as to role play Alicia-as-Jen in bed. They run into Jen at the Apple store and get invited on a surf trip with her, her boyfriend Horus, and other superficial, equally terrible friends.
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A *lot* happens after this, though! Basically after their trip, all bets are off and I had no idea what would happen next.
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If you enjoy reading about blatantly shitty people and are able to laugh at the darkness of their toxicity, you’ll like this. As with other Millennial Instagram stories, it depicts how IG is a performance and a woo-woo self-help book comically called The Apple Bush is mentioned throughout.
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My one gripe with the book I have to mention is two seemingly meant to be throwaway jokes that emphasize how awful these people are. The first is a line about Alicia’s coworker being from a similar fly-over state as her when her coworker uses the r-word… like it justified it somehow? In 2022? I can’t see how that wasn’t cut as it was wholly unnecessary. Also, when Jen is talking about how her and Horus got together it was partially because he didn’t seem as offended during a discussion about a dude fucking a horse? And Jen talks about how the man they discussed had “more respect for his mare than I have for men.” I–why?
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Lastly, there is mention that Alicia struggled with bulimia at a young age. She makes a joke to the group about how she was the youngest person at the recovery center and her parents thought it gave her brain damage. It makes you empathetic towards her, of course, especially in moments when she overshares and is too intimate for her surroundings. I grappled with this character choice. All of the examples above felt questionable to me in a book that otherwise was shocking and originally presented. Ultimately, ATOJ is darkly funny and so fucked up. I had a blast reading it.
.
Couple Alicia and Remy are obsessed with Remy’s old coworker, Jen. They both have notifications set for Jen’s Instagram posts, dissect her content daily, and go so far as to role play Alicia-as-Jen in bed. They run into Jen at the Apple store and get invited on a surf trip with her, her boyfriend Horus, and other superficial, equally terrible friends.
.
A *lot* happens after this, though! Basically after their trip, all bets are off and I had no idea what would happen next.
.
If you enjoy reading about blatantly shitty people and are able to laugh at the darkness of their toxicity, you’ll like this. As with other Millennial Instagram stories, it depicts how IG is a performance and a woo-woo self-help book comically called The Apple Bush is mentioned throughout.
.
My one gripe with the book I have to mention is two seemingly meant to be throwaway jokes that emphasize how awful these people are. The first is a line about Alicia’s coworker being from a similar fly-over state as her when her coworker uses the r-word… like it justified it somehow? In 2022? I can’t see how that wasn’t cut as it was wholly unnecessary. Also, when Jen is talking about how her and Horus got together it was partially because he didn’t seem as offended during a discussion about a dude fucking a horse? And Jen talks about how the man they discussed had “more respect for his mare than I have for men.” I–why?
.
Lastly, there is mention that Alicia struggled with bulimia at a young age. She makes a joke to the group about how she was the youngest person at the recovery center and her parents thought it gave her brain damage. It makes you empathetic towards her, of course, especially in moments when she overshares and is too intimate for her surroundings. I grappled with this character choice. All of the examples above felt questionable to me in a book that otherwise was shocking and originally presented. Ultimately, ATOJ is darkly funny and so fucked up. I had a blast reading it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Eating disorder
Minor: Ableism and Animal cruelty
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