A new installment of Books I’m Excited About features a most-anticipated book of summer 2021. Read on to see why Uriel is excited about this one!
While an unprecedented winter weather episode pummels Texas, I’m dreaming of warmer weather and A Touch of Jen, the sticky-like-spilled-soda debut from former Texan, Beth Morgan. Not only is this cover phenomenal (what’s happening to her head?!), but the story is a messy success that has me drawn like a moth to the flame. Internet savvy and adroitly comical, Morgan places us in the throng of a twisted love triangle between Remy and Alicia, wayward twentysomethings, and Jen, a former co-worker of Remy’s whose Instagram #influencer status have the former in a tiffy. Sexual and social tensions come to a head over the course of a weekend surfing trip to the Hamptons with a cadre of fake deep spiritualists and wannabe #woke bros (that’s my read at least). Jen may be catching feels for Remy, Alicia wants to be like (or just full on be) Jen, and omens (i.e. somnambulant hauntings, strange creatures lurking in the bushes, incessant night time knocking) of some great transformations loom. That’s as far as I’ve gotten, but if the jacket copy blurb of “Ottessa Mosfegh meets David Cronenberg” give us any clue of what’s to happen next, then we’re in for a truly wild ride.
As a millennial reader (and sometimes writer) there’s plenty to be excited about here. Not only does slacker malaise get a new coat of paint, Beth Morgan doesn’t make me feel like total crap in the process of reading about it. I have to wonder what some of our 20th century greats would’ve written about if they’d grown up on a diet of dank memes and Mountain Dew…maybe something like this? I promise that’s a compliment.
You can pre-order A Touch of Jen (out July 13th, 2021) from BookPeople today and doom scroll through Twitter (or something) while you wait.
And while you’re at it, why not throw a few shekels to your Texas friends in need of assistance at Austin Mutual Aid, Mutual Aid Houston, Feed the People Dallas, ATX Disaster Relief Network, and Lucha Dallas.
You can follow the #BooksImExcitedAbout tag on this blog to find more posts like this. And be sure to explore BookPeople’s “Books We’re Anticipating” lists for more of the titles booksellers can’t wait to get their hands on.
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