Remy Brundle and Alicia Hall, a couple of food service workers in their early thirties, have an unhappy relationship—except for their mutual obsession with Remy's past coworker, an Instagram influencer and jewelry designer named Jen. They read her every post and talk about her at every chance; Alicia even roleplays as Jen in bed. However, their perception of Jen changes upon running into her one day. Jen invites Remy and Alicia to a beach trip, who slowly spiral into darker and stranger places as Jen's place on a pedestal begins to warp.
A Touch of Jen contains examples of:
- Apophenia Plot: After Alicia's death, Remy becomes convinced that everything that happens to him is a result of the universe sending signs to his destiny. This ultimately culminates in him going to Jen's apartment to kill Horus.
- Bad Influencer: Jen is a mild example, the worst of her bad behavior being catty.
- Bait-and-Switch: While being chased by the Paranormalagus, Remy thinks he recognizes it, but quickly convinces himself he recognizes it as Horus. He's clearly lying to himself and ignoring who it actually looks like, but the book strongly implies that this person is Alicia, as the Paranormalagus acts like Alicia does while sleepwalking (breaking into the fridge, knocking into the walls) and Remy calls out "Alicia?" the first time he hears it. Nope. It's Jen.
- But Liquor Is Quicker: Jen and Remy have sex after drinking at a bar.
- Character Death: The novel takes a more sinister turn after Alicia dies in a bicycle crash. This leads to Remy drowning Jen in the bathtub. Jake and Carla are Killed Offscreen by the Paranormalagus.
- Chekhov's Gun: In the first few pages, Alicia complains about a random man yelling at her to fix her rusted bike chain. She dies in Part 3 after never replacing the bike chain.
- Deadly Bath: Just as she's drawing a bath, Remy visits Jen, then drowns her in the bathtub.
- Dead Man's Chest: Jen's suitcase is used to transport her body to Remy's apartment.
- Domestic Abuse: Despite his affable facade, Horus is an emotionally abusive and financially controlling boyfriend, who demands Jen conform to his every specification, tells her she does everything wrong, forbids her to eat or sleep for hours while they "work out" arguments, and holds her business hostage so she doesn't have the money to leave him.
- Eccentric Artist: After the trip to the Hamptons, Alicia starts dressing like Jen, acting like her, and going by her name, even with Remy. She also becomes more obsessed with the art project she was always talking about, a sort of hot tub/sensory deprivation chamber, actually managing to build it.
- Fowl-Mouthed Parrot: Jake teaches Sandy the parrot to say "suck my balls."
- Gainax Ending: The book wraps up with Remy having a breakdown on the couch while Jen's dead body (or a hallucination thereof) hugs him. Will he be arrested for murdering her,, or, for that matter, will Jake's murder also be pinned on him? Did The Men in Black contain the Paranormalagus? How much of what happened is even real? The book doesn't say.
- Interrupted Intimacy: Remy interrupts Jen and Horus loudly making love to argue with her.
- Killed Offscreen: Remy comes home to Jake's corpse. When he and Carla are trying to get into Jen's apartment complex, Remy locks her out, letting her be taken and killed by the Paranormalagus.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: While some elements, like the Paranormalagus are definitely magic, others are ambiguous. The text app that Remy installs after Jen's death is supposed to be just a simple AI, but it occasionally gives him direct instructions and makes cryptic comments. He later starts to see what he thinks are alternate-universe versions of Alicia, and at the end of the book Jen's body—possibly—emerges from the Spod, speaking as if she were Alicia pretending to be Jen. It could be the hallucinations of a deranged mind and sheer chance making the AI's responses seem more cogent than usual, or it could be a genuine incursion/possession from an alternate reality, like the Paranormalagus. It's never cleared up which.
- 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.
- Self-Applied Nickname: After the trip to the Hamptons, Alicia only responds to the name Jen. During her job interview for the skincare store, she outright says she prefers Jen over her real name.
- Show Within a Show: The Apple Bush, a self-help book popular with Jen and Carla, and later Alicia. After Alicia dies and the Paranormalagus starts attacking, Remy starts to take the book's messages to heart.
- Weight Woe: Alicia was bulimic as a teenager.
- Went Crazy When They Left: After Alicia dies, Remy installs an app that automatically sends out the deceased's text messages. He begins to talk to the app—"Alicia New"—as if it were a real person, going so far as to hallucinate her in real life (although the app occasionally talks back in ways that suggest something else is up). He even kills Jen without much thought. At the end, he's either hallucinating Alicia possessing Jen's corpse, or Alicia really has.
