May 1, 2021
DEBUT It's Chicago artist Kelly's 29th birthday, and she's attending her best friend's art opening. She starts to feel strange, and when she opens the gallery's restroom door, she is transported to a birthday party back in her hometown and has a another completely different set of memories. She quickly figures out that she is married to Eric, a guy from high school with whom she once worked on a history project, and that she never went to art school. Even her hair is different. Eric clearly adores her, but he's overprotective, overbearing, and suspicious of her actions. Kelly desperately wants to return to her life as "Chicago Kelly," but has no idea how. Her furtive investigation leads to some disturbing information about the source of this alternate life. VERDICT Jeng's debut is a page-turner with well-developed characters, and an accessible, comprehensible plot, but readers who don't care for sci-fi or computer geekery might find parts of it challenging. A good pick for fans of modern women's fiction about controlling one's destiny.--Samantha Gust, Niagara Univ. Lib., NY
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June 15, 2021
A struggling artist is thrown into an alternate life as a disappointed housewife in this debut novel. Art school graduate Kelly Holter is more or less contented with her life in Chicago. She's single and she's never exhibited her work in a gallery, but she has her best friend, Linnea Flood, a more successful artist, and her cat, Meeks. On her 29th birthday, Kelly is attending Linnea's first solo exhibition when she walks through an ordinary-seeming bathroom door and is unexpectedly transported to a birthday party in her own honor at an Italian restaurant in Michigan. Michigan Kelly has a husband, Eric Hyde, a man she hardly knew in high school; a big extended family; a friendly dog named Bear; and art supplies she's forgotten how to use. Unsettling memory glitches, a trip to Chicago to find Linnea, who may or may not remember who she really is, and a suspicion that Eric may be involved in whatever is going on send Kelly on a quest to discover how she ended up in a life she didn't choose and isn't sure she wants. Hidden document files, an unreliable artificial intelligence app, and an annoying voice-enabled refrigerator that tracks Kelly and Eric's food purchases provide tantalizing clues. Convincing alternate-universe mechanics and a subtle lesson in the perils of manipulating other people to get what we want raise the bar in this fun, well-paced story. An enjoyable adventure with a likable heroine in search of the life she really wants.
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July 19, 2021
Jeng makes her debut with an entertaining if lightweight Twilight Zone-ish thriller. Aspiring artist Kelly Holter is spending her 29th birthday at the Chicago gallery exhibiting the paintings of her best friend, endeavoring not to be too envious. Suddenly, she starts feeling unwell and heads to the bathroom. But once inside the bathroom, Kelly is somehow transported to another reality, in which she lives in Davis City, Mich., and is married to Eric Hyde, whom she remembers only as a friendly acquaintance from high school. While she’s eager to find a way back to her real life, Kelly isn’t all that disturbed by her new situation. That Eric has a friend working for a tech startup that’s is developing a digital assistant that’s “supposed to be smarter than anything that’s come before it,” makes the basic contours of what has happened to Kelly obvious. A lack of plausible emotional reactions undercuts the suspension of disbelief. Those looking for a more sophisticated handling of parallel worlds should check out Blake Crouch. Agent: Joanna Mackenzie, Nelson Literary.
July 1, 2021
Kelly lives in Chicago. She's an aspiring artist, and on her birthday she's a guest at her friend's gallery. Feeling suddenly nauseous, she heads to the bathroom. She opens the door, walks through, and finds herself in another room entirely--another room, another city, and, apparently, another version of herself. In Michigan, where she grew up, she's happily married. And here's the real puzzler: Kelly has two complete sets of memories. She remembers the life she was living in Chicago and the life she has been living in Michigan. Perhaps this book's greatest pleasure--and there are many to choose from--is the way Jeng leads the reader down one road, then makes a sharp right turn and heads off in a new direction. The Other Me is not what it seems to be, and Kelly's story is not going to end where you think it will. This is Jeng's first novel, and it immediately establishes her as a writer to watch very closely.
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