From the first page of “Screens and the Ego,” I knew it was going to be a special book. And by the time I’d finished the last page, not only was I proven right, but I was left with the distinct feeling I’d just read something important. “Screens and the Ego” is easily one of the most personal and purposeful books I’ve ever read. Author Jane-Marie Auret has crafted a truly unique anthology of stories, musings, and introspective reflections centering around a central topic: the effects of the modern world on the lives, beliefs, morals, and mental/spiritual health of Gen Z. Part prose fiction, part semi-autobiography, and part philosophical pontification, this book covers a lot of ground in less than 200 pages, and covers it exceptionally well…

The short stories and meditations in Screens and the Ego offer a view of the challenges Gen Z faces: dealing with depression, hyper-politicized language, and an unwillingness to admit life’s limitations. Gen Z is beginning to mature into adulthood but has yet to find its voice. Screens and the Ego represents an early sprout of Gen Z’s literary output. If you want to understand how a member of Gen Z becomes disenchanted with woke culture, you must read this book; it presents personal experiences that have prompted the author to rethink her progressive outlook. The book contains insights for any adult reader, but university staff and parents with Gen Z children should certainly read it. Personally, my favorite short story was “My Brother the Fanatic,” with its insights on unspoken cultural realities of the New World (USA) and the Old World (Uzbekistan). I will be thinking about this story for years to come. For that alone, the book was worthwhile “Wirtuo” tells a fascinating story about the root word for “virtue,” tracing its use by an imaginary family from ancient Rome to modern times…

That is, this book was not written particularly FOR me. As a creative writer, Auret doesn’t need my approval, or those of any other single reader, to justify her efforts — though her very personal work is certainly intended to be widely read (and will be, if justice prevails). “In order to produce art, you must live deeply in your own internal life,” she argues. “You have to be real about what’s going on inside of you if you want your art to help other people uncover what’s going on inside of them.” Just so. I assumed this book was not for me — and I loved it. So, don’t attempt to judge it by looking through a shop window. Go inside and try it on. You may well find it’s a perfect fit.

This popped up on the Defiance Press list of books and the title intrigued me so I purchased a copy. To me, any help in understanding Gen Z would be a plus. They are a deeply confusing generation, filled to the brim with contradictions, twisted truths, and disbelief. This book comes at you with a one-two punch. First, the author presents a narrative; she weaves a modern day story about events I presume happened in her life. It is gritty at times, gut wrenching at others. The reader is drawn into these story chapters because the stories smack of such authenticity and realism that they are hard to put down. The story chapters are followed with a decomposition of how the characters ended up in their plights. These sections deconstruct the realities of a world that is intertwined with social media, misinformation, and corrupt adults with social agendas. These sections are not preachy or boringly analytic. They are blunt and based on irrefutable logic. Ms. Auret’s narrative is tight to where it snaps like a rubber band wrapped around your wrist. It leaves a mark like a snapped band too, stinging but strangely reaffirming

Jane-Marie Auret is a young author with loads of talent. Screens and the Ego is not only a scathing critique of the vacuous landscape of postmodern American culture, it is a riveting story told through the lived experience of the author. If Bret Easton Ellis’ Less than Zero was a fictional tale of the spiritual bankruptcy of Gen X, Auret’s creative nonfiction is a testament to a bizarre world where attempted suicide is used to gain social acceptance and young people claim to be a part of the LGBT community when they’ve never had sex. It’s more bizarre than Orwell’s 1984 and more frightening than Sartre’s No Exit. Intellectual yet accessible, Auret’s style sometimes borders stream-of-consciousness but remains grounded using forays into postmodern philosophy and the juxtaposition of religious faith to modern psychology. The Enlightenment’s promise of the triumph of reason over faith and unbridled personal freedom over duty to family, community, and God has proven hollow. The world Auret describes is the result. Brutally honest and beautifully told, Screens and the Ego is a must-read for realists from all walks of life.

…and then I open Chapter Three, and I know for sure that she is a mind and a creator to be reckoned with. To my utter surprise, she tells a philosophical story. It begins with the carefully laid out perspective that we – that is, all of humanity at large – are to the universe as ants are to us. Actually, she does not even mention ants; that’s my trite analogy. The way she explains it, it is clear that ants are bigger in our scheme than we are in the scheme of all things. It is a dissertation on finding balance when thrown out of humanity’s circle of inclusion. It is about the soul wrenching pain of becoming the outsider, and then of catharsis and coming to the conclusion that solace is found in the freedom that comes from such abandonment and from, of all things, religion as delivered via her grandmother’s wisdom. For Auret, the person and her mode of belief are so completely intertwined in the consciousness of her grandmother, they are, essentially, one in the same making that old woman, of not just another generation, but of another cultural consciousness, Auret’s guiding star in the unending ocean of the cosmos. Aren’t these alphabetized generations supposed to be much more self-interested with the screen laden attention span of a flea while eschewing the traditional values and beliefs of yore. That’s what I am told, isn’t it? Yet Auret is a philosopher, and her musings have the bones of intellectual fortitude. Read Chapter Three when you are down, when you are, as Shakespeare says, in an “outcast state.” I think her “Meditation On Freedom” can help…. I’m not sure what Auret, the Gen-Z philosopher, envisions for the future, but I know that, unlike the standard criticism applied to her generation, she sees beyond herself. She takes on the lore of Western Civilization, she exposes the rigidity hidden within the supposed liberality of a university education, she addresses the egos of those in power and how we comport ourselves to remain within their good graces. But then she takes herself, and us, on the existential ride through exquisite pain and onto an understanding that grace can be achieved in the acceptance of this duality: I am of my “home,” but when pushed outside my circle, separated from my sphere of cultural and personal touchstones, I have a new personal freedom. There is creative autonomy when you are unbound, when you are no longer wrapped tight in the security of what you already know: “The formation will be your home, but the space will be your freedom.”

Self-reflection, self-awareness, and corrective moral behaviors would, in many of not most cases, alleviate their conscious and relieve their anxieties. The real and fictional Jane-Marie does not blame the victims. Rather, it is a culture at large in which doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, teachers, professors, journalists, and the like, are forced to play along in a dance of charades. A Meditation on Freedom cuts to the chase: freedom in the US has evolved away from a political meaning of freedom from despotic government into a social, do-what-you-want free-for-all hedonism. Truth is an affront to modern freedom.

This book surprised me with its emotional depth, taking me on an unexpected journey due to Jane-Marie's compelling storytelling and writing style. From the first page to the last, the author succeeds in evoking intense feelings, elevating it beyond a mere casual read. The book explores the complex challenges that Gen Z faces today, due in part to advancements in the digital age—a topic that is both fascinating and sad. And while I find it difficult to fully capture the book's essence in this review, I highly recommend getting a copy to experience its insights for yourself.

J-M Auret's mind is on fire. In Screens of the Ego, Auret blurs the boundaries between fiction and non-fiction to present a troubled vision of a troubled world. Under Aurnet's gaze, freedom is morality, materialism is idealism, and 'woke' elitism is a sure recipe for social disaster. What's missing, according to Auret, is a kind of Nietzschean insistence on independence of mind and spirit. This is an urgent work written under the despairing glare of American decline and social fracture.

In her intriguing debut collection of short stories, Screens and the Ego, Jane-Marie Auret examines the uncertainties and anxieties of Generation Z, from interpersonal awkwardness to family turmoil to weaknesses of the flesh and spirit to political extremism to, yes, screens. Her observational powers are acute, her ear for the speech of her age cohort spot-on, her blend of passion and intelligence compelling. Older readers, especially those schooled in the modernist ideal of tight authorial control, may at first find her choices to mix genres and to insert herself as a character among fictional creations baffling. We move from the conventionally structured opener, “My Brother the Fanatic,” to the title story with its mingling of short story and memoir, for want of a better term, and fiction that results from a character called “Jane-Marie Auret” making her first appearance. It is a bold strategy, and I confess that my reading assumptions stumbled momentarily, but the reasons behind the choice became clearer. Story after story challenges assumptions, makes demands of the reader, and offers manifold rewards, not least the masterful prose and singular artistic vision. What seems at first a set of disparate pieces—mixtures of narrative, exposition, argument, analysis, and memory in various combinations—resolves into a single, unified work, a fictive coat of many colors. Ms. Auret’s first book offers many joys, and I cannot wait to read her next one.

This book explores the deeper impacts of our rapidly evolving technological society on those most immersed in it. As someone in this age bracket, some of the stories depicted provide a deep sense of longing for a state of the world that no longer exists, combined with the wonder of the advancement of our time. This relationship is one our society is fundamentally based on, and is one which this book covers in compelling detail.

This book showcases short stories told by Gen Z’ers and the impact on their life by being “raised online.” Hearing how the effects of today’s “virtual world" have had on Gen Z’s lives, beliefs, morals, and mental health is thought-provoking and is raw to what society has transformed into today. Reading these incredible, unfiltered perspectives, helped me empathize more with this generation and showed ways I can help. Worth the read! Auret bravely and directly brings up topics many would rather avoid, but which are important to discuss nonetheless. Further, the book’s anecdotes feel true, despite being a work of fiction, and generally serve to effectively illustrate the ideas Auret wants to discuss without feeling like they were contrived solely to make a point. However, the first anecdote could’ve used a clearer connection to the titular theme by adding more screens, or if the intention was to show a contrast to Western screen culture, by removing all references to screens and placing the anecdote at the end. Finally, I personally find Auret's conclusion that a return to God is necessary to reframe and remedy mental health issues to be a much-needed reminder to an increasingly secular culture. Additionally, Auret reads her own work and does so excellently

Buy the book, you won’t regret it. Make no other plans for the day you get Screens and The Ego because you will read it from cover to cover in 1 sitting as you move from emotionally powerful stories to unspoken truths to new perspectives from old sources. I have the terrible habit of reading part of a book, then jumping to another before I finish - that simply cannot be done with Jane-Marie Auret’s phenomenal book. I highly recommend and wait impatiently for Jane-Marie Auret’s next book.

Thought-provoking is an understatement. This book is so hard to put down! Auret has a great talent for highly engaging storytelling. She speaks freely about issues she, and others, have seen and experienced in the modern world, making them impossible to disregard. Her writing shows that her value of the truth being expressed (by anyone) is greater than fears of rejection—and that is brave