Sarah Zachrich Jeng Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Sarah Zachrich Jeng
Sarah Zachrich Jeng grew up in Michigan and always had a flair for the mysterious and morbid. Like for her dad’s 35 birthday, she penned a story called “The Man Who Died at 35”.

She had a short career as an aspiring rock star before coming to her senses and returning to school in order to become a web developer. Her novels combine the speculative with suspense.

Sarah spent her childhood reading books about children that were able to make things move with their minds and talk to ghosts. She also daydreamed constantly about being able to fulfill her own wishes (and crush all her enemies) through supernatural means. She loves stories where fantastical elements are coexisting with everyday life, so when she set out to write a book, it was just natural that would be the direction she would go.

She knew that when she started writing “The Other Me” that the book was going to blend genres, simply since it was set in a contemporary world yet had sci fi/fantasy elements to it. She hadn’t decided yet whether or not these would be technological or magical. She had started with literary/upmarket ideas about it, however she wrote different endings and began thinking about getting it published, so the pace picked up and it just morphed into much more of a thriller.

Sarah was interested in exploring the ways that wanting something so intensely can cause somebody to dehumanize and discount other people, and how just one action taken without any ill intent can be unintentionally devastating to somebody.

She finds that writing a book is surprising for her. She outlines, however she’ll frequently deviate from this plan when something just is not working or a new idea will occur to her. So much of writing is trusting in Future You to work the problems that Present You creates.

Sarah cannot actually listen to music while she writes, finding it much too distracting, however she does feel like her experience as a musician bleeds over into the rhythm of her writing. She also makes these no-plot-just-vibes playlists for every WIP. She has a few book ideas which feature musicians or bands.

Since she spent the first 20 years of her life in Michigan, the details were pretty ingrained. She wanted the setting for “The Other Me” to be rather pedestrian yet still feel a bit off. The original time period of the novel was right after the Great Recession before moving it to “five minutes into the future” in order to make the tech that much more believable. The economic struggles Michigan went through during that period played a much bigger role in the plot.

“The Other Me” is the first stand alone novel and was released in 2021. Two lives. The one that wanted you and the one you wanted. Her birthday really should be just like any other night.

One minute Kelly is a free-spirited artist living in Chicago attending her best friend’s art show. And the next, she opens a door and is mysteriously emerging in her Michigan hometown. All of a sudden, her life is unrecognizable: she has 12 years of the wrong memories in her head and she is married to a man she barely knew back during high school, named Eric.

Racing to return to her old life, her search just leads to further questions. In this life, she loves Eric and wants to trust the guy, however everything that she learns about him, which includes a connection to this mysterious tech startup, tells her that she shouldn’t. And odd things continue happening. The tattoos that she had back when she was an artist reappear briefly on her skin, she remembers fights with Eric he claims never happened, and her relationships with her loved ones both familiar and new appear to change without any warning at all.

However the closer that Kelly gets to putting all of the pieces together, the more that her reality appears to shift. And if she is unable to figure out what exactly happened on her birthday, the following change could cost her everything.

This novel resists categorization, as it blends the impossible with the probable and the downright plausible. She delivers a novel that is genuinely innovative and satisfyingly intricate and puts an ingenious twist on the domestic thriller. It’s a compelling and assured debut that will leave you nostalgic for all those lives you never lived.

“When I’m Her” is the second stand alone novel and was released in 2024. Just how far would you go in order to get even with the woman that ruined your whole entire life? In this electrifying thriller, a young woman gets everything that she has ever wanted, and everything that she doesn’t, after swapping bodies with her sworn enemy.

Even though they’re polar opposites, Elizabeth and Mary are as close as two peas in a pod, until the night that Elizabeth makes this irrevocable mistake and leaves Mary to take the blame for it. Years later Elizabeth appears to have forgotten all about Mary. But Mary never forgot about her.

She follows every move Elizabeth makes online, while obsessed with paying her back for the betrayal that cost Mary all her dreams. Now Mary has discovered a way to swap bodies with Elizabeth, and she has got a plan to steal her charmed life from her. Her looks, her career, and her husband. They do say that living well is the best revenge.

But is it? The more that Mary learns about Elizabeth’s life, the more that she realizes that she might have made a deadly mistake. And she will need the help of her worst enemy in order to stay alive.

This is a twisty read that is a mind-bending, complex, mind blowing psychological suspense novel unlike anything else out there. Sarah’s first novel was quite the stunner, and now she has totally outdone herself. It’s got everything you could possibly want: huge moral questions, a fascinating premise, and these two uncompromising and enigmatic women at the heart of the story. Once you begin reading this one, it’ll trade places with your life.