Review: Identity Break by Stifyn Emrys (review)

Identity Break
written by Stifyn Emrys
published by CreateSpace

find it here: Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Goodreads

Why did I pick this book: Chrissy participated by spotlighting Identity Break during the blog tour hosted by CLP Blog Tours in May. When she asked me to review it, I agreed because I felt like experimenting in the kitchen.  (I received a copy of this book for review purposes.)

Did I enjoy this book: You know how sometimes for dinner you use all your favorite foods and somehow end up with a glob of curry flavored banana mush?  Yeah.  It was like that.

 

****This review contains SPOILERS!!! You have been warned.****

Identity Break has all of my favorite ingredients:  a super smart, handsome protagonist, a complicated love interest with a troubled past, some ominous dystopian themes, and a jovial sidekick who can’t quite decide what his name is (wait, what?).  It has imaginary dogs.  It has mysterious underground tunnels lit only by glow sticks.  It has people pretending to be other people who mind swapped with people who got mind-swappy implants in an evil mind swapping microchip machine.  It even has an adorable little orphan.  Then, just when Gordon Ramsey would take a taste, put the spoon down, and declare the dish finished, Emrys adds one more ingredient:  robots.

Robot pizza.  Om nom nom nom nom.

Would I recommend it: Weirdly, I would.  I spent several enjoyable evenings interrupting family conversations with phrases like, “Wait, WAIT, you guys… A tunnel of glow sticks.  GLOW STICKS!”  (Chrissy here – I can attest to the fun and laughs that were had by all during said interruptions! Especially when there are 16 of us in 1 beach house, drinking! Good times.) It was a fun read.

Will I read it again: Nope.  It got just a pinch too crazy for me, and though I enjoyed the craziness, I found myself waiting for the next ingredient rather than caring about what happened to the characters.

About the book – from Goodreads: How far would you go to find yourself?

Imagine everything you thought you knew about yourself turned out to be a lie, and you didn’t know who was telling the truth. Imagine you possessed a secret so dangerous that, if it were exposed, it would reshape the entire world.
What would you do if that secret were your very identity?

In almost every way, Palo Vista seems like a typical California city, with office buildings, schools, and homes sprawled out across suburbia, filled with families making a life for themselves at the dawn of the new millennium.

But two seniors at Mt. MacMurray High are about to find out that nothing is as it seems. Jason Nix is a star athlete and honors student who can’t seem to remember anything about his childhood. Elyse Van Auten is a budding artist from a broken home whose father left her mother two years ago – or so she’s been led to believe.

Like most teens entering adulthood, Elyse and Jason just want to find out who they really are. For them, however, the stakes go far beyond their own personal quest. Join them on a journey of self-discovery that becomes a desperate fight for survival against enemies determined to conceal the truth … and find out what happens when that fight becomes personal.

The first installment of a new science fiction/adventure series for young adult, adult and new adult readers. Full of action, twists and surprises.

About the author: Stifyn Emrys is a journalist and educator who has written on subjects as diverse as history, religion, politics and language. He has served as an editor for fiction and non-fiction projects, and his first book, The Gospel of the Phoenix, was published in the summer of 2012. He has published four other books, including three non-fiction works and the children’s fairy tale Feathercap. Identity Break is his first novel. He lives on California’s Central Coast with his wife (also an author), stepson, cat and dog.

Find Mr. Emrys here: blog, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, LinkedIn

 Happy reading wherever you are and whenever you get a free chance!!!