Book Review: The Manufactured Identity by Heath Sommer

My Book Retreat

Waking up in a park, dazed and confused, an unidentified man tries to remember who he is and how he came to be in this place. At the same time, in different towns, men are disappearing. Their wives and lovers don’t understand why they’ve gone. Some think their men have left them. Others think they have disappeared unwillingly. But all of them are trying to make sense of why they have been left behind.

The Manufactured Identity by Heath Sommer is a unique psychological thriller that kept me turning the pages from beginning to end. I could not figure out what was going on until the women involved started to put the pieces together. Sommer follows several different characters throughout the novel, so we hear many perspectives and stories. Each chapter is about a different person, and at first, it’s unclear how they all relate. It takes until the end of the novel to finally realize who the last few people are.

The characters are quite interesting. First, there is the man who woke up in the park unaware of his identity. Then there is another man who has determined he’s a homosexual but decides to meet with a seminary student to talk through his issues. That seminary student has some issues of his own to work through. There’s a couple who is going to marriage counseling. And, of course, there are all of the women who have lost their husbands recently. Each has an interesting and unique story to tell, and it’s not until the last page that the reader knows exactly who each and every person really is.

I really enjoyed this story. It was recommended by Marce at Tea Time with Marce, and I’m not sure I loved it as much as she did. But it’s definitely a page-turner, and I recommend it if you enjoy psychological thrillers.

My Rating: 4/5

Visit the Heath Sommer’s website
Read an excerpt of The Manufactured Identity

This review was written based on a copy of The Manufactured Identity that I acquired through Paperback Swap.

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