In the end though, the things that made the book a standout in modern fiction (and indeed, modern satire) are almost entirely found within the first half of the story – the second half, as I’ve said, sort of just becomes a police story. It drops a heart in my rating for Rothfuss’ depiction of women – far too much objectification for my liking, even when he’s trying to avoid it.

Identity Crisis is a 2019 satirical novel about Brexit, cancel culture, Love Island, Cambridge Analytica, Putin, MeToo, Harvey Weinstein, trans rights, gay rights, multiculturalism, Twitter, popular feminism, incels, and a bunch of other shit that I probably forgot about because this book was at least 100 pages longer than it needed to be.is murdered in a park to the hammy old 'lech' of an actor maneuvering to stay relevant (and solvent) as his one man show is vilified. So now the show is a breeding ground for divisiveness and conflict, dancing tentatively on the line between ‘entertainment’ and ‘bullying’. I know exactly how all the women in the book look – be it his mother, love interest, money lender or peer – which would be fine if Rothfuss helped me to picture what the men looked like with as much clarity. Sometimes it feels as though Elton wants us to get on board with identity politics and sometimes it feels as though he’s poking fun at it for quick laughs.

I generally find Ben Elton's satire better than his plot (other than Two Brothers which is masterful).It serves as an indication of the author’s intention to ultimately bring all the various plotlines together.

At least that’s what literally happens to the beleaguered characters in Ben Elton’s latest novel, Identity Crisis.

Reading this book feels like drinking six of those double shot soy milk lattes that the millennials and the transgenders like, then getting transformed into a pinball and bounced around a pinball machine. Again, like his previous satire novels, the storyline is both ridiculous and yet also scarily believable. Whether his subject matter is IVF (Inconceivable), time travel (Time and Time Again) or climate catastrophe (Stark), he has a unique way of approaching his subject matter.

Just how do those posts from people we have never heard of, causes we have not registered an interest in arrive in our various online feeds?The attempts at satire and commentary on political correctness and social media were interesting but I felt as if that took over. I would have liked more of a focus to the story, which only really got going in the last 1/4 of the book.