Blurb: In a strange little home built into the branches of a grove of trees, live three robots—fatherly inventor android Giovanni Lawson, a pleasantly sadistic nurse machine, and a small vacuum desperate for love and attention. Victor Lawson, a human, lives there too. The day Vic salvages and repairs an unfamiliar android labelled “HAP,” he learns of a shared dark past between Hap and Gio–a past spent hunting humans.
Author: T.J. Klune
Genre: Science Fiction / Fantasy
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ /5
Published:
“Humanity is awful, angry, and violent. But we are also magical and musical. We dance. We sing. We create. We live and laugh and rage and cry and despair and hope. We are a bundle of contradictions without rhyme or reason. And there is no one like us in all the universe.”
This is a really hard review to write. I wanted to like this a lot more than I did. Do not get me wrong, I enjoyed it a lot but it felt like marmite. It was so whimsical in places and in others it just felt a bit lost.
This book had some absolutely beautiful descriptions, and I would expect nothing less from Klune. However descriptions alone does not a good book make *said in Moira’s voice*, I found the characters to be the biggest flaw of this story.
The humour was good. The romance was lacking and overall I just felt like something was missing; it felt a bit unnecessary, like dangling a carrot. I kept waiting for it to progress and feel like it meant something but it was just a side/ background plot that was less important. It is a Grumpy x Sunshine romance but it just was not romantic enough.
Victor is the main character, I love that he is an inventor and had that name (Frankenstein anyone). Sometimes I found it hard to figure out his age, occasionally his actions felt really childish, but I imagine if you have been raised by robots, you are going to be slightly emotionally stunted. HAP (Hysterically Angry Puppet) is a robot who cannot remember where he came from, he is found by Victor and I found his character a bit slow to warm up but once he did, he seemed very sweet.
Nurse Ratched (Registered Automaton To Care, Heal, Educate and Drill) was the best character, she was absolutely hilarious and really rounded out the story. Rambo the Roomba was also funny more in an annoying little brother kind of way. Sometimes I just wish he would shut up for a bit! Gio is Victors ‘Dad’, and I really liked him. He was like a knowledgeable grandad that everyone is excited to see. He really helped push the family vibe in this book which was sweet.
I did enjoy reading a book that was a spin on Pinocchio, as I am not too familiar with the story. I have seen the film maybe 2 or 3 times in my life, so maybe there were references that went over my head, but it was still fun. This is not my favourite Klune but I am still excited to read the rest of the books that are on my shelf.
Overall, this book was lovely. A bit clunky to read in some parts. The plot seemed to fly by in some places but dragged in others, and so it was a very unusual vibe to the book. It was a quick easy read but maybe could have done with some editing to be a bit shorter.
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