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erica_reads_a_book's review
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
cafe_con_cass's review
4.0
goodreads needs a half stars feature like yesterday because 4.5 stars for my new favorite AI speculative sci-fi read (I even had to take a break because this book will wreck you)
danielles_reads's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I'm a little disappointed by this rating because I absolutely adored the first 20% of this book. I loved the main character, Eke, so much. He was so adorably naive and so hopeful despite all the pain he had been through. His love for pretty flowers and Buster Keaton was so cute and endearing. I also thought his insecurity around Kyp was completely understandable and an interesting source of conflict for his character.
But then the plot really started to slow down and nothing much was happening. It turned into a slice-of-life story, which felt especially odd after reading the synopsis. What is described there doesn't actually happen until over 2/3 of the way through! At that point the story completely changed into a road trip adventure story, and the pace and tone felt so off. I also feel like the adventure should have been a lot harder and longer than it ended up being--everything turned out so easy in the end (especiallyKyp not dying in the Colorado River. Him miraculously getting saved and then happening to find Eke in the exact spot on the California coast the exact moment before he was about to kill himself was a little too deus ex machina for me).
I really did like all the character dynamics though. Eke and Kyp were very cute, though their relationship dynamic made me a little uncomfortable at times since Kyp had so much more knowledge of the world than Eke. At times he kind of used that knowledge to his advantage to the point where it felt like they had a power imbalance. It definitely wasn't abusive or anything but Eke was so naive that he essentially relied on Eke for pretty much everything, which is not my favorite. It was nice in the end though that Kyp acknowledged Eke's strength in his positivity and faith that they will succeed, which was a nice counterbalance to Kyp making all the decisions all the time.
I also liked Eke's relationships with the family, especially Dani and Lizzie. Dani's character was the most interesting of the siblings, especially since she grew the most throughout the story and realized that Eke is his own person deserving of respect. I lovedseeing her lie and say she cut the wig that Eke did, and then even fixing up the cut for him. It was rewarding after she had treated him as a doll for her makeup for so long. Oh and her saying she knew about Eke and Kyp because she reads sci-fi was so funny. Since Lizzie was so young, there wasn't much to her character, but it was nice to see the innocence of a child in supporting the AIs in the family. Everyone else in the family though felt very black-and-white evil, especially Carson. That kid was a sicko with no redeeming qualities, and his actions suspended belief sometimes! Seriously he was willing to break his sister's bone in order to punish the family AI?? I feel like that dehumanizes his sister more than the AI! The parents weren't much better, especially the mom. Elaina didn't seem to love her children at all, which sure, some parents are like that, but the way it was described in the book felt so cartoonish. And the dad was the typical working parent that's never around.
Anyway, I'm glad I read this since it had a lot of great characters and strong moments, but sadly I didn't love it as much as I was hoping to.
But then the plot really started to slow down and nothing much was happening. It turned into a slice-of-life story, which felt especially odd after reading the synopsis. What is described there doesn't actually happen until over 2/3 of the way through! At that point the story completely changed into a road trip adventure story, and the pace and tone felt so off. I also feel like the adventure should have been a lot harder and longer than it ended up being--everything turned out so easy in the end (especially
I really did like all the character dynamics though. Eke and Kyp were very cute, though their relationship dynamic made me a little uncomfortable at times since Kyp had so much more knowledge of the world than Eke. At times he kind of used that knowledge to his advantage to the point where it felt like they had a power imbalance. It definitely wasn't abusive or anything but Eke was so naive that he essentially relied on Eke for pretty much everything, which is not my favorite. It was nice in the end though that Kyp acknowledged Eke's strength in his positivity and faith that they will succeed, which was a nice counterbalance to Kyp making all the decisions all the time.
I also liked Eke's relationships with the family, especially Dani and Lizzie. Dani's character was the most interesting of the siblings, especially since she grew the most throughout the story and realized that Eke is his own person deserving of respect. I loved
Anyway, I'm glad I read this since it had a lot of great characters and strong moments, but sadly I didn't love it as much as I was hoping to.
jazzylemon's review
5.0
I was attracted to this book by the gorgeous cover with the 1020s feel and imagine my delight at the wonderful tribute to the unimitable Buster Keaton (I've always said he was my heartthrob!) It also reminded me of AI, in such a cool way. I'm telling you this would make a great film. Thanks so much to NetGalley for the ARC/Audiobook, the narrator ennunciated his words quite well. Maybe there will be a sequel someday?
gildergreens's review
5.0
Thanks to NetGalley and the author for granting me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Oh man. Cinderella meets Fallout 4. I really enjoyed this one, but man, the first 60% is ROUGH. I would have happily read hundreds of thousands of words more.
Oh man. Cinderella meets Fallout 4. I really enjoyed this one, but man, the first 60% is ROUGH. I would have happily read hundreds of thousands of words more.
arthursbooks's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
2.5
a book while absolutely refused to explore any sort of deeper concepts meaningfully.
but i guess it was just supposed to be some sort of soppy “high stakes” romance, which it accomplished to an extent.
overall i just found it monotonous and un-engaging.
but i guess it was just supposed to be some sort of soppy “high stakes” romance, which it accomplished to an extent.
overall i just found it monotonous and un-engaging.
bardbrojosh's review
5.0
Thank you to the author and NetGalley for sending me an ARC in exchange for a honest review.
This is a beautiful tale of 2 adorable AIs and the journey they share.
The author does a great job writing the AIs and having them learn and experience emotions / feelings / concepts that we just take for granted at this point. The story moves along at a good pace and there was sections where i was on the edge on my seat, worried about what was going to happen next to the endearing Eke and Kyp.
Overall it was a good read and i will be keen to read future work by this author.
This is a beautiful tale of 2 adorable AIs and the journey they share.
The author does a great job writing the AIs and having them learn and experience emotions / feelings / concepts that we just take for granted at this point. The story moves along at a good pace and there was sections where i was on the edge on my seat, worried about what was going to happen next to the endearing Eke and Kyp.
Overall it was a good read and i will be keen to read future work by this author.
divinecookie's review
adventurous
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
christinemomo's review against another edition
1.0
Huge disappointment. Rounded down to 1 star because of the egregiously misleading CW on the author’s website. Spoilers for what is and isn’t missing:
They include violence and self-harm but don’t include the suicidal ideation and multiple suicide attempts. They have violence but not attempted drownings or violence against children (of a severity requiring hospitalization), or murder.
Having content warnings that exclude the most triggering content seems almost worse than having none, because people who need to check will go in feeling secure there’s not suicide attempts or violence against children requiring hospitalization.
If there were no CW they might steer clear of the book or check reviews to search for content they need to avoid.
Beyond that, I was very excited for the premise and very disappointed in the execution. Essentially Act 1 of abuse MC servant robot nonstop is 65% of the book.
We have our MC1 Eke, a cheap, simple, uneducated, generic, mediocre, universally disliked, boring loser robot that was bought on a sale and cleans the house. He even has no WiFi so he has no ability to learn anything or access information. He remains innocent and a helpless victim the entire book.
He has the shit beat out of him and is verbally abused, manipulated, and blamed for cruel and inappropriate behavior done by human owners, including killing pets. He tolerates this silently to the point of receiving permanent damage and almost dying from murder by drowning. The nonstop abuse to him (and occasionally extreme violence to pets and children) continues from 1-65%.
We have our Love Interest/MC2 Kyp (a significantly smaller portion of the book is from his perspective). He is a high end, new, fancy, capable, big, strong, handsome, masculine, talented, intelligent, universally beloved robot bought at the start of the book to entertain guests. He also has WiFi so he is able to expand his extensive knowledge throughout the book.
He watches Eke throughout the book getting abused, intervening only when Eke is about to be murdered twice and when he tries to commit suicide once.
While I understand not wanting to make things worse by directly intervening, neither robot ever tries to show proof of Eke’s innocence despite recording every second of their lives and being able to share it at a moment’s notice.
After the suicide attempt he reveals he’s been watching Eke and wants to be friends. He sneaks into Eke’s closet to talk all night every night. Eke is no longer depressed or suicidal though the abuse continues.
This continues until murder attempt #2.
Then Eke and Kip steal the car keys and run away from allegedly the most secure home in the world with cameras and security guards and advanced systems, without any issues or anyone following them. This is at 65%.
After fleeing, they train hop and become robo hobos and befriend real human hobos that eat cans of beans in train cars while talking about common folk.
Then they meet a POC robot that teaches them about robot religion, who is never seen again. They get attacked by humans that call them clunkers (did we need a slur with a hard R) and every time they are in danger our sweet wimpy Eke does nothing and Kyp is a big strong hero.
Kyp sacrifices himself when they are literally 30 seconds from safety in California by planning to commit suicide to be a robot body so no one will keep looking for robots. then says “F that” and swims to safety and is safe, so that was all pointless.
BUT it gave Eke just enough time to realize his robo hobo boyfriend is dead and also try to commit suicide AGAIN. And Kyp stops him AGAIN. And Eke has a boyfriend again and decides not to commit suicide. They agree robot religion is real and that’s the end.
Cute moments: Eke loves Buster Keaton and has stolen little bits of outfits to make himself a costume. He also calls the fish his friends before they are murdered by the human family, and brings a pot of flowers as his date to a party he’s not supposed to go to before it’s destroyed and he’s almost drowned.
They include violence and self-harm but don’t include the suicidal ideation and multiple suicide attempts. They have violence but not attempted drownings or violence against children (of a severity requiring hospitalization), or murder.
Having content warnings that exclude the most triggering content seems almost worse than having none, because people who need to check will go in feeling secure there’s not suicide attempts or violence against children requiring hospitalization.
If there were no CW they might steer clear of the book or check reviews to search for content they need to avoid.
Beyond that, I was very excited for the premise and very disappointed in the execution. Essentially Act 1 of abuse MC servant robot nonstop is 65% of the book.
We have our MC1 Eke, a cheap, simple, uneducated, generic, mediocre, universally disliked, boring loser robot that was bought on a sale and cleans the house. He even has no WiFi so he has no ability to learn anything or access information. He remains innocent and a helpless victim the entire book.
He has the shit beat out of him and is verbally abused, manipulated, and blamed for cruel and inappropriate behavior done by human owners, including killing pets. He tolerates this silently to the point of receiving permanent damage and almost dying from murder by drowning. The nonstop abuse to him (and occasionally extreme violence to pets and children) continues from 1-65%.
We have our Love Interest/MC2 Kyp (a significantly smaller portion of the book is from his perspective). He is a high end, new, fancy, capable, big, strong, handsome, masculine, talented, intelligent, universally beloved robot bought at the start of the book to entertain guests. He also has WiFi so he is able to expand his extensive knowledge throughout the book.
He watches Eke throughout the book getting abused, intervening only when Eke is about to be murdered twice and when he tries to commit suicide once.
While I understand not wanting to make things worse by directly intervening, neither robot ever tries to show proof of Eke’s innocence despite recording every second of their lives and being able to share it at a moment’s notice.
After the suicide attempt he reveals he’s been watching Eke and wants to be friends. He sneaks into Eke’s closet to talk all night every night. Eke is no longer depressed or suicidal though the abuse continues.
This continues until murder attempt #2.
Then Eke and Kip steal the car keys and run away from allegedly the most secure home in the world with cameras and security guards and advanced systems, without any issues or anyone following them. This is at 65%.
After fleeing, they train hop and become robo hobos and befriend real human hobos that eat cans of beans in train cars while talking about common folk.
Then they meet a POC robot that teaches them about robot religion, who is never seen again. They get attacked by humans that call them clunkers (did we need a slur with a hard R) and every time they are in danger our sweet wimpy Eke does nothing and Kyp is a big strong hero.
Kyp sacrifices himself when they are literally 30 seconds from safety in California by planning to commit suicide to be a robot body so no one will keep looking for robots. then says “F that” and swims to safety and is safe, so that was all pointless.
BUT it gave Eke just enough time to realize his robo hobo boyfriend is dead and also try to commit suicide AGAIN. And Kyp stops him AGAIN. And Eke has a boyfriend again and decides not to commit suicide. They agree robot religion is real and that’s the end.
Cute moments: Eke loves Buster Keaton and has stolen little bits of outfits to make himself a costume. He also calls the fish his friends before they are murdered by the human family, and brings a pot of flowers as his date to a party he’s not supposed to go to before it’s destroyed and he’s almost drowned.