Automatic Noodle

by Annalee Newitz

From sci-fi visionary and acclaimed author Annalee Newitz comes Automatic Noodle, a cozy near-future novella about a crew of abandoned food service bots opening their very own restaurant.

While San Francisco rebuilds from the chaos of war, a group of food service bots in an abandoned ghost kitchen take over their own delivery app account. They rebrand as a neighborhood lunch spot and start producing some of the tastiest hand-pulled noodles in the city. But there’s just one problem. Someone―or something―is review bombing the restaurant’s feedback page with fake “bad service” reports. Can the bots find the culprit before their ratings plummet and destroy everything they created?

Genres: Science Fiction, Novella, Audiobook, Fiction, Cozy, Fantasy, Adult

163 pages, Hardcover

First published August 5, 2025

About the author

Annalee Newitz is an American journalist who covers the cultural impact of science and technology. They received a PhD in English and American Studies from UC Berkeley, and in 1997 published the widely cited book, White Trash: Race and Class in America. From 2004–2005 they were a policy analyst for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. They write for many periodicals from 'Popular Science' to 'Wired,' and from 1999 to 2008 wrote a syndicated weekly column called 'Techsploitation.' They co-founded 'other' magazine in 2002, which was published triannually until 2007. Since 2008, they are editor-in-chief of 'io9,' a Gawker-owned science fiction blog, which was named in 2010 by The Times as one of the top science blogs on the internet.

Reviews

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t realize there was such a thing as cozy sci-fi, and it works surprisingly well here. I guess if you swapped the robots out for unicorns or trolls or something, it would basically be a cozy fantasy because it follows a similar story structure.

Overall, this was a fun, short read. I was fully engaged when it stuck to the happenings at the restaurant. When it veered into the past lives of the robots, my mind started roaming. I think it’s because they didn’t tie in to the main story in a satisfying way- kinda like jigsaw pieces that don’t snap together perfectly.

There were things about this book that I absolutely loved, but I can’t go into detail because of spoilers.

Happy reading!

[MagretFume · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to the audiobook version and it was fantastic, the narrator was perfect. 

It was short, sweet, cozy, but powerful. The characters are full of hope and love despite living in a world hostile to their kind and having to endure segregation. 

Having such passionate descriptions of food as the conductive thread of the story was brilliant, and the tastes felt as vivid as the characters. 
It is beautiful writing. 

Thank you McMillan audio for this ARC!

[Ricarda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just four robots, a human and a car opening a noodle shop in a futuristic post-war San Francisco. How lovely. The way I was genuinely upset when someone started review-bombing their restaurant. Like, these are such tender creatures, could you leave them alone, please?

[Bethany (Beautifully Bookish Bethany) · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars rounded up

A cozy sci-fi novella about found family and sentient robots opening a noodle shop in San Francisco! This was charming on its surface, but it's also using the othering of robots in this futuristic world as a metaphor for the treatment of people based on gender, sexuality, and immigration status. It feels like a hopeful and timely story about noodles that sound absolutely delicious! I really enjoyed it and I think it's smartly done. The audio narration is great as well. I received an audio review copy via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

[Siavahda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dec 2024: if you one-star a book before there are even arcs of it I will five-star it, sorry-not-sorry.

Apparently this is “a cozy sci-fi novella” about “a crew of abandoned food service bots that take over a ghost kitchen in late 22nd-century San Francisco,” and I'm here for it!

[Jaime · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5/5

Crypto and AI robots? I really don't want to read about any of this shit in sci-fi.

Why would anyone write about AI robots and make them behave like humans? Cause these are the least artificial robots I've ever met.

Beyond that this is a cozy sci-fi novella with no real plot. Just a bunch of robots trying to run a restaurant, so I guess it's sci-fi Legends & Lattes.

The robot trying to keep humans away and make it a robot only space pissed me off, but I don't give the book 1 star because the character was genderfluid, even though I don't get why a robot would have a gender in the first place. Fuck it, 1 star.

[CarlysGrowingTBR · Rating 5 out of 5]

A cozy sci-fi novella that tackles themes of capitalism, identity and community against the backdrop of authentic pulled noodles and garlic.

Audiobook Stats:
⏰: 4 hours and 12 minutes
🎤: Em Grosland
Honestly, this audiobook was perfection. The narrator does an absolutely excellent job of the different voices needed and had great tempo. The narration was clear and concise. I did have to listen to this a little bit faster than my typical audiobook speed, but it was still done very well and clear. I really think this is going to be a new favor audiobook narrator for me.

Themes:
🤖: Capitalism
🤖: Building Community after war
🤖: Dependance on social media
🤖: Fighting for individuality and acceptance

Representation:
🥢: Cultural and authentic pulled 🍜
🥢: Queer coded characters (robots)
🥢: Immigrant coded characters (robots)
🥢: PTSD rep

Tropes:
💗: Found family
💗: Food porn 🤤
💗: Robots 🤖

🥵: Spice: 🚫
🧟‍♂️: Gore: 🚫
Potential Triggers: Homophobia, discrimination against immigrants, online bullying/attacks **check authors website/social media

Short Synopsis:
In a near-future San Francisco setting a group of forgotten robots pick up the pieces left after war in order to turn an abandoned building into an authentic pulled noodle restaurant. Despite numerous attempts to sabotage their new business against people who are "anti-robot" the restaurant thrives with the diverse and inclusive community that they have built around them.

General Thoughts:
This audiobook was absolutely adorable. I enjoyed this so much. I really feel like the synopsis does not give an accurate representation of just how much is packed into this short novel. This tackles so many important and relevant themes to today's society in a way that is super cute, zany and fun.

The characters and food were the stars of this show. The descriptions of the food were tantalizing. It definitely made me want a nice steaming bowl of noodles. So if you are someone who gets hungry when they read, beware this book will absolutely get you!!

The themes represented throughout the novel are extremely apparent to anybody paying attention to the novel. Watching the robots who are just trying to get by the best way they know how come up against all of these unfair and unwarranted attacks was definitely disheartening, but the grace with which these robots handled the adversity was so commendable. The rising of the community to surround them in love and support was absolutely inspiring. It sometimes does help to know that the voices that are the loudest are usually not the most numerous.

Overall, I really enjoyed the novel and I definitely will read anything else that comes out by this author.

Disclaimer: I read this book as a free audiobook through the Macmillan Audio and NetGalley . All opinions are my own. This is my honest and voluntary review.

[Stacy (Gotham City Librarian) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book absolutely melted my cold, bitter heart.

It was a quick read, less than 200 pages, and I flew through it. I honestly wish it were longer, but I do appreciate that the story is succinct and has absolutely no filler. Though I am admittedly biased and love anything about robots and androids. The bots in this were so lovable, each with their own distinct appearance, personality and backstory. And their friendships with each other were adorable and sweet. I also loved the dialogue. (Example: “That’s why I didn’t want to tell you. I knew you were going to be a trashcan about it.”)

The plot was legit, and lest you think it was all sunshine and rainbows, this takes place in a post war society in which California has separated from the rest of the country and is trying to recover. Topics like identity, freedom and bigotry come into play as the robots attempt to open their own restaurant as free citizens.

The bots become a little family as they support and encourage each other through this intimidating venture, and I was rooting so hard for them! There were many heartwarming moments throughout, such as Hands the robot discovering packets of Ramen noodles for the first time and realizing a love for the culinary arts.

Another bot, Sweetie, is finding her real identity and gradually changing her appearance to match who she really is instead of who the humans wanted her to be.

Meanwhile, another robot called Staybehind was designed to fight in the war, before robots were recognized as citizens. He was traumatized by bad memories and his story is one of the more grounding aspects of the book.

But my favorite bot was definitely Cayenne, an absolute cinnamon bun shaped like an octopus. I pictured Cayenne sort of like Codsworth from Fallout 4, but more squishy and feminine, and able to change colors!

One thing I did notice in this advanced copy was that there were a few times when the various bots’ pronouns were inconsistent, but that will likely be fixed before publication.

I highly recommend this! It’s one of my favorite reads of the year so far. Even with the occasional serious or sad moment, it was overall a wonderfully cute and delightful experience. And it made me want delicious noodles very badly!

Thank you to NetGalley and to the Publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Biggest TW: Racism, Depression, Mention of SA

[Melki · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never want to make that mistake again -- letting humans decide how valuable we are.

Four robots quietly declare their independence, and open a noodle restaurant. Robophobic malcontents bombard the internet with one-star reviews. How does one fight an invisible enemy . . .

Though I had trouble visualizing the robots, and the tale was not as lighthearted as I had hoped, this was still lots of fun.

Don't read on an empty stomach.

Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for sharing.

[Milly · Rating 1 out of 5]

Started as a 4 star, then plummeted straight to 1 star.

Ok so here’s the 2am rant. Let me start off by saying that when I started reading this I was all “oh I like this,” “Ooo can’t wait for more,” “this is fun.” Not much later my feelings on it dropped.

If you only have time to read one of my reasons for hating this book please read #5.

1. I’m sorry but I thought this was a book about robots setting up a noodle shop? Can we get more of that please? Everyone’s reviews talk about how cozy this book is, “cozy this, “cozy sci-fi,” “cozy that”. Is the cozy in the room with us? It was “cozy” for a very small portion of this book.

2. Dear author, stop trying to FORCE me to like these robots. One of my fav robot characters is Murderbot and my love for Murderbot grew naturally, not forced at all. This book takes a poor shot at trying to do that. Everytime I felt an opportunity to really appreciate the character you’d ruin it. Please for the love of all that is dear to me SHOW DON’T TELL.

3. The inconsistencies man! The INCONSISTENCIES!! Bruh. Where is your editor?!? Fire them. Now. What do you mean one minute they’re sentient robot and the next they’re using what they’ve downloaded or been programmed with to mimic sentience? They’re using fake facial expressions to mimic human emotions but then they can feel genuine love?? They can voluntarily kiss but they have to force themselves to act human? How are they genderfluid? They don’t even have a gender at all! Maybe I’m just dumb and oversimplifying it but this all seems incompatible with each other.

4. The absolute unintentional ridiculousness. It’s very clear when an author is writing something cringy or ridiculous on purpose and that they are fully aware it is so, but that’s not the case with this book. I genuinely believe this author doesn’t know how ridiculous she sounds. I’m supposed to sympathize with a sentient robot car that’s saying that Transformers, the franchise, is offensive to cars?!?!?? And that it’s supposed to represent actual racism in the world? There’s more ridiculousness in this book but I didn’t bother myself with taking notes.

5. Playing off of #4, you’re saying your whole book is a metaphor for how people think about immigrants right? Ok that sounds good. But then you go onto say this: “Meanwhile, people hold the same ideas about robots that don't even exist yet. It seems like a pattern. These are the kinds of fears we have about groups we imagine without ever doing any research about the reality of who they are. Or, in the case of robots, who they might be..” I mean it writes itself people. You are actually advocating for non existent robots as if they’re immigrants. “It seems like a pattern.” Really? Really are we 12? Ai DOES have serious potential to steal jobs. It’s ALREADY been “directly linked to 10,000 jobs lost in the first 7 months of 2025” -google.” And that might not seem like a lot but that’s just what’s directly linked. World Economic Forum said 75 million jobs were displaced by Ai. I honestly don’t know which numbers are true or not but I do know that immigrants aren’t stealing people’s art to make their own. I mean you’re an AUTHOR!!? An AUTHOR!! The irony!

Honestly my bad, I should’ve have looked the author up first before reading this because then I would’ve know what level of maturity to expect from someone with “pervert” on their profile. Omg Newitz you’re like soooo quirky. 😒

[gray (my.rainbow.bookshelf) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really excited about this book when the alc popped up on libro.fm. A cozy near-future novella about robots starting a restaurant? Sign me up! However, it wasn't exactly what I was expecting to put it lightly. While I did enjoy getting to know the four robot characters and the sections that read as love letters to cooking and community rebuilding, a lot of this book didn't sit right with me. Let me explain.

In this world, sentient robots have been given civil rights following the end of a big war. Not all humans support this though, and many are what the main characters call "robophobic." These humans go out of their way to make comments like "screw robots, I want food made by real humans" and "robots are stealing human jobs!" Sound familiar? As much as I grew to like the robot characters in this book, in a current world where AI is quite literally stealing jobs from humans and learning to do creative ventures like art making which requires a lot of heart (although AI isn't learning to cook quite yet, I'd argue many would feel the same way about AI making art as AI learning to cook), a book where the reader is made to feel sympathetic toward artificial intelligence, even sentient ones, just doesn't feel right.

This is then made all the more confusing due to a short note at the end of the book that states the author doesn't condone using this novella to train AI. This is great, I'm glad the author has this stance. But when the book feels very sympathetic toward AI, it makes it hard to believe this note at the end.

Maybe I'm just overthinking this, and this is just supposed to be an allegory for immigrants and xenophobia. Maybe the author wrote this book years ago when AI taking on creative human hobbies wasn't nearly as much of a threat as it is now. But if that is the case, it feels like an oversight to not put a more adamant note at the beginning of the book explaining the author's stance on AI, the unfortunate timing of this book, and a clearer explanation of what this story is actually about if it is about xenophobia.

This book did have some enjoyable parts and I liked the cozy sci-fi-ness of it all, but I just can't get over how uncomfortable it made me feel re:"robophobia." If anyone else read this book and has thoughts on this matter, please reach out, I'd love to discuss more!

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was pleased to win an ARC of this short novel (or long novella, if you prefer) in a Goodreads giveaway drawing. As the back cover claims, it's a cozy near-future tale about a diverse group of cast-off intelligent robots who open a noodle shop. There are somewhat subtle messages about the hardships faced by people who have to deal with gender bias and PTSD and immigration prejudice and poverty and other unnecessary man-made hardships, but it can be read as a feel-good, occasionally zany story about overcoming such obstacles through found-family and community pride and through trust and friendship, too. Recommended for fans of Disch's Brave Little Toaster, Goulart's crazy future California, Wells' MurderBot, and noodles. Very nice little book!

[Netanella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Today's lunch was noodles. Because.

Fans of cozy fantasy need to pay attention to this heartwarming SF story of abandoned robots who decide to open their own noodle shop in a near future, post-war San Francisco. The four sentient robots with unique body shapes, personalities, and backgrounds, along with a pot-smoking human assistant, make this a wonderful story full of humor, a bit of intrigue, and a lot of mouth-watering noodle descriptions. I really adored the crew of Hands, Staybehind, Sweetie, and Cayenne, and would love to have a follow up story to see how they are doing six months later!

My thanks to Netgalley, the author, and publisher for this early read opportunity!

[Lydia Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Overall this is a very warm hug kind of book full of hope and possibility. I love the community the crew of Automatic Noodle builds and the ways they keep managing to survive, but also finding joy along the way. There’s a lot of trauma and pain because several of the robots were involved in the war, and even the ones who weren’t have experienced prejudice and harassment. When a group of four robots, Staybehind, Sweetie, Hands, and Cayenne find themselves in an abandoned storefront after being suddenly shut down five months ago and learn the company that owns the restaurant has abandoned them, they decide to become a proxy for the company on their contract in order to to earn money to cover their leases so they won’t be permanently decommissioned. Highly recommend.

[Kim Lockhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great message about the power of inclusivity and found family. We can choose to build community, even in the face of those who feel like they can only rise if they tear others down. We have to show them the way.

We all need some positive vibes these days, and this story fills that need. It is a story of outsiders who help to heal each other through their shared work toward a common goal. I am here to tell you that community can save your life.

I first submitted this as a short review, but now I want to go back and add some thoughts:

I like the writing style a lot: a whimsical story on the surface, with a lot to say underneath it. Just as the story itself is layered with deeper meanings, the author encourages us to look for more nuance in our perceptions of the actions or circumstances of others. Recognizing how variables can cause our strict understanding of "the rules" to blur or bend, is the first step in extending grace to one another. Most judgment of others is based on overly simplistic reasoning. We know about situational ethics, but we are more likely to apply justifications to ourselves than to others.

Also, Kohlberg suffered from a severe lack of imagination and ignored the power of community in the famous Heinz dilemma experiment. The psychologist pushed for one "right" answer. That is ironically, the opposite of higher moral reasoning.

It's amazing how much a story about robots has to teach us about community, care, respect, and autonomy. Newitz also seems to be asking us an important question: What would it be like to do work that you loved, simply for the love of it? And could that labor of love heal a community?

The author perfectly illustrates the inherent capriciousness of online algorithms and digital content. As well as how it feels to be treated like a second class citizen. No matter what you do or say, there will always be people who refuse to acknowledge your value. Our focus has to be on the people who appreciate (or at least respect) us for who we are.

This is also a short read, so a good choice if you are looking for something uplifting with a redemption arc. It also may make you crave some hand-pulled Biangbiang noodles.

[Book Riot Community]

The Best New Books of August in Every Genre:

This fun novella is about food and freedom in the future! It starts when a group of reactivated sentient robots in San Francisco decide to reopen the restaurant where they all worked. The food is a hit, but when a bunch of one-star reviews put it in danger of closing, their community will have to band together to keep that from happening. It’s a charming and (clockwork) heart-squeezing journey! —Liberty Hardy

[Simeon Tsanev · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this novella well written on a style level, and passively charming in parts, but it did three things that ended up ruining the experience for me.

1. It’s not cozy. To be clear, I find most cozy writing boring and the novella didn’t NEED to be cozy. However, it’s advertised as such, while ultimately focusing on war, trauma, citizenship insecurity, and bigotry, and the fact that it’s set in a noodle shop does nothing to offset any of that.

2. As others have pointed out, I find it creepy to use sentient robots as allegory for undocumented labor and robophobia as targeted harassment towards minorities, when in our current world AI is actively destroying entire creative fields. The anti-AI note at the end of the book feels almost satirical in that context.

3. The story ends up completely undermining itself.The Big Conflict in the novella is whether the bots will succeed in getting the shop off the ground (so they don’t get SOLD INTO SLAVERY btw, for all you cozy readers), and the antagonist is an online provocateur trying to review bomb them into oblivion through a sock puppet army. So far so good, pretty compelling stakes. However, the solution turns out to be an incredibly simple private server infiltration, some screenshots, and done. Even that though then gets immediately undermined by the bots cheerfully abandoning the platform they’d been getting the reviews on because they’ve achieved independent success and no longer need it. This is the equivalent of Han and Luke blowing up the Death Star only for Vader’s suit to suffer a spontaneous catastrophic malfunction and the Emperor to die of heart failure somewhere off-screen. It just amounts to retroactively negating all stakes as irrelevant from the start, which makes the whole story feel frustrating.

[Gerhard · Rating 5 out of 5]

'This story is set in an actual storefront that exists at the corner of Douglass and 24th Streets in San Francisco, across from a lovely little park. Many of the places, businesses, and institutions I love in present-day San Francisco managed to survive the war of Independence to flourish in these pages. More than anything, I want this weird, kinky, nerdy city to live through the coming years of oligarchy and climate chaos. We will make it, and we’ll do it in style, despite the robophobes and Vigilance Committees and you-know-whats. Stick together, friends, and share some spicy noodles with me.'

This is much more than cosy speculative fiction; it is a rallying cry for us to respect our common humanity, honour our responsibility to ensure the future of the (only) planet we call home, at least for now, and to regard all lifeforms as equal. Including, ultimately, agentic intelligence.

May the revised Turing Test include a liking for hot oil biang biang noodles.

[b.andherbooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

took a detour from my usual genre (romance) to listen to this little gem on a road trip. the audiobook narrator was fantastic, bringing to life all the bots working together to form their own future via hand-pulled noodles in a bleak, post-war // futuristic California (now its own country). Highly recommend!

Thank you to the publisher for the ALC.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

NetGalley gave me an advance copy of the audiobook and it did not disappoint. These quirky robots open the best dang noodle shop in San Francisco post California-American war (LOL) and deal with the stresses of opening a restaurant while dealing with anti robot trolls. It was super cozy and I loved that the author was able to make political jabs at our current climate without going over the top.

[Bee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was exactly what the doctor ordered. Hope-Punk vibes in the vein of Becky Chambers and Travis Baldree. Short and wonderful. Leaves one feeling light and hopeful, which is a damn super power these days.

[Lily · Rating 1 out of 5]

My third and final Newitz book, what the fuck was that? I was first drawn to Newitz’s books because of their prominent leftist themes, but like always, there’s something that comes off so horrendously that it has me questioning where they actually stand.

Comparing robots to real life immigrant experiences when they could’ve written a story about an immigrant surviving capitalism is a bold choice. Not to mention the anti-capitalist themes feel so half baked, just like every other damn aspect of this book. This doesn’t work for the same reason Zootopia’s racism allegory doesn’t work, prey have genuine reasons to fear predators, and robots (AI) are taking jobs from real people who need to survive. But I guess these fears are unfounded according to Newitz because why should we be afraid of something that isn’t a part of our reality right now and we need to be hopeful or whatever. On their Instagram is a post from July 13, 2025 explicitly stating that they feel the fears of robots (“that don’t even exist yet”) are similar to the fears of immigrants and that we shouldn’t be so hasty in our hatred of them yet. So fucking stupid.

And yet they basically insinuate that AI is alive??? Although I was never the biggest fan of Newitz I was still surprised to find pro-AI themes present so I checked their instagram again only to find a post from Sept. 23, 2024 with AI photos as the header of an article they wrote!

It’s just so disappointing to see a progressive author have such a strange stance like this, and I just don’t get it. Do they think robots and AI are separate? Do they fully support AI? And to leave in the acknowledgements that you hope we get through these years of “climate chaos”, bro what do you think contributes to that?

Newitz is quite self righteous so I doubt they’ll be willing to look back on this type of thinking and ever think they’re wrong about it. I mean they even have a podcast called “Our Opinions Are Correct” so I’m sure they’re pretty damn confident in what they’ve written. Which, I guess, good for them, but this feels like a very ignorant way of thinking.

[Mike Finn · Rating 4 out of 5]

IN A NUTSHELL
Automatic Noodle' is a remarkable speculative fiction novella. It's original, engaging, thought-provoking and hopeful. I think it makes a particularly poignant read given the current attempt by Project 2025 to dismantle democracy in America. I read it in a single sitting, not just because it's short but because it's compelling, relevant and well-written. I recommend the audiobook. Em Grosland's narration made the novella even more engaging.

The audiobook version of 'Automatic Noodle' is only a little over four hours long, but it delivers a whole novel's worth of ideas and emotions. I found myself completely engaged in the hopes, loves, fears and regrets of the main characters, which is remarkable given that the plot is linear, simple and focused on the establishment of a noodle restaurant, and the main characters are sentient bots. What makes it work is the depth and power of Annalee Newitz's imagination and the originality of their perspective. 

The novella combines strong world-building, a bot-centric narrative and plot about succeeding against the odds by claiming your own identity and building Found Family, to produce an uplifting and stimulating story. 

'Automatic Noodle' is set in a plausible, perhaps even probable, near-future San Francisco recovering from the devastating effects of a war in which California won its independence from the United States of America.

It's the story of four sentient bots, three of whom lived through the trauma of the war, who reboot after months of anenforced shutdown, to discover that they've been abandoned by the company that ran the fast food franchise they worked in.

I liked that the bots felt like people but didn't feel like mechanical humans. These bots don't want to be human. They justwant to be themselves. Their abilities and needs, even their relationship with their own bodies are fundamentally different from those of humans, except that, like humans, they have the capacity for love, joy, friendship, fear, grief and guilt. I loved getting to be inside the heads of each of the bots and coming to understand how they saw the world. 

In Newitz's near-future United States, sentient bots are owned. The newly independent California has determined that sentient bots have the right to be free. That sounds wonderful until you unpack the details. I won't share those details here as discovering the limits on bot freedom was a fun part of reading the novella, but I was aware that many of the restrictions mirrored how 'freed' slaves were treated in various States under the Jim Crow laws. 

I've seen 'Automatic Noodle' described as Cozy Science Fiction. That wasn't my experience of it. To me, Cozy implies the acceptance by writer and reader that the story takes place in an infeasibly nice world offering a sort of bubble-wrapped experience where nothing really bad will be allowed to happen. 'Automatic Noodle' is born out of trauma, takes place in a devastated environment and requires the main characters to deal with hate-driven aggression. It's a story about the resilience of hope in the face of hate and the universality of the need for love and friendship.

[Panda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Audiobook (4 hours) narrated by Em Grosland
Publisher: Macmillan Audio

The narration and audio are good.

Fun little dystopian fantasy novella about robots and noodles. As depressing as parts of the book are, as in any dystopian novel, there's also a lot of joy and hope. The robots characters are clearly metaphorical, as are the animals in Animal Farm. Not that I am making a direct comparison, however, these characters are well structured and Animal Farm is the closest comparison that I can think of.

The character and world building are excellent.

The three stars are for my individual taste of the story, rather than the quality of the writing. And while the story did not blow me away, I very much enjoyed it, reading it in two or three sessions.

[brewdy_reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5⭐️ rounded up

Thank you @macmillan.audio + @tordotcompub for the ALC + digital galley ♡

Read if you love:
🍜 aromatic recipes
🫶🏽 themes of belonging
🦾 quirky loveable robots 🤖
🥟 relatively low stakes

In the aftermath of a near future war between California and the United States, former indentured robots slaves are just trying to make a living while flying under the radar.
.
Anti-bot sentiment ain’t no joke. Will review bombs put them out of business before they even get off the ground?
.
This was so cozy and I loved the trans rep and depth in parallels to real issues including PTSD. The first half pacing was slower than my normal preference, but the second half made up for it.
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The spicy noodles made my mouth water, but the cherry on top was getting to meet Annalee at Comicon! 🥰🫶🏽

▶︎ •၊၊||၊|။||။‌‌‌‌‌|• 🎧 Audio format was fun, Em Grosland did several different robot voices that were each distinct and unique. This little 4 hour gem can be finished in one listen.

[Gigi · Rating 5 out of 5]

A cute and cozy little novella!

In post-war Independent California, four bots find themselves in risk of being shut down and sold off after the restaurant they work at went out of business. Determined to stay where they are, they decide to open the restaurant back up and run the business themselves.

Automatic Noodle weaves a beautiful story of self-discovery and resilience, changing perspective between the four bots; Staybehind, Cayenne, Sweetie, and Hands, we see how each navigates the trauma, insecurity, fear, and doubt they hold within them.

I absolutely loved this novella, even though it's short, it managed to pull me in, and make me excited for where this journey is taking me. The struggle the robots went through, trying to survive, and fighting the Robophobes made me angry and feel very protective of them.

I highly recommend this book if you want a low stake, cozy, found family, and short read.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book! The premise sounded like the perfect book for me: a cozy sci-fi with robots running a restaurant! Yes!

The positives: The narrator did a great job and had a soothing voice. It was short. I loved the cover! So bright and definitely attracted me to it.

A lot of the book I just didn’t understand. My takeaway was it was about cultural problems in our society not so discreetly disguised (e.g., “robophobia” was mentioned several times). My biggest problem was that the story wasn’t sweet or cozy or anything. It was just really boring.

I am looking forward to the cozy robot sci-fi genre to expand now, though!

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ALC!

[Meredith · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sweet and refreshing story, and now I really want noodles.

[Joel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Guy who has only read Legends & Lattes: getting a lot of Legends & Lattes vibes from this one

[Lexi Denee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my gosh, I’m gonna be thinking about this one for a long time (including anytime I eat noodles in the future.) Automatic Noodle is soooo beyond cozy while still broaching themes such as war, autonomy, and the worth of all beings.

I am seriously impressed at how much substance this author was able to pack into 160 pages or so. I fell in love with the abandoned robots and was ready to go to war for them (SuzyQ - you’re a b*tch!!) As somebody that worked in the restaurant industry for a decade, I loved the camaraderie between the robots as they worked to make their robot-owned restaurant a success.

Taking place in a near-future, I appreciated the social commentary woven into this story and will definitely be revisiting this one again. I also just LOVE a novel and this is a damn good one. Check this one out if you love sci-fi, noodles, and robots (how could you not?!) 🤖 🍜

**Thank you to TorDotCom and NetGalley for the eARC of this cozy, delicious title!!**