YA Buddy Readers' Corner ♥ discussion

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. They're a family, hidden and safe.

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.

When Hap unwittingly alerts robots from Gio's former life to their whereabouts, the family is no longer hidden and safe. Gio is captured and taken back to his old laboratory in the City of Electric Dreams. So together, the rest of Vic's assembled family must journey across an unforgiving and otherworldly country to rescue Gio from decommission, or worse, reprogramming.

Along the way to save Gio, amid conflicted feelings of betrayal and affection for Hap, Vic must decide for himself: Can he accept love with strings attached?

Author TJ Klune invites you deep into the heart of a peculiar forest and on the extraordinary journey of a family assembled from spare parts.

I might join!

I've been wanting to read this, so this is a good chance for me to do so.

Okay, I'm up to chapter 5 so far and I have died laughing a handful of times already because of the robot characters. The vacuum and nurse robots have such get personalities for robots.

Can't wait to see what kind of chaos and adventures these characters have.

Im going to join! :) will start later today. Ive read TJ Klunes other newer stuff and and I really enjoyed them! Especially the house in the cerulean sea. His characters are so lovely

Okay, I'm at chapter 15 now. The amount of action that is in this book has me on the edge of my seat.

Rambo and Nurse Ratchet absolutely crack me up with their little comments and jokes. Hap is still a questionable character to me so I'm looking forward to see if he's really friend or if he's really foe.

I do feel bad for Vic since he's not the norm in this world and he feels a little lost. I do love the fact that he is representing the ace (asexual) community.

I really hope that his dad makes it through the encounter with the clones but I have a feeling he's not going to.

Just finished chapter 5!

(view spoiler)[I am listening to the audiobook and if I'm completely honest I think I would enjoy it more if I were physically reading it. I feel like I would have different tone reading on my own and have laughed a lot more. Not that the reader is bad by any means, its read by Daniel Henning and I listened to the audio for House in the Cerulean sea by the same narrator and adored it! I just feel like its not hitting for me, but I am really enjoying it so far. I may switch to physically reading at some point, I just don't have time right now.

I am enjoying the robots, I like his father, and also very interesting that he is asexual. I didn't realize going into it but I love the representation TJ Klune has in his books.

They've found this new mysterious tall robot man, who I am assuming will be the love interest lol. They are still working on getting him working, but now I get the puppet thing. I also like that he has a stutter, another representation in the book, and feel like they won't be "fixing" that.

I am curious about the old ones... what are they? what are they doing? and also what happened to his parents and are there more people alive? (hide spoiler)]

also the robots kinda remind me of the demon chicken in nettle and bone lol. My absolute favourite thing

Brianna wrote: "Just finished chapter 5!

I am listening to the audiobook and if I'm completely honest I think I would enjoy it more if I were physically reading it. I feel like I would have different tone readin..."

I've learned listening to an audiobook at a faster speed makes it a little easier to like the book. Also, picking up a physical copy is always nice too.

The robots are cracking me up with the comments/jokes. His father is great but still a little mysterious. I agree about it being interesting that Vic is asexual, but it's kind of understandable since he's the only human mentioned so far. TJ Klune does have a lot of LGBTQIA+ representation in almost all of his books which is why I love his books.

I, too am curious about the old ones, I have a feeling that they might be humans.

Oh interesting! I hadn’t even thought they could be humans. I’m imagining them as large machines. Possible they are controlled by humans inside?

Brianna wrote: "Oh interesting! I hadn’t even thought they could be humans. I’m imagining them as large machines. Possible they are controlled by humans inside?"

Only reason I started thinking humans is because there are supposedly no more humans other than Vic. I feel like it would be a really good plot twist.

Yeah there is definitely something else going on!

Hey guys! Could you please use spoiler tags? Your comment may spoil the story for others..

Just started
chapter(view spoiler)[ I loved the author's previous works. So I basically jumped into this story without even reading the synopsis! So far I'm really enjoying it. I believe the mechanical heart will play a big role in the plot. Can't wait to know. (hide spoiler)]

*Spoilers

Okay the ending kind of let me down a little bit. Still no clue who the old ones are unless I just completely am not putting 2 and 2 together.

I still want to know what the heck the blue fairies plan was for the whole resetting of the machines towards the end other than to help Vic escape.

Overall the book was good and the humor I got from the sarcastic jabs, comments, and jokes throughout the book was great.

Sorry! I always do from my computer but can’t on my phone and I am away this week. I’ll tag them at the top like Christina until I’m back

Chapter 9, possible spoilers

(view spoiler)[Poor hap lol. He’s just trying to learn and help lol. I’m definitely getting more laughs. I loved when he was explaining hurt and pain lol (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 21

I sort of delayed my updates until I got home so I could properly hide the spoilers. But I'm home now! I am going to try and finish this tonight if I can :)

(view spoiler)[I really love nurse Ratched, I wasnt quite sure about her when I first started this book but I am loving her character now that they are in the city. She is really taking control and keeping them safe, you tell how much she truly cares about Vic and Rambo even though she always jokes about dissecting them lol. Rambo has also grown on me quite a bit. I feel like TJ Klune just has that ability; to just make you fall in love with characters, flaws and all.
I was not expecting the Coachman to help them after they were originally captured by him. It was a little strange to me that he literally held them captive with the intention of basically slavery, and then was like, "oh wait just kidding, I will now do everything in my power to help you". Though I do not think that he would necessarily betray them.
Curious to learn more about this blue fairy (hide spoiler)]

Christina wrote: "*Spoilers

Okay the ending kind of let me down a little bit. Still no clue who the old ones are unless I just completely am not putting 2 and 2 together.

I still want to know what the heck the blu..."

I finished this a few days ago, just haven't had a chance to update!

(view spoiler)[TBH I completely forgot about the old ones lol. My guess is that they were just the large bots that dump everything in the junk yards/monitor them? But you're totally right, they could have quickly explained that.

My assumption was that the blue fairy just needed someone to get in there to upload the virus? But like... if this was their secret weapon, and they had intention to use it to destroy the collective conscious, then why give it to Vic who may or may not have used it? Definitely some plot holes in how this wrapped up. (hide spoiler)]

Finished

(view spoiler)[So I definitely enjoyed this story.. I enjoyed the characters, though I was skeptical of nurse ratched and rambo in the beginning they really grew on me. I loved HAP and Vic and their relationship, and I really loved Gio.

I liked how in the end it was not perfect, they still came and went with their memories and it didn't just wrap up and everything was perfect and back to normal.

The blue fairy... this character made me really uncomfortable. It was fine until the scene where they spontaneously grew genitals? Like this was weird and uncalled for, it seemed very random, out of place, and didn't add anything to the story or plot in my opinion. Maybe he was using it as a tool make you uncomfortable? lol I don't know.
Also per my last comment I don't understand why they would have given Vic the virus.. I feel like there would have been way more ways for the blue fairy to get it into the creation room and upload it, and giving it to Vic was such a gamble. Like if he could have gotten out without uploading the virus he 100% would have, and then the blue fairy would have been screwed, they would have completely lost their tool for destroying the authority

The strengths in this book are definitely the characters and relationships, but the plot had many holes and unanswered questions. Overall I would probably give this a 3.5/5* (hide spoiler)]

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Date changed. Restarting August 24th 2023. Happy Reading ☺

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Starting this one now. I just read the prologue and i can already tell this story is going to break my heart

Oh yes I'm going to be a few days late but then I'll have lots of updates to read :D

Chapter 5: (view spoiler)[ who would have thought i'd love robots but im already in love with Rambo lol. Interesting premise so far. Klune hasnt given much in way of history so im still piecing together everything. I have a feeling victors blood can be used to track him or something. And also victor better not use the heart hes making for his dad on this new murderbot (hide spoiler)]

Part One: (view spoiler)[ Well ok, already crying. Had no idea that Gio actually created Vic. I really believed that two humans left him lol. While I do think Hap wants to be good, I have a feeling that his old programming may rear up at some point. Also, the burning of their houses, I died. Poor Vic. His entire world just fell apart. I hope he finds his dad, but I just have a feeling it's going to be a sad ending.

Side note: if anyone hurts Rambo, I will throw this book. (hide spoiler)]

Part two: (view spoiler)[ so Victor is the last human ever? I honestly expected humanity to still be around somewhere. I really dont know how they're going to get into. Also Hap calling them all friends, i melted (hide spoiler)]

Part 3: (view spoiler)[ of course Hap would be the one to lose his memory. I was really worried someone was going to actually die in that moment. Nurse had me crying with her speech to Vic. I really dont know how the world will go on (hide spoiler)]

Finished: (view spoiler)[ definitely an open ended book. I wish we could have seen more of what the world became when Vic destroyed their system, but i did enjoy the little pocket of him restoring Gio and Hap. Also, nothing happened to Rambo so i am happy (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 1 (view spoiler)[Hahahahah his little penis joke (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 3 (view spoiler)[Lol A MILF (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 4 (view spoiler)[It doesn't have a direction so far so I'm not sure my thoughts. Can't see it being a new face like Whispering Door :(
Klune is conflictingto me because I loved Whispering Door but I didn't like Cerulean Sea because of how it seemed very much that childish humour I don't appreciate. And this feels a bit of the same with some of the things that robots say (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 6 (view spoiler)[Haha he is too big to be a toaster

I love the description of asexuality, it is very true! I love seeing myself represented correctly in books (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 12 (view spoiler)[This definitely hit a darker turn and now stuff is going down. I have no idea which direction this is going to go, but I feel like it's really pushing too hard with the 'humans must change' message (hide spoiler)]

Jenn wrote: "Chapter 5: [spoilers removed]"

Did you really expect anything different lol

Finished! This was sooo cuuuute, I loved it! I'm so glad I read it and it lived up to the expectations! At the start it didn't but it really picked up and I read the last 200 pages in one sitting!

Jenn wrote: "Part One: (view spoiler)[Well ok, already crying. Had no idea that Gio actually created Vic. I really believed that two humans left him lol. While I do think Hap wants to be good, I have a feeling that his old p..." (hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[Funny because I feel like Rambo is the character that could be cut and I'd prefer the story better lol I don't like his type of humour, it makes me eye-roll

I agree that this is where the story got dark! And I liked how it turned on its head what we believed from the start (hide spoiler)]

Jenn wrote: "Part two: [spoilers removed]"

Okay but how is (view spoiler)[Victor going to prolong humanity without a few more humans to procreate with (even if he wasn't gay...) (can't be just one woman because when they have kids their kids can't interbreed lol) (hide spoiler)]

Jenn wrote: "Part 3: [spoilers removed]"

Yes I welled up in that bit too!

Maddie wrote: "Chapter 4 It doesn't have a direction so far so I'm not sure my thoughts. Can't see it being a new face like Whispering Door :(
Klune is conflictingto me because I loved Whispering Door but I didn'..."

You didn't like Cerulean Sea?? Omg that story broke me haha

No I didn't like Sea :( Felt too childish

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Date changed. Restarting April 15th 2024. Happy Reading ☺

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I'll be starting this one tonight. I loved and . So no pressure, but I hope this story is just as filled with joy and love as the other two.