A beautifully written story about two AIs that stole my heart. It was very sweet (Eke is ADORABLE, and so is his relationship with Kyp) and very dark at the same time, with an ending that was oh so satisfying. It gave me the most wonderful kind of goosebumps.

I feel like I should say a lot more, especially because I was gifted this wonderfully narrated audiobook in exchange for a review (thank you!!), but as with most books that made me feel a lot, I'm kind of lost for words.

Highly recommended!

If you enjoy TJ Klune books, particularly In the Lives of Puppets, I think you’ll really like this! This was a fun little read about robots becoming human through the love of plants, goldfish, and Buster Keaton, with a sweet little friendship-turned-romance to tie it all together. Between the fun moments, though, there are quite a few that are hard to read - basically, humans suck, one human in particular. Trigger warnings for animal abuse and violence. Despite these tough parts though it is still a quick read that would be perfect for a lazy afternoon.

I listened to the audiobook for this one, and Michael Crouch does a fantastic job; his pacing and narration style definitely help sell the idea that they are robots. If you need something to listen to whilst going about your day, I would recommend this for sure.

If you only read one book this year, pick this one. It's perfect.

This is a story about life, living, being alive and of course love.

It is poetry in epic form.

It has gold fish.

And my heart.

I am still searching for words to describe this book. Maybe an image will do:
Standing in front of a vast ocean and not being able to swim, you still decide to dip just a single toe into the water. But then the current hits you. Just as you thing you will loose it all, you feel a hand holding on to you.

this book is perfection.

This was such a sweet book at times, and terribly dark as well. There were descriptions of child and animal abuse, disordered eating, self-harm, suicide attempts, cruelty, torture, and violence that I found very difficult to listen to. I’m glad I stuck with it, because Eke and Kyp’s story is so memorable. Trust author Kit Vincent to give you a satisfying ending.

AI servant Eke initially seems to be the only character showing any humanity, but as the story progresses, we eventually learn more about the family he works for and their new AI entertainer, Kyp, and these characters become more relatable. The story is told primarily from Eke’s point of view, with some chapters for Kyp’s point of view, and a brief chapter from each of the children’s points of view.

In addition to being a story of self-discovery, adventure, and love between two AIs, the story can also be seen as a critique of capitalism and the treatment of marginalized groups.

The audiobook production was excellent, and I enjoyed Michael Crouch’s narration. His pacing was good, his pronunciation clear, and he created a distinctive voice to suit each character. His narration conveyed the mood and emotions effectively. The story works very well as an audiobook.

I recommend this book for fans of speculative fiction and clean LGBTQ romance.

I purchased the Kindle version. I received a free review copy of the audiobook from Sky House Publishing through NetGalley. I volunteered to provide an honest review.

Oh Eke and Kyp…..I just fell in love. They’re both so sweet and their love story is even sweeter. I was surprised by how dark things got within the Kensworth family. Top tier villains, particularly because their cruelty was mostly just thoughtlessness. I will be anxiously awaiting all future releases from Kit Vincent.

I had the privilege of reading an arc of this amazing book back in 2023 and it still holds a spot in my top 5 favorite NetGalley arcs of all time. The story of Eke and Kip breaks my heart every time I read it and now, to hear Michael Crouch tell their story just added a whole new layer of heartbreak and healing.

This is such a beautiful, heartwrenching love story between two AIs. Unconventional but believable, I’m so obsessed with the book and now the audio!

Uh wow, well, that was depressing - with a great HEA! But woo had to work to get there. It was aching and engaging and an interesting story - but definitely not a happy one for a large part of the book. Humans are infuriating and disappointing, but ultimately there is hope and goodness that will shine through.

TW: Bullying, torture, violence and murder of animals, prejudice

I didn’t expect to cry over two AI’s but alas, I did. I adore Eke and all his quirks. This was so soft and sweet and at the same time dark and desperate. the storytelling was amazing and I was sucked in from the first chapter

I have had multiple friends on Bookstagram recommend this book to me, so I absolutely jumped at the chance to request the audio on NetGalley. My goodness, am I glad I did.

’Us, Et Cetera’ by Kit Vincent follows two AIs, Eke and Kyp. The story follows them as they spend their days at the beck and call of their ‘owners’, a wealthy human family. We get to know Eke and Kyp through their individual perspectives as they try to find a way to survive and gain freedom in a human-centric world.

I absolutely loved getting to know Eke and Kyp and genuinely had an incredibly fun time reading this book. There are sad moments, with content warnings for animal cruelty, violence, bullying, attempted suicide, disordered eating, and body shaming. However, overall, I found the story very heartwarming and enjoyable and would recommend it widely! Particularly to my fellow neurodivergent queer robot-stray loving pals!

I have read a good few books around the theme of robots/humanoids trying to exist in a human-centric world. It is difficult to capture this experience in an audiobook, but when it’s done well, it is by far my favourite way to read from a non-human voice. Michael Crouch does a phenomenal job of capturing the voices of both our AI main characters.

If you are interested in this book, I highly recommend experiencing it through audio if you are able! Just a heads-up, you may end up listening to the whole thing in one day... you’ve been warned!

Thanks to NetGalley and Victory Editing for the audio-ARC. Keep doing what you’re doing, Victory Editing!

This review is available on Goodreads and StoryGraph and will be posted to my Bookstagram (@libraryoflanelle) closer to the publication date.

This book made me *anxious* oh my goodness. I swear when I finished it I had to sit with my thoughts for a good hour and just process that I was in the real world again and that none of it had been real. That's when you know the author is an amazing writer imo. This book is a beautiful take on AI becoming human (pun intended), or as close to human as they can be any way.

Eke is a precious bean that I wanted to reach into the book and take away from the horrible life he's living. Thankfully I didn't have to as his knight in shining armor enters the scene and his world begins to expand in the loveliest way. I was obsessed with how protective Kyp became! Gave me all the butterflies.

The first 60ish percent of this book is buildup but I wasn't bored at all honestly. I was too scared and immersed. The humans that "own" Eke are the most repulsive creatures I've read in awhile. It's on sight, Carter.

Anywayss! haha I really enjoyed this! It was incredibly heartwarming.

Thanks to Netgalley for the arc!!

I don't normally do a lot of books in this genre, but gay AI I had to read it. I'm glad I did. Overall This story is a fun twist on what happens when AI becomes aware. You can't help but fall in love with the main character and root for them the whole time. Without spoiling anything the overall message of this book is done so wonderfully and for sure worth the read. Overall the story was a bit slow for my taste but the pay off was there and I'm glad I was lucky enough to get to read this book.

This story was so wholesome and cute. I loved how from the beginning of the audiobook, it felt like I was watching a movie. I loved listening to Eke’s pov because he stayed true to himself til the very end (even to my annoyance at times). And I loved how Kyp just wanted to protect him and keep his innocence when the family and the world wanted to diminish it. I wished there was more closure with the family and justice towards the son. However, most of all, I loved that the story had a happy ending. Honestly both AIs’ deserved it for what they went through. This book had pretty good pacing, it did slow down a little. I think I would have loved to see their fun moments a little earlier in the story. Almost as if they slowly discovered how great the outside world could be and that’s why they left, instead of what happened. I felt like they had it a little easy in terms of a struggle to get to California. I would have loved to see them interact with more hardened AIs’ as well as ones that had it easy. I felt like they had to take at face value what everyone told them instead of experiencing every aspect of what it’s like for AIs’ outside of their normal town. I guess what I’m trying to say is I wish it was longer. I wanted to experience everything with them. Towards the end it, it kinda felt rushed. They experienced everything so fast. I wish they had more time to develop and we as readers had more time to learn about Et cetera. Still enjoyed the story tho. Highly recommend if you love sci-fi stories and queer representation. I can’t wait to see what else this author comes up with!!!!

If you're drawn by the gorgeous cover, let me tell you: the book lives up to it. The imagery is stunning: the flowerpot that Eke brought as a date to his first party, the secret living room Buster Keaton reenactments, the scream and system collapse at discovering that his fish had died... The novel paints so many incredibly memorable pictures. The primary characters are incredibly compelling: Eke. Most of the secondary characters might strike you as scenery-chewingly evil, until you remember that this sort of violence and xenophobia have been incredibly commonplace for most of human history. The book alternates between, on the one hand, beauty and hope, and on the other, fear and despair. Stick with it -- the ending is masterful. Kit Vincent is one to watch.

This book is unbelievably heart wrenching and beautiful. Eke is one of the most endearing characters I’ve ever read and Michael Crouch really brought him and Lyon to life. The audio was absolutely beautiful.

Calling all autistic people - specifically autistic queer people - even more specifically autistic trans people: I have a book for you. Us Et Cetera by Kit Vincent is what you need in your life. I normally don’t love sci/fi but this absolutely hooked me from the very first chapter and I listened to the whole thing - I’ll get onto the audiobook experience in a moment - while I did crafts. The author pitched this as “for everyone who shipped C3PO and R2D2” and to that I say…wait didn’t everyone ship them??
Eke is an AI whose sole job is to clean the house of the rich - and wildly dysfunctional- family who own him. But he wants so much more than that. He’s so much more than that. More than the Cinderella role the family have cast him in. Then one day, a new AI arrives named Kyp, and it seems like the family doesn’t need Eke anymore. But Kyp seems to see Eke, like no one else does, and sees the forbidden dreams of freedom hidden in his heart…or at least in his core processor.

The audiobook was fantastic. Narrator Michael Crouch completely sidestepped the “obvious” route of making Kyp and Eke robotic in their voices. They’re full of life and emotion and earnestness. Frankly, the whole listening experience is an absolute pleasure.

Now I’m about to get a bit serious but: I know it’s a stereotype to make robotic characters autistic-coded, but the great thing about this book is that I don’t think the AI are specifically autistic, or queer, or trans. I think they’re a representation of whichever marginalised group you project onto them. For me, I got autistic and queer vibes, but I imagine people from different groups could also transpose their own experiences onto that of the AI. Right now in the U.K., it is horrible for the trans community, and the dehumanisation or novelty of the AIs felt very impactful through that lens for me. Equally, as an autistic person, I felt very seen by Eke, who worries that the way he processes and thinks and is could be due to some fundamental error within him. I also love how, even though Eke is reliant on Kyp for many things, this is never shown as inferiority or weakness. Eke is entirely perfect as is in Kyp’s eyes, and as someone who often feels reliant on my own partner for support, this was a really powerful message for me.

To anyone who needs it, to whichever group you belong to who look in the mirror and see Kyp and Eke staring back, I leave you with this quote:

“You must keep going in order to keep going…Because defying the whole world requires courage. That is the only way to be free.”

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5: Blows me away, loved it, life-changing, will sit with me.

This book is incredible, and honestly an important read. It's such a statement on who we are as a society, what we value, and how we treat each other. While Kyp is great, I just absolutely adore everything about Eke. It would be naive to think that this isn't going to be our reality in the not so distant future!

Gave this one to 37% and had to DNF. It was BORING.
It felt like nothing was happening other than a AI robot feeling sorry for itself. It was hard to engage with in every way, I found myself zoning out constantly

Before beginning I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for giving me a copy of this audiobook!

Us, Et Cetera takes the concept of the AI revolution, in which AI takes human jobs, and spins it on its head completely. Instead of following the now unemployed and resentful humans, the story is told from the perspective of the miserably treated AI. In particular, we follow the story of Eke and Kyp, two distinct AIs that have one common feature: awareness.

Vincent’s character development was quite good. Oddly, my favourite character arc was Carter’s. Bleak and grim, but well-written. I do feel like Eke barely grew, which is not necessarily a bad thing. He was already great, I suppose that his story was more centred on him discovering his own greatness. The way the sisters grew and changed was lovely, a slight influence from Eke and Kyp drastically changed their trajectory. I thought that was a nice touch, as there was an emphasis throughout the book that small actions can make change.

I just want to take a small moment to mention the narrator for the audiobook, as I listened to this rather than read it. They were perfection. The way the voices changed between Eke and Kyp was stunning, these slight differences that just perfectly captured their essences. I do not doubt that reading the book is a wonderful experience, but if you were thinking of trying this audiobook. Do it.

One of my small critiques for this book would be the pacing. I thought the plot was intriguing, and I still enjoyed it, I just wish that certain parts were lengthened while others were shortened. Other than that, simply excellent!

I did not expect to sit down and listen to this whole audiobook in one go, but alas that's what I did today.

I was immediatly drawn into the story, and clearly I was not able to put it down. Absolutely loved this story and the narration! I was fully immersed throughout the whole book, it was perfectly paced and overall just amazing. A new favorite, and I can't wait to read more by this author

We follow an AI named Eke, whose job is cleaning the house and keeping it organized for a wealthy family, the Kensworths, of five. Eke dreams of being allowed to go outside of the house and perhaps make a real friend, because his family does not treat him nicely or acknowledge him as someone who can have feelings.

Then one day the Kensworths buys a brand new, highly advanced AI called Kyp, which quickly becomes the family's favorite. Eke feels lonelier than ever after being cast in the shadow of the amazing Kyp who acts very cold towards him. However, an incident at a party changes everything and Eke realizes perhaps he read Kyp wrong.

I gave the text version of this book 4 stars, and was sorry to discover that it didn't hold up well as an audiobook in spite of Michael Crouch's narration, or perhaps because of it. As a rule, I like Crouch's narration very much (cf his excellent work on Jim Grimsley's The Dove in the Belly!), but here the pitch of his voice combines badly with Eke's extreme naivete, to make the main character, who's also the principal narrator, seem obtuse rather than merely inexperienced. Also, a second exposure to the book brings into sharper focus its sentimentality and the flaws in its worldbuilding.

Thanks to Skyhouse and NetGalley for the audio ARC.