Cliché phrase incoming: "Klara and the Sun meets Wall-E"

The events of this book are set in a future where AI has cost many people their jobs and upper class people have the option of purchasing AI servants for their households.

Our two main characters are exactly that. Eke is an older model and Kyp one of the newer ones.
While many aspects of this story remind me a lot of Klara and the Sun (a story about a companion robot developing independent thought), this book's characters already have a conscience of their own while learning feelings and how the world works.

I basically listened to the audiobook in one go, apart from a break for work. The story is very easy to get into and evoked many different emotions in me.

Eke gets bullied by one of the kids in his household, who happens to be quite the sadist and generally loves to abuse people. Those scenes were quite painful, even with the knowledge of Eke not being technically alive.

What I found really interesting was the conflict brought about by AI taking working peoples' jobs: In true capitalist fashion, only the rich can enjoy all the "benefits" of such inventions, while no systemic change was made to sustain the working class. And I totally understand why the suffering people are resentful towards the AIs.

In essence, this book vocalizes our fear of the future in a time where there are mass layoffs because of AI, and how a future may look if things progress the way they are progressing and if systemic changes aren't made. Since we do live with capitalism, everything hinges on people working for money and sustenance. The dystopian circumstances in Us Et Cetera are caused by the prevalence of capitalism.

To sum it up, this was awesome. It is an easy read, makes you think and feel.
I will definitely recommend it to my friends.

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 within the pages (I've always said he was my heartthrob!) This story also reminded me of the film AI, in such a cool way. I'm telling you this would also 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?

CW: attempted suicide, bullying, animal abuse, disordered eating

OMG. OMG, this was so good.

I really loved both Eke and Kyp, and they were so fucking sweet together!

And while this was a very sweet story, with really sweet characters, there were also a lot of very dark parts. The story is about two AIs who have been purchased by an über rich family, so you can imagine how they might be treated; especially Eke, who is an older model. Some of Eke’s treatment was what you would expect and then some was so much worse. I would think that a lot of the treatments of the AIs would be similar to how slaves were treated, which is fucking appalling.

What I found really interesting about the story was that it brought up a lot of questions about sentience, and free will, and if you’ve been bought to serve your master, is consent even possible? There were also the clear differences in treatment between Eke and Kyp, that just for the fact of Kyp being shiny and new he was immediately trusted by the family, much more so than Eke, who had been with them for five years.

Through most of the book (at least 50%) Eke is so lonely. Like, palpably lonely. It’s honestly quite heartbreaking, to see him talking to his flower friend, and his fish friends, but not being able to talk to anyone real, at least not in a real way.

I also found it really interesting how each of the family’s children have one short POV section, where you find out the reasons why they are the way they are. So, while this is a sweet romance between two AIs, it’s also a critique of extreme wealth and how that lifestyle can be so damaging to families.

I thought the whole book was just so incredibly well done, telling this fairly unique story.

Robot rights! i like the nods to cinderella and the way this story unfolded. these characters were complicated and fascinating, and i loved dissecting the family dynamics. I will say Danny's arc felt rushed, and the youngest sibling's existence felt like an afterthought, to the point where I was caught off guard with the swing scene because I didn't realize this child existed, but I read the arc so it's possible this is fixed in the finalized version

rep: gay AIs

spice: a robot sex scene

tw: violence, abuse, gun violence, loss of limb