I know, I know—another TJ Klune novel? A little over a month ago, I reviewed Under the Whispering Door, also by TJ Klune, which you can check out here.
That was my first experience with his writing, and I fell completely in love. At the time, In the Lives of Puppets had just released, but the plot of Under the Whispering Door appealed to me a little more, so I went with that.
However, I've become addicted to Klune's storytelling and worldbuilding, so I knew I needed to give this a read as well. So, here we are!
"Sometimes, it's the smallest things that can change everything when you least expect it."
Deep in the forest of what was once known as Oregon, an android named Giovanni Lawson has made his home. After escaping his dark past, Gio, formerly known as General Innovation Operative, finally feels at peace among the trees—safe, but lonely.
A few solitary years later, a couple arrives in the forest, clearly running from something and screaming for help. The woman holds out a bundle of rags, begging Gio to take and hide it.
Inside the bundle is a human child, which Gio raises as his own. He calls the child Victor.
21 years later, a peculiar sort of family has formed. There's Gio, of course, and Victor, now an adult, and 2 constantly bickering robots: Rambo, an anxious, overly enthusiastic vacuum, and Nurse Registered Automation To Care, Heal, Educate, and Drill, better known as Nurse Ratched.
Thanks to the nearby Scrap Yards, they've made their woodland home into a paradise. They watch movies on their old TV, listen to music on an old record player, and read books about the history of humanity before the rise of machines.
Finally, Gio doesn't feel so alone.
"I love humanity. I love their grace. Their faults. Their idiosyncratic ways. They loved, they hated, they destroyed, and yet there has never been anything like them in all the world."
During a routine visit to the Scrap Yards, Victor, Nurse Ratched, and Rambo find something new: a pile of discarded, stripped androids, some of which have been completely torn to pieces.
They decide to investigate further, always careful to avoid being noticed by the Old Ones that patrol the yards.
Nurse Ratched's sensors detect an active power source from within the pile, and Victor begins to dig. If there's a sign of life, he wants to do whatever he can to help. After all, he found Nurse Ratched and Rambo in the Scrap Yards, and after a bit of fixing up, they're now his two best friends.
This android deserves that same chance at life, and he can't just leave it behind.
"If we can fix what's broken, we should always try."
After hours of digging and sifting through discarded parts, Victor finally unearths a mostly intact android. His power source is still active, but fading fast—it dies before they're able to find out who he is or how he got there.
They decide to construct a makeshift stretcher and transport the mysterious android back home to be repaired.
In the process of all this, Victor has earned a nasty cut across his hand. The second his blood hits the ground, alarms begin to blare throughout the Scrap Yard.
Luckily, they're able to escape without being caught—or so they think.
With the help of Nurse Ratched, Victor is able to rebuild the android and bring it back to life.
His memories have been wiped, leaving him with no idea of his designation or purpose. For lack of a better name, they decide to call him Hap, based on the few recognizable letters on his chest plate.
Despite a few hang-ups, Hap adjusts well to his new surroundings. He fits right into the ongoing squabbles of Nurse Ratched and Rambo, learns about the wonders of music with Gio, but he takes a special interest in Victor. Hap has never encountered a human before, and he has a lot of questions—some of which are uncomfortable, hilarious, and downright inappropriate.
All in all, life is good. However, they still don't know anything about Hap's past, where he came from, or why he was decommissioned and left for scrap in the first place—or why Gio seemed to recognize him.
"That's okay. I like me. Gio says that self-worth isn't measured by what others think, but what you think about yourself."
The past catches up with Gio when The Authority is able to trace Victor's blood back to their haven in the woods. Gio tells Victor there is much that he never told him, and he quickly ushers Victor, Rambo, Nurse Ratched, and Hap into a secret bunker beneath the ground house, and activates a hidden protocol within Nurse Ratched.
Gio is taken to the City of Electric Dreams to be investigated and repurposed for The Authority. As they leave, they burn Gio's home to the ground.
Meanwhile, in the safety of the bunker, Nurse Ratched's protocol plays a pre-recorded video of Gio on her screen. Gio explains that Hap looked so familiar because he created him, though his true designation is not Hap, but HARP: Human Annihilation Response Protocol. Gio designed him, and many others like him, to eradicate humans from earth.
He then goes on to tell Victor that there was no fleeing young couple that brought him to the woods. Victor was, in fact, an experiment created by Gio himself, a sort of penance for all the human lives he destroyed. If The Authority learns of Victor's existence, they will stop at nothing to destroy him.
"But they hated as much as they loved. They feared what they didn't understand. Even as they built us, they pushed for more. And the further they went, the less control they had. They accused each other of treachery. They poisoned the earth. They had time to change their ways, but they didn't. And their anger grew until it exploded in fire. Most of them died. But we remained, because our flesh wasn't their flesh. Our bodies were not their bodies. Our minds were not their minds. And yet, I love them still."
Victor is obviously shaken by this new information, but knows in his heart that despite Gio's past, he still loves the father that he knew him to be.
Hap doesn't want to kill anymore, though the group is hesitant to trust him now that they know what he is capable of.
One thing they know for sure, though, is that they must rescue Gio, no matter what it takes.
So, Victor, Hap, Nurse Ratched, and Rambo set off for the City of Electric Dreams, which may have once been Las Vegas, determined to bring Gio home or die trying.
"What do you do if you've forgotten all you know? You start again from the beginning."
One thing I really love about TJ Klune's stories is that no matter how fantastic and fictional they are, there's always an underlying lesson that can be applied to real life. In this case, it's not letting your past define your future, and that's something I truly believe in.
As Victor learns to forgive Hap and Gio for the terrible things they've done in their past, they both must also learn to forgive themselves.
I think it's a beautiful concept.
One thing I do have to say is that the romance fell a little flat for me. Now, to be fair, I'm not a romantic sort of person, and I don't usually read books that are strictly romances. I don't mind a good romance as long as it fits in with a bigger story, but this one just didn't do it for me. I just felt like it wasn't necessary for the plot, but others may feel differently. To each their own, as always.
Overall, I really loved this. It had all the beauty and wonder that I've come to expect from Klune, and the constant banter between Nurse Ratched and Rambo kept me laughing throughout.
As always, I'd love to know your thoughts if you've read this, or any of his other work, or if you decide to based on this review. Be sure to join me on Discord so we can chat about this book, other books, and how we can positively impact the world through the power of reading.
Oh, and best of all, we can be friends.
'•.¸♡ Onward and upward ♡¸.•'