This is a novel narrated by household appliances. Now, I've read some weird books in my time, but never one narrated by a vacuum cleaner.

What a weird but beautiful book. I don't know what I was expecting. Something weird and wonderful, and that's what I got. It's such an uplifting, comforting novel.

This could be our future, appliances that communicate with us, that can make decisions for us. And that's scary. I'm not a fan of overly smart gadgets even though we have some. But it''s made me really aware of the feelings of my appliances. I mean, I already say please and thank you to our Alexa so that when the robot uprising occurs, they'll remember I was polite and spare me.

I rarely want a book to be longer but at just over 200 pages, I felt it could have been longer. It's such a joyful book that I wanted to read more of it.

The chapters are a little too long for my liking but because it's a short book, it doesn't really matter much. It's so easy and quick to read that I finished it within a matter of hours.

It's not a horror, obviously, by any stretch of the imagination so I won't pretend it is. But it is quite scary at times, this idea of AI and smart tech and robots controlling every aspect of life, and people just going along with it because what's the alternative?

I loved the love letter he gives to books in this story. If you're a passionate reader, you'll know how important books are, and Glenn has got that just right.

Never did I think I'd feel so emotionally attached to a vacuum cleaner. It's so moving. Such a wonderful story I highly recommend to everyone.

Took me by surprise. Dystopia on a small scale, so moving.

This was lovely writing. Hints and small nods everywhere to the wider world, where the action really takes places within one home and the broader implications become apparent through the story.

And it's a sad story. A little like the start of Up - we meet Harold and Edie, and piano teacher Edie is dying of cancer. Harold, once an English teacher himself, reads to her from his treasured first editions, To Kill a Mockingbird while he listens to her gradually losing the ability to play her beloved piano.

Also listening is their Roomba, who has named herself Scout in honour of a character from the book she too is listening to. The other appliances find this silly. Yes, the other appliances. Harold and Edie's sad story is played out in a house run by a Watch, where the Fridge re-orders food, the appliances speak to each other. And where outside, the human world seems to be contracting as machines have slowly taken charge.

In the midst of Harold's terrible time, a young pupil of Edie's knocks on the door to ask if he can continue practicing on his teacher's piano before his exam. Scout vows to help him... and also Harold, as circumstances change and the appliances help her understand that things may change for them all, including her Human.

I found this more sinister than I was expecting, even though little happens outside of the home and the appliances/humans we meet there, you just know that the world outside is so very different a place from ours and though the view may not be much altered, the way society is functioning has drastically. It's really well done.

Little Scout is a marvel too, a curious and questioning machine, picking up on life's quirks and joys, philosophising with Clock and trying to stay within her programming whilst constantly breaking it just by existing.

It's kind of terrifying, kind of beautiful. And a great story of where things could be heading.

Was so much more than I was expecting.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample reading copy.