Interview with the Robot by Lee Bacon

My rating: four stars

Genre: Middle grade, sci-fi

Edition: Audiobook

Goodreads Summary: Fugitive. Criminal. Robot.

Eve looks like an ordinary 12-year-old girl, but there’s nothing ordinary about her. She has no last name. No parents or guardian. She’s on the run from a dangerous and secretive organization that will stop at nothing to track her down.

And most astonishing of all: She’s a robot, a product of Eden Labratories.

When she discovers the truth, she realizes everything she thought she knew about herself is a lie. Eve manages to escape, fleeing the lab, the only home she’s ever known.

After being arrested for shoplifting, Eve is interviewed by Petra Amis from Child Welfare Services. Her incredible story unfolds during the interrogation, with flashbacks to her life inside Eden Laboratories, which has a dark secret.

Exploring a range of topics that drive our society and our lives – topics such as artificial intelligence and human nature – Interview with the Robot is a story told by a startlingly original protagonist, a story that explores the vast potential of technology and the deep complexities of humanity.

To be honest, I listened to this book because Audible was having a deal where they would give you $20 if you listen to three books in two months. However, I did think that this story sounded interesting and looked forward to listening to it.

Likes: This book truly fooled me. One of the things that I pride myself in (but is slightly annoying) is that I can figure out where a book is going. It is fun to be able to guess correct, but at the same time it is really annoying to know what is going to happen the whole time. I honestly had no clue what was going to happen in this book though and that was such a nice surprise. There were quite a few twists and I did not guess any of them. That really blew me away since it was a middle grade novel. The way that Eve grows and becomes more advanced was awesome to read about, and I found it interesting the ways that they taught her how to do things. I also enjoyed how the story was told in Eve’s POV in an interview setting. It made it interesting and I don’t read books like that very often, if at all!

Dislikes: It was a short story and I wasn’t super happy with how it ended. There was some character progression that seemed to turn a full 180 degrees and there was never really any resolution to that. It seemed like a rushed ending and I would have loved for it to be more flushed out. Those are really the only things that I did not like about the book, I enjoyed the rest completely!

Overall, this was a fun, quick read. The concept was fun and even though it was a middle grade novel, there were twists that surprised me! I did take off a star because the ending was so abrupt and there was some character digression that did not quite make sense. I still had a great time reading it, I only wish there had been some changes to the ending.