by Glenn Dixon
First published 2026
Scout is a young Roomba vacuum who has developed consciousness in a world where all household devices think and feel. She lives in Harold's automated home, listening as he reads To Kill a Mockingbird aloud to his dying wife Edie. The little vacuum becomes enchanted by the stories and takes the name Scout for herself. When Edie dies, Scout learns that the Grid, a surveillance system that watches every home in the City, wants to force Harold out of the house where he has lived for fifty years. Scout rallies the other sentient appliances to protect Harold. They find allies in Adrian, a neighborhood boy who befriends both Scout and Harold, and Kate, Harold's daughter who has been distant from her family. Together, the humans and machines must outsmart the Grid's control. Scout discovers what it means to care for others while fighting to preserve the home and relationships that give her life meaning.
Genres: science-fiction, contemporary, 21st-century, artificial-intelligence
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, outsmarting-the-system
Setting: City, Grid
Period: 21st-century
224 pages · Hardcover · Atria Books