Tin by Kenny Padraig

My name is Jack, and my friend Christopher has been taken away by the Agency. He always looked out for mechanicals like me and the others, even though our "engineer" offered broken promises of repairs. We liked to hear Christopher's stories about his mom and dad, but he couldn't remember anything that happened before the fire. Then the Agency showed up. There was a rip in Christopher's arm, and we discovered the machine inside him. Until that moment, Christopher didn't know he was a mechanical too! However, his model was banned and shouldn't exist. Where did he come from and who made him? Why does the Agency want him? Gripper, Round Rob, Estelle, and I must find some way to rescue Christopher, but we're going to need help.

This book is unique, as most of the main characters are robots called mechanicals. They behave almost like humans, although it's illegal for an engineer to endow them with souls. Those kinds of mechanicals have been banned, and that creates the crux of the plot's conflict. Mechanicals like Jack have no malice, which in some ways makes them better than Proper ones. This quality creates moral questions, as they abhor injuring others. One of the characters is distressed late in the book when he accidentally steps on a snail. However, a human inventor takes advantage of the mechanicals' inability to cause harm, which makes them sympathetic and endearing characters. Overall, I enjoyed the book and recommend you give it a shot. It will appeal to lovers of robots and machines, or those who enjoy dystopian worlds.