The Infinite Sadness of Small Appliances by Glenn Dixon is a short and fun novel that includes Harold (an older man whose wife Edie is sick), Kate (their adult daughter who had been sent away), Adrian (a boy who took piano lessons from Edie), Scout (a vacuum who loves To Kill a Mockingbird), Watch, Fridge, Clock, and Auto (all exactly those things).
Watch was tasked by the Grid with running Harold's house. The appliances in it have information on everything, and follow three protocols; to prevent pain, to do their duty, and to only communicate with a human if asked a question.
Auto was connected to the Grid, more so than appliances inside the house, and the Grid decided who could travel, with Watch requesting Kate be allowed to return home after her mother's passing (so she could help the process of the Grid reallocating the home to a family now that only one human lived there).
Kate had been sent away for hacking into machines, taking a self-driving car and driving it herself, and as her punishment, was forced to work for the Grid, figuring out how to hack into systems so the Grid could then shut off those avenues. She has no intention of fulfilling her task to help have her father removed from his house, and the boy Adrian came regularly to practice the piano, in advance of an exam. There's also mention of the Dissidents, people living apart from the Grid, and noted throughout the novel is Harold's love of books, and how the Grid intends to take them. Kate told her father that the Grid was taking artifacts, things with human knowledge and cultural significance. Scout then has a idea to fix things so Harold doesn't have to leave, wiping the record of Edie's death. Kate goes with the Dissidents, and Adrian rescues Scout who goes with her.
