Jay Gardner, a troublemaker who's recently moved to a new house, begins to notice strange things about the lawn gnomes in his new neighborhood. As he begins investigating them, he discovers that the gnomes are alive at night, and that's just the beginning of the weird truth about his life.
This book provides examples of:
- Adults Are Useless: Jay's parents ignore all his claims. And at the end it's revealed they knew he was malfunctioning but their plan was to scare the wits out of him.
- Chekhov's Hobby: Jay is a science whiz who creates some special sticks, which come in handy when it is discovered that the gnomes are frozen by light.
- Foreshadowing: Jay's parents tell him he hasn't been acting like himself lately. Because he is a robot who was malfunctioning and thus not acting like he was programmed.
- Here We Go Again!: Things seemingly go back "normal" with Jay finding out he's a robot and getting his malfunction fixed but then his dog starts talking and says they have to get to Earth.
- Imaginary Friend: It turns out that Kayla, Jay's sister, was just a figment of Jay's imagination the whole time.
- Our Gnomes Are Weirder: The gnomes populate the entire planet and the protagonist is one of the robots they created to take care of it during the day
- Ridiculously Human Robots: The twist reveals that the lead is one... as well as every other actual "human" on the planet.
- Tomato in the Mirror: A double whammy where they are all robots on an alien planet.
- Unreliable Narrator: The main protagonist thinks they're a normal kid who moved to a new neighborhood after burning down his old house, until they realize they and every other human there is actually a robot whose job is to serve the gnomes, and that his memories of burning down the house, moving, being a prankster and even having a sister are the result of his programming having gone haywire.
- Weakened by the Light: The gnomes are frozen by light. In general, they are just normal gnomes during the day. This is why they need the robots to do all the work during the day.
- Wham Line: At the end, Jay's parents ask him where they live to which he says "We live on Polvia, Planet of the Lawn Gnomes.
