Absolutely LOVED this book!!! My favorite tj Kline book so far!! I read the house in the cerulean sea recently and jumped right into this one. Dare I say, I liked this one even more. The robot personality and character development was on point. 10/10

I think that Klune could write a telephone book and it would be SO CUTE!! Another slam dunk great read here. Always a pleasure to read his books and you can see his heart in each one.

I love TJ Klune's work and this one was no different. The way their books pulls out emotions leaves me breathless and unsettled in a way I don;t experience often with books. There is a heart to the story that demonstrates unconditional support and acceptance. They feel like a hug. I felt a range of emotions as reading and love when a book makes me laugh out loud.

As always, TJ Klune is a must read for me. Billed as “The Adventures of Pinocchio, and like Swiss Family Robinson meets Wall-E” I was IN! It was silly and fun and emotional, and I just loved it so much. I know it wasn’t everyone's cup of tea, but for me, it was a hit!

I was given an advanced reader's copy via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own

This is a hard book for me to rate and review, because there were some elements I really loved, and some that I didn't. Firstly, the audiobook for this is excellent. Truly, it's probably what saved the story for me. Daniel Henning's different voices for a multitude of characters was absolutely exquisite. I was truly impressed that this was not a full cast audiobook, because it often sounded that way. I am certain that I wouldn't have enjoyed this story, and maybe wouldn't have even finished it, if it hadn't been for his superior narration.

The novel itself is another story. The best word I can use to sum up my feelings is "confusing", because this story seemed to be trying to do too many things at once, and not excelling at any of them, nor being better because of the sum of its parts. The retelling of Pinocchio, combined with the adventure journey similar to The Brave Little Toaster, a Wizard of Oz element, along with some very obvious soapbox stances on topics, commentary on AI and robots, and a crude sense of humor (often sexual in nature, which was odd considering the characters were all robots and one asexual human) you would expect from a middle- to high-school-aged individual, made this feel messy. I really enjoyed the elements of the story that had that "Brave Little Toaster" feel, as that is a childhood favorite movie of mine. I really loved the characters Klune created. But overall this story was lacking for me, and left me unsure if I liked it or not.

This was a DNF for me. I couldn't get past the innuendos and silliness. I am not sure if this was meant for middle schoolers or adults. It's a shame, too, because I really loved this author's other books.

Such a sweet, quirky story about some sentient robots and the family that maintains them. TJ Klune is a master at world-building and creating characters that give you the feels.

Deeply captivating, I enjoyed what felt like a retelling of Pinocchio - similar but so different. While not my favorite TJ Klune, I'm am utterly here for all of their books.

Another good TJ Klune novel, my only build is that the story felt like it took a while to get where it was going. A take on Pinocchio, this was an interesting book but probably not my favourite work of his.

I enjoyed this book, though I didn't like it quite as much as The House in the Cerulean Sea, or Under the Whispering Door. That being said, the characters were interesting and the world building was good. It was definitely a little more bleak than his last couple books though.

4.5 rounded up

This is the third book I've read by this author. The human touch the author brings to all of his books has captivated me, but this one was truly different and heartwarming. It starts slowly, and it might take some time to get into the story, but after about 30%, you begin to get hooked. The relationship between the characters was excellent, I loved them all, and reading this book was enjoyable. I highly recommend the audiobook version too.

Love TJ Klune! I feel all of the feelings when reading his books his characters are loveable and be plots are amazing

I was unable to read the book due to it being taken off of netgalley to fast which was a real shame as it looks good.

I was super excited for this book. For one I love this author and two, the premise sounded amazing. While the book is still beautifully written and had some very good moments, it still felt like it was missing something. This one didn’t have the same spark that other Klune books have and thus it la def a little flat. I was expecting to love the characters and feel a million emotions and at time it felt like he was going to deliver only to move much too quickly away from the moment or get a sanitized version of events. I did read his note at the end and wonder how much of those forced changes impacted the quality of this story, but I guess we won’t ever know. Ultimately, I do think that it was a decent book with a thought provoking premise.

TJ Klune always does an exceptional job of making me FEEL for characters I never thought I could (i.e. monsters, robots, the grim reaper himself) and In the Lives of Puppets is some of his strongest storytelling to date.

A good book. Very much in the vein of the author’s other books. Not sure anyone else writes love and loss and heartache and friendship quite so well. You can really deeply feel it. The world building is creative and just enough, though even more would be great(I would love to read a sci-fi horror prequel set in this world, though I think it would need to be by a different author since that isn’t what I want when I’m reading Klune). The characters are great--in some ways they're completely ridiculous, but also they're perfect.

I’m not a big fan of the Pinocchio story in general, but the allusions definitely worked for this book.

I'm sorry but this was so boring and wordy, how did this win an Goodreads award. I really couldn't get into it and I think it put me in a reading slump for about 2 months.

This was unfortunately a DNF for me.

The writing was bland yet confusing. I couldn't really grasp what was happening. It's unfortunate because I loved The House in the Cerulean Sea. I don't have much to say just because I didn't get far enough in the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Books for the early digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

This one just wasn’t for me. I’m sure it is a lovely TJ Klune winding novel but it didn’t suck me in like the others and I DNFed at around 20%. I just couldn’t get into it like his others.

This was a sweet and kind story. It didn't kick me in the teeth quite as hard as some of TJ's books (meaning I didn't SOB my face off). It was still enjoyable even though I kept turning pages expecting to be gut punched. Nurse Ratched was perfect. No notes.