This was a lovely story, filled with the sort of kindness and tenderness that TJ Klune is known for. The allegory of Pinocchio is an interesting juxtaposition with the futuristic world in the novel. The themes of love and loss and what it means to be human permeate the story, which has good pacing and a satisfying end. Well done.

was very happy to receive an ARC of Klune's new book from NetGalley. I loved his last two books, The House in the Cerulean Sea and Under the Whispering Door. I didn't like this one quite as much, but the bar was really high, and I enjoyed the mix of humor, adventure, and heart. This felt pretty different from the last two, in that's it's got more science fiction and adventure.

There are a ton of literary references in this book, which at times I enjoyed and at times felt distracting.  Besides the references to Pinocchio, there are also references to Frankenstein (Victor brings robot Hap to life in his lab), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Nurse Ratched), The Wizard of Oz (robots with artificial hearts, and four friends traveling to the Electric City), and Wall-E (a cute robot who loves an old-time romantic movie). There were also elements that reminded me of Wrinkle in Time and Howl's Moving Castle. 

The story begins with Gio, a robot inventor on the run from civilization, who builds a home in the forest and is handed a baby, Victor, to raise.  Victor grows up knowing only his life in the forest with Gio and the robot friends they bring to life, until Gio's past catches up with him. Victor is forced to set out with robots Hap, Rambo and Nurse Ratched on a nearly impossible quest. There's part of the book that takes place in a creepy flying museum, and that was easily the most vivid and terrifying part of the story.

It's a science fiction novel about a future where robots have destroyed humanity, before humans can destroy the planet. As with most dystopian stories, the robots aren't any better at running things than the humans were, though I found it pretty hard to sympathize with the humans. It's also a story of Victor's coming of age, discovering who he is and what it means to be human and to love. What resonated with me was the theme of overcoming one's programming and forgiving yourself for your past.

Klune is never subtle, but he does bring the heart you'd expect to this story. However, I struggled a little with the pacing - it felt long, and I think he relies a little too much on the Rambo and Nurse Ratched humor, which was clever and funny at first but felt a little tired after a while. I think some editing was needed.  I did enjoy the development of Victor and Hap's friendship, and Victor's relationship with his father, but I also thought Hap and Gio needed more development beyond their guilt and their devotion to Vic.

So I had mixed feelings about this book, mainly because I loved Klune's last two so much. I enjoyed the reminders of other favorite stories and the world Klune creates in which robots have taken over. But some of the humor and dialogue felt quite repetitive, leaving me feeling the book was a bit slow compared to his others. Klune remains a must-read author for me though.

Note: I received a complimentary review copy from NetGalley and publisher Tor Books. This book published April 25, 2023.

TJ Klune has done it again with another magical and engrossing queer read. "In the Lives of Puppets" is sci-fi meets Pinocchio with an Ace lead.

Ever since I read The House in the Cerulean Sea, I have been a fan of TJ Klune. In the Lives of Puppets carries a lot of the same themes as Klune's recent previous books - love, acceptance, inclusivity, overcoming challenges, forgiveness - but the plot and characters were a lot harder for me to connect with in this book. While it was entertaining, and again, the overarching themes in the book were excellent, I did not enjoy the plot or setting as much as I had hoped.

TJ Klune has a masterful imagination and it shines in this post-AI apocalyptic world. He does what seems impossible, by humanizing artificial intelligence both for good and for evil. I appreciated the humor, especially from RAMBO and Nurse RATCHED. I always leave his books feeling like there's hope in a dark world.

What another great book from TJ Klune! I’ve read previous books from this author and really enjoyed them. I was pleasantly surprised to see that this was just as good as those. I enjoyed the story and the characters were very well written.

It pains me to not absolutely adore a Klune book, especially one with an asexual MC and ROBOTS. I was so damn excited. But unfortunately, the story didn’t grab my attention and I didn’t care about what happened to any of the characters. I made it to about 1/3 of the way through before giving up.

Review: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/🫑
This is an adult novel but written in the fairytale style like The House in the Cerulean Sea and Under the Whispering Door. It’s adult in that they talk about sexual pleasure, genitalia, and sexuality, but no 🌶️.

It’s like a mix of Pinocchio meets Wall-E meets Wizard of Oz with a heavy emphasis on Wall-E.

In the beginning I had a little hard time with the “romance”; it felt a little taboo and some of the adult elements felt forced and just icky. But I guess if you look at it as a mild “monster romance”, then why not robots?! The first 1/3rd is a little mundane in the daily activities. Around 30% it started to get good, then the plot took a twist around halfway through. So if you get bored at first, stick with it.

In the end it was a good heartfelt story and I teared up. If you liked Wall-E, you may like this. Especially if you also liked House in the Cerulean Sea and Under the Whispering Door.

Found family, sentient artificial intelligence, dystopian society, forgiveness, starting over. Oh, and it’s kind of funny, too.

I love TJ Klune. He is great at writing characters and describing emotions, human or otherwise. So far this is only my second TJ Klune book, but I will make sure to check out more of his work.

This is my introduction to the author, and boy, am I hooked.

I’ve been trying to write this review for days; my brain has been mostly spewing incoherent squeeing since I finished reading the book, to wit:

"science fiction that’s also sociology and a meditation on love and forgiveness and loneliness and family and did I mention love? and hope and despair and love. so good!"

The writing voice is engaging, and the story absorbing, to the point of losing hours even with the phone’s alarm set.

This is a story about loss and grief as much as it is about loneliness and hope and forgiveness; it’s also a coming of age story, and, above all, it’s a story about love.

I read with my heart in my throat almost from the beginning, for even as the world of the story is build before our eyes, the sense of impending disaster is there from the beginning: this family, these people have been eking out a precarious existence from the beginning, and the world was bound to come crashing down on their heads sooner rather than later.

And when it does, secrets come to light, truths that were never meant to be told.

Vic breaks my heart almost from the start; he’s so lonely, has so much love to give. And as he recovers and then fixes machines who become his friends, he has more love yet to give.

The way he’s written, I would say that Vic is somewhere in the autism spectrum. On the other hand, he was raised by a robot, and didn’t have any other companions or friends until he found and fixed first Nurse Ratched and then Rambo, so how much of his characterization is meant to be nature and how much nurture is up for each reader to decide, I think.

And while he’s very much the protagonist, the story told entirely from his point of view, Vic is not “the Chosen” in the traditional sense. He doesn’t set out to save the world. He’s just a young man, hardly more than a teen, still growing into himself, facing impossible situations and forced to make impossible choices.

It is worth mentioning that though it’s not really the focus of the novel, there’s an actual romance developing between Vic and Hap.

Every one of the characters is developed so well!–even some that only appear for a couple of pages, with just a few spoken lines. It may seem weird to say that about characters who are machines, and very much written as machines–sentient, true, but still machines, and some of them not particularly complex. And yet, it’s true.

There is a lot of humor, some a bit juvenile, some of it sly, and a lot of it dry in the best possible way. And the humor, of course, highlights the poignancy at the heart of the narrative.

Vic’s relationship with his family–Gio, his father and not; Nurse Ratched, his friend and also his mother; Rambo, who reminds so much of an earnest puppy, by turns scared of his own shadow and brave to the point of recklessness–is a lot more complex than it seems, and yet also simple: he loves them and they love him, freely, of their own accord.

It’s gorgeous storytelling, peppered with social commentary and so many cultural references–some very much of the twenty-first century, some much, much older, generally U.S.-centric–but even if you don’t get them all, you can still enjoy the narrative.

There is a quest, and our little group of adventurers must face threats and horrors to prevail, but again, at its core, the story is all about loss and hope and love, and, in the end, all I can say is that I want everyone to read this book.

In the Lives of Puppets gets a 9.75 out of 10.

I was lucky enough to get my hands on a @netgalley copy and I read it in two sittings, devouring this beautifully written book so quickly. I hated that I plowed through it BUT IT WAS SO GOOD. I loved it so much, I got myself a physical copy today!  
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I think this may be TJ Klune’s best work yet. I absolutely loved every detail and I totally cried, laughed and smiled a bunch while reading. Who won’t love Rambo?! IYKYK 
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Without a doubt a 5⭐️ read and I cannot recommend this enough💚

Another fantastic read from T.J. Klune. I admit, I wasn't as gripped in the beginning as I have been with his other novels, but it was beautifully written and I was attached to all of the characters by the end. Klune truly knows how to take human emotion and bring it to life through his characters.

Found family is my favorite trope, and I have yet to come across anyone who does it better than Klune. He put me through the whole gamut of emotions – again – and I don’t know if I should punch him or hug him for it.

Most of these characters are robots and machines, but the primary theme of the book is humanity and having the free will to choose who you want to be. I loved all of them, but Rambo (he’s a Roomba vacuum whose markings were faded and unclear) and Nurse Ratched, a nursing machine that is a Registered Automaton To Care, Heal, Educate and Drill, will always be with me. Nurse Ratched’s snark and eagerness to drill people who threatened her family immediately won me over. Rambo may be small, but he’s full of unconditional love and bravery. They, Gio, and Victor are composed of more metal than blood, but make no mistake – they’re a family with the strongest of bonds.

They’ve lived hidden and safe in the woods for many years until Vic salvages and repairs HAP (hysterically angry puppet). Hap unknowingly alerts the City of Electric Dreams to their whereabouts, and Gio is captured and taken back to his old laboratory. His family won’t stand for losing one of their own, and what follows is an adventure filled with danger, new experiences, and a world they never knew existed. Before embarking on this journey or entering any dangerous situation, th rules are always recited: Stick together. Run if we have to. No dallying. No drilling (unless Nurse Ratched decides it’s necessary). Above all else, be brave.

This book touched my heart in so many ways, and I can’t recommend it enough. You’ll laugh and maybe even cry a little, but you’ll be so glad you read it.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I have yet to read a book by Klune that wasn't both charming and impactful. These books are so cute and funny, but also tell a very heartwarming story while being wildly imaginative. I can't wait for his next one.

Deep in the forest, in a house built in the trees, Victor Lawson lives with his family, although his family isn’t a typical one. Giovanni, his father, is an android and an inventor. Rambo, a vacuum, and Nurse Ratchet, a robotic nurse, also live with Victor, also known as Vic. Vic likes to salvage and fix robots he finds in the scrap yard, and that is where he finds a robot that comes to be known as Hap, a robot that will unknowingly place Vic and his family in danger. When Gio, who had been in hiding, is captured and taken to the City of Electric Dreams, Vic and his robot family must leave the comfort of their forest home if they hope to save him.

Wow! I absolutely loved this novel! I loved the characters, the story, the messages and the themes; I could go on and on. I greatly enjoyed the humor in this book, especially the humor that comes out of Nurse Ratchet. The descriptions are nothing short of amazing and create an intriguing world full of interesting characters. Victor is a positive, strong, loving character that I took a huge interest in; I wanted him to be successful and happy. The messages about humanity and technology, as well as love and family, are so relevant and moving. At times it almost seemed like there was a Wizard of Oz vibe, which was kind of fun.

If I haven’t said it enough, I loved In the Lives of Puppets and I highly recommend it.

I am not really a fantasy fiction fan, but TJ Klune is a wonder. What a wonderful, fantastical book with love and heart. It is not often that you can connect with a book like this. Wonderful!

Victor is a human in a world run entirely by robots. His "father" Gio raises him in the woods with only robots as his family. When he is discovered as a human in a robot world, their entire future and existence are in jeopardy.

TJ Klune's brain is a mysterious wild place. I adored The House in the Cerulean Sea and Under the Whispering Door so my hopes were very high for this one and he delivered. He somehow creates these worlds not unlike our own but completely unlike anything we know today. In The Lives of Puppets is no exception. The world of Victor and Gio is a future state of our world if the robots take over, which is quite a poignant conversation in the rise of AI. Klune does such a great job of taking important timely topics and elevating them into a "what if" scenario with an engaging story about love, humanity, and how our choices now will make a huge impact on the future.

At the end of the acknowledgments Klune sums up this book and previous ones in the most perfect way. "Humanity is awful, angry, and violent. But we are also magical and musical. We dance. We sing. We create. We live and laugh and rage and cry and despair and hope. We are a bundle of contradictions without rhyme or reason. And there is no one like us in all the universe. Don't you think we should make the most of it?"

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for the ARC of this book.

I'd like to thank Netgalley and Tor Publishing Group, Tor Books for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I fell in love with this author when I read The House in the Cerulean Sea so I was excited to receive this ARC. I'm not really a Sci Fi reader but there's just something about his whimsical style that draws you in. This is a retelling story of Pinocchio meets The Wizard of Oz in a world filled with robots.

I loved the characters - I mean how could you not love a little vacuum named Rambo! I loved the humor, the writing, the relationships, and the plot. I'm not sure how you can successfully bring together Pinocchio, robots, family, and a little LGBTQ+ but T.J. Klune did it. Just saying this alone reminds me of a kindergartner telling a crazy unbelievable story.

The only drawbacks from a 5 star rating I would say that there are some parts where you may want a mature audience to read it. There were also parts where the story seemed to drag on where I would have to push through. Overall I loved it though and he has become one of those authors I trust to buy his books blindly.

In the Lives of Puppets by T. J. Klune is a smart futuristic retelling of Pinocchio. The book is filled with a lot of heart both literally and figuratively. The story is an emotional one with lots of twists and turns. The story is Pinocchio with a combination of Wall-E meets Terminator 2: Judgement Day. The characters are very memorable which makes this story work so well. Rambo is a little robot that I need in my life and was my favorite character by far. This story is a retelling of the classic story Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi but told for a new age with robots. I'm a sucker for a retelling but I need it to be clever as it makes odes to the original, actually being a retelling does not use one element of the story and throw everything else out and call it a retelling, and make changes that honor the original story's theme. In the Lives of Puppets nails all three of these elements. It has clever odes to the original with what it does to the whale, the Coachman, and the Blue Fairy. It is a true retelling of Pinocchio with a lot of changes but all while honoring the original. T. J. Klune is a member of the LGBTQIA+ and has said that every story he writes will have an LGTBQIA+ relationship. This story has one of the first asexual characters that stay asexual that I have read. The characters can't have sex since one is a robot so the intimacy is in touch, cuddling, and hugging. It works well and is more powerful than sex and suits the story. The pace of the book is pretty fast, there was one moment where the characters stay at one location a bit too long, but it changed locations soon after I could feel the moment. This is the third T.J. Klune book that I have read. My favorite is still The House in the Cerulean Sea, but In the Lives of Puppets is my second favorite, Under the Whispering Door is my least favorite, but still recommend it. I got a free copy to read In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune from Tor Books and Netgalley. In the Lives of Puppets was published on April 25, 2023.

Plot Summary: Victor Lawson is born and raised by robots. The story goes his parents ran into Gio as they were running from something or someone in the woods, they handed baby Victor to them as they ran away never to see Victor again. Victor is an inventor like his adopted father and has revived two robots Nurse Ratched, a nursing bot that is slightly sadistic, and Rambo, a people-pleasing vacuum droid. Victor is the only human he knows and is okay with that he spends most of his time at the scrap metal junkyard looking for parts or other robots. He finds Hap a combat droid that fights with Victor and wants to kill him, but Haps circuits die before he can. Victor who sees the good in robots wants to fix Hap. Hap is all torn up and has to use wood to fix him. Hap is turned on and is different Victor made him a heart that is made of his blood and wood. Hap can't remember what he is or his purpose. When Gio finds out what he has done he's furious and it is revealed that Gio before he went to the forest created Hap and a whole fleet of soldiers whose job was to kill humans. Victor's blood has a power that is slowly changing his coding and will protect him. We find out the reason he wanted to kill Victor in the first place was that Victor cut himself as he found Hap and he was reacting to the blood. Now a whole fleet is sent out to look for Victor. Gio has a plan but involves him sacrificing his humanity as he meets the robots and removes the heart Victor made for him. Victor must search for his father and try to restore the robot he grew up knowing.

What I Liked: The humor in this book is so good I laughed out loud a couple of times and shared quotes with my wife. Rambo is the biggest source of humor and steals so many scenes. There's a scene where his talking is going to get the group busted and they tell him to pretend he has no voice modulator and therefore can not speak. at which he starts doing sign language nonstop which is even more distracting. I liked what they did with the coachman in the original Pinocchio he has the traveling puppet show in this version he is a robot and has a traveling human exhibit. I also liked that the whale was a gigantic starship. I liked all the twists and how emotional they turned out to be. Victor and Gio's story will break your heart. The Victor and Hap love story works well because it is so subtle. The climax worked and was a great conclusion to the rising action.

What I Disliked: The first 40% of the book is almost at one location, and I was starting to get bored by it at the 35% percent mark. It was just a little too long at that location and was slowing down the pace of the book. I will say once the characters leave that location they do not come back. The book talks about sex a little here and the conversations are meant to be mortifying. I think there is a thin line between embarrassment and shame, and I feel sometimes it went into sex being shameful which didn't fit right with me knowing the main audience of this book it is just a couple of tiny scenes but it threw me out of it.

Recommendation and Ratings: In the Lives of Puppets is a great book with so much heart. It is a clever retelling of Pinocchio that I did not know I needed in my life. The story is magical and I recommend everyone check it out. TJ Klune has made me emotional in two books now In the Lives of Puppets and The House in the Cerulean Sea. I rated In the Lives of Puppets by T. J. Klune 5 out of 5 stars.

I love TJ Klune’s whimsical writing and how he always manages to keep me completely entertained while also touching on big life topics. In The Lives of Puppets was no exception! This one didn’t read quite as quickly as his previous books for me, but I still really enjoyed it and the lessons weaved throughout. I laughed out loud so many times - Nurse Ratched and Rambo were so stinking hilarious! I really enjoyed all of the characters. I teared up several times, and my heart filled with so much emotion. The group’s trip from the forest to the City of Electrical Dreams to save Gio had me on the edge of my seat. If you’re into whimsical fantasy and liked TJ’s prior books, I’d definitely recommend this one!