Boy meets robot in this simultaneously heartwarming and heart wrenching novel by TJ Klune. While in some ways this novel is a reimagining of the Adventures of Pinocchio, and you can see the mirroring of themes and even motifs from the original novel, the science fiction setting sets it apart as a tale of its own.

When Victor finds an android hanging on to life in the salvage yard he knows he has to help, but little does he know the chain of events that this will set off. Before he knows it, Victor is forced to trek across a land completely unfamiliar to him in order to bring his family back together. Luckily, he has his rag-tag group of robot friends to protect him from and guide him through a world that wants humans gone. Will he be able to reunite with his captured family? What will be the cost, and will things ever go back to how they were before?

Need I say WOW, this was another huge hit for me from TJ Klune. The amount of wit and humor spread throughout the otherwise high-stakes story helps to balance the tone and make this a book I would have read in one sitting if I had the time. In a way, this is a coming-of-age story because Victor has been living in seclusion since childhood and has a lot to learn about the world if he’s going to succeed in navigating it. He also has a lot to learn about love and romance, and how that looks for him knowing he identifies as asexual. Overall, this book has an engaging cast of characters and an interesting and dynamic world and lore. While I didn’t see the ending coming, I think it was very fitting to the lessons learned by the characters throughout their journey.

Content warnings: blood, violence, death, grief.

This was a hard one for me. I ultimately gave it a 3.75/5 stars. As a huge TJ Klune book my
Expectations for this one were sky high and sadly it didn’t live up to that. First off the amount of “sexual humour” in this book really tampered with my enjoyment of the book. When every chapter has at least one “dick” joke in it it really starts to feel like a book targeted to 12 year old boys and not an adult title. Also I did love the asexual rep in the book but as someone who is asexual why would you add in so many sexual jokes in the book? It really changed my enjoyment of the book sadly. However I did enjoy other aspects. No one can write found families such as

In the Lives of Puppets is a Queer Fantasy by Author TJ Klune. A Pinocchio retelling focused on the life of a human in raised by an android in a world that has been taken over and run by them. Following him on his quest along with his robot companions as they save the father who raised him. An android father who sacrifices to save his son, a neurotic Roomba robot, a medical robot with no boundaries or filter, an android whose given a second chance , and the asexual MC who unites them all.

I'm not sure what to write in this review. Honesty is my policy but while this book took me longer than usual to get through and wasn't a fun experience for me, I can see so many other readers absolutely loving it. Especially if you loved Klune's Tales of Verania series. My favorite aspect was the heavy emphasis on found family and not letting your past determine your future but I had trouble connecting with the the overall story and any of the characters.

This is a very TJ Klune book -- it's cutesy with quirky characters and a very slow burn, no spice romance. While I typically love close character work, this one felt really slow to me, only picking up around 60%, and the first thing that really got me interested and excited was at 75%. Maybe it's because I'm disenchanted with Klune after his caucasity regarding Cerulean Sea, or maybe it really was just a swing and a miss this time. I feel like nothing deviated from the norm re: tone, characters, storyline....but maybe that's the problem. Maybe it's just fitting too neatly into a mold.

In the Lives of Puppets was well-written and had an interesting and unexpected plot. The Pinocchio aspect of the book was subdued to the point where I didn’t really notice it at all. While some parts felt unnecessary, the story held my attention and the characters were all very likable like all of TJ Klune’s books.

The connections and interactions between characters are definitely the heart of the book. They have a found family that’s really wholesome and always sticks together. You kinda just wanna give all of the characters a hug because they’ve all been through a lot, but no matter what, they always have each other's backs. It’s definitely the type of book that really makes you think. It’s heavy at times and Klune’s writing makes you feel like you’re going on a journey with them. He always does that with his books where the writing style pivots with the character growth.

Thank you NetGalley for an advance copy of this book!

In The Lives Of Puppets

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I was ecstatic when I was sent this ARC because if you don’t know by now, House In The Cerulean Sea is one of my favorite books. Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for a copy of this in exchange for my honest review.

Victor, a human, lives with three robots who are all he’s ever known as family. His family consists of his father Gio, a roomba machine named Rambo, and a nurse machine named Nurse Ratchet. One day, he comes across a new robot named HAP that has been disposed of in a junkyard. After giving this new robot life again, Victor’s safety has been compromised. As a way to protect Victor, Gio has been taken by authorities. Victor is set on an adventure to find his dad, and bring him back home. In The Lives Of Puppets was inspired by The Adventures of Pinocchio, Swiss Family Robinson, and Wall-E.

🤖 T.J. Klune shows his strength in character building writing style considering the entire dialogue throughout the book is between a human and robots. Rambo, Nurse Ratched, and HAP each have their own unique personalities that lead to conversations that are filled with wit, banter, sarcasm, love, affection, and humor to name a few. There were so many times I caught myself smiling at some of the things these characters would say.
🤖While this book is centered around relationships with robots, this book is deep. We see Victor and his attempts at processing his many emotions while being surrounded in an environment where it’s not normal to feel. This books shows the lengths we will go for our relationships, even when there is a history that could make you reconsider.

Definitely treat your shelves to this adventure of a story! You will love to get to know the characters in this one. You’ll be able to get your hands on a copy of this TOMORROW April 25th!!!

I have absolutely adored all the books I have read by TJ Klune. I was over the moon to receive an early copy of their latest book. The bar was set so high for me, but ultimately I think this book was not my favorite from this author. This book had the same quirky characters, but for some reason I just found I could not connect with them in the same way. I am still a huge fan of this author and will always read anything they write!

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Books for the advanced reader copy of this book!

This is my first TJ Klune book and I am far from disappointed. I went into this book ready for the hype because of who the author is and now I get it. This book was everything.

If you’re a fan of Murderbot and other stories that feature sassy robots then this is the book for you. Victor is a skinny inventor who brings home what he thinks is unassuming tech, but ends up bringing chaos to his tiny found family, especially his adopted robot dad Gio.

This was a heartwarming sci Fi fantasy that’s dialogue will have you cackling.

~I don't know how to not be weird," Rambo said. "That's like asking the birds to stop flying."~

I received an eARC of this book for review from Tor Publishing Group via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.
• The Brief: This retelling of The Adventures of Pinocchio places familiar characters, with a twist or two, in a post-apocalyptic setting.
• Aimed at readers looking for introspective storytelling featuring Klune’s quirky characters, found family, and themes of free will, redemption, and forgiveness. Especially if you loved Chauncey!

Set in a world where machines became sentient long ago, a man living in alone in the forest raises a child and tinkers with the leftover remnants of human material culture until civilization pulls them into a dangerous adventure. The writing exudes Klune’s characteristic charming and quirky characters, found family dynamics, and sweet romance.

I enjoyed the many pop culture references, some more obvious than others. The toaster quip was particularly amusing. I wonder how many I missed! The main characters were generally well developed. I adored Rambo nearly as much as Chauncey. However, I found many of the secondary characters inconsistent or shallow. The world building was surface level and the plot straightforward, as the primary focus was given to the characters and the themes. The inciting incident at the end of Part I was effective and emotionally devastating, though.

This may be a reimagining of Pinocchio, but after reading this with friends I can’t stop comparing it to the wizard of oz. You have an odd and quirky foursome who go on an adventure to the big city to rescue their dad/inventor. To steal what my reading buddies said, this story is both light and heavy at the same time. It’s a light whimsical story with funny characters, but it centres around a heavy concept: what makes us human / alive.

I liked it, but I didn’t love it. The characters were fun, but I wanted more depth from them. I know, most of them are robots…but still. We got a taste of romance and then it was over. A taste of this and that but never enough to really satiate. I’d recommend it as a quick light read, but if you loved cerulean sea, I’d say the protagonist is a bit less compelling in this one.

A lot of people love T. J. Klune for his cozy, emotional writing & stories. This has that beloved writing style and the added (relatively quirky) advantage of being a pinnochio retelling, which is something that I haven’t seen a lot of. It’s not really objectively better or worse than his other novels. I think people will definitely have a favorite of his books or be able to genuinely relate or feel emotions for one more than others. It’s got all of his typical sweet, cozy, and heart-warming writing techniques = everything Klune typically enjoys embedding into his writing. I could see a ton of people absolutely falling in love with this one just as much as they did The House in the Cerulean Sea.

Vic is the 22 year old human son of Gio (a robot), and has only known the woods, his father, and the salvage yard where all the robot scraps end up. Over the years, he has pieced together and repaired two other robots, Nurse RATCHED and Rambo, who are his best friends. One morning, when searching the scrap heap for parts to repair his father's mechanical heart, they come across a robot who is not quite dead and decide to take him home. They repair him and name him HAP because those are the letters still visible from his markings. HAP is not just any robot: He was created to find and kill humans. Vic's well-intended rescue begins a domino effect that will change his life forever. Gio is taken by the robot police back to their capital, Electric City, and Vic and his friends set out to bring him back home.

If you enjoy TJ Klune's other books, this one is a little different but it has the same heart. It's more sci-fi, and that might put some people off. I love the found family theme that Klune's books have, and while this doesn't have as many warm fuzzies as, say The House in the Cerulean Sea, I still enjoyed it.

I received this ARC courtesy of Goodreads in return for my honest opinion.

In The Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune is a beautiful and heartwarming queer retelling of the classic story of Pinocchio. The book follows a young man and his robot family as they are forced to leave their home and embark on a journey to rediscover themselves and what it means to be a family. The story is filled with humor, wit, and plenty of heart, and Klune's writing is as poignant and engaging as ever.

One of the standout features of the book is the way in which Klune explores themes of identity and self-discovery through the lens of the robot characters. Their struggles to understand themselves and their place in the world will resonate with readers of all backgrounds and orientations, and the book's emphasis on found family is both uplifting and inspiring.

Overall, In The Lives of Puppets is a beautiful and uplifting story that is sure to touch the hearts of readers. Klune's writing is as sharp and engaging as ever, and the book's combination of humor, heart, and social commentary make it a standout addition to the world of queer literature. Highly recommended for fans of LGBTQ+ fiction and anyone who loves a good story filled with heart and hope.

TJ Klune has a way with words! In his Pinocchio inspired book, we follow Vic and his band of misfits as they race to save his father. This dystopian novel is unlike any you have ever read before and will remind you that you ALWASY have the choice of who you show up to the world as!

4/5 stars.

In the Lives of Puppets is cozy fantasy with deep and complex themes dealt with in an amazing way. TJ Klune has a unique way of capturing grief, that speaks so well to a wide variety of people, myself included. I think different from Under the Whispering Door though this is the grief of dealing with major change in life and mourning a life you could've lived. A life that is upended and now you need to find a new stasis, a new normal as it were. I think this book is especially relevant for the world in a post-pandemic/new normal space.

This book is lighter on the romance aspects than a lot of Klune's previous works and that is due to the MC identifying as asexual, which is great representation. You can expect to find the found family trope which is something I've come to expect and love in Klune's works, and this family is a motley bunch indeed.

Overall, I'd highly recommend picking up In the Lives of Puppets, out April 25th.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of In the Lives of Puppets.

I'm not a big fan of science fiction, I don't read much of it, but I will read outside my usual genre if I find a premise intriguing like I did with In the Lives of Puppets.

This book is a unique retelling of Pinocchio, and though there are some similarities, the Blue Fairy, the Stromboli-like character, the author weaves a unique and fascinating tale filled with good world-building and memorable characters.

The story transcends genres; it's science fiction, but it's also about love, family, loyalty, forgiveness, respect, and so much more.

It's a testament to the author's way with words that I found Rambo, Nurse Ratched, and Gio more compelling characters than Vic, and he's the human.

A few days after I finished reading In the Lives of Puppets, I think of Rambo's exuberant, sincere exclamations about being brave and Nurse Ratched's employing her Empathy Protocol, which is how I feel when my friends and family are rambling about a topic I could care less about.

I need to remind myself that friends and family listen to their friends and family, whether or not the topic is interesting or inane.

I loved Rambo, though Nurse Ratched's personality and humor is more in line with my own. You do need an optimistic person in your group of friends to balance everyone else out.

The only thing I didn't like was Vic and Hap's romance; I'm still not sure why they like each other nor did I find it necessary to the narrative.

As I've said before, a romance is not essential in books regardless of genre. Why can't they just be BFFs?

I'd love to read a story featuring Rambo and Nurse Ratched on an adventure of their own.

They remind me of two of the three robots in one of the shorts on NetFlix's Love, Death and Robots.

In the Lives of Puppets would make a great miniseries on the streaming site, too.

All alone, deep in a forest, lives an unusual family. There’s Gio, the inventor android, Rambo, a cleaning robot, and Nurse Ratched, a medical bot. There’s also Victor, a young human man raised by Gio who’s never seen another of his kind. They all live peacefully until one day, Victor brings home an android from the scrap yards named Hap. Repairing Hap sets off a chain of events that reveals secrets and leads to Gio being captured by strange and ominous looking robots. While Victor grapples with revelations, he knows one thing for sure: he’s going to journey to the city where Gio was taken and get his father back.

IN THE LIVES OF PUPPETS is a book with a charming premise that unfortunately becomes a bit muddled by the end. I really liked the first half of this story. It’s got a wonderful set-up, and I enjoyed meeting the robots, particularly Rambo, the very nervous cleaning bot. It was a comfort to settle into their day-to-day lives and to experience the inevitable heartbreak. There’s also some genuinely humorous dialogue (Nurse Ratched’s deadpan delivery alongside contrasting images on her monitor was a delight).

There’s been a lot of emphasis in the marketing for this book that this tale was inspired by Pinocchio, and I can definitely see those influences in the story. However, there is just as much inspiration taken from THE WIZARD OF OZ. You need look no further than Victor’s three companions: a robot who can’t remember things, one that lacks empathy, and one that’s not very brave. It’s a true fusion of these two tropes that stops it from being completely predictable, as you can’t tell from which story the author is going to pull from next.

Overall, this was a fine adventure, but there were two elements that stopped the story from being a solid home run from me. The first is the most subjective: there was a significant amount of humor that wasn’t to my taste. Much as I liked Nurse Ratched’s deadpan commentary, many of her jokes have to do with her nonchalant discussion of genitalia and sex (meant to embarrass Victor like any kid whose parent starts talking about such things) and whether or not Victor is feeling aroused by another character. While I could have tolerated a couple of jokes in this vein, there is a LOT of that humor throughout the book, and I just got tired of it.

The other part where the book felt flat was I wasn’t sure what the thematic point was by the end. Was it about free will and choosing your own path? Was it about forgiveness? Human connection? The one given most weight is certainly about forgiveness, particularly who has the “right” to forgive, but not even that theme landed in an impactful way. And the moment where the title of the book came up, I was left utterly perplexed by what the character was trying to convey in the context of the full sentence. Perhaps I just didn’t “get” it, but the ending felt a bit rushed and left me underwhelmed.

IN THE LIVES OF PUPPETS had the makings of a tale I was ready to fully enjoy. I’ve gotten a lot out of the author’s past books, and did like getting to meet the characters he created for this outing. Unfortunately, I didn’t quite connect with the final act of the story. While I did like a number of things about the overall story, this feeling of lack of payoff took away from some of the emotional punch of the finale for me personally. Others without my humor hang-ups will undoubtedly like it more, but for me, the biggest takeaway is that Rambo must be protected at all costs.

Once again, TJ Klune has proven he can write the most whimsical, adorable books ever. I rarely dip into genres not based in reality, but here I was, having a splendid time reading about anxious, sassy, and grumpy robots. I bounced between the ebook and audiobook, and the audiobook is truly special. I would have initially thought that listening to someone make robot voices for over 15 hours would be painful, but the narrator's distinct, amusing voices added to the charm.

In the Lives of Puppets is based loosely on The Adventures of Pinocchio, and I loved the creativity and world-building in this universe where humans are effectively nonexistent. Even though I thought the book went on a little longer than it needed to and at times it was a little bit too cutesy for my tastes, I can't fault it for putting a smile on my face and making me laugh.

TJ Klune continues to nail it! This was a delightful and feel good story, just as I have come to expect. I have already pre-ordered the hardcover book and plan to purchase a copy for our library as well.

Are you looking for an easily accessible fantasy book that will give you all the feels?
Robots - This world is filled with robots, of all types and shapes and functions. Here we following Gio, an aware robot that creates things.
Human - Humans are forbidden in this world, mostly because the robots do not want to be controlled. But Gio is lonely, so he creates a son, Victor.
Taken - Due to a snafu, the robots figure out there is a human among them, so they take Gio and wipe him.
Found Family - Victor must travel to the place where all the robots live in order to rescue his dad, along with his found family of “puppets”.

So in this book, some of the robots are called puppets which can be confusing until you read why. The robot characters are extremely fun, and as such I highly recommend the audio book because the voices really made the book for me. Victor’s found family are Rambo, a vacuum who likes the Fred Astair movie Top Hat, and Nurse Ratched who is the health robot who makes really funny double entendre statements. This book is a solid found family trope that TJ Klune is famous for, and I loved the story. However, this book is not my fav of his, mostly because of the fact that robots are just not my thing. But like I said, the audio book will entertain you!