This is a dystopia mix retelling of Pinocchio and the Robinson family that has made me laugh a lot and almost, almost a few tears.
It is a story that will steal your heart because of the variety of its characters, Nurse Ratched with her black humor that tells you things without filter, Rambo, oh Rambo will steal your heart with his innocence and loyalty, and Hap and Victor will show us that there are no impossibles when you really love something or someone. Oh and of course Gio who is the creator of all these characters, without him none of them would exist.
It is a book that shows us that not even machines are perfect and can make mistakes as much as humans, that you can change if you really feel it. Forgiveness is difficult and sometimes impossible, but it is not necessary to do it if we can’t, sometimes it is best to move forward and start again. It shows us the value of friendship, loyalty, forgiveness and love in all its forms.
This is a story that will stay with me forever, it goes on my list of books to reread, and of course 100% recommended.

TJ Klune always knows how to get his readers in the feels, and In the Lives of Puppets is no exception. This is a retelling of Pinocchio using robots, including a Roomba with anxiety that you can't help but love. Even though this story is about robots it has all the hallmarks of a great human story such as love, family, loneliness, adventure, humor, and friendship. Klune continues to be a master story teller!

Everytime I read a book by TJ Klune I end up crying & enjoying the entirety of the book.

The story begins with Giovanni finding the perfect location to build his new home in the woods. A woman brings a young baby to him when it seems as she is being hunted & searched for. He tries to ask for the baby’s name but never gets it. He decides on the name Victor & treats him as his own son.

Victor grew up to do lots of tinkering and creating. While going to the scrap yards he fixes up an old nurse robot they named Ratched and a vacuum robot they named Rambo. You quickly learn that Victor is human & his dad is actually a robot as well.

Ratched is truly unhinged and hilarious. If anything you should read this book for her commentary. I can’t really put any of her quotes or Amazon could flag my review. 🤦🏽‍♀️

Victor, Rambo & Ratched save another android from the scrap yard and brought him back to life. He is volatile & hates everyone initially. Gio is pretty upset that Victor keeps going to the scrap yard because it’s extremely dangerous for a human to exist. If he were to get caught it would be deadly.

There is love & compassion from robots in this book while there is also crazy plot twists to this book as well. I won’t spill the beans on any of them because it’s significantly better to read about them than to see the spoilers.

The journey throughout this book was beautiful & I am looking forward to reading more from TJ Klune in the future. I definitely recommend picking up this book to read!

Thank you again to the author, the publisher, & NetGalley for letting me read this!

Here’s a funny quote from Ratched to end the review 😂
🤖 “He can fix almost anything. And he decided to fix you, so you should be thankful to your father. Your dad. Your daddy. Error. Error. Do not call people ‘daddy.’ That is unprofessional.”

There is so much I could say about this book but I’ll try to keep it relatively coherent. I went into this blind and didn’t even read the synopsis. I wanted to be surprised.

I was not expecting the adventure of a lifetime with the funniest robot sidekicks. I absolutely love Rambo with all my heart. Victor is such a great protagonist and has to come into his own while dealing with so many unanswered questions about his past.

Without giving major spoilers - this is a fantastic read and very on brand for TJ Klune. I will be buying this one for my shelves as soon as possible. Read this immediately. Just do it.

Deep in the forest, in a time where man and machine can coexist side by side, an inventor android named Giovanni Larson lives with a sociopathic refurbished nurse machine, a highly-anxious but very loyal robot vacuum, and his human son, Victor.

For Giovanni, Vic, and their unlikely companions, live in the protection of their hidden wood is full of wonder. Then, one day, Vic discovers the remains of an android they name "Hap" in the scrap yard near their homes in the trees. Following in the steps of his father, Vic restores the mysterious machine and unknowingly sets off a chain of events that will alter the course of their lives forever as a shared, dark past between Giovanni and Hap comes to light.

A rather dystopian, robot-riddled retelling of Pinocchio, "In the Lives of Puppets" is teeming with the kind of dark, laugh-out-loud moments, unforgettable misfit ensembles, and heartstring-tugging magic that trademarks TJ Klune at his very, very best. This story is an adventure of the most creative and epic proportions in every way, and at its core, tells the kind of found-family story that everyone needs to read at least once in their lifetime.

I simply couldn't get enough of Hap, Vic, and the other characters in this book; when all was said and done--and I really do say this rarely--I wanted this book to be even longer. Klune, as always, demonstrates his mastery at weaving whimsical stories with life's most imperative questions, and for me, the resounding question here is:

What does it mean to truly love someone, past, broken parts, and all?

Yet another classic Klune novel! While being wildly different from House in the Cerulean Sea and Under the Whispering Door, this book has that same wonderfully cozy feel that you always get from Klune's writing. This was a fun sci fi dystopian adventure full of hilarious banter and a lot of heart! A fantastical combination of Pinocchio and Murderbot Diaries.

This was a read I enjoyed, but I didn't enjoy this as much as some of Klune's other works. I think something about the AI / sci fi machines just didn't fully resonate with me. I loved Rambo and Nurse Ratched, they stole the show for me. This was an interesting read and I can definitely see it being enjoyed by a lot of people.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect going in to this but I ended up really enjoying it! It didn’t capture me in the same way that Under the Whispering Door did but for someone who isn’t big into Sci-Fi and robots I had a fun time.

The story follows our main character, Victor, who lives in the woods with his dad and their two friends secluded away from the rest of society. You soon learn that Victor is the only human in the group and the rest are robots. When Victor comes across a decommissioned robot one day and he takes on the task of helping him, things don’t go quite according to plan and Victor and his friends have to work together to save his father.

You can tell this book definitely draws on inspiration from Pinocchio and The Wizard of Oz which I have mixed feelings about. I think it was executed well in how it pulls those themes and ideas in but the Wizard of Oz aspects toward the end felt kind of weird and out of place to me.

There are common themes that you can expect to see in Klune’s books such as found family, positive mental health representation, and discussions regarding sexuality and those were all present here. Victor has anxiety and is also asexual and I appreciate that the book highlighted these things while not making it a focus. It was addressed and came up naturally, much in the same way it normally does in real life.

I think the biggest strength of this book is the characters and their love and loyalty for each other. Their interactions were so sweet and funny and you can feel how much they all care for each other and the lengths they’re willing to go to in order to protect each other. I thought the added in romance element later on was also very sweet and heartwarming and I really enjoyed that and felt that it was well balanced with the rest of the plot.

Another strength this book has is the writing and creativity. The world and surroundings were described extremely well and I could vividly picture everything. I haven’t read anything quite like this before and I love when something feels new and fresh.

Moving on to what I didn’t love, there are a few things. I didn’t always love the dialogue and thought it was a bit weird at times. The humor was a little too much on the pop culture side of things and it didn’t land for me a lot of the time. I also thought the pacing was a bit weird, for the first 35% of the book I was enjoying it but I also had no idea where the book was going to go or what the ultimate goal was supposed to be. Lastly, I just didn’t connect with the story in the same way that I have in the past. Although I loved all the characters I didn’t feel that strong sense of emotional attachment that I have with other books. I cant put my finger on why exactly but there was just something missing for me that made me give this 4 stars instead of 5.

All in all, I really enjoyed this book and I had a good time reading it!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Tor/Forge for providing me with this eARC!

WHAT A LETDOWN.

I love TJ Klune. He creates a beautiful world with a real message and it just warms your heart. In the Lives of Puppets did not do that. It was just WEIRD in a not great way. I appreciate his representation of the LGBTQIA+ community, but it felt so forced and irrelevant in this novel.

All in all, I was very disappointed.

This was such a delightful and fresh retelling of Pinocchio! I loved every minute of this book, and I am now deeply emotionally attached to Nurse Ratched and Rambo. They genuinely had me cackling in delight at times.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

"Stick together!...Run if we have to....No dallying....No drilling....And above all else, be brave!"

Easily my favorite book by TJ Klune, thus far. This book is so special for so many reasons that I'm going to find difficult to put into words. Giovanni lives in a treehouse with his son, Victor, and two robots, Rambo and Nurse Ratchet. It's just the four of them and has been for quite some time until Victor, Rambo, and Nurse Ratchet find a robot that is partially still active and decide to fix him and give him a heart. What follows changes their lives forever.

The warmth in this book overflows. I laughed and smiled throughout reading. I read and re-read passages, highlighting and saving lines that I knew I would want to revisit over and over. The found family in this book is typical of a Klune novel and yet so much more. Victor's determination, Rambo's neurotic behaviors, and Nurse Ratchet's dry humor quickly captured my heart. There is love, acceptance, and a willingness to stand for the others when needed. I loved this little motley crew and cheered them on throughout their entire journey. The wit is some of the best I have ever read. It is just such a smart, beautifully written book and one that I feel like everyone should read.

If you are lonely, this book is for you. If you wonder where your place is, this book is for you. If you just love to laugh and live in tales of adventure, this book is for you. If you love family that you choose, this book is for you. I say it every book, but I need to say it again: Thank you, TJ Klune, for writing something so beautiful and touching. This is what the world needs and I'm so glad I'm living during the time you are writing.

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.