I really enjoyed this Sci-Fi Fantasy story, but I would not really put it in the romance category, at least not in the usual sense that I associate with romances.

For me, this was more of a story about human Victor's relationship with his robot father, Gio, and his other robotic friends, with the barest smidge of a love story thrown in for good measure.

I loved the touching scenes between Victor and Gio, but since they were both fairly middle-of-the-road characters in terms of quirkiness, I was happy to see a bit of snark and humor introduced in the form of Nurse Ratched, along with Rambo providing a lot of enthusiasm and innocence.

Nurse Ratched's “Engaging Empathy Protocol" made me laugh, because one second, she was sweet and comforting, then she'd “Disengage Empathy Protocol" and be absolutely brutal and cutting to the same person in the blink of an eye.

One thing that I did find annoying was the frequency of HAP's robotic stuttering, which tended to feel distracting and constantly tripped up the fluidity of my reading of the story.

After seeing how the group had been living hidden in the forest as a happy family, it was pretty heart-wrenching when the Terrible Dogfish showed up and Gio was taken away, along with their home being utterly destroyed.

I found their journey to the City of Electric Dreams to get Gio back both engaging and entertaining, with several obstacles to overcome along the way, including finding help from an initially-malicious robot.

The parts with the Blue Fairy were compelling, as you weren't sure what their true motivations were and if they could be trusted, which added to the elements of danger and intrigue.

That's all of the spoilers that I feel comfortable with, though I will say that after leaving the city, the road to a full-on happy ending wasn't immediate, but they did eventually get there. Maybe not to the point of an HEA, but that's where the story seemed to be heading.

I'd rate this one at around 4 stars and recommend it for readers of TJ's *newer* books and if you're curious about the romance, it's about the same level of romance as that of his "House in the Cerulean Sea".

another banger by tj klune. it is by far my favorite out of his 3 newest ones. what i love most about this one is that the paternal love to his father is almost more present and in focus than his romantic love to the love interest. it is so refreshing and beautiful. also the friendships in this book were wonderfully written, typical for a tj klune book.

TJ Klune is a favorite author of mine, and will continue to be due to this absolutely stunning, hilarious, and heartwarming novel. A queer retelling of Pinocchio, I found this book to be exceptional and cannot recommend it enough.

As with all TJ Klune novels, the concept for this novel is extraordinary. What would happen if machines became sentient and what are the consequences of that? However, this is not a doom and gloom, this is the end, apocalyptic style story. Instead, it is a novel that makes the reader FEEL. I laughed. I cried, I thought, I wondered. I contemplated. It is only through Klune's unparalleled ability to craft such a world that a story about machines could feel so entirely relatable.

Klune creates a world that is familiar, yet unique. And he does this through his writing and his characters. I always think that Klune's writing and characters are sensational. But in this book, I feel both are elevated because of the ideas he conveys so effortlessly. Through his writing and through Vic, Nurse Ratched, Hap, Rambo, and Gio, he gets the reader to think about what it means to truly be human. What it means to defy expectations. What it means to love and forgive, to accept an individual for who they are in the present moment, for better or for worse. These poignant concepts, seamlessly conveyed through his writing and characters, are what makes this story so special.

Overall, the author has created a story that reminds us of the value of human connection, the possibilities of humanity, and what it means to be alive. Read this book. You won't regret it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Books for the ability to read this book in exchange for an honest review. And thank you to TJ Klune for writing such a remarkable story.

An interesting take on a classic retelling with hints of nostalgia, machine aesthetic, and traditional tropes we expect from Klune in the form of found family and queer romance. It’s Pinocchio meets Wizard of Oz in TJ Klune’s latest speculative fiction work!

I was so looking forward to reading this book. However, after trying three times, I've just been really unable to get into it. I loved TJ Klune's other novels. I think maybe this would be a good summer read so I will try again in the summer.

(i received this e-ARC from the publisher and netgalley in exchange for an honest review.)

while i've been on a streak of enjoying Klune's previous works, this did not hit the same notes like before.

“Sometimes, it’s the smallest things that can change everything when you least expect it.”

This is described as “a queer retelling of The Adventures of Pinocchio” by the author and it gave all of those vibes, plus mixed in with little dashes of Frankenstein (a sci-fi/robotic take), The Brave Little Toaster, The Wizard of Oz, The Swiss Family Robinson, and Wall-E! And honestly, I was here for all of it! This delivered on that quirky, soul-brightening, joy-filled, heart-achy ride that TJK always does.

The story opens with Giovanni, an inventor android, finding a curious, dilapidated building—long forgotten, in an old and lonely forest, far away from almost everything. He decides to fix it up and make it into a house, a house for many things. Except when he finishes, he realizes there isn’t much space for himself and he decides to build up amongst the trees: a big house, a sunroom, and a laboratory, all connected by rope bridges. One day, a few years into Giovanni living in the forest alone, a man and a woman show up asking for his help. They leave him a baby bundled in rags, asking Gio to take the baby and keep him safe. Gio names the baby Victor and raises him as his own.

We then cut to years later. Victor “Vic” is now 21, and spends most of his time in the Scrap Yards with his robotic friends collecting parts. He found and repaired a tiny vacuum robot, that he named Rambo, who has anxiety and worries about most things: dirt on the floor, dirt on Vic’s hands, and death in all manner of ways. And Nurse Registered Automaton to Care, Heal, Educate, and Drill (or Nurse Ratched for short), who loves to threaten Rambo for fun and has sociopathic tendencies at times. One day Vic, Rambo, and Nurse Ratched happen across an android in need of repairs. They bring back to life “HAP” and while Vic feels pulled to this new android in his life, he also learns some dark secrets of HAP and Vic’s father Gio. When androids show up in the secluded forest to take Gio away to the City of Electric Dreams, Vic and his family set off to bring Gio back home!

This felt unique, yet familiar. I grew up a sci-fi fantasy loving girl, so my heart was happy…so many fun nods and inspirations you can feel while reading this. The writing was really quite lovely and I loved the adventure tale it told! While some of the humor and dialogue didn’t always work for me, I still really enjoyed the found (created) family in here and these characters that were so much more than the parts they were made of!

Thank you to the publisher (Tor Books) for an e-ARC via NetGalley. All thoughts in this review are my own. In the Lives of Puppets is out April 25, 2023!

I love TJ Klune. I wanted to love this one even half as much as I love his other books. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get into this. I am not in love with rewrites, fairytale or otherwise. I don’t love androids. But I love TJ Klune. Unfortunately I couldn’t get through this one. I’ll still recommend it though.

Thanks to Netgalley and Tor for gifting me an early copy of this book. I love book gifts! Below is my honest review.

I love TJ Klune. He's a master of writing gay romance that don't stray overly far into naughty territory and instead focus on delving deeply into his characters and really showing us who they are and bringing them together. He's also great at developing interesting new worlds.

That being said, for some reason, I struggled to connect with the characters in this one. It was a fun story - very Wizard of Oz meets break-in-rescue heist in a wacky, Klune, techno-weird way. But I wasn't really drawn into the character romance like I normally am. (That being said - Rambo and Nurse Ratched are two of his best characters ever and really the only two that entertained me!)

I did love the messages he was trying to get across in this one. I felt the urgency to spend time with those you care about, because you never know when life will change. I felt the burden of carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders, of an obligation thrust on you that you never asked for. I felt the confusion and frustration with trying to figure out who you are and what your place is in the world.

Because of the lack of connection I felt with the majority of the characters, I can't give this one my usual Klune 5. I'm going to give it a 3.75 rounded up to 4. Recommended for Klune fans - I hope you don't have the same issue I have.

Big shout-out to Tor for their willingness to publish weird, endearing, entertaining content for gay people. In a world of hatred and vitriol, I value allies. Thank you!

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this title.

It took me a little bit to settle on a rating for this one, but I think I'm going to land on 3.5 rounded up to 4. I absolutely loved 2 of Klune's other novels The House on the Cerulean Sea and Under the Whispering Door. They were both easy 5 stars and are books that I consider all time favorites. This one didn't do it for me like those 2 did though. I wasn't expecting this novel to be SciFi (my own fault. I didn't read the synopsis. It's clearing a science fiction novel). I don't really have a problem with that, but I did need to adjust my expectations a bit.

Things I enjoyed: The writing style. As expected, this book is beautifully written. I loved the imagery and humor. I found the writing very engaging. Nurse Ratched and Rambo. These 2 are hilarious and really made the book for me. The setting. I really loved how a lot of this story was actually quite dark. Once it is revealed what has happened and why Victor is living with androids, it definitely makes everything just seem very bleak. All of that said, this book was funny and sweet.

Dislikes: The love story. Sorry but I can't with this one. I loved the found family aspect of this book, but the romance was not it for me. It was too weird. I also felt like this book took a bit to get going. It was tough to get through the first 25% or so. After that point though, I didn't want to put it down and ended up reading the last 3/4 all in one day.

Overall, I liked this book a lot. I feel like this is one that I will be thinking about for a while. It's definitely memorable. I enjoyed the characters and the writing. I might even recommend this one to friends and family that don't typically read stories about androids. I don't think it has the magic that his other novels did, however, it was an enjoyable read.

“‘What do you do if you’ve forgotten all you know?’

Dad opened his eyes. He was silent for a moment, as if carefully choosing his words. ‘You start again from the beginning.’”

Thank you so much to @netgalley and @torbooks for an ARC of this novel!

Summary: An inventor, Gio, and his son, Victor, live deep in the forest along with a sadistic, but loving, nurse robot and an overly-loyal Roomba robot. On an outing for spare parts, Gio and his robot companions happen upon a strange android, and bring him back to their home for repair, and, unexpectedly, humanity in this Pinocchio retelling.

After “The House in the Cerulean Sea” and “Under the Whispering Door”, TJ Klune is definitely one of my auto-buy authors. His stories are filled with whimsy and lovely characters and plots that just touch your heart, and this one is no exception.

This is like Guillermo del Toro’s “Pinocchio” mixed with that episode of “Futurama” where Bender meets all the obsolete robots, and, yes, that is such a good thing. I instantly fell in love with the characters (especially the robotic ones), and the slow unveiling of the world was just perfect.

This story is full of love, adventure, and just enough sci-fi elements to be its own perfect world without dipping into hard science fiction. It’s lovely, and quirky, and full of heart. I only can dock it a half star because there was a chunk in the middle that did drag on a bit too long.

Overall, a beautiful and unique Pinocchio retelling with sweet and often hilarious characters, and a story that is both filed with adventure and a poignant character study on the main character, Victor.

“In the Lives of Puppets” will be released on April 25, 2023.

I liked this a lot more than House on the Cerulean Sea, which was too saccharine and self-consciously heartwarming for my taste. While In the Lives of Puppets had the same found family and rooting-for-underdogs elements as HOTCS, this had some decidedly adult humor and didn’t make me feel like I was eating cotton candy.

This is inspired by Pinocchio, but not having read the original, I can’t tell how close the interpretation is. I can say that in this iteration, the story takes place centuries in the future after AI has become sentient, decided humans are a destructive and unsalvageable species, and hunted us all to extinction. There’s a hilariously sociopathic medic robot called Nurse Ratched; a sentient Roomba who, of all the characters, reminds me most of HOTCS with his squirrel-like attention span and frequent inanities; Vic, possibly the sole existing human; Gio, the brilliant, humanesque robot who raised Vic; and Hap (“Hysterically Angry Puppet”) who this crew rescues from a scrap heap.

The characters’ interactions are mostly entertaining and the quest they embark upon about one-third into the novel is an intriguing one. For me, though, the most compelling aspect was the depiction of a post-Anthropocene sentient AI society and how this world mirrored and departed from our current one. That depiction was not the intent of this book and therefore played a relatively minor role, and I’d have loved to read more of it.

Favorite Quote: Be you man or machine, death awaits us all.

Victor Lawson grew up in a remote location with his father, Giovanni. Not too far from their home was a machine scrap yard, and from that scrap yard, Vic found and rebuilt friends: Nurse Ratched, a very sassy and questionably medical robot, and Rambo, a neurotic and charming vacuum. One day, Vic found an android with a bit of life still in it and brought him home to fix him up. But in that excursion, Vic cut himself triggering an alarm to all the machines in the neural network alerting them to the presence of a human.

And while Giovanni was Victor’s father, Giovanni was a machine. Humans had been wiped out decades earlier.

When the machines sought out the human whose blood was in the scrap yard, they found only Gio who they took. Vic decides to go after his dad with Nurse Ratched, Rambo, and his newest friend, Hap.

Having read The House in the Cerulean Sea and Under the Whispering Door, I had high hopes for In the Lives of Puppets. TJ Klune did not disappoint. Set in a dystopian future where humans do not exist, In the Lives of Puppets explores the meaning of family, friendship, love, choice, and free will.

“In the Lives of Puppets” by TJ Klune ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: Fantasy/Parable. Location: “In an old and lonely forest, far away from almost everything…in a place that used to be known as Ory-Gone.” Time: Future. NOTE: LGBTQ+Diverse Voices.


A “spare parts” family of 3 robots and 1 human live in a hidden home in the branches of a grove of trees: Dad Giovanni Lawson (fatherly inventor android), Nurse Ratched (pleasantly sadistic rectangle-shaped medical robot), Rambo (tiny, anxious, circular-shaped vacuum robot), and Victor Lawson (21-year-old human).

When Vic finds and repairs an android labelled “H.A.P,” he learns of Hap and his dad Gio’s shared past hunting humans. The robots from Hap’s former life are accidentally alerted, Gio is captured and taken to the City of Electric Dreams. The family must rescue him from decommission/reprogramming.

The momentum changes in Part 3 (The City) to harsher action. At the same time, the prose turns more metaphysical. But tiny Rambo is always there to share a little joyful whimsy. Author Klune has created a world of imaginative characters inspired by Carlo Collodi's “The Adventures of Pinocchio”. They’re charming, vibrantly alive, and usually hopeful. Klune’s colorful world building includes a Swiss Family Robinson-like treehouse, a moving house of curiosities, and the Terrible Dogfish flying whale machine.

This book has been widely applauded as a queer Pinocchio retelling. And it is a lovely, sensitive depiction of a person awakening to his sexual orientation. Even more important than the characters, their sexualities, genders, and their world are the messages Klune conveys. He asks us to imagine what would happen if humans were gone. Would new inhabitants of the earth find a new way, or repeat previous mistakes? He invites us to consider whether we can love without strings attached, and turn enemies into friends. He wonders about the nature of forgiveness.

It’s glorious and heartbreaking, entertaining and poignant, compassionate and ultimately hopeful. I’ve named my iRobot “Rambo” and it’s 5 stars from me🌵📚💁🏼‍♀️. Thank you to NetGalley, Tor Books, and T.J. Klune for this early ecopy.

I'm almost speechless about the creativity of this book.
How in the world did the author manage to make me fall in love with robots? ROBOTS!!

This book takes place at an undetermined time, when humans are nearly non-existent. What happened to cause such a change of events? Ever watch some of the Black Mirror episodes? If yes, that will give you an idea. If not, let’s just say the robots created by humans began to outthink the humans themselves. While this seems like a very deep topic, this book is nothing like the intensity of Black Mirror. It is a charming story with some similar themes to the classic, Pinocchio.

While Victor Lawson is the main protagonist, his ragtag group of robots share an equal stage with him in this story. None are more endearing than Victor's robotic partners in crime - Rambo and Nurse Ratched. Nearly everything out of their mouths made me smile or laugh.

"I'm also good," Rambo said.
"Unbearably so," Nurse Ratched said. "Though you seem to be suffering from an intense anxiety disorder. But that is fine. We are all unique. Victor is asexual. Giovanni is old. And I have sociopathic tendencies that manifest themselves in dangerous situations."
"Hurray!" Rambo squealed. "We all have things!"

I honestly could have a whole book featuring these two oddballs just talking.
But there is so much more to this story than great banter. It is a heartwarming story as Victor and his robot friends venture into the great unknown to find his dad/creator who was taken away by the Authority. There are plenty of misadventures along the way, but as a team, they find a way to overcome the odds and live up to their motto, "Be Brave!"

This will easily be on my Top Books of 2023 list, and I encourage everyone to read it (it has something for almost everyone - fantasy, sci fi, and even romance). A MUST READ!!

TJ Klune is a master of found family and books that feel like a hug, and In the Lives of Puppets only further proves that. In a home in the branches of the forest lives three robots—an inventor, an optimistic vacuum, and a dry humored nurse machine—and with them lives a human with a heart of gold—Vic. And when Vic salvages and saves an unknown machine, the lives of these characters are changed forever and their put on a quest that could change everything. These characters are so lovely. Rambo, the vacuum, was such an absolute delight with his eternal optimism and home, and Nurse Ratched, the nurse machine, is so funny, I love her sadistic humor. And Gio, the inventor, and Vic’s relationship is so special. And Hap, that salvaged robot, is just wonderful. He’s damaged and lost and watching him find his own heart was just beautiful. There is a wisdom and gentleness in the writing. It is funny and emotional and heartwarming. The characters have such wonderful chemistry and reading this just made my heart feel so full.

Victor Lawson lives in a treehouse complex in the forest with three robots. Life is pretty peaceful until Victor decides to rescue another robot he finds in the scrap heap. He cuts his hand in the process, which alerts the authorities, and his father is taken away. Victor must balance his need to find his father and his hope of keeping his whole family safe all while battling through hidden truths and lies and the question of what it means to be human.

When I saw that TJ Klune was releasing another book with unexpected characters and a thoughtful take on life, I was instantly on board. Klune has written poetic books and crass books, and I've loved nearly all of them just for what they are. I have such mixed feelings about this one though! On the one hand, it brings up really thoughtful points about forgiveness and trust and bravery and family. On the other hand, I have no idea why a book about an asexual man and four robots would have so many cringey sex scenes. I found parts of this book addictive. I read sections that made me gag a little. I nearly cried at the beauty of some scenes. I considered DNFing this book more than once. This book has a lot of lovely things in it, but it was way more of a miss for me than a winner. Sometimes it's awesome when you open a book and discover it's not what you were expecting. But a robot brothel? Really?

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

In the Lives of Puppets is a quirky family story set in a science fiction backdrop. TJ Klune has a gift for writing stories that give all the feels, like being cozy, wrapped up in a blanket, on a comfy sofa or bed. Even though he writes about serious issues, love is the backbone of his stories. Lovely book.

I am a library associate and received and advance copy from #NetGalley.

TJ Klune's updated Pinocchio set in a future run by AI is another found family story with a lot of heart as Vic and his friends set out to save his father.

TJ Klune did it again, but this time with robots. At first. I wasn’t sure how this was going to play out, but he found a way to make robots with fantastic and lovable traits. Rambo and Nurse Ratched were perfect supporting characters, and I was rooting for Gio, Victor and Hap the whole time. It also contained such sweet message about friendship, love, and choice. Highly recommend!