This is a TJ Klune book, which means his magic of creating the best cast of characters will shine here yet again (Nurse Ratched is my favorite). If I were to compare it to his other well-known books, THE HOUSE IN THE CERULEAN SEA and UNDER THE WHISPERING DOOR, I’d say this book is filthier, more risqué, has higher stakes, less romance, and—dare I say—more humorous. It’s a beautiful reverse Pinocchio story with touches of WALL-E, Howl’s Moving Castle, and that one art piece of flying whales. One thing I feel people might riot about is the ending. I personally like the bittersweet ending (they are the perfect endings in my opinion), even though I cried the entire way through. No notes. Another great story written!

Thank you to Tor for providing me an Advanced Reader's Copy in exchange for an honest review.

I have read the first two books in this "kindness" trilogy and absolutely adored both of them. I was excited for this book when I first heard about it and because TJ Klune is wonderful. I am so disappointed to say that this book was a bit of a miss for me! One thing that may heavily influence my opinion is that I tend to be a stickler on classic retellings. Pinocchio was not necessarily my favorite story to begin with, however I do give Klune kudos for choosing a story that has not been remade thousands of times (Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, etc.). I did enjoy seeing the parallels between the two stories, and even enjoyed what felt like a bit of a "Wizard of Oz" inclusion.

My main criticism is that I found I just did not connect with the characters like I have in the past books. I didn't dislike any of them but none of them pulled on my heart strings, even in the hard, tender moments. My favorite character was probably Nurse Ratched. I loved her lines and her "Empathy Protocol" followed by her usual threats made me laugh almost every time. Rambo was cute and represents an ADHD persona very well. I could see my daughter (who is diagnosed with this) in Rambo at times, and I could sympathize with the frustration of it felt by Vic and Nurse Ratched also.
Going to visit the Blue Fairy was a little jarring as it felt like there was SO much going on that I'm not even sure I fully understood it and I have some questions about the IDEA of this facility existing that I won't state here in order to keep this spoiler free. It was just a bit of an odd place for me in the story.
Lastly, I've always suspected this of myself as a reader but never confirmed it until now: I am not into human/non-human romantic relationships. They just aren't for me. I don't get it, I don't see the appeal. So needless to say, the connection on that aspect of the story was lost on me as well.

This book is NOT poorly written by any means, and I think Klune put in a lovely message about mistakes and forgiveness and what forgiveness can look like. I will continue to buy Klune's books and gush about his others. Maybe his next book will be just what I'm looking for.

Inspired by the Tales of Pinocchio, and the Swiss family Robinson, In the Lives of Puppets is the story of three robots, and a human: the paternal Giovanni Lawson, a nursing robot with sociopathic leanings affectionately known as Nurse RATCHED, an anxiously naïve Roomba known as Rambo, and Victor Lawson, Giovanni’s human son. They live a peaceful life as a family deep in the woods, and hidden from the rest of the world until Victor discovers, and brings to life an android he finds in the scrap yards, HAP (Hysterically Angry Puppet). Their quiet existence is interrupted when robots from Giovanni’s former life, discover his whereabouts, and take him away to the City of Electric Dreams. Victor, Nurse RATCHED, Rambo and HAP embark on a journey to rescue their friend and father. 

Throughout the book, the characters are searching to understand the meaning of their existence. Both human and android, take you on their journey of self discovery, as they ponder what it means to be human.

I can easily say that I am a fan of Klune’s work, and that this book will be one of my top reads this year. I loved all the characters and watching their personal growth in understanding themselves.  There are touching moments, where you become acutely aware of the fragility and bitter sweetness of life. There are also some really funny moments where I caught myself chuckling out loud. Mr. Klune’s fairy-tale like approach to intense subjects like diversity, self acceptance, and forgiveness just make you feel good about the world despite all of its craziness. At the heart of it all, this story proposes acceptance and connection among us all despite our differences. That we are all beautiful just as we are.

T.J. Klune is the master of writing about found family (one of my favorite themes). In the Lives of Puppets is all about found family, in a unique and endearing way.

Set in a post-human ruled world taken over by machines, Giovanni Lawson (a robot), his son Victor (a human), Nurse Ratched (a robot made to heal humans), and a Roomba named Rambo make an unlikely family. When they find a new creation to join their family, HAP, it makes them all question the validity of their relationships and their histories.

In an idyllic forest grove, Gio, Vic, and their buddies created a haven of beautiful buildings to live and work in (see the cover - one of my favorite covers of all time!) They live there peacefully until everything they know is upset by a few interconnected events. Sticking together, they work to make sure they're able to save as many of their family as possible, traveling through the post-apocalyptic world with interesting descriptions of the places humans used to inhabit.

As usual, the characters in Klune's books are some of the most lovable out there. Rambo and Nurse Ratched are such unheard of characters who are brought to life (nearly) with incredible humor. I can't wait for the audiobook of this novel, as I'm sure the characters will be read brilliantly as they were in Klune's other books.

Unfortunately this one was a miss for me. I connected with the robots more than I did with Victor, Gio, and their relationship - but I didn’t feel very drawn to the robot characters either. I felt that this book was missing the heart of The House in The Cerulean Sea. The dialogue was hard to get through and it seemed to drag on and on. The humor between the robots and Vic just fell flat for me.

‘WALL•E’ meets ‘The Brave Little Toaster’ with a dash of ‘The Wizard of Oz!’ Klune built such an imaginative world where machines reign supreme and we’re introduced to a unique family built out of loneliness. The characters are comical, heartbreaking, and oh so lovable, and I enjoyed following their evolution throughout the book.

Like in his previous novels, Klune crafted such unique characters. At times, there was a bit of unnecessary bickering amongst them though. While I’m positive this was partially intentional, it went a bit far and got annoying after a while. There were so many wonderfully clever moments, but these repetitive dialogues took a little glimmer from the characters charm.

One other “issue” I had was the numerous sexual references. While I have no issue with sex in books, some comments felt like they were included just for the sake of including. It felt awkward… a bit crude even? Maybe it was supposed to be humorous, but it for some reason felt off, like an odd juxtaposition with the “lovable” and “charming” characters. This isn’t a children’s book by any means, but the references felt forced and a little strange given the context. With that being said, I did appreciate the message of “love is love” throughout!

Overall, both critiques are minor. The story and character journey was wonderful and quite often I thought this would make an entertaining movie or TV series. Very fun and imaginative!

Thank you NetGalley and the team at Tor/Forge for my advanced copy.

I have come to find a sense of calm and whimsy in T.J. Klune's books that I rarely find in other books that I pick up.

Nothing beats diving into a new book written by him and just being transported into these worlds full of imaginative places and beautiful characters.

I could literally read his books for the rest of my life and be at my happiest.

"In the Lives of Puppets" is everything that you want. It's pure joy.

Yet, this time around I feel like we get to experience Klune's true sense of self. This might just be me but I feel like he let himself out of his shell more for this book. His humor is a little different. The characters are little more edgy. The world is a little more unique. .

I don't want to write too much and ruin the magic of experiencing this lovely story.

But I will give you a little tid-bit more, when I read this book I got a mix of Wall-E, Pinocchio, Brave Little Toaster and Mystery Science 3000 all smooshed together into an adult fantasy world.

It's good. It's pure joy. It's everything

Thank you Tor Books for granting my one wish for the year! I am so grateful to be able to read this treasure early!

You guys have something beautiful to look forward to. "In the Lives of Puppets" comes out April 25th but why not support the king of whimsy right now and pre-order a copy for yourself today! It's worth it! I can promise you that one thing.

Absolutely charming characters, at least 100 pages too long. I fell in love with the unique dynamics between the characters but ended up setting it aside at 70%. This rarely happens to me! I was finding myself just so done with the story. The charm is less charming the 200th time around. This would’ve been five stars if it was 200 pages, not 400+.

I am torn between rating this a 2 or a 3. There were parts of this story that I really enjoyed. I loved Nurse Ratched and Rambo! They had some great lines, and as an introverted engineer, I can relate to “engaging empathy protocol”. The home felt very “Swiss Family Robinson”, and would be an awesome place to visit.

What I did not like was that it was unnecessarily sexual. The extremely graphic fantasy scene in Heaven added nothing to the storyline. Why was it included? To make some kind of point? To check a box? The book made a big deal out of Vic being asexual. But this was based on Nurse Ratched concluding he must be asexual because he got embarrassed when she was talking about sex. Perhaps a more valid assumption would be that no boy wants to talk about sex with a parent or authority figure and without being exposed to any humans, how would he know who he is attracted to? Overall, I felt the focus on Vic’s sexuality overshadowed the theme of the family.

I loved The House in the Cerulean Sea, and I really wanted to love this one. But the end left me feeling that Vic was in a sad and hopeless situation, and I just wanted him find other humans somewhere in the world so he wouldn’t be alone.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for the opportunity to read and review this book ahead of publication.

This was another whimsical read from TJ Klune, with fine characters that carry us through the plots twists and turns. Giovanni is a man who lives in isolation in the forest — until one day a child, the last human child, is in his care. What comes next is a real boy and his beautiful AI cast of best friends on they embark on a journey to show that love and spirit conquer all. I really appreciated the Pinocchio hints and nods throughout the book as well.

Representation: 5
Emotion: 3
Characters: 4
Plot: 4
Pacing: 3
Prose: 5
Romance: 4

Final Rating: 4/5

I really liked the asexual rep in this, since little things were mentioned about common misconceptions. The romance is a cute slow burn. The pacing was kind of middle of the road, but I thought some scenes dragged on, especially the end.

I really enjoyed Part One, but started to lose interest as more of the Plot was revealed. I think I partially stopped enjoying it as much becauae the narration at one point straight up lies to the readers. If if was first person, I would accept this as an unreliable narrator. Since it's third person, it felt a little cheap. Like Klune couldn't find a clever plot twist, so he just gave us false information then said "JK, here's what really happened."

Near the middle, I started to suspect I wouldn't like the ending. It was better than I thought, but I'm still a little meh about it.

Whimsical and laugh out loud funny. This is definitely a story for those into sci-fi mixed in with some A. I. and Pinocchio. Loved the story line.

Unfortunately I don’t think tj klune will Everton house of the cerulean sea. In this one I found the characters odd and honestly couldn’t figure out wha5 they were for a while. I’m not a fantasy reader so if you are you might enjoy this more than I did

“... 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.”

This is the 3rd? (maybe 4th) TJ Klune book to make me ugly cry and I’m not the slightest bit mad about it. The synopsis for this referred to it as a retelling of Pinocchio and while YES, it’s also so much more than that. This feels very similar to much of TJ Klune’s other books- sci-fi surrealism with dialogue that made me either laugh or cry and an adventure into an unknown world. Despite most of the characters being androids/robots, this book dealt with some raw emotions and although the ending wasn’t what I wanted it to be, I still loved how life turned out for Vic and his metal friends.
(Pub Date - 04/25/23)
Thank you Tor Publishing Group & TJ Klune for the eArc!

As much as I loved Klune's books when he was writing MM fiction for Dreamspinner, I just can't get into his mainstream books for Tor. This one was, for me, a little better than Under the Whispering Door but not as good as Cerulean Sea. It felt absolutely interminable, with repetitive jokes and dialogue and scenes. This is a story that could've been a novella but ended up being a novel of over 400 pages. It was unnecessary, and it desperately needed editing and trimming, especially in the first part; it did not take long to understand the personalities of Rambo and Nurse Ratched, so why they got so many scenes of the same jokey stories and dialogue over and over, I have no idea. We get it! Ratched is sociopathic and Rambo is child-like! Please get along with the plot!

Then again, the plot is just Pinocchio x The Wizard of Oz, so there wasn't much of interest there anyway. But bottom line is that what could have been cute and amusing ended up boring and grating because Klune and/or his editor did not know when to say when.

Here we go and let me start by saying I loved House in the Cerulean Sea and The Whispering Door, but this one just wasn’t my favorite of his.

I just couldn’t really get sucked into it which may be because of the timing of reading this just wasn’t right for me. Saying all this I actually do think this a book most people will love and if I had read it at a different time I may have felt more for it. I 100% believe it was a me thing that I didn’t connect more.

The side characters (robots) are hilarious specifically Nurse Ratched. She was constantly saying things that I laughed at especially with her being slightly sociopathic.

It really didn’t pick up until the halfway point for me when things actually started going down so it was a slow start but I think the journey of the characters was well done.

I still highly recommend it because I do believe most people will adore this book

I want to thank NetGalley and Tor books for providing me with an eGalley of this title to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
I learned about TJ Klune in one of my book groups last year when I picked up The House in the Cerulean Sea. I tore through that and Under the Whispering Door. So I had high hopes for this book when I saw it for review.
Let me start by saying I did not even read the blurb. Often times, I just want to dive into a book by an author I love without any information about it. I don't want to have any preconceptions. I'm glad I read this one without looking at it.
I loved the idea of this one. Another magical book with futuristic undertones. But I will say this one did not keep my interest as the last two did. And I was disappointed to not like it more..
I liked the characters enough but I really didn't connect with any of them as I would have liked. I didn't feel the emotional connections between the characters and I didn't feel an emotional connection to any of them.
I did love the humor imbued in the book. Specifically Rambo the anxious vacuum. The scenes with him are probably what kept me reading along. Lots of banter with him and Nurse Ratched.
The robotic aspect of the book was interesting and fun. And I liked the parallels to the story of Pinocchio. And there's definitely a Star Wars vibe with the scenery and setting.
Overall it was enjoyable enough but not nearly as entertaining as his last two. That's not to say I would not pick up future books by Klune because his writing is excellent. But this would also not be my first choice to recommend to a friend.

A Si-Fi / fantasy that has a whole lot of heart. TJ Klune is a story teller that will hit all the emotions. In The Lives of Puppets is another example of his amazing talent and imagination.
I love the banter between Rambo and Nurse Ratched that I found myself laughing out loud!
Not many stories like this that make you feel, love, laugh and cry.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

After I read "The House in the Cerulean Sea", I knew that I would forever be a fan of TJ Klune and his writing because it just resonates with me and feels exactly how I would write down my own thoughts. So when I saw that there was an ARC available for "In the Lives of Puppets", I sent in an immediate request hoping that I'd find a new favorite book.

While I still thoroughly enjoyed this story, I won't say that it's my favorite of his three most recent novels (in fact, it might be the "least favorite", even though I didn't dislike it at all). The characters were still great (I loved Rambo, Nurse Ratched, Hap and Vic so so much), the found family aspect was still there, and the humor and heartbreak combo was still fantastic. I think it was mostly just pacing that felt a little off to me, which threw off the rest of the story. The "journey" aspect felt too short in my opinion compared to the build up of the story.

I still definitely recommend fans of TJ Klune pick up this book, because it is WONDERFUL and it may be your next favorite book. I am giving it a 4 for my TJ Klune-universe rating, but I think it's definitely a 4.5/5 overall.

House in the Cerulean Sea is one of my all time favorite books, so I was SO excited to see that TJ Klune was coming out with another cozy fantasy but this time with Sci-fi elements. This is a queer retelling of Pinocchio with all of the heart that’s put into his other books.
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Giovanni Lawson builds an enchanting tree house home in the heart of the woods, so he can invent. He soon comes to realize that he’s very lonely, and one day a baby is thrust into his arms by parents that seemingly disappear into the forest. Giovanni names his baby Vic, and Vic grows up learning to invent just like his father. He invents the amazingly funny robots Nurse Ratched and Rambo, who are the best sidekicks.

One day while rummaging through the junk yard, Vic finds a very human like robot discarded among the rubble. He brings the robot home, and gives life to Hap. Hap doesn’t remember anything about his origins, but Giovanni reveals that they have a shared dark past.

Giovanni has been hiding a huge secret from Vic, and one day their home is attacked because of it. Giovanni is taken, and what happens next is a crazy adventure that Vic and his friends embark on. They have to get to the City of Electric Dreams to save Giovanni before it’s too late.
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As with every TJ Klune book, you can expect to meet lovable and charming characters that feel like your friends by the end. The story was a little dark at times, but managed to still be full of hope. The family aspect gets me every time! 🥹