A very well crafted book with a fresh take on a long-loved story. There were a lot of tiny details thrown in that showed how much dedicated and care Klune put into every decision made in this book. As someone who’s not usually a sci-fi reader, there were definitely moments where I struggled with staying as invested as I know I can be, but the heart of the characters and perfectly thought out plot kept me going.

Thank you NetGalley for another chance to experience the magical whimsy of Klune, who is uniquely talented at taking on big topics and making them engaging but also gently but effectively serious (human life, artificial life here, timely timely timely). In the Lives of Puppets is a wonderful story of love, family, and a journey to perhaps understand one's place in the world, to understand what love and family is, and to simply have the capacity to hope and imagine new pathways blended with old.

Klune's work is always to me a loving acknowledgement of the complex joy of being human while also a recognition of what we lose/are losing when we lose sight of these joys and the basic needs of personal connection and hope. I admire how he brings readers into these hard questions and journey with deft strokes of humor, pathos, and humanity that make readers want to stick with the story even as it may force some moments f reflection.

certainly a win for fans of this author, for new readers, and a definite recommendation for book clubs who welcome nuanced discussions of literature and the lived experience.

Y'all, when I got the email notification that I was approved for an advanced reader copy of TJ Klune's latest, I SCREAMED! I adored The House on the Cerulean Sea and Under the Whispering Door. Klune is such a whimsy and fun author, so I dove right in!

One thing I noticed almost immediately was how much more rooted in science fiction this story was. The House on the Cerulean Sea and Under the Whispering door were a little more rooted in magic and fairytales. But, the story definitely had Klune's whimsicality.

The novel begins with an almost once upon a time feel, as Giovanni finds a place in the middle of nowhere and decides to make it his home. Some time later, after years of solitude, a couple appears in the forest outside of his home and give him their baby. Times are dangerous now, but they will return for the child.

Years pass, and Victor, once a babe, now a man grown, has spent his entire life with Gio, who is an android, Nurse Ratched, a robot meant to take care of human illness and injury, and Rambo, a tiny vacuum robot with so much heart. Victor knows that he's different. He's human, whereas the rest are machines. He never really questions his existence. He learns from Gio all about building and tinkering. Victor is the one who rescued Nurse Ratched and Rambo.

Not far from their home in the forest are Scrap Yards, where parts and pieces are disposed of outside of civilization. One day, while hunting through the yards, Victor comes across a presence in the piles. With the help of his friends, Victor uncovers a robot that still has some power, but then it fizzles out.

Victor, ever the inventor, wants to fix the robot up. This one is different. There's just something about him that Victor almost obsesses over. He fixes the robot, named Hap, and his father is quite surprised by the new addition to their household.

This is such a fun story about the beauty of life, of free will.

When 'smooth men' appear one day, Gio shoves his son and the rest down into a bunker none of them knew existed. That's when Victor learns the truth: there were never parents. Gio incubated him in the bunker, raised him to be his own child, and loved him like no other. Victor is the last human on earth. Gio sacrifices himself for his family, and Victor is determined to find his father.

This was a really well done novel, even if I felt like it lacked some of the whimsy from Klune's prior novels. If you enjoyed his other work, you'll probably enjoy this one!

I laughed, I cried, I screamed once or twice, too. This book deftly explores the idea of choice, humanity, and found family. From start to finish, Klune had my heartstrings wrapped around the dust pan of a wee neurotic Roomba named Rambo.

I feel like, the more books TJ Klune releases, the stronger he becomes as an author, and this novel is a great example. Where sometimes his side characters can feel a bit twee and one dimensional, everyone in "Puppets" has a beautiful depth of character that had me attached from the first moment. The journey was lovely and heartfelt and it's another one of those books that I wish I could forget so I could read it again for the very first time!

There is something special about TJ Klune's writing. I cannot put into words just how much I enjoyed "In the Lives of Puppets" and how much I hated to see it end. The little family Klune created in Vic, Nurse Ratched, Rambo, and HAP (and Gio, of course) was perfection. This story has everything. Action. Adventure. Coming-of-age. Laughter. Tears. Confusion. Hope. The list could go on forever. This one will stay with me for quite some time.

Thanks to Tor Publishing and Netgalley for the e-ARC!

I loved this book. I am genuinely sad that I haven't read anything by TJ Klune before.

We follow Victor as he navigates life amongst robots. He lives in what honestly sounds like the best treehouse ever. Victor lives with his Dad, Nurse RATCHED, and Rambo. The pop culture references made me giggle more than once. I almost want to rename my roomba to Rambo. The story is such a beautiful exploration of both humanity and sexuality. I really enjoyed watching the relationships grow. There was also a really great description of mental health and what it's like to experience mental health crisis like a panic or anxiety attack.

I honestly am going to go back and start reading all TJ Klune books.

Nurse RATCHED is hands down my favorite.

I’m not the most familiar with Pinocchio and I don’t read a lot of Sci-Fi but if TJ Klune puts out a book, I need to read it.

I will start by saying that this took me a good while to really feel invested (possibly 15-20% in) but once I got familiar with the world and the characters I had a good time. Vic is a quiet and anxious main character who is surrounded by his father Gio (a creator) and his two friends Nurse Ratched (a sarcastic medical machine) and Rambo (a naive little vacuum). After finding a decommissioned AI in a scrap yard and bringing him back to life, Vic learns of secrets that have to do with the AI (named HAP) and his father’s past. After his father is taken by the Authority due to those past circumstances, Vic, Nurse Ratched, Rambo, and HAP go on a journey to bring him back.

This book felt like a mesh between the whimsy and coziness of Klune’s more recently published books with Tor like The House in the Cerulean Sea, and his writing style in his older indie published stories like The Lightening-Struck Heart and The Bones Beneath My Skin. I could ramble on about my thoughts on this book but I’ll summarize with these bullet points:

Pros
-The characters are lovable, especially sweet, innocent Rambo.
-The family bonds are wonderful. TJ Klune always nails this.
-Seeing how these characters never give up on each other melted my heart.
-The history of how this world came to be was exciting to learn about.
-It’s very readable just like all of his work.

Cons
-The pacing isn’t always the greatest. We spent too long in some places and far too in others.
-The humor sometimes seemed forced.
-Big plot events are wrapped up very conveniently and too quickly. I thought I skipped a whole chapter on accident near the resolution.

The biggest concern I have with In the Lives of Puppets is how the overall message could be construed. It seemed like the takeaway was supposed to be that people (or machines) have the capacity for change as long as they choose to be better, which is wonderful and great but… the cynical part of myself wonders if the message wasn’t handled the best it could have been. These people (machines) did heinous things that resulted in the death of billions and it seems like because they had the ability to reprogram themselves, they got to live happily ever after while humans in real life don’t get to wipe their memories and get a fresh start after they commit atrocities. Since this is a cozy, silly, sci-fi, I have decided to not look too deeply into it but I could see this as a potential issue for other readers.

Overall it was a fun, easy read and I would compare this to TJ Klune’s The Extraordinaries meets Martha Wells’ Muderbot Diaries if anyone is interested.

Thank you to NetGally for providing me with the eARC of this book.

The humor in this is strong, and exactly the kind of humor I appreciate. I was laughing out loud several times, especially at the start of the book. I love Nurse Ratched!

The story, a science fiction retelling of Pinocchio, is sweet and endearing, with enough serious themes to make it interesting. I got a lot of associations to my favorite game, “Detroit: Become Human”, with all the focus on the androids and robots breaking free from their programming. There’s also allusions to Wall-E (my beloved) and other familiar pop culture medias.

Personally, it lost me a little bit in the middle portion, after part 1. I can’t quite put my finger on why, although one thing that bothered me was the fact that I kept having to wait for the characters to realize things I felt they should’ve realized a long time ago. It was like they were ignoring the obvious for no reason.

All in all though, I enjoyed reading this even if I can’t call it a favorite, and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the author’s previous works, as well as to anyone who enjoys more down to earth sci-fi with lovable characters that have a great dynamic between them. Anyone who enjoys “we’re going on an adventure!”-stories might also get a kick out of this.

TJ Klune has done it again! This book was so heart warning. A robot vacuum with severe anxiety? I can definitely relate to that haha! Also, nurse Ratched was hilarious!

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this arc in exchange for an honest review!

I've been a big fan of TJ Klune's recent books, but this one, a retelling of the Pinocchio story, ran a little slow for me. It started out very well, with an intriguing setup and characters. Gio is a robot dad, who has made himself a human boy, Victor. Victor has two friends, a nurse robot and a vacuum cleaner, and there's lots of funny interplay between the three of them. Then Victor finds a broken robot at a scrap heap, and that's when the story really takes off.

Then Gio is kidnapped. The resulting chapters have a kind of Wizard of Oz feel to them-- they take off to find the Blue Fairy in what appears to be Las Vegas, because she can help them rescue Gio. But if the bad guys have reprogramed him will he be the same?

That's when the book started to drag for me Maybe I just didn't care enough about getting Gio back or whether he'd be the same as he was? The book does have a positive ending, so I was glad of that.

Victor has lived his entire life with his inventor father and two robot side-kicks. He spends his days foraging in the forest and the nearby scrap yards and working on his own inventions. When he decides on a whim to try to revive a humanoid robot he finds in the scrap yard, he doesn't know the consequences he will unleash for himself, his family, and the future of humanity.
A fun, funny, and heartfelt novel about found family and what it really means to be human.

I absolutely Loved In The Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune. It is heartfelt and hilarious. The sociopath nursing machine a.k.a. Nurse Ratched was so funny and was my favorite. I have now named my roomba, Rambo.
Thank you NetGalley and TOR/Forge Publishing for the ARC in exchange, for my honest review.

This book has the whimsical charm that The House in the Cerulean Sea had but there's a lot going on and it was hard to follow the storyline.

In the Lives of Puppets by T.J. Klune
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a delightful, compelling read! Fantasy meets post-singularity, apocalyptic science fiction. I loved the quirky robot characters that made me laugh out loud. (I had to look up the Pinocchio references, which was interesting, but it reminded me as much of The Wizard of Oz.) Add a tremendous amount of heart (no pun intended) and humanity to an epic quest, and you come close.

Some reviewers have said it's too long and the ending is unsatisfying; I think the length is fine, but I agree with the assessment of the ending. I WANT MORE! I want to know more of this world and hopefully it's not as bleak as implied. Maybe TJ Klune will write a sequel? That's not his style so far, but there's room here (as well a neurotic Roomba named Rambo -- love, love, love!).

“In the Lives of Puppets” shares the story of Victor Lawson, the human son of a robot father. Victor lives with a literally found family as his two best friends are robots he’s built from pieces found at the Scrap Yards, one being a nurse robot and the other a self-propelling vacuum. Despite being robots, the family is funny and loving, with the nurse showing sociopathic tendencies that come in useful in the more dangerous scenes.

When Victor discovers an almost-complete android during one of his regular visits to the Scrap Yards, he starts an adventure that destroys his childhood home and propels him on a journey to the robot capital. Along the way, he meets questionable friends and allies, but through it all, his friends travel with him.

This new vision of the Pinocchio tale delighted and amazed me, as do all of Klune’s stories. And the thing about Klune’s work is that my heart always breaks open when I read it. Human existence is celebrated in all of its joy and delight and love and heartbreak. When I finished reading the book, I set it on my chest and tried to absorb all of the goodness into my heart and being.

In the Lives of Puppets had all the elements that we’ve come to expect from a T.J. Klune book: quirky characters, cozy fantasy/sci-fi, humorous dialog, and queer romance. While I enjoyed this story, it is probably my least favorite Klune book. There was just something off for me.

Much like Klune’s other works, the characters are truly what makes his stories shine. The characters are loveable, vibrant, and eccentric. The dialog and banter between the characters was on point, making for many laugh-out-loud moments. By the way, Nurse Ratched is the best character in the book and I’ll die on this hill. Klune really knows how to write a heartwarming found family dynamic that I can’t get enough of.

As far as the plot goes, this was marketed as a Pinocchio retelling, but I’d say it felt like a sci-fi mashup of Pinocchio and The Wizard of Oz. I think Klune did a good job of the retelling aspect, which can be tough. Klune infused just enough Pinocchio elements while creating a completely new and unique story. There are some very thought provoking moments throughout the story and I really enjoyed how everything wrapped up in the end. It was bitter sweet.

And now for what didn’t work for me... I just didn’t believe the romantic connection between Vic and HAP. I can’t put my finger on why, but it just felt awkward. There were also some odd parts in the plot that just felt out of place. Overall, I enjoyed this book and would still recommend it. If you have enjoyed Klune’s previous books, you’ll want to give this a go as well.

***Thanks to NetGalley for providing an eArc in exchange for an honest review***

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this book before its publication date.

I really enjoyed this novel by TJ Klune. I am not always the biggest sci-fi fan, but the story and characters in this one drew me in. I found myself cheering for Vic as he struggled with identity and love and finding his place in this world. I also really enjoyed the touches of Pinocchio and Wall-E and Swiss Family Robinson that were evident throughout the entire book.

TJ Klune, you've done it again and I'm still on kind of a book high with this one.

BTW, thank you to Netgalley for the e-arc!

TJ Klune has become one of my favorite authors and while the last one I read (Under the Whispering Door) wasn't among my favorites, this one certainly redeemed it. I loved how he combined elements of Robinson Crusoe, i-Robot, and Pinocchio to make a story that captivated me and kept me interested. The characters all had fleshed out personalities and quirks (Nurse Ratched had me guffawing, Rambo was a bit over the top but cute nonetheless, GIO was the soft father we all wish we had, Hap was a protector, and Victor was flawed in a good way and great asexual representation in my opinion). I was thoroughly captivated with the wonder that we were shown through various characters' eyes and the danger they fell into felt very real. The Smooth Men were creepy in every way which made the danger that much more real. Their quest right into the Lion's Den was heroic and foolish and I was so there for that. And the reveal of the City of Electric Dreams and Heaven (where the Blue Fairy resides) made me laugh so hard because I could just picture it as it now stands.

Ultimately, I think this was another great one in TJ Klune's record book and I can't wait to recommend it to everyone when it comes out.

This is by far my favorite TJ Klune novel to date! The robots are absolutely adorable and hilarious and heartfelt. Nurse Ratched is my absolute favorite with her dry wit and sarcasm and innate thirst for blood AND helping. I'm glad I read instead of waited for an audio version, because that was my main problem with the other novels. I couldn't get past the voices of the characters. This is definitely a 5 star read for me and think it will be everyone's favorite as well.