I will start by saying that I am already a TJ Klune fan and have read many of his other books. I was so excited for this one and honestly, still haven’t been disappointed by him! This story was like a sideways queer Pinocchio in another realm, and so much fun! As always, Klune’s books hit so many different emotions and themes and this was no different! The imagination that TJ Klune forces you to use is amazing and I would easily recommend this book to anyone, whether you’ve read him or not!

”I am not going to like this, am I,” Nurse Ratched said. “It’s okay,” Rambo told her. “If we die a horrible death, at least we’ll be together.” “That does not make me feel any better.” Her screen flashed the words I NEED NEW FRIENDS."

Listen I am not going to compare this to The House in the Cerulean Sea bc that book has its own magic (and reading it in 2020 was a specific experience), but this book really surpassed even my expectations. I liked but didn’t love Under the Whispering Door, and I’ve realized on reading this one, that much of the humor and levity from Cerulean Sea simply wasn’t in that story. This story has all of that back and then some. It’s sentimental without being melodramatic, and the humor was perfect.

This is a Pinocchio retelling of sorts, with robots and androids as the titular puppets, and one human man named Victor. It warmed my soul and made me laugh, and

First, thanks to Netgally for letting me read this in advance in Exchange of an honest opinion.

I finished this book a couple of weeks ago but I was too emotional to write something decent, now I think I have cleared my mind, so I hope this makes some sense.

First of all, I am a big fan of TJ and his work, so when I found out this one was to come out I was so excited and, as always, he didn’t disappoint. This book was so precious. When I finished it the only thing I could do was curl myself into a ball and hug my Kindle. I wanted to give a little bit of love to the characters and protect them from the world, but besides how much I love the book there were a couple of details I didn’t like, but first what’s the story about:

Here we have a world without humans. Instead there are robots, except for one little detail: Victor, the last human on the planet, he lives in the forest with Gio, his father, Nurse and Rambo, his two best friends. They spend the days inventing new things, hunting in the forest and going to the landfill in search of new parts, until they find Hap, their historical angry puppet. When they find him, problems follow them and they have to fight for their lives and protect what they love the most.

This is all I can say without giving away much. I believe this is the kind of book you want to get into without knowing too much. This is a book that gives you a lot of existential questions, but it is not pretentious about it and doesn’t try to give an answer, it lets you discover that by yourself and this is due to the magic of TJ’s writing and why he’s one of my favorites. This story is going to give you family love and loss, you are going to feel you don’t want to finish and wish you had never read it, so you can experience it for the first time once again. Also dear reader, let me tell you, you are going to have a void in your heart, you are going to feel something is missing, so I recommend you to hug your dog when you finish with this book. I promise you, you are going to need it.

With nothing else to say, this is a million star book, but I can only rate it 5. If I could, I would give it more.

In the Lives of Puppets was an enjoyable, heartwarming and often hilarious read. I quickly became enamoured with the characters and the unfolding story which I can only describe as Terminator meets Pinocchio.

I would highly recommend this novel for anyone yearning for a queer sci-fi/fantasy story about the redemptive power of love and the joy of found family. TJ Klune scores bonus points for his zany sidekick characters, including a naive Rose Nyland-esque vacuum cleaner and a sociopathic robot nurse (trust me, it will all make sense once you read it). And finally, a warning - it may make you leak.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4 ⭐️

This was so interesting! someone compared this to Wall E and I definitely see the similarities. Klune writes such incredible stories that can be for kids or older and I would love to see his work adapted into movies/tv because wow

was so excited to get the ARC for TJ Klune’s new book, In the Lives of Puppets. He is now an auto buy author for our family. Also I’m a sucker for a retelling.

Klune calls it a queer reimagining of Carlo Collodi’s The Adventures of Pinocchio. I was shocked to realize I had not read this. I will need to rectify this oversight.

I saw all the Pinocchio elements but also felt like it had elements of A Wrinkle in Time, Wizard of Oz, Klara and the Sun, and Swiss Family Robinson. I LOVED it.

OF COURSE, my favorite was the Registered Automaton to Care, Heal, Educate, and Drill. Nurse Ratched for short. 😆 She had the best lines. “Yes, we. I would not let you go by yourself. You will most likely die without me. If that happened, I would not be there to tell you ‘I told you so.’ I want to have that experience.” 😆 These robots are all fantastic. I love them all.

Thank you to @netgalley and @torbooks for this digital copy. This is my honest review. Go get this book April 25th!

This book was beautiful, not that I went in expecting anything else knowing it is a T.J. Klune book and hearing so many friends who also got ARCs rave reviews. Back in June 2022 T.J. promised he'd make us cry over a roomba and my god did I fucking cry over a fictional roomba last night at 3am.
It's only January, but I can pretty surely say that this book is going to be one of my favorites of the year and Nurse Ratched might just be one of my favorite book characters, like ever.
In The Lives of Puppets is kind of a mashup of Wall-E and Pinocchio (which makes sense because it is literally a Pinocchio retelling) set in a world post AI/robot takeover. It was very interesting world building, great characters, and a plot that definitely made me cry... MULTIPLE times. This book comes out officially on my birthday and I cannot think of a better birthday gift than this book existing!

I think if I hadn’t gone into this with 5 star expectations, I might’ve had 5 star feelings about it. Maybe I hyped it up too much in my head. I ADORED “The House in the Cerulean Sea” and “Under the Whispering Door,” so I was obviously excited to read this new novel by Klune. It just didn’t grab me the way those others did. There were characters I loved, and I thought the story was creative. I just found myself getting bored at times during the “journey” bit of the book. This is probably a 4.5 instead of a 4, but I rounded down because of the occasional boredom I felt. That’s not to say this was a bad book. The characters are absolutely lovely, as you would expect from Klune, and they are reason enough to read this book. There were definitely some enjoyable bits, and I think it was a solid read - just not a 5 star for me.

The thing I love about Klune book is how he is able to weave such a whimsical storyline while at the same time illustrating a beautiful story about second chances & accepting each other for who they are now & not on their past. This book was phenomenal. I can’t wait to get my hands on a physical copy.

Tj Klune has become a recent favorite author of mine since his now widely beloved novel The House in the Cerulean Sea, and then again with Under the Whispering Door. So when I heard he was coming out with yet another new release, I was of course over the moon! Sure enough, in his signature way, TJ Klune gifts us with yet another utterly charming, whimsical tale with so much heart at the center. Themes of found family, belonging, embracing difference in one another, and fostering empathy shine through just as brightly in this latest release, In the Lives of Puppets.

This book had me from page one as I was instantly swept up in this enchanting story of a robot who lives in a forest and endeavors to build a home and family from the ground up. I absolutely loved this quirky little family who live in treehouses and listen to old records and have movie nights together. I instantly felt a part of their world. I also just can’t emphasize how much comedy is interwoven in this book alongside the more tender moments. Even being robots, Rambo and Nurse Ratched had such vibrant personalities that jumped off the page, and their constant banter and little side comments to Victor being the straight man was such a hilarious dynamic. This genuinely hit all the boxes of being a promising Pixar movie as this ragtag group of characters set off on an epic journey.

I will say that while this book started off so strong, my interest gradually waned as the story went on. My main issue is Hap and how he comes to be the love interest of the story. I would’ve been fine if Hap had come in as an outsider and over the course of the novel comes to feel a sense of belonging in this family. This is what I wanted the story to be, but unfortunately it went a different angle. I just did not like the dynamic of this relationship between Hap and Victor. For Victor to develop feelings for a machine that he partially put back together… I hate to make this connection, but it comes dangerously close to the territory of sex dolls for me. There’s just a level of projecting your feelings and attraction onto something inanimate that can’t consent to any of it that made this all the more uncomfortable for me. But even when Hap is up and operating, I still didn’t feel any chemistry between him and Vic. A lot of their scenes together felt creepy to me and consisted of Hap staring at Vic while he slept, bathed…or basically did anything. All of that aside, I just wasn’t invested in their relationship. I think had this just been a story of friendship, I would’ve enjoyed that a lot more.

I have to admit, I'm not sure how I feel about the ending. It's definitely one that's bittersweet and doesn't have an immediate pay-off after everything our characters have been through. Everything isn't magically back to normal. Everyone is left broken in their own ways, whether physically or figuratively. Gio and Hap are fragments of their former selves. And while I understand the sentiment of why the story ends in this way, it still just left me feeling hollow and unsatisfied. I still really enjoyed my time with this book and loved the profound commentary on humanity that this story masterfully interweaves. This was just maybe not my favorite of TJ Klune's books.

Thank you, NetGalley and Tor Publishing for an eARC of this book.

It's hard to go into this and not compare it to the other T.J. Klune books with houses on the covers, but it really is a different kind of book. This is a retelling of Pinocchio in a post-apocalyptic world. Vic is a human living in the forest with his "father" Giovanni, a medical robot Nurse Ratchet, and Rambo, the greatest and best vacuum cleaner to ever be. One day while exploring the scrap yard, Vic finds a decommissioned robot. They take the robot back to their house and name him Hap after some visible letters on him. Vic fixes Hap, but there's more to his past than they realize and more to the truth about Vic's past as well.

I enjoyed this. The characters are delightful (especially Rambo) and Klune is a master at dialogue. The references to Pinocchio were sometimes obvious, but also more subtle. I'm not a huge fan of Pinocchio, but then again I'm only familiar with the Disney retelling and not the original story.

I don't have anything negative to say except I didn't like it as much as Klune's other books with houses on the cover. Maybe because the romance wasn't as compelling with a robot and what I adored about the other books were the relationships. Either way, five stars for Rambo.

I am not usually a fan of sci-fi or fantasy, so if I am recommending a book from that genre, it means I loved it. I absolutely LOVED The House in the Cerulean Sea by this author, so I was fairly confident I would likely be a fan of any other book written by Klune. I was right.

SYNOPSIS: Gio Lawson, an android who escaped civilization, lives in the forest in a Swiss Family Robinson-esque compound with his human son, Vic, and two machines, Rambo & Nurse Ratched. Gio & Bic are both creators and inventors. Vic salvaged & restored Rambo & Nurse Ratched after finding them in the Scrap Yards. Eventually, Hap, a decommissioned android, is found in the Scrap Yards, and saved by Vic. Shortly after, some unfortunate events happen, which lead to a journey to the City.

MY THOUGHTS
- Klune’s writing is top-tier. He has a way of making even fantastical characters feel truly human. I enjoy his writing style, and find it easy to read & easy to get into.
- I did not want to put down the book. Although it’s a lengthy book, it’s fast paced.
- I laughed out loud at many of Nurse Ratched’s lines/parts.
- The book has a lot of interesting themes, such as, what family means, love, changing for the better.
-This is well worth the read. 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


Thanks to Tor Books, NetGalley and author TJ Klune for this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. It's due to be published on April 25, 2023.

I am in actual physical pain typing this out, but I did not enjoy In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune as much as I thought I would.
Under the Whispering Door is my absolute favorite book. I own multiple copies, in multiple formats and have read it several times already. The House in the Cerulean Sea was the book that introduced me to Klune and made him an auto-buy author in my household. When Lives of Puppets came across my radar I HAD to have it and was so very excited when I received the ARC. Since then I have picked up this book countless times, read a couple of chapters and put it back down again to read something else. This book is so painfully slow I just cannot get into it. The characters are adorable (who would have guessed I would say this about an old Roomba?), but nothing is happening and I am just so bored. I will probably pick it up again when the audiobook becomes available, but for now it's a DNF for me. I can't believe I just wrote that!
Why do I still give it 3/5 stars? Just because a slow-burn story about robots isn't my cup of tea, doesn't mean it is necessarily a bad book. If you are a sci-fi/fantasy reader who enjoys quirky characters (especially if you enjoyed the characters in Klune's other books) and you don't mind taking your time to get into the story, you might very well enjoy this book much more than I did!

4⭐️

If you love Klune’s ability to make you connect with characters, humor and writing style - you will also love this book!

This story itself felt fresh despite being a retelling and I fell in love with a robot vacuum. Only reason this is not a 5⭐️ for me is that I compare it to all of his other stories I love so much and I didn’t leave with the same degree of feels as I normally do.

Definitely worth the read!

Thank you to TOR for providing an e-ARC !

TJ Klune makes the best characters! They're quirky, and sometimes annoying, but they have hearts so pure you wish you knew them. Vic is so humanly awkward and embarrasses easily so of course his cantankerous Nurse Ratched teases him. She is grouchy and sometimes murderous, but also loyal and genuine. Rambo the former Roomba is almost childlike in his curiosity and openness, to the point that sometimes I was thinking he needed an off switch for safety. But he doesn't he just needs his friends to take care of him and keep him on track. Hap's redemption arc shows that he is defined by his daily choices not his past.
The story starts a little slow and had some spots that were hard to push through. It takes place after a robot apocalypse so pieces are really bleak, but that just contrasts with the beauty of nature. The treasure is the beauty of the human features within the robots, because we are all different, and don't follow one type of programming, and life is weirdness.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced digital copy of this book. The opinions are entirely my own, and I will recommend this title as a librarian to my patrons, family and friends.

As a newer fan of author T.J. Klune, I was pleased to receive an ARC of his newest book, "In the Lives of Puppets". While it is marketed as a retelling of Pinocchio, I also saw elements from Frankenstein as well as The Wizard of Oz. Raised in the forest in a treehouse built by his android father Giovanni Lawson, Victor spends his days with his self-diagnosed sociopathic nurse machine (Nurse RATCHED) and a neurotic anxiety-filled robot vacuum named Rambo who adores the movie Top Hat. While out scavenging in a nearby junk yard, Vic and friends stumble across a discarded decommissioned android with signs of life. Rescuing it and secretly bringing it back to their lab, they manage to repair and resurrect HAP or Hysterically Angry Puppet. Unknowingly, Hap and Gio have a shared past and this launches our story as Gio is taken away to the city to be erased and reset to his original functions, before he developed a conscience. Unfortunately, this function was to create HARP androids that were programmed to destroy all humans, a feat that they thought they had accomplished.

This launches our crew of one disguised human and three robots on a rescue mission to find Giovanni.

This is my 3rd T.J. Klune book and I love the worlds that he creates. His writing contains diversity, fantasy, sci-fi and a love story. If you loved his previous books, this one will not disappoint.

Thank you Tor and Netgalley for the digital ARC for review.

In the Lives of Puppets
By TJ Klune

My first TJ Klune book and my opinion is overall very positive. I really enjoyed the writing. I thought Klune was able to really set up an atmosphere. Whether that was the cozy beginning or increasingly more uncomfortable as the book progressed.

I wasn’t completely sold on all the characters at first, but they all rather grew on me. The found family relationship is also one of my favorites so that got me as well 😊 The main relationship I felt like could have been delved into a bit more, but that’s just a minor thing.

My only quibble is how much sex and genitalia are referenced. I get that this is also an exploration of Victor’s sexuality and relationship with love, but it felt a little excessive to me.

So if you like found family; robots; queer representation; explorations of loyalty, forgiveness, and love; and a good mix of heavy and humorous…. this book might be for you!

Thanks to NetGalley and torbooks for this digital reviewer copy in exchange for an honest review!

TJ Klune has done it again: he has created a tale that is fantastical, yet so very authentic. I finished this wonderful book a few days ago and needed time to process all of my feelings about it. The main characters are all so lovable despite any flaws they may have - and a couple of them were involved in quite horrible things that we are told about. The trio of Victor (the human child), Nurse Ratched (the nurse bot, obviously), and Rambo (the vacuum bot) was one of my favorite things about the book. Their interactions are frequently hilarious and made me laugh out loud several times. This family goes through a great number of trials in order to save their caretaker/father, Giovanni, but manage to see their tasks through by building each other up and being strong for each other - and making a few death threats. Hap (the Hysterically Angry Puppet) and Gio are both characters who allow us to wrestle with the themes of overcoming one’s “programming,” redemption, and the multifaceted nature of love. The story is related to that of Pinocchio, with a “whale” and a “blue fairy” included. However, it is so different that is stands wholly on its own merits. I would have enjoyed it just as much had I not known about that connection. If you enjoy stories of found family, adventure, and what the power of love can truly be, you should read this one.

I will be purchasing the hardcover of this book as soon as it is released and I look forward to rereading it many times in the future. On a scale of 1-5 stars … I need more stars.

Pinocchio meets Ex Machina meets Swiss Family Robinson.

I mean, obviously. This is TJ Klune we’re talking about. It all works.

Victor was dumped in the woods when he was a baby, left with GIO Lawson - General Innovation Operative. Gio split from City of Electric Dreams for his own reasons thank you very much and now lives in the woods with his son, Victor Lawson.

Along the way Gio and Victor find a few more robots - Rambo (a vacuum) and Nurse Ratched (whom I would die for) to round out their merry crew. Then one day at the scrap yard they find HAP, he has no power source but our Victor does love a challenge.

And boy does that lead to some trouble. Our gang sets off to save the day and meets some even stranger characters on their way back to the City of Electric Dreams to meet with the Blue Fairy.

Everything about this book is wonderful.

Thank you to Tor Publishing Group, Netgalley and TJ Klune for the ARC!

I rate this book 4.5 stars, but rounded up to 5. I had really high hopes for this one because I absolutely loved The House In The Cerulean Sea. I didn’t love his follow up, Under The Whispering Door, so was hoping this one would be better, and it definitely was!

For a book about robots, it was soooo well done. I absolutely loved all the characters, especially the vacuum named Rambo and the robot who is also a nurse. Their banter actually made me laugh out loud at times. The plot line was very original, and I loved the way Klune was able to set his scenes, so you could perfectly visualize everything, from the treehouse to Heaven.

I didn’t give this a full 5 stars, because although it was super original, I did find it a bit slow at times. I was never dying to read it. I also was hoping for a bit more for the end, but did feel satisfied with what Klune gave us

Overall, if you are looking for a book filled with amazing characters and settings, as well as a plot filled with so much love and hopefulness, definitely try this one out. Don’t be scared off by the fantasy/sci -fi feel, as Klune made the robots super humanized.

This book releases in April 2023, and I’d highly recommend putting it on your TBR!