At first I wasn't sure where this book was going, but ended up LOVING it. In the Live of Puppets makes for a great audiobook. I can't recommend this one enough. All of TJ Klune's books are exactly what you didn't know you needed.

I'll admit, I had a rough time getting into In the Lives of Puppets. It's exceptionally well written and the characters are wonderful, it just wasn't my style. TJ Klune is a talented author, and the countless amazing reviews are a testament to the fact that lovers of Dystopian Fantasy should give this book a try.

Daniel Henning is one of the most talented narrators I've listened to in quite a while and his character voices are perfect.

Thank you for the opportunity to listen to and review this ALC. I look forward to reading more from Klune!

"In a strange little home built into the branches of a grove of trees, live three robots--fatherly inventor android Giovanni Lawson, a pleasantly sadistic nurse machine, and a small vacuum desperate for love and attention. Victor Lawson, a human, lives there too. They're a family, hidden and safe."

You know that first drink of water, after working out? Or digging in the garden on a hot day? Or when you first wake up and your tongue is glued to the roof of your mouth?

Coming off a month-long book slump, this book is that first drink.

Was lost, now found.
Was parched, now fully hydrated.

I loved everything about it.

I loved the ridiculous side characters (A Roomba with GAD and an Angel of Death nurse-bot?).

I loved the setting (should I be able to SMELL the colour green?).

I loved Victor's Hero's Journey.

I loved that it was a weird mash-up of Pinocchio and Psalm for the Wild-Built and Futurama.

And the ending. THE ENDING.

My only red-light is with my own brain, that won't let me stay in the moment and ENJOY all the happiness.

If I hadn't already read everything from this author's back catalogue, I'd have them all in my cart right now.

9.5/10

Thanks to NetGalley, Tor Publishing Group, and Macmillan Audio for this not-so-Grimm Fairytale of an ARC.

Thank you Netgalley for the advance audiobook copy of In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune in exchange for an honest review. This book starts with an almost Frankenstein feel but with robots. It then progresses into a Wizard of Oz meet A.I. feel. This might sound like a strange mash up, but it was engrossing and I was hooked. I loved all the characters from the father/son relationship of Gio and Victor which had a kinda Pinocchio feel to it, to Nurse Ratchet and her brash yet caring attitude, to Rambo, who had me laughing throughout the whole book, and Hap, the Hilariously Angry Puppet. I loved them all and rooted for them throughout the book. I've never had a book make me love robots before. I loved this book. Another great work by TJ Klune.

This author doesn’t disappoint. You can count on humor, insight, delightful characters and an engaging plot. As an audiobook, this was even more enjoyable, as the narrator brought the characters to life. Delightful!!

Author: TJ Klune
Genre: Science Fiction
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 (rounded up)

A queer retelling of Pinocchio set in a world of robots? Count me in. I am a huge fan of TJ Klune novels and I am a bigger fan of their audiobook editions. My favorite things about Klune's books are the incredible characters he has imagined. Quirky, funny, and unique - you can't help but fall in love with each and every character in his novels, and it is the same in this book. Though this is not my favorite of Klune's novels, it was still a remarkable read and I would definitely recommend it to anyone in need of a heartwarming tale about what it means to be a family.

Read if you like:
🤖Robots
👨‍👨‍👦Found Families
📚Quirky Characters

Thank you, NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. This book will be released on April 25th, 2023!

I really wanted to love this one more than I did. I absolutely love The House in the Cerulean Sea, it is one of my favorite books of the past couple of years. This felt like iRobot meets Pinocchio meets The Wizard of Oz. The relationship between Victor and his 3 machines / robots, Nurse Ratched, Hap and Rambo, was so fun to discover. They are living deep in the forest hiding out from the rest of the world when Vic’s father, Gio was kidnapped by other robots. They go on an adventure to the city to find Gio. This one was a little too sci-fi / post-apocalyptic for my taste. All the humans are gone. Machines rule the world. The Blue Fairy and the robot brothel were a little too much for me. There were plenty of parts of this book that made me laugh out loud, but it wasn’t as emotional as I expected. It was a comical slow burn that didn’t pull me in until the last third. I wish I could say amazing things about this story but it just didn’t do it.

This book is said to be a retelling of Carlo Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio, but I got more Wizard of Oz vibes rather than Pinocchio. Judging by the title, I assumed the characters were going to be puppets, like Pinocchio, but my take away was that the title was insinuating the humans were the puppets being controlled by evil robots.

Unfortunately, I didn’t love this story as much as I had anticipated but it would be hard to top The House in the Cerulean Sea, one of my all time favorites. I am not a huge fan of Sci-fi but I absolutely adored The House in the Cerulean Sea and really enjoyed Under the Whispering Door. However, I didn’t love this story as much as I had anticipated. At times it seemed like the story was about today’s real world/politics but doing it in a sneaky way using androids and puppets…but maybe I was overthinking it. I wouldn’t say I disliked it, I am sure many will love it, but the plot just wasn’t for me. The writing was great and the characters were well developed and hilarious. Matter of fact, I would say that I fell in love with Vic, Rambo and Nurse Ratched and even found myself laughing out loud many times at their funny antics and constant banter. I appreciated the found family, acceptance, loyalty and finding purpose in your life aspects of the story.

The audio narrator, Daniel Henning, was amazing, as always! He did an incredible job with making the characters come to life and giving each character their own unique voice. I will definitely be looking for more books that he has narrated.

If you enjoy sci-fi/post-apocalyptic and/or robots vs. humanity then this would be the book for you.

While not my favorite Klune novel (The House in the Cerulean Sea and Under the Whispering Door fit in that category) this was thoroughly enjoyable. Klune’s creativity astounds me. This story about a human boy, his android father, and robot family is endearing, humorous, and bittersweet. I’ve realized that found family is a favorite trope of mine. I listened to this book narrated by Daniel Henning. He does a marvelous job with the characters’ voices.

Thank you so much to MacMillan audio for providing me an advance copy of the audio for this book!

This is my third TJ Klune book and he has such a knack for writing about found family that this one is added to that list!

"In the lives of puppets there’s always a butt that spoils everything."

I do wish I had the physical copy to go along with the audio. Moreso because my brain doesn't allow me to picture what is being read to me. But I was able to follow this one for the most part which I was happy about!

This book had a little of everything, mystery, action sequences, romance, friendship, family. This is pegged as a Pinocchio retelling which it definitely has that element but at one point I felt like there was a little Wizard of Oz in there as well.

I thought the premise of the book was so different and Klune as always has such a unique way of writing and telling his stories that it's easy to get pulled in. And just like with his more recent books, you latch on to the characters and constantly are rooting for them. I'm very excited to see how artists will draw these characters because I have such an image of my head of them all. Nurse Ratchet reminded me of Rosie from The Jetson, Rambo is a Roomba but with arms(?), HAP & Gio were a little harder for me to picture so that is one that I'm excited to see a drawing of.

"All beings deserve a chance to find out what life could be when they don’t serve others."

The narrator Daniel Henning did such a great job putting his own spin on the characters giving them such distinguish voices that it made listening so much fun! I could not help but laugh whenever Rambo spoke because it was just so perfect! I did not do the audio for Cerulean Sea but I saw that he did the narration for that book which I can only imagine how well he did those characters. Bravo Daniel!

There were definitely times I found myself laughing at the dialogue and the narration just made it even more comical. I just loved how much they all loved each other and that when Gio was captured, they worked together to get him back to his family. I think fans of Klune will really enjoy this one.

This is definitely a favorite of mine and will be recommending!!
I also think this could be a fun one for book club discussions.

This morning I finished listening to the audiobook for In The Lives Of Puppets by TJ Klune. It’s a cute sci-fi story inspired by Pinocchio. This story follows 3 robots (Gio, Nurse Ratchet, & Rambo) and a human, Victor. They live in a little treehouse in the woods. One day, Hap, an android is found in their woods and Victor repairs him. This sends an alert to other robots and they come to take Gio away. The rest of this robot & human family go on an adventure to rescue Gio. This story has aspects that are funny, heartwarming, and bittersweet.

The narration is fantastic and I recommend listening to it at 2x speed. This speed makes the narration sound even more robotic 🤖

Thank you @macmillan.audio and @netgalley for allowing me to listen to this audiobook ahead of publication in exchange for my honest review.

***3.0 Stars***

Overall,
This was a bittersweet story about the future of humanity. Filled with love, friendship and complicated questions. This was not my favorite T.J. Klune book but I did enjoy it. I loved the found family. Victor and his friends are were funny at first but then it got a bit tedious. At times the book was quite slow and repetitive. The only other book I have read by T.J. is House on the Cerulean Sea and I found that the side characters felt very similar to the side characters in that book.

Narrator,
The narrator is the same that voiced the House on the Cerulean Sea and while I like him, he used the same voice for one of the characters in both books which was jarring.

Recommendation,
Another great book by T.J. Klune, if you like this author then you will undoubtedly enjoy this book. For cozy sci-fi book lovers about robots and the end of humanity.

****Thank you Netgalley and McMillan Audio for the Audio Arc of this book in exchange for a free and honest review***

I am still processing how much I loved this book. In The Lives of Puppets is described as the queer retelling of Carlo Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio. I also think this book had a little mix of Wall- E and the Wizard of Oz too! TJ Klune’s writing is magical and comforting while he explores the themes of humanity, self-worth, family, and love with the help of a few likable robots. I loved the banter between the robots, and I immediately fell in in love with an anxiety-ridden vacuum Roomba named Rambo. Nurse Rachet was my second favorite! I loved that their adventure to finding Gio also led them on their own self-exploration and their journey to finding that their found family is what is important.

I had access to both the Kindle and audiobook versions. I started to read the Kindle version, but the audiobook version was more magical. TJ Klune should be proud that Daniel Henning did a fantastic job narrating the book and making each character well-represented with their own traits and quirks. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the audiobook and felt like I could imagine the storyline as Henning told it. Listening to the audiobook tugged on my heart and made me want to laugh out loud more! If you are to listen to one audiobook this year, please put this book at the top of your list.

This was an epic queer positive Pinocchio reimagining that features a found family of robots and one real human boy. Full of all Klune's trademark humor and heartbreaking moments that are sure to make you cry. Great on audio and highly recommended for fans of the Monk and Robot series by Becky Chambers. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for early digital copies in exchange for my honest review!

TJ Klune always has such great characters. In the Lives of Puppets is a new take on a Pinnochio type story but is also so much more. It was just a lot of good fun to meet all of the characters.

There aren’t enough glowing words to express how much I love this story! Part sci-if, part family drama with such great world building and strong characters. There’s nothing negative I can say about this one. The audiobook narrator was phenomenal as well.
Gio Lawson builds a house in the middle of the woods and invents a sarcastic nurse machine called Nurse Ratched and a small people pleasing vacuum called Rambo. One day a couple appears out of nowhere and leaves a baby with Gio, never to be seen or heard from again. Geo thinks it is a gift from the universe for his years of loneliness and raises him as his son, Victor.
Gio is an inventor and Victor, now aged 22, enjoys going to the dump and finding parts of abandoned robots and rebuilding them. He rebuilds an android they name HAP, without realizing the dark past that HAP shares with Gio.
Vic and the Gang have to save his father, who has been taken to his old laboratory in the City of Electric Dreams to be reprogrammed and in the process, Vic has to deal with his feelings for HAP.
I loved the found family and the fun banter between the characters was a treasure to enjoy. TJ Klune knows how to get to my heart and he has done it again.
Thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for this audiobook arc in exchange for my review.

Going into this book all I expected was a story of unique characters I couldn’t help but love and that’s exactly what I got. I went into it blind but really enjoyed the journey. At times I felt a bit bogged down by the story but overall it was really enjoyable and the characters were fantastic. Klune’s story telling is whimsical and heartwarming but he also pulls on the heart strings.

It also makes you stop and think about all the AI technology we are implementing…

This made for a fantastic audiobook. The narrator did a fantastic job, especially with different voices for the characters.

Thank you for early access NetGalley and Tor

Title: In the Lives of Puppets
Author: TJ Klune
Pub Date: April 25, 2023
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

📚Review:
To say this book is a masterpiece would be selling it short. TJ Klune has the ability to tap into every emotion through his words. And through those words, he takes his readers on the most glorious and vivid adventures. Readers will be transported into the pages and feel as though they are walking alongside the characters.
Readers can connect with the many themes and symbols used throughout, especially those surrounding the families we create, who we become through space and time, who we are in the face of challenges, and what we’re willing to endure to help loved ones in need.
This novel made me laugh out loud, it made me champion for the underdog, it made me evaluate who I choose to call “family,” and it made me analyze what it means to love and allow others to love me.
If you enjoy fantasy, science fiction, adventure, and the overall quest for acceptance, friendship, and love then you’ll appreciate this incredible and amazing piece of art.
While I gave this 5 out of 5 stars, it deserves all the stars in the universe as does the narrator who brought the characters to life in the most delicious way! The individual voices and personalities inserted into the characters made this audiobook one that I would treasure for all time! It was truly excellent!
✨Thank you NetGalley and Tor Books for the opportunity to listen to the Audiobook ahead of the release in exchange for an honest review.

I was fully entertained, loved meeting all the unique and magical characters, and loved the message of found family, loyalty, and resilience. It would make a great animated movie!

If you plan to read it, I strongly recommend the audio version. Daniel Henning gives each character an entire WARDROBE of personality with each voice.

I had a digital review copy of this e-book but waited with crossed fingers, hoping to snag an advanced listening copy of the audiobook. Success! Narrator Henning is BRILLIANT (as he was in THE HOUSE IN THE CERULEAN SEA). Each character is hilariously voiced and drawn like the funniest cartoon.

In a flipped script of Pinnochio, we have one human (Victor) surrounded by puppets (robots and androids). There’s lots of love and acceptance, loads of witty banter, and a sprinkling of surprising sexual innuendo. (They feel like an inside joke for the parents watching a cartoon if that makes sense.)

I was utterly entertained, loved meeting all the unique and magical characters, and appreciated the message of found family, loyalty, and resilience. It would make a fantastic animated movie! Someone should call Pixar.

If you plan to read it, I strongly recommend the audio version. Daniel Henning gives each character an entire WARDROBE of personality with each voice.

Thanks, NetGalley, MacMillan Audio, and Tor Books, for the ALC and DRC.