I admire Klune's creative mind and really enjoyed these narrators. I'm sad to say I had to DNF this. I'm struggling to focus and feel like it was starting to drag. I might come back and try again at a later date, but for now, I'm just not relating or connecting with it like I was with THE HOUSE IN THE CERULEAN SEA.

Thank you, NetGalley and Macmillan for this ALC!

What a heartwarming story! This is one of those books that makes you feel all warm and gooey on the inside. This book was heavy on character development, and much like The House in the Cerulean Sea, the characters are all lovable and comedic. I do not think I have ever felt such affinity for a vacuum, but Rambo stole the show for me. In the Lives of Puppets gave me some Pinocchio mixed with Toy Story vibes. Inanimate objects come to life and go on a quest. While the storyline and characters were fabulous, the audio narrator really made this book for me. Daniel Henning was flawless as the audio narrator.

This wasn’t for me. I loved Klune’s previous works and found the audio interpretations to be brilliant. This book had many of the same elements that shined in the others - found family, funny and quickly characters, and an incredible performance from the narrator. That said, I didn’t find the immediate connection to both character and plot that I had hoped for. I have never been a fan of Pinocchio and struggle with sci-fi, so this very well could be a me problem. I’m confident that this book will find its right audience.

Thank you to NetgGalley and Tor books for the opportunity to read this audio ARC. I truly appreciated the read!

thank you to netgalley for the advanced listening copy of in the lives of puppets. this was fantastic, the narrator did and amazing job! this brought the book alive. the characters traits, even hap's stutter. this was amazing.

Deep in the forest, in a house built in the trees, Victor Lawson lives with his family, although his family isn’t a typical one. Giovanni, his father, is an android and an inventor. Rambo, a vacuum, and Nurse Ratchet, a robotic nurse, also live with Victor, also known as Vic. Vic likes to salvage and fix robots he finds in the scrap yard, and that is where he finds a robot that comes to be known as Hap, a robot that will unknowingly place Vic and his family in danger. When Gio, who had been in hiding, is captured and taken to the City of Electric Dreams, Vic and his robot family must leave the comfort of their forest home if they hope to save him.

Wow! I absolutely loved this novel! I loved the characters, the story, the messages and the themes; I could go on and on. I greatly enjoyed the humor in this book, especially the humor that comes out of Nurse Ratchet. The descriptions are nothing short of amazing and create an intriguing world full of interesting characters. Victor is a positive, strong, loving character that I took a huge interest in; I wanted him to be successful and happy. The messages about humanity and technology, as well as love and family, are so relevant and moving. At times it almost seemed like there was a Wizard of Oz vibe, which was kind of fun.

This may be one of the best audiobooks I have listened to. Henning gave life to each of the characters through the voices, inflection, and especially the timing within the delivery. It was a little slow (audiobooks are always too slow for me), but I still loved this audiobook. Between Klune’s story and Henning’s narration I fell into this world, experiencing the events alongside the characters.

If I haven’t said it enough, I loved In the Lives of Puppets and I highly recommend it.

FIRST OFF I'm sorry to Drew at Macmillan, who has consistently gifted we loons with the greatest gifts of all (audio arcs from our favorite authors) and it still took me 1000 years to read this. hi, it's me, i'm the problem. it's me.

SECOND OFF
KLLLLLLUUNNNEEEEEEEEEE'S BACK, BBBBBABBYYYY

granted: he never really left. everyone is allowed their completely existential and deeply wounded plague novel, and Whispering Door was still a good book, But Cerulean Sea re-wrote my DNA and turned me into a drastically different and better person, so Whispering Door being just a Really Good Book is a tough follow-up. Am I asking too much if I want an author to eviscerate me every time? Maybe! But at least he did it again!!

One of my favorite genres is "every day is the worst day of this guy's LIFE (fun)" and that is the neighborhood where Klune lives. That is where he built a house and a little garden. That is this entire book.

Klune SHINES when he gets to create the most feral cast of characters you've ever seen and this book contains, without a shadow of a doubt, his most feral cast. They all share one braincell. Meet the new loves of your life:

Rambo: an extremely anxious roomba who has never had the braincell EVEN ONCE. Every single moment of Rambo dialogue was the single greatest moment of my life. This is genuinely the best character he's ever written. I would jump in front of a train to save Rambo.

Nurse Ratchet: a vaguely sociopathic nurse robot who has to specifically engage empathy protocols in order to stop victimizing the people around her. She usually has the braincell. If you're weak for the begrudging mother character who pretends not to care but cares THE MOST, get ready to feel!!!!!!

HAP: he's hysterical. he's angry. he's a puppet. I'd never look at him twice in a contemporary romcom but it turns out in fantasy I'm extremely into the guy who decks someone in the face because they grabbed his partner !!!

Vic:: every day is the worst day of this guy's LIFE (fun!!)


and perhaps the most important character of all: audiobook narrator Daniel Henning. Henning, who also blessed us with the narration to Cerulean Sea. 10000000/10, could not imagine a better person to bring Rambo to life.

I laughed. I cried. I got knocked out by familial love and friendship and choosing to never leave the people you love behind and choosing to love someone and the ghosts within them, and I requested paid medical leave after the line "I love you. Selfishly and Unforgivably." and I'm sorry this took me a month to finish, but let's be honest, it finished me!!!!!

Netgalley is full of angels who grant access to beautiful books and I am grateful for the platform, for Macmillan Audio, and for TJ Klune!

I am not really a fantasy fiction fan, but TJ Klune is a wonder. What a wonderful, fantastical book with love and heart. It is not often that you can connect with a book like this. Wonderful!

TJ Klune is unmatched when it comes to creating the most lovable characters!! Who knew I could fall in love with a vacuum so easily?? Ugh. The murdery nurse was also a close second as a favorite character in this one!

I loved this story. The characters. The setting. The adventure! It was witty, charming and had me laughing out loud at times. The way the author is able to incorporate “humanity” in so many different ways speaks to his talent.

I’ll always pick up a TJ Klune book 👏🏼

Thank you Net Galley for the opportunity to listen to this one in advance!

I've been working on In the Lives of Puppets for a long time. While not my favorite from TJ (nothing will beat Cerulean Sea), I did enjoy the story and once again, we are introduced to delightful, loving, funny, fantastical characters.

One thing I did learn from my time with this book, is that perhaps audiobooks are just not my thing. I've given it a fair shot, I just don't love it. The narrator did have a lofty job with all the robots, stuttering, etc, but I found it really irritating. I can see the Pinnochio references but it also felt Wizard of Oz to me.

Nice read. Found family. Slapstick humor. To me it felt like it the elements of a Wizard of Oz retelling. Shows importance of accepting and acknowledging everyone’s differences. Thanks NetGalley for the Audio eArc.

Thank you to TJ Klune (author), Daniel Henning (narrator), Tor Publishing Group, Tor Books, and Netgalley for this free advanced reader copy of "In the Lives of Puppets" of Puppets for an honest review.

A fan of the earlier 'Sea' text by TJ Klune, I was tempted to try another when I saw it pop up. This is a soft, sweet tale of found family, free will, bravery, cross-species love, asexuality, mental illness, and even Alzheimers. It's a very sweet read without a whole lot of depth to it, which made it a perfect curl-up book during what was a really hard last month of my life. Anyone looking for a hug in a book should definitely go in for this one.

As to my audio review, while I have a fondness for Henning's voices, I found too many of them alike to Cerulean in the first few chapters, which was incredibly jarring because I kept mixing them up with earlier characters I had heard him do. Thankfully, by about the 1/3rd point, I sank deep enough into those voices being these characters now and I was able to continue on untroubled.

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. Author TJ Klune, has a way of pulling me into his stories like not author ever has. This story is sort of a retelling of Pinocchio where a real boy is created by his father, who is a robot. Amazing story, kept me in my car listening after getting home multiple times.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 1/4

What do you get when you mix together Pinocchio, Frankenstein, WALL-E, and the Brave Little Toaster? This charming, courageous, and comical novel!

I have attempted (and failed) to read Klune’s work before and after tackling this text, I may just be a TJ Klune convert.

Narratively, the story arch builds to multiple climaxes, making it a bit slow near the end; however, the emotional and philosophical payoff bring it all together in the final act.

I highly recommend the audiobook, performed by Daniel Henning. The story is dialogue heavy and Henning’s dynamic vocal acting really brings life to these lovable and complicated automatons. Rambo is my personal favorite character portrayal - love that lil neurotic vaccuum!

Exploring what it means to be a truly & wonderfully flawed human, In the Lives of Puppets challenges readers to open their minds and, more importantly, their hearts to love and possibility.

*This book was read and reviewed in partnership with NetGalley.*

Synopsis:
"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.
The day Vic salvages and repairs an unfamiliar android labelled “HAP,” he learns of a shared dark past between Hap and Gio–a past spent hunting humans.
When Hap unwittingly alerts robots from Gio’s former life to their whereabouts, the family is no longer hidden and safe. Gio is captured and taken back to his old laboratory in the City of Electric Dreams. So together, the rest of Vic’s assembled family must journey across an unforgiving and otherworldly country to rescue Gio from decommission, or worse, reprogramming.”

My Thoughts:
This is a cute story about found friendship, overcoming our differences, and sexuality. We follow a group of robots and a human as they travel to the City of Emerald Dreams. Along the way they encounter several robots and begin to realize that the world, and those in it, are not as they had expected. And, as they overcome challenges together, they slowly put together the pieces of their past.
The narrator on the audiobook is fantastic and does a phenomenal job voicing each of the characters. I've heard this book referenced as a Pinocchio retelling, which I can some what see, but I definitely felt strong Wizard of Oz vibes as well. I did think it felt a little long at times and included more references of private parts and human functions than needed; but it is told with great wit and humor, making the over story more enjoyable.

Thank you to @netgalley , @torbooks , and @macmillan.audio for the gifted copy of this book.

TJ Klune has done it again! This retelling of the childhood classic tale of Pinocchio was phenomenal. He created characters that you couldn't but love. The beginning 30% was a little slow, but the story quickly picked up and the plot thickened. I couldn't stop reading and ditched all of my chores to finish the book. I would recommend this book to my bookish friends!

TJ Klune does it again!



Although I wasn't a fan of the movie as a child, this was a beautiful retelling of Pinocchio that is crossed with Wall-e and I, Robot. Real boy Victor was a beautiful child raised by robots, so was uncertain about human life and reasons.



Nurse Ratched was paired perfectly with Rambo, the vacuum, for a comical side kick duo. Such a colorful cast of characters made for interesting twists along the way. A found family, dystopian novel that is sure to pull at the strings of your heart.

I really enjoyed this. The narrator was great at varying the voices and it was a heartwarming story.

In The Lives of Puppets is like if you mixed Pinocchio, Wall-E, and The Wizard of Oz together, but more adults and all the characters are queer.

This book has everything: talking vacuums, wooden hearts, wit, romance, and humans… pardon… a human… actually forget it said that! Engaging memory erasure mode now!

Like a lot of Klune’s books, I felt like a giant kid reading a fairy tale as I followed these characters to the City of Electric Dreams. There were a lot of ‘awwww’ moments as well as funny wit and banter. Prepare to fall in love will all the characters (never thought I would fall in love with a homicidal robot). I appreciated the many variations of queer rep we got, including ace, NB, pansexual, and many other sexualities among the different characters (especially since most of the characters were robots who defied binary gender).
After reading Under the Whispering Door as well, I’ve noticed that Klune is really good at making you think “well shit, how are we gonna get out of this predicament?!”, before the super cute and satisfying HEA.

This felt like a warm hug and I could see myself reading this again 🫶🏼

Rating: 🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖/5
Narrator: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️/5

I would also highly recommend the audiobook, because the narrator made me feel like I was listening to a Disney movie.

Thank you NetGalley & Macmillan audio for giving me this ALC*. And a special thanks to TJ Klune! All opinions are my own.

This was my most anticipated read of this year. I always fall in love very quickly with with tJ Klume's characters. This book made me laugh out loud. It was impossible not to love nurse ratched and her dark side. Her sense of humor matches my own. I will always and forever get every single book written by him! Though it may have been slow to start, it was worth it!

Such a great book. TJ Klune can do no wrong! The message was so great and the story line kept me so engaged. I LIVE this book!