I apologize for the extremely late review, life happened. I ended up DNF around the 8% mark as I soon realized the writing and story wasn't for me. I had trouble imagining the characters and wasn't invested in them enough for me to care what happened to them. It seemed to be more telling than showing and I couldn't continue on. I think it could been a good story but needed some more editing and revisions.

1 out of 5 rating for me!

Have you thought about Pinocchio lately? Neither have I. But this retelling of the story sheds new light on it, following an orphaned sixteen year old girl who finds herself with superhuman powers, as she's whisked into a world she would have never been able to imagine, and she's forced to do things she would never have been able to do in her daily life.

Penelope prefers to be called Pen, because she thinks her full name sounds like an old lady name. She's had a sad life in an orphanage, wishing for her own family and even pretending that the man running it is her father. She steals to feel something, and then she's caught, and forced to stay and work there five years after turning eighteen. That is, until Jed and James come into the picture.

Jed is a mad scientist in all senses. His son James, however, is very normal, and seems to be against his fathers experiments. Pen just gets dragged into it all because she just wants a home for herself, and an out of the only world that she knows. The price is that she'll lose her human strength in exchange for superhuman almost robotic like strength, and eventually, the ability to lie.

I never expected this book to be what it was actually about, and when I read the description I was really intrigued. I haven't read anything like this before, and I was pleasantly surprised. Pen is a really relatable person despite her superhuman strength and speed. And the adventure she's forced into is really exciting, I didn't want to stop reading it once I started, and finished it in about a day.

Though this isn't my absolute favourite book, I didn't have any problems with it, and all the questions I had were answered by the end of the book. Though I do think that there could have been more explanation for some things, I don't think it was necessary, and I did really enjoy reading it. If you're looking for something really different to bring your outside your normal reading routine, then I recommend checking out this book for sure.

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I don’t think I have ever read a retelling of Pinocchio before Puppet. This fact is what drew me to the book quite a few years ago, and I finally read it in September. Sadly Puppet didn’t really hit the mark for me.

The story of Puppet was told in two parts and these two parts were so dissimilar it was hard to reconcile them as the same story. The first part of the novel was quite low key, and was mainly back story as well as Penelope figuring out some of her mannequin abilities. Most of this part was set at Penelope’s home, with some scenes of her showing off her skills at shows as well as visiting a doctor who was interested in her abilities.

The second part of the story was set in a prison/hospital ward and there were some political aspects suddenly introduced. It gave me reading whiplash to go from a story based at a girl’s home with no mention of politics to a story about this same girl being used for political gain.

I think Puppet would have benefited from bridging these two separate stories together. If there had been some world building and discussion about politics in the first half then it wouldn’t have come as such a surprise when the second half focussed so much on it. But as it stands there was no world building at all so I wasn’t even sure of the relevancy of the different political heads in the second half.

My favourite part of the novel was the middle where Penelope and James attempted to run away from the people who were after Pen and wanted to use her abilities. I thought this section of the novel was the most descriptive, and there was also a lot more development of both Pen and James’s characters as well as their relationship. I must admit I was sad that this part of the book was so short because I would have been happier if it had been longer.

I think with some work Puppet could have ended up being a really good novel, but in the end it just lacked quite a number of things. It needed more world building to set the scene for the second half. It also needed more development of Pen’s character, as well as James and Jed’s. Relationship development between the three of them would have gone far, as well. Unfortunately Puppet was lacking these things and in the end I just didn’t fall in love.

© 2020, Chiara @ Books for a Delicate Eternity. All rights reserved.

Unfortunately this was a DNF for me as sci fi and fantasy is something that needs to be absolutely astounding to grab my attention. This was good but I did not gel with the plot.

Heard a lot of hype around the internet about this and picked it up - definitely an interesting story and a unique twist on a classic tale

I received a free copy on netgalley for an honest review.

This book was really cute!
I thought the plot was very original and super interesting.
At points it did seem a little too rushed. I don't really understand how some books can drag some scenes out and then be really quick when it's time for an action scene.
I also feel this book was a little too preachy in the religious sense for me.
Not everyone has the same religion so it can be a bit annoying to see a book almost surrounded by it. It really wasn't necessary to put religion into it at all. It's not like her cross was that important.

But other than that it was very cute and original