I was absolutely delighted to be approved for the advance reader copy of this book on NetGalley because I loved the two prior TJ Klune books that I read. Unfortunately, with this one, I burned out around halfway through (at the end of Chapter 14). So I left it on my TBR shelf for roughly eight months (right up until the beginning of 2024) and then re-engaged only after someone in the Girls Love Travel Book Club on Facebook highly recommended picking it back up and finishing it off. Fortunately, the book was very easy to get back into. Things almost immediately started happening in the plot that engaged my interest, so it was a very quick action packed read until the end. The ending of the book made me weep in public (at Silent Book Club) and almost miss my next appointment.

The challenge that I had with this book was that it was an excessively slow burn. The story started out with Victor, his father, and two robots living in an idyllic treehouse in the forest. It stayed there for a bit building out the characters and their relationships. Eventually, Victor brought home some robot parts that he scavenged from a scrap heap and decided to rebuild the robot, keeping it a secret from his father. The story stayed there for a bit, as the new robot tried to integrate into the family. And then something really bad happened that resulted in the kidnapping of the father and the rest of the family setting out on a quest to rescue him. The story dwelled in the quest through the forest, building out the relationships of the quartet. And that’s where I put it down because the story kept stalling and the previously cute and witty banter between the characters was starting to feel tiresome and uninspired.

When I picked the book back up, things almost immediately started happening in the plot. A new character got introduced who revealed some disturbing information about the real world that the characters were living in. The quartet made some serious progress on their quest to rescue the father with the help of this new character. They suffered setbacks, they made progress, they met new characters who revealed more new information. Ultimately, the quest wrapped up, putting Victor back at the beginning to deal with the collateral damage of having gone on this quest. And then the book dwelled here until it quietly wrapped up.

I was quite happy to have taken the advice of the ladies on Facebook. Overall, I was glad that I put this content into my brain as it did have some interesting commentary on the nature of family and friendships, on the quality of forgiveness, and on what it means to be human. It was just such a slow build and burn that I lost my patience with it, especially since all that space spent dwelling on building characters and relationships didn’t seem one-hundred percent necessary in the end. And some of my impatience was my own fault in bringing my expectations into this book that it would be similar to the other two books that I had read by the author where the high stakes conflict in the plot was almost immediately apparent.

I would recommend this book if you are a patient reader who trusts the author to bring together everything that is so painstakingly built in the first half of the book. If you are a reader who especially enjoys found family novels and buddy quests, this one may be right up your alley.

I LOVED this authors other titles so I was so excited to read this one as well!! This book was so engaging and I loved it just as much as his other books if not more!! It’s a must read!

This was my first book by TJ Klune and it was amazing!! What a fun adventure of a world full of androids and a human who needs to save his adopted dad. This story is full of love, found family, adventure, and what we would go through in order to help the people that matter the most for us! Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to read this book!

I enjoyed The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune, so I was excited to get approved for this one! TJ Klune's writing has proven to be whimsical, magical and cozy! It's the perfect read for curling up under a blanket on a chilly day. Like with his previous book, reading this feels like a movie. His descriptions are so clear and vivid that it is easy to see it play out in your head.

It has the series potential to be someone’s favorite book ever, but not quite for me. It was bittersweet and genuinely funny, if a bit over exhaustive with the seggs jokes.

This book is another reason why T.J. Klune is an automatic read for me. The way with words in diverse crazy worlds and how it all comes together is astounding. I loved this book. I loved the characters, the setting, the story.
In this Pinnochio retelling we get AI with robots and how humanity can affect our relationships with each other.

Thanks to Netgalley for the arc!

Such a emotional read! I love TJ Klune. His writing is always so raw and emotional for me. "A heart is a heavy burden" is there truer words than this?
Character development, superb!

I wanted to love this SO bad. I have loved TJ Klune for years and I was so excited to read this book. However, the book felt flat. I kept going and going and I was not feeling like I was interested in the plot. I was quite surprised because it has never happened to me before with his writing. There was too much sexual content that was not necessary at all in my opinion. That being said, my favorite part was finding an asexual character which is so nice to find this kind of representation. If you are a fan of technology and love TJ Klune this might be a book for you though!

DNF at 200 pages. I started this two months ago and I’ve finally decided I couldn’t do it. I wanted to love this book as I read the house on cerulean sea and thought it was such a heartwarming story (not to mention a GORGEOUS cover) but man, this one does not do it justice. There are a great deal of themes that appear in both books, and fall flat in this one. I didn’t care about the characters, I constantly questioned why I was supposed to be interested, and while the story and concept are very interesting (it’s a twist on Pinocchio) it seems the author tried to stay too close to the inspiration at his own detriment. The details that show up in both stories can be cool at times, but I often found myself googling because I didn’t get the reference and it took me out of the story. I picked this up trying to slug through every time as I’ve never DNF’ed anything, but this will have to be my first.
There were some very cool aspects with the technology used, but the interest was tapered back by the crass mention of sex and genitals for no apparent reason every 10 pages or so. I’m no stranger to this in books, but if it’s not done with purpose, please don’t do it at all. It only serves to make everyone, (even your characters) uncomfortable, and this was a very large part of why I did not finish.
If you’re a big fan of Pinocchio, technology and the question of sentience and emotion in robots and their relationship with humanity, you may like this! The story also features an Asexual main character which I found so interesting because I rarely see that in media!
If you’re looking for a good story with fleshed out characters and relationships, and a fast paced story that is fresh and exciting, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this one, but it’s worth it for the other reasoned mentioned above, but these reasons just weren’t for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC! Sorry the review was not the best I had to offer.

I stupidly left this too long to read and now its archived. I brought a physical copy so will update once I've read!

I know I'm going to love it because I've read his other books!

This book had a lot of potential. I liked the characters but a lot of the plot seemed like a few other stories all put together. There were some pretty funny parts. However, I feel like all of the sexual aspects of it were unnecessary and weird. It made me really not want to finish the book.

I really enjoyed this! The robots were great and I laughed so much throughout this story. It's like a fun mix of The Wizard of Oz and Pinocchio and just overall full of whimsy. I thought the pacing was a little odd and found myself sometimes being bored and other times not wanting to put the book down.

I don't think TJ Klune is capable of writing a bad story. Or even a mediocre story. In his new book, In the Lives of Puppets, he's created another magical masterpiece that grabbed me in from the very first page, and didn't let go until the end (and really, I'm still thinking about it).

In a world full of robots, Klune taps into the nature of the human experience and creates a captivating story about love, betrayal, and the complexities of relationships. It's a truly compelling read that explores deep themes while maintaining a whimsical feel as well. It's sure to keep readers engaged and leave them anxiously awaiting their next chance to step into one of Klune's worlds.

"I don't know how not to be weird. That's like asking the birds to stop flying."

I was very unsure about this book—I don't love reading books about machines or technology, but TJ Klune wrote it, so I needed to read it. I'm so glad I did. This book made me laugh out loud, cry and feel emotional along with a bunch of machines. The characters were so well developed, and their little family was great. I loved that each one of them was quite different but that they fit together perfectly. I did feel like the relationship between Hap & Vic felt a little forced & rushed, I think it could've been developed over time a bit longer and it would've fit more.

TJ Klune has a way with words, and if he made me love this book, I can't wait to see what he writes next.

I absolutely loved The House in The Cerulean Sea and didn't think any book could top that one, but this one was just as amazing and whimsical. At first glance, this is just a simple tale about a boy and his father and some robots, and they all go on an adventure together. However, it ends up being so much more than that. Klune was able to take fantasy/sci fi and write it as believable and riveting.

Stunningly written this beautiful fairy tale retelling will resonate with fans of TJ Klune. Klune’s ability to masterfully weave words makes this unputdownable.

Apocalypses don’t have to be just about doom, gloom, and the death of billions. Most good stories set in post-Armageddon scenarios, in fact, are not. And given author TJ Klune’s penchant for telling us tales about love and hope (and the pain that comes with both of these emotions), it’s not surprising that his latest novel, In the Lives of Puppets, is full of more hope, love (and pain) than you might think a story set in a future where robots rule the world has any right to be.


In the Lives of Puppets is loosely inspired by Carlo Collodi’s The Adventures of Pinocchio. There have been notable screen adaptations recently (the recent Disney “live-action” version and the very good one by Guillermo del Toro), but Klune’s book flips the tale by having the story center on a young human man named Victor who lives in the wilderness with a found family of robots, led by his father, the inventor Gio. When he’s 19 years old, Victor restores an android (there are some clear Frankenstein vibes here as well) and gives it some wood-covered appendages to protect the robot’s exposed metal workings. This android names himself Hap, and while he has no memory of his past life, his programming hints at a reality Victor has never experienced firsthand, and indirectly leads to malicious forces finding them, intent on killing those like Victor and forcing Gio to go back to the City of Electric Dreams where he’ll be reprogrammed to do their bidding.

[rest of review at link below]

In the Lives of Puppets was absolutely charming, a feature of TJ Klune's books that I love. Who knew you could feel cozy about robots? I also really liked the narrator of the audiobook, good pacing.

In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune. Pub Date: April 25, 2023. Rating: 2 stars. When I read this was a Pinocchio re-telling, I was excited because that is one of my favorite childhood stories. What I read was something completely unexpected and honestly a bit much for my taste. I appreciate exploring sci-fi concepts, but the sexual vulgarity within the novel was surprising and honestly a little off putting. I found this novel difficult to read and was honestly shocked because his other work is so highly praised. This was a miss for me. Thanks to NetGalley and Tor books for this e-arc in exchange for my honest review. #netgalley #inthelivesofpuppets

DNF @ 40%.

I really loved Klune's "Under the Whispering Door", and I remember in that one that he had to start with an unappealing character and then win me over, so I gave this one a solid shot.

Unfortunately, it just wasn't for me. There's a lot in here TO love -- it's a sci-fi post-apocalpytic robot uprising Pinocchio retelling with a heavy dose of MST3K style silly robot antics and a little bit of Frankenstein in there, and it's got some interesting things to say about what of yourself you put into creative work. It's got a big mix of a style sort of like a modern kids' cartoon with quippy comedy robots accompanying a serious teenage protagonist (I think? He acts like a child but he made a robotic heart 'when he was 15' so he's at least a couple of years older than that), plus a solid throughline of off the wall raunchy humour. These things are all present but just weren't working for me here in the proportions they were being delivered in. When I realized I wasn't invested in the journey they were going to go on or the central romance that was being set up, I decided to step back from this one.

I think someone who likes a quick push-pull between slapstick and tragic may like this one more than me!