In the Lives of Puppets

A NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES AND INDIE BESTSELLER!

New York Times bestselling author TJ Klune invites you deep into the heart of a peculiar forest and on the extraordinary journey of a family assembled from spare parts.

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"An enchanting tale of Pinocchio in the end times." --P. Djèlí Clark

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 labeled "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.

Along the way to save Gio, amid conflicted feelings of betrayal and affection for Hap, Vic must decide for himself: Can he accept love with strings attached?

Inspired by Carlo Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio, and like Swiss Family Robinson meets Wall-E, In the Lives of Puppets is a masterful stand-alone fantasy adventure from the beloved author who brought you The House in the Cerulean Sea and Under the Whispering Door.

★ "An epic quest of rescue and discovery [with] the author's trademark charm, heart, and bittersweetness." --Library Journal, starred review

Praise for TJ Klune's previous work: "Like being wrapped up in a big gay blanket." --V.E. SCHWAB - "Very close to perfect." --SEANAN McGUIRE - "Utterly absorbing." --GAIL CARRIGER - "It will renew your faith in humanity." --TERRY BROOKS - "It healed me." --CASSANDRA KHAW - "Compassionate." --RYKA AOKI

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468 pages

Average rating: 7.4

162 RATINGS

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15 REVIEWS

Community Reviews

spoko
Oct 21, 2024
DNF at about 20%. I am just entirely not the target audience for this book. The didactic tone has me non-stop cringing, and none of the humor is landing with me at all. I'm just finding it so tedious.
jenlynerickson
Oct 17, 2024
10/10 stars
Once upon a time, people dreamed of incredible machines made of wire, plastic, and metal that could do things that they couldn't do themselves. There were machines for all kinds of things from work to war to outer space! These machines were filled with records of language, music, and math. Their jobs were simple: to do what they were told when they were told to do it. But the programing of the machines came at price humanity did not expect: they began to ask “why?” In the lives of puppets, there is always a “but” that spoils everything else. The machines decide that the weight of the fear, judgment and apathy of humanity is too much for them to carry. They must eradicate their creators and become creators themselves. But when the father of death assuages his loneliness by secretly bringing life into the world in the last gasp of humanity, the results are both his greatest “Victor”y and his most devastating mistake. In the Lives of Puppets is about four machines–Nurse Ratched (Registered Automaton To Care, Heal, Educate, and Drill), Rambo the vacuum, a Human Annihilation Response Protocol hunter of humans nicknamed HAP (Hysterically Angry Puppet), a father named Gio (General Innovation Operative)--and a son named Victor, the only human left in the world. The beauty of humanity, the power of friendship, the reciprocity of love and sacrifice between a father and son: prepare your processing centers for a sight the likes of which you’ve never seen! In the Lives of Puppets is Swiss Family Robinson meets Wild Robot, a poignant adventure that is destined to become a classic to forever treasure.
Sarglen99
Sep 16, 2024
3/10 stars
This book was well written but the plot wasn't what I expected at all. This was a waste for him to write and me to read.
Amos McShamus
Sep 05, 2024
4/10 stars
My fault for reading this one because I liked others by the author. I'm not a fan of Pinocchio and this is a re-telling of that story, just their own version.
brunette_rapunzel
Aug 09, 2024
10/10 stars
What a wonderful book! I loved Rambo! He is so darling! This is not my normal genre, but I loved it anyway!

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