In the Lives of Puppets

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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. This book was full of heart and soul. In a grove of trees lives a family made up of fatherly inventor android Giovanni (Gio) Lawson, Nurse Rached, a sadistic nurse machine, Rambo, and a small vacuum desperate for love. A human, Victor (VIC) Lawson, lives there as well. They live in safety until the day Vic salvages HAP, an unfamiliar android. Unfortunately, HAP and Gio share a history of hunting humans. Victor was the one who fixed Nurse Ratched and Rambo and he is always on the lookout for another machine he can reactivate. So when he finds an android who for a minute was still "alive" before his battery stops, he knows he will do anything to fix the android who he names HAP (Hysterically Angry Puppet). At first, he hides him from GIO until HAP is fully operational. Without realizing by saving HAP, Victor has put his life in danger. Next thing he knows, androids are surrounding his home and GIO is taken prisoner to the City of Electric Dreams. Gio has left a message not to try to find him but Victor can't stop himself but embark on a trip to save the only father he has ever known.

New York Times bestselling author T J Klune invites you deep into the heart of a peculiar forest and on the extraordinary journey of a family assembled from spare parts. The ending. Not fully tied-up. Just hopeful. Not open. Just at the right point. Not incomplete. Just perfect! ( I am quite biased towards books that leave me with a big teary grin at the end!) I think I like T.J. Klune's writing more when it's filled with angst. Green Creek continues to be one of my favorite series of all time, and to this day, I haven't finished rereading it because it makes me sob every book. He looked up again. Near the top of the scrap heap he could see what appeared to be a multi-layer PCB in good condition. Circuit boards were a rare find these days, and though he’d wanted to pull it out when he first saw it a few weeks before, he hadn’t dared. This particular scrap heap was one of the most hazardous and was already swaying as he climbed. He’d take his time, working out scrap around the circuit board, letting it fall to the ground. Such effort required patience. The alternative was death. Android inventor Giovanni Lawson finds an abandoned building in a remote, old forest and transforms it into somewhere to live but being so isolated he’s lonely. One day a distraught couple appear, the woman clutches a bundle of rags which proves to be a swaddled child. They beg him to keep the child safe which he gladly does and Gio grows to love him. He names the human boy Victor and there they live in safety with a somewhat sadistic and well named robot Nurse Ratched (Nurse Registered Automaton to Care, Heal, Educate and Drill) and a fearful and anxious vacuum cleaner glorying in the name Rambo. One day, Vic, Nurse Ratched and Rambo visit a graveyard/scrapyard of robots and find a decommissioned android that seems awake. This is Hap (Hysterically Angry Puppet) and Vic soon realises that Gio and Hap are connected in some way. Unfortunately, shortly after Hap’s arrival at their home their safety is compromised. Victor, Rambo, Nurse Ratched and Hap are forced to undertake a perilous journey that will decide their future.TJ Klune is relentlessly curious about who we call family and what it means to live a good life and now he’s exploring those ideas on an even grander scale. Carlo Collodi’s The Adventures of Pinocchio is one of the world’s most translated books and Klune’s take on the story gives it all new life and meaning. I laughed (out loud), I cried (somehow louder?), I might buy a Roomba to keep me company. 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.

Is this a way of saying of how much we should appreciate ourselves as humans? That we are more than what we look at ourselves at and it takes only for machines, our very own creations, to overpower us and take over the world, to understand our importance and significance. Victor was - he was such a human protagonist- having the story told through his eyes - his explorations, his determination, his devotion, his afflictions - from his embarrassment to discussing his sexual nature with his overly-zealous family, or from his desperation to save his father from returning to his own evil ways.Then one day a couple appears out of nowhere with a baby wrapped into rags, leaving him into Giovanni’s hands and they disappear as if they were never there! I can now say with the utmost confidence that T.J. Klune has the gift of making me feel too many feels with his heart-wrenching and moving prose - In the Lives of Puppets is no exception and the certified proof of that. An homage to Pinocchio, a testament to humanity and all the possibilities that we have yet to overcome and achieve - this book was so very gripping, so lush with detail, so intimate in its character development, so very profound in making me think. The imagery is amazing. The entire world and its residents are easy to picture because of the descriptive scene writing. Vic, skinny young man, at the age of 22, enjoys salvaging and repairing robots. One day he repairs a strange android named HAP without having any idea about his origins. He realizes Hap shares a dark past with Giovanni. His secret mission to alert the robots about the hiding place of Giovanni destroys the small family and peaceful life they built in the woods. A wholly charming post-robot-apocalypse retelling of Pinocchio. Speculative fiction readers will fall in love with this whimsical, bittersweet fable." — Shelf Awareness, starred review

This book is very close to perfect.” — Seanan McGuire, New York Times bestselling author of Every Heart a Doorway If you fall and die, I will perform the autopsy,” Nurse Ratched called up to him. “The final autopsy report should be available within three to five business days, depending upon whether you are dismembered or not. But, as a courtesy, I can tell you that your death will most likely be caused by impact trauma.” experience many, many, strange, wonderful, & frightening new things as they travel to the City of Electric Dreams to save Vic’s tinkerer robot father, GIO! Boy was this a ride! Truly, this was so filled to the brim with heart, bravery, & love, I can’t say that enough… Then Vic salvages an unfamiliar android labelled ‘HAP’. He learns that Hap and Gio share a dark past, where they hunted humans. And Hap unwittingly gives away Gio’s location. Before they know it, robots from Gio’s former life arrive – to capture and return the android to his old laboratory in the City of Electric Dreams. A modern fairy tale about learning your true nature and what you love and will protect. It's a beautiful book.” — Charlaine Harris, #1 New York Times bestselling author

Recent Comments

Like Klune’s other works, it features a queer romance, and a very non-traditional one. After all, Vic is human, and Hap is decidedly not. I like the idea of this more than the execution, primarily because I had trouble feeling the connection between the two characters. I suppose it’s because Vic has lived an extremely isolated life, and Hap’s memory was wiped so this is the only existence he knows. It’s a desert island romance; are the feelings genuine, or because they’re the only people they know? In a Nutshell: I am on a book high!!! A lovely found-family fantasy based on ‘Pinocchio.’ This is in the classic storytelling style, so expect meanderings and adventures on the way to the destination. My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. An epic quest of rescue and discovery [with] the author’s trademark charm, heart, and bittersweetness.” — Library Journal, starred review Yes, lovely. Think about it, Victor. You are finite. Your time is already slipping through your fingers. It creates an urgency within you. To do all that you can. To make things right. I wonder what that must feel like, to have a sense of true motivation.”