This was such a charming and delightful read.

Driven by characters, this is a true found-family, with a bunch of misfits setting out on an adventure to find the one person responsible for giving them all life, in whatever form that took. From the last human to a murdering robot; a dysfunctional nurse-bot and a vacuum with a large personality, you couldn't find a more random group of heroes.

The unique personalities create such a fun, humorous and loving blend it's impossible not to smile. Klune always plays an unlikely romance, although I admit this one I wasn't sure about. I loved the characters as individuals and their bond, I just wasn't certain the deepening feelings sat quite right this time around.

At times, the plot felt a little stilted. The same points were driven home more than once. It felt both the Coachman and the Blue Fairy had almost identical story-arcs: bad-guy-good-guy-overawed-by-Vic-as-a-human. It's not a fast-paced novel and there's a lot of moving from a to b, whether that's in terms of physical location or character development.

But I loved it. It had me laughing out loud at times as the personalities clash. Combining a purely innocent character with one with a dark history is only going to lead to complex emotions. You felt for this band of misfits and you wanted them all to get their happy ending. Heaven forbid if anyone tried to hurt Rambo!

Another winner from Klune. I eagerly await his next heartfelt, feel-good book that always hits the spot for me.

Oh TJ Klune, you have broken my heart yet again! Here we have a tale of the future that breathes new life into the tale of Pinocchio...with robots, This time Giovanni (Geppetto) is a robot and Pinocchio is a real boy called Victor. In this found family we also have RATCHED a typically sadistic (but loving) android nurse and Rambo the paranoid Roomba. Into their happy home falls HAP who has a mysterious link to Gio and the fate of humanity in this mechanised world and unwittingly reveals the existance of the family to robots wishing Gio harm.

As ever it's Klune's ability to create relationship with humour and heart that are the core of the novel. He creates wonderful worlds populated with characters that you want to spend time with and for whom you have a deep affection. The emotions pack a punch, the world-building is fantastic. These are fairytales that bring the magic of childhood back for adults.

Another cozy and heart-warming read from TJ Klune!

Funny, warm and overflowing with heart. I challenge anyone not to fall in love with this cast of characters.

I don't think I ever stop adoring TJ Kline's work. I didn't realise going into this book that it was a retelling of Pinocchio, but I was pleasantly surprised! The world building, emotions and character development were all phenomenal. I don't know what TJ Kline's puts in these books, but I will never be able to stop loving them.

Such a wonderful; cosy read with lovable robots that made me laugh out loud multiple times throughout.

Quintessential Klune.

Not my most favourite of Klune's but cute and adorable with a lovely moral and always a must read author for me!

Thanks to the publisher for an eArc through NetGalley for review.

Another great read from TJ Klune! The characters, storytelling and world building all weave together to create a beautiful tale of found family and finding where you belong. Can't wait for the next release from this author!

This was a disappointing book for me and I unfortunately dna it at fifty percent. It was well written it just wasn’t for me personally.

This is my first T.J. Klune and I think I may have fallen in love!

Found family is my favourite thing in a book ever and the family in this book just warmed my soul. I've always loved robots so much and this book does not disappoint in the robot content! Rambo being my absolute favourite ❤️

I am now going to have to place holds at the library for all Klune's other books...

I didn't realise that a robot retelling of Pinocchio was the book I needed to read this year, but apparently it was. With TJ Klune's trademark tugs on the heartstrings

I have read and enjoyed other books by this author. here T J Klune gives us another look at the tale of Pinnochio.. The beginning of the book feels clunky and I found it quite difficult to get into the narrative but as the book moves on it becomes something else entirely. It has a depth and level of creativity that stunned me. I could see facets of Pinnochio but it was so much more than this.

Beautiful retelling of the Pinocchio story, with an interesting futuristic take. Full of great characters and heartfelt dialogue

2.5 stars

In The Lives of Puppets is a queer retelling of Pinocchio, but with robots. Victor is a human, the last human, in a robot world and he lives a quiet and hidden life with his fatherly inventor android Giovanni in a little home built into the trees. Victor spends his days salvaging parts with robots until one day he finds an android called HAP who he activates and unwittingly alerts dangerous robots to his father’s whereabouts. Gio is captured and taken to his old laboratory in the City of Electric Dreams and Victor, with his robots and new android HAP, travel the dangerous journey to save his father from decommission or reprogramming.

This is another story by Klune mixing sentimentality with a unique twist. Rambo, an anxiety fuelled vacuum, and Nurse Ratched, a somewhat terrifying nursing machine, steal the show in this story. Rambo is just adorable (and disturbingly relatable), he worries and frets about everything. Nurse Ratched (short for Registered Automaton To Care, Heal, Educate and Drill) was my favourite though because she was more complex, she starts off quite a sadistic and trigger happy character but she’s actually fiercely protective – although her obsession with bodily fluids after a while … sigh

Other than the robots, I didn’t connect with the characters as I did for The House in the Cerulean Sea, or rather I should say I didn’t connect with Victor who I found actually quite unlikeable and selfish and is it wrong I didn’t care what happened to him? Also while I like the robots, they were funny and cute, after a while the novelty wore off a little for me. It went from quirky to feeling a bit forced and out of place and, well, annoying and repetitive, yes we get it, Rambo is anxious, yes can we have another sex joke. The alternative though is brooding HAP and his relationship with the 'I’m the last Human and so special’ Victor.

I enjoyed the concept and felt like it was unique, but then it also managed to be predictable and a little repetitive and there didn’t feel enough plot for me to step into the world. It’s more style over substance. The book uses the same formula as previous work by Klune that worked, but for me just didn’t work here – when an author’s writing is very character based, it wobbles when you don’t care enough about the characters sadly.

Thank you NetGalley for the copy in exchange for an honest review, I really wanted to like this more.

Such a great book. A loose retelling of Pinocchio with lots of clever twists on the original story.
A fairy tale that is most definitely not for children. Funny, sweet with a little bit of magic.

TJ Klune does it again! This was such a bitter sweet story that really got me in my feels - how could you not love all the robotic companions and the ensuing love story? Vic's whole story just made me want to cry because of how sad but lovely it was; there's so much hope in these pages and it's something really needed at the moment. I really appreciated all the nods to the sci-fi landscape; the development of a take on a classic story and making it entirely new; and the whole sequence in the City of Electric Dreams where I was so tense because I was rooting so hard for all of the characters, While the story probably doesn't warrant a sequel, I'd love some sort of mini spin off novella because I missed these characters as soon as I finished reading. Arguably I think this might be Klune's best work so far!

TJ Klune has become one of my favourite authors in the last few years and this book didn’t disappoint. One of my favourite things that makes their books a success is the unique and engaging plots that keep my engaged from the very beginning. The characters are written in a way that make me so attached to them and keep me invested in their stories and hoping things will work out for them. I’m super excited to read even more from the author in the future.

For a book featuring an asexual protagonist, the amount of sexual joes, innuendoes and themes felt out of place an unnecessary. As an asexual myself i felt uncomfortable at times by the sheer volume of lewdity that often felt out of place. I also struggled with the plot and the ending left much to be desired with no real answers or conclusions. Not my favourite Klune.

That being said, I absolutely adored Rambo's character and as always Klune has a way of building relationships and family dynamics that I love which is pretty much the only reason this wasn't a lower rating or even a DNF.

I don’t know about just Pinocchio, I got some Wizard of Oz vibes as well from this wondrous book. I love a retelling, I’ve read quite a lot of them, and I’m fully prepared to read more, especially if the imagination and emotions are anything like those in In The Lives of Puppets. The ‘Found Family’ theme that runs through TJ Kline’s books is so beautiful: if people, for whatever reason, are rejected by or have lost their families, it’s reassuring to know that there are people, families, like this out there (but not necessarily robots…).

Even after discovering the truth of his origins, Victor still wants to save his father, Giovanni, and his friends want to help him and keep him safe. He is probably the last human alive. Robot society is very interesting, especially as they seem to want to mimic humans, even though they seem to be the ones responsible for their demise (although I think the humans were more than capable of destroying themselves).

Actually, I don’t want to say too much more, other than the fact that I loved reading this and I was sad to see it come to an end - it was perfect!

Whilst I can appreciate what an interesting concept this was, unfortunately I just didn't connect with the characters in this book and so I didn't really enjoy it. I didn't feel any desire for things to turn out well for them or to care about what happened to them. There seemed to be long periods where nothing really happened and the focus was more on the characters but because I didn't care for them it left me feeling bored. I have absolutely loved other books by T J Klune so definitely expected more that I got from this one. I didn't hate it, I just felt indifferent and disconnected.

The first half of this book was absolutely fantastic and it was looking like it was going to be a 4.5/5 star read for me, but then the focus of the plot changed and it completely changed the mood.
I loved Gio and his wonderfully imaginative and creative life in the woods. There was some humour scattered throughout the story that matched my own and I actually found myself laughing out loud at times. The characters were loveable and I was invested in them enough to care about where the story went. Sadly, the story completely morphs into something else in the second half and I just was not a fan. I didn't like the new characters that we met and the humour felt misplaced. It felt like an entirely different book and I found myself slowly losing interest in what was going to happen.
It's a shame as I loved the first half of this book so much but I am still glad to have had the chance to pick it up!

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.