In the Lives of Puppets
By
Tj Klune
2023
Ratings73
Average rating4.2
15
Ratings73
Average rating4.2
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. 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 labelled “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.
Reviews with the most likes.
I genuinely didn't enjoy this one, it had such a different vibe than his other books. I was quite bored all the way through. I did really like HAP and Victor's relationship, that was all very cute. I was just not that into the story and the robots were all quite annoying.
This is however the first of his novels that I have listened to on an audiobook and not physically read, which might have been a bad idea since I disliked the voices and cadence of the voice actor so I might have liked it better if I had read it on paper.
Feelings so subtle that you don't notice they are gently wrapping around your heart getting tighter and tighter until you are crying and can't stop crying. The happiness is also sadness. Just at or slightly below the surface, rarely overwhelming you but never gone. Not sad enough to die but not happy enough to live. Just waiting for the clouds to part for a bit so you can feel the fleeting warmth of the sun on your face before it is gone again. I'm angry at the sadness.
Finishing books like this, that touch my soul, is a sort of death. T.J.'s stories always touch my soul, but this one especially. Especially.
It was also very funny but right now I'm just feeling sad.
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21 booksYour favorite cozy fantasy, low stakes story that made you feel content or warm and fuzzy
