Blog Tour: In The Lives of Puppets – TJ Klune

In a small home, built into the branches of a tree, live a human named Victor and
three robots. These are a pleasantly sadistic nurse machine, a small vacuum
desperate for love and attention, and a fatherly inventor-android named Giovanni
Lawson. Together they’re a family, hidden and safe.
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.
The rest of the unconventional family must travel across an unforgiving and
otherworldly country to rescue Gio from decommissioning. Or worse, reprogramming.
Along the way, Vic must decide if he can handle his feelings for Hap – even if they
come with strings attached.

Inspired by Carlo Collodi’s The Adventures of Pinocchio, In the Lives of Puppets
is a masterful standalone fantasy adventure from the author who brought you The House in the Cerulean Sea and Under the Whispering Door.

Special Paperback Feature: This paperback edition includes the beautifully poignant
short story ‘Reduce! Reuse! Recycle!’ set in the extraordinary world of In the Lives of
Puppets.

TJ Klune is the New York Times and USA
Today bestselling, Lambda Literary Award winning author of Under the Whispering Door, The House in the Cerulean Sea, The
Extraordinaries, Wolfsong and more. Being queer himself, TJ believes it’s important – now more than ever – to have accurate, positive, queer representation in stories.

My thoughts: this was a slow burn read for me, it took a while to understand the setting and the situation the characters were in. But once I started to understand the life Vic, his friends Nurse Ratched and Rambo (who I loved, if you’re a Wall-E fan, Rambo is Wall-E with a voice) were living in their forest home with Vic’s dad Gio, it’s an enchanting story inspired by Pinocchio, The Wizard of Oz, Top Hat (although my favourite Fred & Ginger film is The Gay Divorcee – it’s pure dancing silliness) and magic. Found family is a huge theme too, as that’s who Vic and Co are, especially when they add Hap to the mix.

After the Authority take Gio away, Vic and his family travel to the City of Electric Dreams to rescue him, and maybe learn a bit about Hap too. They’re kidnapped by the Coachman, who actually isn’t too awful, then have to sneak into the city and find the Blue Fairy.

Much like the original Pinocchio story, this isn’t for children. Bits of it were creepy and scary, and the Blue Fairy is more monstrous than fae.

But it’s message of love, hope and family is strong and together the robots and their boy are able to win against impossible odds and escape to make a new home in the belly of a whale.

Also I need more Nurse Ratched and Rambo stories, I loved them so much, Rambo is the bravest little vacuum cleaner ever and Nurse Ratched is terrifying for all the right reasons – who said robots can’t love to your entrails? They bring so much humour and lightness, much better than Jiminy Cricket.

The short story in the paperback edition – Reduce! Reuse! Recycle! was, if anything, more traumatic and sad. I don’t think the robot utopia is very nice, thank you. Maybe read something cute and fluffy after reading In The Lives of Puppets to recover. But do read it.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.