In the Lives of Puppets
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4.4 • 108 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
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.
Most Anticipated from BookPage • Goodreads • The Nerd Daily • Paste Magazine • LitReactor • OverDrive • LGBTQ Reads • Tor.com • LibraryReads • more
“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
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
A very unusual family comes together in this riotous science fiction adventure. Giovanni Lawson is an android with a dark past. He’s living deep in the woods when he encounters a human family on the run, who ask him to protect their child Victor. Gio and Vic go on to live together in their tree house repairing decommissioned robots…until an encounter with another android stirs up their quiet existence. TJ Klune fills his tale of oddball friendship and overcoming impossible odds with action, humor, and even romance. We totally fell in love with Vic’s quirky new robot clan, including Nurse Ratched, his tentacled, sociopathic caregiver, and Rambo the Roomba, a bighearted but anxious home appliance. Heartwarming and laugh-out-loud funny, In the Lives of Puppets teaches us that families come in all shapes and models.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bestseller Klune (Under the Whispering Door) draws from Pinocchio to create a gripping and heartfelt queer dystopian tale set in a world where humanity has been eliminated by robots. Victor Lawson, 21, was raised by his robot father, Giovanni, in a secluded forest in far-future Oregon. Together with two friends—antisocial Nurse Ratched (short for "Nurse Registered Automaton to Care, Heal, Educate, and Drill") and neurotic vacuum Rambo—Victor discovers an angry, powerful android in the nearby scrapyard. Hap, as the trio comes to call him, quickly imprints on Victor, who repairs the android's body with wood and powers him with a carved heart containing a drop of Victor's own blood. When Giovanni is seized by the law and taken to the City of Electric Dreams, a recorded message from Giovanni reveals that Victor is the last surviving human—and that Hap is a model HARP (Human Annihilation Response Protocol) created by Giovanni to hunt and kill humans before he learned regret. Hap, who doesn't remember this violent past, promises not to hurt Victor as they concoct a plan to rescue Giovanni. Klune makes the central question of what it means to be human feel direct, urgent, and fresh. Both very funny and deeply touching, this evocative retelling will delight Klune's fans and newcomers alike.
Customer Reviews
In the lives of puppets
I wasn’t as thrilled with this book as with Klunes others. I never felt any attachment to the characters in this book. If TJ Klune hadn’t wrote it I probably would not have read it.
Interesting plot…
…but superficial writing. Interesting technical things happen with no real description of how they were made to happen.