In the Lives of Puppets

Name: In the Lives of Puppets
SKU: 26276
Availability: InStock

4.3 | 3,865 ratings

Price: 21.65

Last update: 01-06-2025

About this item

Long-listed, Barnes and Noble Best New Books of the Year, 2023

"Narrator Daniel Henning demonstrates perfect comedic timing and impressive vocal versatility in this queer/sci-fi retelling of 'Pinocchio.' This laugh-out-loud, emotional audiobook asks listeners to question what it means to be human."—AudioFile Magazine(Earphones Award Winner)

"Narrator Daniel Henning does a phenomenal job capturing Gio’s fatherliness and Vic’s early naivete, and he positively shines as the heartless, bloodthirsty Nurse Ratched and the anxiety-ridden robot vacuum Rambo."—Library Journal

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 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 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.

★ “An epic quest of rescue and discovery [with] the author’s trademark charm, heart, and bittersweetness.”—Library Journal, starred review

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books.

Mary McCauley

Incredibly special book, one of my all time favorites

Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2024

Where to begin? This book is so special. So well done. It is interesting, funny, heartbreaking, heartwarming...I've never laughed or cried so much reading a book before. The characters are perfect, the story rich and intriguing. The love between these machines and this human...I'm so sad to have finished this book! TJ can you please write a never ending book that details the rest of the lives of Vic, Hap, Gio, Nurse Ratched, and Rambo? I want to stay with them forever. I have recommended this book to SO many people and will continue to do so.

lucky

do I want a roomba now?

Reviewed in the United States on July 22, 2024

4.5 I loved this book and tj Klunes ability to bring worlds to life. I appreciate his commentary on morality and the advancement of technology. Maybe I’ll get a roomba at put googly eyes on it who knows

Tammy Moldovan

A beautifully, funny, profound masterpiece wrapped in a tale of love, choice and family

Reviewed in the United States on June 4, 2023

Phew. I need to give this book more than 5 stars. It deserves all the stars. Just when I think TJ Klune cannot create a book that is better than his last masterpiece, he proves me wrong. This book. Is. Everything. Expect to feel all the things - to laugh, to swoon, to bite your nails, to roll your eyes, to grit your teeth, to be verklempt, to gasp, and to cry. This is a story of an adventure, a quest by a human and his uniquely cobbled together family but at its heart it really a story about the power of choice. This book is a life and love affirming masterpiece encompassed in a beautiful, heart warming, heart wrenching story of messy life, love, family, and finding your path. The book is about Vic, a human inventor, who lives in the middle of the forest with Gio, his android father, Rambo, an overly anxious hyperactive vacuum, Nurse Ratched, a sociopathic medical machine, and a recent addition, Hap, an former killing android. When Gio is taken by the Authority to the City of Electric Dreams, Vic and his cobbled together family embark on their quest to get Gio back. Much like Pinocchio they learn so much on the journey after they leave home. It is on their quest and the beings that they meet, the things they see, and they things they do that solidify for the truth inside each of them that “I am choosing,…I am making my own choice. I don’t have strings.” TJ Klune is a master storyteller who has perfected the art of writing stories whose meaning and emotions stay with you long after you read the last word and whose main characters include beautiful three dimensional, imperfect, non-hetero, neurodiverse characters who have such depth and so much heart that you want them to be your best friends. I feel like now I will always be searching for a version of Rambo, Nurse Ratched, Hap, Vic, and Gio to add to my family. I hope they find me.

MaKenzie Johnson

Blue Fairy, I Wish to Be…

Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2024

3 • ⭐️

Did I love this book as much as his previous ones? No. Did I enjoy it? Yes. I love a good retelling and this take on Pinocchio was so interesting! There was some low points but overall I enjoyed it when it pick up. The banter was hilarious and who knew rumba vacuums could be so funny.

KatieMa

great book

Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2024

I loved this book after not being sure I would read it since I wasn't a fan of Pinocchio. I am so glad I read it, I loved the characters. It was such an emotional read. Another fabulous book by TJ Klune.

momma red

The Personalities are WORTH the read alone!

Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2024

What a spectacular book, full of the most immense characters and personalities! I am quickly becoming a TJ Klune fan, especially after this gem. Remnants of the classic Pinocchio story are ever present throughout this novel. The themes throughout linger about the old story, but this premise and the delightful path, story, characters, and the unfolding of discovery and the blossoming of new friendships and meaning are abundant in this inventive adventure made new. This book will be one I recommend again and again, especially as an audiobook as the performance was nothing shy of brilliance. ❤️

Great story

Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2024

I really like this story but it does make you think about the way our society relies on computers and other machines that we have the use of. It makes you wound about AI. And our we using machines that think too much

Ash N.

"You are hope, a dream of an forgotten world..."

Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2024

I ended up listening to this on audio and loved it. While Under the Whispering Door and Cerulean Sea remains my favorite Klune books, this did not disappoint in the end.

If you find some of the characters annoying in the first few chapters but have loved his other books, stuck with this, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

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