Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune

43 reviews

traa's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Abandonment, Fire/Fire injury, and Murder

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Violence, Dementia, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Death, and Genocide

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Death of parent, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Medical content, Drug use, and Sexual content

misszoe's review

adventurous emotional inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This book was funny, hopeful and emotional - I enjoyed it but it felt harder to get into than Under the Whispering Door or The House in the Cerulean Sea. The main theme of the book are found family, grief and guilt, and hope despite it all. While it's still a great book, I feel like the pacing was a little off for me - at first, the plot didn't seem to fully start and then it went by pretty fast. Still, it was a nice read! 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Genocide, Confinement, Mental illness, Violence, Death, and Grief

the_real_al_cal's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Yet another triumph by TJ Klune! One thing I always find consistent in TJ Klune's writing is it can take a little while to settle into his worlds. In every book I've read of his, the start of the book is a little hard to get through, but it's important for context. And then suddenly it picks up the pace and becomes very hard to put down. But knowing that about TJ's work, I always keep going through the beginning because I know I'll be rewarded with beautiful stories.

This book gave me Wizard of Oz vibes in a few different ways. There were no 1:1 comparisons, but several of the characters reminded me of the core group in Wizard of Oz in their attributes and goals, and there was even an Oz-like character present! So if you think you'd like soft sci-fi Wizard of Oz, this is your book!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Genocide, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Medical content and Confinement

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders

Asexuality, autism-coded main character

maaikereadsbooks_'s review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Many thanks to Pan Macmillan and TJ Klune for the advanced copy of In the Lives of Puppets via NetGalley, in return for my honest and unbiased review. Quick note: I don’t recap plots in my reviews, as it’s easy enough to read the book’s synopsis and blurbs, I purely focus on my feelings & opinions of how the books makes me feel. 

This was my first TJ Klune book, and it certainly will not be my last. I adored this book! 

Having never been a big fan of the original Pinocchio story (not sure why, it just never really interested me), the story woven by Klune in this book made my enjoyment two-fold: a great tale AND a version of Pinocchio I actually could get into! 

I thoroughly enjoyed the way new bits and pieces of information and revelations were dropped into the story as you moved along. Rather than a grand reveal at the end (although it does build up to a climax, don’t worry), you get nuggets of gold occasionally dropped on you out of nowhere which enrich the narrative, nudge the direction it was going in, or sometimes, completely blow it apart. Brilliant storywriting. 

The fact that this was written as a fully queer story was the icing on the cake. But it’s not just your standard gay or sapphic love story. It’s more, it’s deeper, it’s queerer. 

Highly recommend this – it’s high up on my list of 2023 favourites. 

Tropes: fairy tale retelling, grumpy/sunshine, LGBTQ+, peril, redemption/dark past 

Spice: 1.5/5 

Trigger warnings: Blood/Gore, Confinement, Death, Death of a parent, Genocide, Guns/weapons, Kidnapping, Mental Illness, Murder, PTSD, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, War 

Rating 5/5 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Death of parent, and Mental illness

Moderate: Death, Blood, Confinement, Kidnapping, Murder, Torture, Gun violence, and Violence

Minor: Sexual content and War

oliverreeds's review

emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, Animal death, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, Death, Hate crime, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Genocide, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Grief

kelseyr713's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Beautiful in many ways, a little grating in a few others. Overall an enjoyable adventure, although Nurse Ratchet and Rambo are definitely an acquired taste. I would be curious to read the original vision TJ Klune had for the book that he alludes to in the acknowledgements.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Genocide, Bullying, Death, Grief, Murder, Sexual content, Violence, Medical content, Child death, and Confinement

Minor: Self harm, Blood, and Animal death

hayleyvharrington's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Kidnapping, Child death, Genocide, Animal death, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Acephobia/Arophobia, Confinement, Dementia, and Fire/Fire injury

selenatothemax's review

adventurous dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Confinement, and Murder

dev921's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Grief, Confinement, Abandonment, Animal death, and Death

augustar14's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

TJ Klune never disappoints. This book is no exception.
Klune does an incredible job of creating a character (or characters) that have so many unlikable qualities, but that you ultimately can't help but fall in love with. This book truly embodies the concept of loving others for who they are now, not who they used to be, and not letting one's past define them.
This quirky found family goes on an adventure to save one of their own, because when you love someone, you don't leave them behind. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death of parent, Suicide, Body horror, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Blood, Death, Grief, and Violence

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Animal death, Kidnapping, and Abandonment

Minor: Dementia and Medical content