Reviews with content warning for Gun violence - In the Lives of Puppets

Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune

5 reviews

mattiedancer's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful 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

4.5

Please Note: TJ Klune’s “The House in the Cerulean Sea” novel greatly affected my reading of “In the Lives of Puppets.” THitCS uses the residential school system in Canada, as well as the Sixties Scoop (a genocidal event where Indigenous children were ripped from their homes and sent to white families and/or residential schools in an effort to destroy Indigenous families and culture), as a base for a light-hearted fantasy story. While I understand that inspiration can come from a number of points, this simplification is dangerous and ignorant of the ongoing generational trauma caused to Indigenous peoples. He has mentioned that this is where he got his inspiration, and to make that connection explicit and known, compares the books to the events, thus connecting the book’s theme of “children needing love” to these disgusting and traumatic real-life events.

Writing: 4.25⭐️/5

Klune is a good writer. While many parts of this book seemed to oversimplify and overexplain certain obvious plot points, the overall writing and pacing of the story was extremely well-done. I enjoyed reading it.

Characters: 5⭐️/5

The characters are extremely cool. Listen, I wanted to not like the book, but the characters were incredibly well-written. I loved Nurse Ratched. I loved Rambo. And I really did love Victor and his unique perspective on the world. Personally, I really enjoyed that he seemed to be Autistic-coded, without making direct reference to him being a person with autism. I also really did enjoy the love interest, Hap, and his slow way of discovering his personality and humanity.

Note: After some digging about Klune’s desire to make Victor’s autism named and more significant to the theme, I really think that the sensitivity reader who pushed back against that version did a good favour.

Plot: 5⭐️/5

Oh, I really did love the plot. The Pinocchio-inspired story really worked well, and I enjoyed the references to the story without it seeming too heavy-handed, or at least not too heavy-handed for my tastes. I also adore a good slow start to a story, where it all builds to a great and final unspiralling of all the events we built up. Really well-paced and earned.

World 4.75⭐️/5

The world is cool. There’s a believability about how the robots remove humans to save the world. I loved the world the robots created, and their attempts to mimic humanity more perfectly – but they naturally misunderstand it a bit. The world felt clear and vibrant, though I would have loved a bit more clarity around the city.

Who Should Read This Book?

As someone who does not intend to read Klune again, I will not be recommending it to anyone.

Content Warnings?

Murder, death of parent, death, grief, violence, gun violence, gore, blood, injury, injury detail,

Post-Reading Rating: 4.5⭐️/5

I did really enjoy the book. I also really liked the ending.

Final Rating: 4.5⭐️/5

Content Warnings

kaitlinwarwick's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

anni_swanilda's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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

3.75

Content Warnings

maaikereadsbooks_'s review against another edition

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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

danil_knits's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring 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? It's complicated

3.5

Content Warnings

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