Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - In the Lives of Puppets

Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune

10 reviews

traa's review against another edition

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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

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misszoe's review against another edition

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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!

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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

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sarrie's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted sad slow-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

In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune is the strangest reimagining of a fairy tale I think I’ve ever read, and honestly? I’m not sure if it completely works, which makes me a bit sad. The story sets up Victor who is the son of a robot named Gio. They live in a forest with Rambo, a little vacuum unit who is the fluffiest of cinnamon rolls, and Nurse Ratched who is off her treads. The family finds another robot in the Scrap Yards and put in back together only to have things go badly from there.

The characters in this, for the most part, are fantastic. TJ Klune’s strongest skill is characters and their dialogue. I found myself laughing out loud at a lot of lines, and I still swear Rambo must be protected at all costs. That was the strongest part for me, the other parts falling apart.

The setting felt barely sketched in. We know they live in the forest and we see a few other settings, but none of them felt very clear. The characters and dialogue seemed to be the only thing carrying this forward as he attempted to grasp at his themes. Forgiveness, humanity, worth, personhood, etc were all things the story hinted at. Sadly it didn’t feel like anything clear was stated, and if we followed some of the ideas he set before us to their ultimate conclusion… it got a little uncomfortable.

I think the breaking point for me was the point at which we’re expected to believe the romance between Victor and one of his robot companions, who we see in a flashback murder an untold amount of people, followed by a scene of him descending on a mother and her child. Victor wrestles with the idea of forgiving HAP (he has after all broken his programing in a way and no longer does these things) and ultimately still chooses him. This could entirely be me - I’ve lost children, I grapple with grief on a daily basis. I’m not sure if the imagery chosen could have been different and the idea conveyed better or if it this was just poorly constructed overall, but it fell apart. I also wonder at this idea of blanket forgiveness and how Klune has come under some fire in the recent past for his use of historical events for fictional story inspiration.

Not a winner for me, clearly. I did enjoy parts of this, and if you want to read it for the characters and dialogue I would 100% recommend it. Perhaps however don’t read too deeply in or it will fall apart.

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iane_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny reflective sad 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

5.0

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bookcheshirecat's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny medium-paced

Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

“I know it seems hard, but we have to be brave. Your brain is telling you that you can’t, but you don’t always have to listen to it. Sometimes it tells you white lies.”

In the Lives of Puppets was my third T.J. Klune book and I loved it so much. According to the author, this is meant as a “queer retelling of Carlo Collodi’s The Adventures of Pinocchio” and I was intrigued by that comparison from the start. The book follows Victor Lawson, a human who is surrounded by robots and lives with his father Giovanni at the edge of the woods. I thought this would be Fantasy, but I’d classify the story as more Sci-Fi, especially as it’s set in the far future where robots roam the Earth.

Victor Lawson is a young man who loves salvaging and repairing robots. He loves his inventor father Giovanni and is always tempted to venture into the scrapyard to search for parts, despite the warnings. That’s how he finds HAP (Hysterically Angry Puppet), a decommissioned robot who cannot remember his purpose and might be dangerous. HAP and Victor’s dynamic was great! The angst, the yearning and the protectiveness between them made me root for them so much. Victor is also asexual and queer, which I loved to see! The humor in this book could be a bit more vulgar at times (in regard to bodily functions and sex), but it worked for me. I can definitely see not everyone being a fan of this specific humor though, it feels like either a hit or miss!

“I’m also good” Rambo said. “You seem to be suffering from an intense anxiety disorder. But that is fine. We are all unique. Victor is asexual. Giovanni is old. And I have sociopathic tendencies that manifest themselves in dangerous situations.”
“Hooray!” Rambo squealed.”

The found family makes this book so special. Giovanni basically adopted Victor and both of them share a close bond despite not even being the same species. The same goes for the other robots that live with them. My favorite was definitely Rambo, a roomba with anxiety issues! As a fellow anxious person, the idea of an anxious robot really spoke to me 😄 Rambo was just cute, a bit naive and prone to catastrophizing, but that just made everything a lot more entertaining, especially in tense situations. Nurse Ratched (Nurse Registered Automaton to Care, Heal, Educate, and Drill) was a nice contrast to Rambo because she’s a sociopathic roboter with a tendency to threaten to drill others 😂 I loved the recurring engagement of her ‘empathy protocol’ where she’d say caring things and then the switch back to her sociopathic tendencies! The banter between Rambo, Ratched and Victor was golden and I loved their dynamic so much – it made me laugh multiple times!

The mismatched team goes after Giovanni when he gets captured and taken to the City of Electric Dreams. Victor is desperate to get his father back and ventures outside their cozy home for the first time in his life. This is definitely a character-driven story and the very beginning is a bit slow as we get to know everyone. Since I loved the characters and was more invested in their interactions, this worked out fine for me! I also loved the discussions about hope, humanity and purpose that were incorporated into the story. Every robot has a function and specific programming, which raises the question of free will and being able to grow past your parameters!

“Humanity is awful, angry, and violent. But we are also magical and musical. We dance. We sing. We create. We live and laugh and rage and cry and despair and hope. We are a bundle of contradictions without rhyme or reason. And there is no one like us in all the universe.”

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shindanker's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging 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

4.0

The characters are very quirky, but lovable. The story moves at the good pace. It poses some interesting questions and thoughts about society.

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the_bees_books's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted sad medium-paced

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

3.25

A really sweet, if slightly tonally and message confused, book about what it is to be human, what it is to forgive, and what makes a family.

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mellowreading's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

I cried

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purplepenning's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

I do love a science fantasy! (Monk and Robot love forever!) And I probably had oversized hopes for this particular one. It ended up being an enjoyable read that was somewhat marred by bouts of oddly ribald humor and the weight of expectations.

The humor, which was admittedly funny in the author's Extraordinaries books (and, to a lesser degree, in some previous humorous fantasies and contemporaries) felt out of place here. Not all of the humor, of course — there's plenty of Klune's other trademark brands of humor, including a very needy and lovable sentient Roomba with ADHD and a kind-hearted and terrifying caretaker robot who issues threats of pain while displaying pithy remarks. Both hilarious.

As for the unmet expectations, that's mostly on me, but I'm also not sure the story manages to communicate the big truths at its core — the ones about humanity, time, forgiveness, loyalty, hope. It felt a little flat — the characters and plot needed to be rounded out, plumped up, given a few more emotional beats and a few less repetitive gags.

Still... any day reading a robot fantasy by T.J. Klune is a good day.

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