A review by gwendolyn_kensinger
In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune

3.0

Inspired by Carlo Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio, and like Swiss Family Robinson meets Wall-E, In the Lives of Puppets is a stand-alone fantasy adventure. An android named Giovanni Lawson builds a home and raises Victor, a human child, in an uninhabited forest. Victor Lawson grows into an inventor like his father. His two best friends, Rambo and Nurse Ratched, are decommissioned robots that he rebuilt. In secret, Victor works on a mechanical, replacement heart for his aging father, who worries about his son’s dangerous visits to the Scrap Yards, which are guarded by machines called Old Ones.

I absolutely ADORED Rambo and Nurse Ratched, but the story itself was written very heavily in the author’s message and I was smart enough to figure out what they were saying in the first couple chapters. I didn't need to be hit in the face again, again and again with it. It needed more awww moments and it needed more adventure, but it just felt repetitive and was too long for what we got. The story gets ⅖ stars but because of the my fav characters it gets an additional star!