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

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

3.0

If we can fix what’s broken, we should always try.

Usually, I have two possible reactions to T.J. Klune's books: I either love them to bits, or can barely get through them. There's no middle ground. Or there wasn't, until In the Lives of Puppets.

I really, really loved the first third of the book or so. The one where a human and three robots live together in a tree-house in some clearly post-apocalyptic woods, and rescue a murder robot from a junkyard, and give him a heart and teach him what it is to be more than a machine. I was fully enamored by the quaint setting, and the low personal stakes, and the witty banter. I loved seeing an asexual protagonist. I related to Rambo's anxiety. I kind of began to want my own sociopathically kind Nurse Ratched in my life. I wanted to know more about the mysteries outside of the woods, but like... without really leaving the woods, please? I settled comfortably into the story being all cozy and small-scale, and I wanted to keep reading this cozy, small-scale story. It felt like exactly what I needed.

And then about one third into the story, maybe even a little later, way past the usual inciting incident mark, there were suddenly big dangers, high stakes, risky quests, and all sorts of stuff that felt very much at odds with what I had already settled into, to the point that I felt cheated. I guess I still appreciated parts of the later story—the characters were still engaging, and there are some great hopepunk moments, and all. But it was like I started reading one book and then was suddenly transported into a whole different story. Same characters, different vibes, an overall weird discordant feeling.

Frankly, can't say I appreciated it. Maybe the set-up shouldn't have been so long that I started believing the set-up was the story!
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