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In the Lives of Puppets

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

A NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES AND INDIE BESTSELLER!

New York Times bestselling author TJ Klune invites you deep into the heart of a peculiar forest and on the extraordinary journey of a family assembled from spare parts.
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    "An enchanting tale of Pinocchio in the end times." —P. Djèlí Clark

    In a strange little home built into the branches of a grove of trees, live three robots—fatherly inventor android Giovanni Lawson, a pleasantly sadistic nurse machine, and a small vacuum desperate for love and attention. Victor Lawson, a human, lives there too. They're a family, hidden and safe.
    The day Vic salvages and repairs an unfamiliar android labeled "HAP," he learns of a shared dark past between Hap and Gio–a past spent hunting humans.
    When Hap unwittingly alerts robots from Gio's former life to their whereabouts, the family is no longer hidden and safe. Gio is captured and taken back to his old laboratory in the City of Electric Dreams. So together, the rest of Vic's assembled family must journey across an unforgiving and otherworldly country to rescue Gio from decommission, or worse, reprogramming.
    Along the way to save Gio, amid conflicted feelings of betrayal and affection for Hap, Vic must decide for himself: Can he accept love with strings attached?
    Inspired by Carlo Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio, and like Swiss Family Robinson meets Wall-E, In the Lives of Puppets is a masterful stand-alone fantasy adventure from the beloved author who brought you The House in the Cerulean Sea and Under the Whispering Door.
    ★ "An epic quest of rescue and discovery [with] the author's trademark charm, heart, and bittersweetness." —Library Journal, starred review
    Praise for TJ Klune's previous work: "Like being wrapped up in a big gay blanket." —V.E. SCHWAB
  • "Very close to perfect." —SEANAN McGUIRE
  • "Utterly absorbing." —GAIL CARRIGER
  • "It will renew your faith in humanity." —TERRY BROOKS
  • "It healed me." —CASSANDRA KHAW
  • "Compassionate." —RYKA AOKI
    At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

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      • Library Journal

        Starred review from January 1, 2023

        Victor Lawson is a "real boy" in this charming reinterpretation of The Adventures of Pinocchio, while his dad, Gio, is the puppet. Or rather, the android, who, along with a gaggle of misfit, repurposed androids, live together in a forest clearing, separate from the society that spawned them. It's a society of androids that killed all the humans--except for Victor. Their lovely idyll is broken when Victor learns that Gio was once a hunter of humans and that he might be reprogrammed into doing it again--unless Victor and his friends can save him. Combining the cuteness of Wall-E with the history of the deadly android rampage of Day Zero, this quietly draws the reader into its safe and peaceful idyll only to send everyone on an epic quest of rescue and discovery. VERDICT Readers who loved Klune's (Under the Whispering Door) previous works will find plenty of the author's trademark charm, heart, and bittersweetness, while those looking for more hopeful robot stories, like A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers, will find this interpretation of a robot-future different but just as compelling.--Marlene Harris

        Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

      • Publisher's Weekly

        January 30, 2023
        Bestseller Klune (Under the Whispering Door) draws from Pinocchio to create a gripping and heartfelt queer dystopian tale set in a world where humanity has been eliminated by robots. Victor Lawson, 21, was raised by his robot father, Giovanni, in a secluded forest in far-future Oregon. Together with two friends—antisocial Nurse Ratched (short for “Nurse Registered Automaton to Care, Heal, Educate, and Drill”) and neurotic vacuum Rambo—Victor discovers an angry, powerful android in the nearby scrapyard. Hap, as the trio comes to call him, quickly imprints on Victor, who repairs the android’s body with wood and powers him with a carved heart containing a drop of Victor’s own blood. When Giovanni is seized by the law and taken to the City of Electric Dreams, a recorded message from Giovanni reveals that Victor is the last surviving human—and that Hap is a model HARP (Human Annihilation Response Protocol) created by Giovanni to hunt and kill humans before he learned regret. Hap, who doesn’t remember this violent past, promises not to hurt Victor as they concoct a plan to rescue Giovanni. Klune makes the central question of what it means to be human feel direct, urgent, and fresh. Both very funny and deeply touching, this evocative retelling will delight Klune’s fans and newcomers alike.

      • Booklist

        March 15, 2023
        In a tale that riffs on the beats of Pinocchio with a futuristic bent, Klune (The House in the Cerulean Sea, 2020) tells the story of a boy named Victor, who finds a broken android and sets off a series of events leading to terrible truth about the world he lives in, a dangerous journey, and characters both charming and threatening. Victor is human, but his family--his father, Giovanni, an inventor; an old medical robot, Nurse Ratched; and a vacuum named Rambo--are robots. Gio's terrible secrets are well hidden, until Victor accidentally sets off an alarm in the process of unearthing a mostly complete android called Hap. In one fell swoop, everything Victor thought he knew is turned upside down, and Gio is taken prisoner by strange, faceless beings in a flying whale. The journey to the City of Electric Dreams, where Gio's original lab is, will be difficult, and Victor will have to contend with how new knowledge of the past may change his relationship with his family. Like Klune's prior work, themes of found family and the hard work of hope prevail.

        COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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