In the Lives of Puppets - T.J. Klune

[goodreads]

Title: In the Lives of Puppets
Author: T.J. Klune
Genre: Dystopian
Rating: 3.5/5
# pages: Audiobook ~12 hrs
Date read: May 2023

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 labelled "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?


I'd probably categorize this as "good, but not great", and as I'm used to T.J. Klune being great, it was a bit of a let-down. I liked it, but it never blew me away like some of his other books did. I liked Victor and Nurse Ratched and Rambo was cute with his definite shades of Wall*E. But I never really took to HAP. I think there was too much telling and not enough showing when it came to him, so he just never really grew on me.

The plot itself didn't do much for me either, but I didn't really realize that until after finishing the book. T.J. Klune's strength has always been his characters, and many of his books are far more character-driven than plot-driven, which has never really been an issue for me.