Tj Klune: In the Lives of Puppets (2023, St. Martin's Press)
English language
Published May 31, 2023 by St. Martin's Press.
Of the TJ Klune books I've read, this one is definitely the most stressful, with the most on-screen violence too. It's super sweet though. It hits hard on cliches in a way that I enjoyed. The memory loss trope is stretched very far, which is also fine.
Content warning Plot wise Sea of Rust does a better job of post human society under the oppression of a hive mind consciousness. If I hadn’t read that then I probably would have been less disappointed here.
Enjoyable overall. The characters are lovable as is expect with TJ Klune. The plot itself was alright, I wasn’t a fan of Pinocchio, so I had low expectations, but I was kept entertained. More on this in a comment with spoiler tags.
Daniel Henning was wonderful with the narration. I was relieved that the voice for Rambo adjusted after the first few minutes, at first it was far too similar to Chauncey from The House in the Cerulean Sea.
I reviewed this novel for the Hugo-winning blog Nerds of a Feather:
http://www.nerds-feather.com/2023/06/microreview-in-lives-of-puppets-by-tj.html
