Book Review: “In the Lives of Puppets” by T.J. Klune

Aug 4

Håfa adai! Welcome to my review of In the Lives of Puppets by T.J. Klune.

This book review consists of two parts: a brief plot summary and my thoughts of the story. There may be some lightweight spoilers—such as how characters interact with each other and the world around them—but I will not give away any major plot twists or endings. I want to share my opinion of the book and encourage you to purchase a copy of your own.

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Spoiler-Free Plot Summary

Victor Giovanni has lived in total isolation with his dad Giovanni, a nurse, and a cleaner deep among and up in the trees of a dense forest in what was once called Oregon. With the love and care from and for his father, Victor has not noticed the loneliness that someone else might feel from knowing they are the last human being alive. But things change when Vic, Nurse Ratched, and Rambo come across the damaged remains of the humanoid android they call Hap. And when Gio is taken captive after Hap is brought into the fold of their family, Victor and the others must venture out of the forest, through a dangerous and unknown country, and find the City of Electric Dreams before Gio is destroyed or reprogrammed.

My Thoughts on In the Lives of Puppets: 2.75 stars

T.J. Klune blends aspects of The Adventure of Pinocchio and Swiss Family Robinson in this standalone cyberpunk science fiction. Taking place far in the future in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States, In the Lives of Puppets follows Victor Lawson’s efforts to find and rescue his father from a murderous anti-human robot regime. With the help of his lifelong android companions, Nurse Ratched and Rambo, and their new acquaintance Hap, Vic comes to understand that love, care, and connection are not strictly human experiences.

Before I go into detail about what did not sit well with me in this story, I want to touch on what I did like about In the Lives of Puppets. T.J. Klune has a talent for worldbuilding, vivid descriptions, and developing interesting story premises. In the Lives of Puppets is no exception to this! This story is told through a third-person limited perspective following Victor “Vic” Lawson, the last living human being living among a society of humanoid and non-humanoid androids. Vic was raised as the son of humanoid android Giovanni “Gio” Lawson and is aided by Nurse Ratched, a medical assistant droid, and Rambo, a small wheeled cleaner droid, when they find and reanimate Hap, a strange humanoid android of unknown designation. Each character has a distinct voice and speaking style. Every place and every scene they enter is vividly described.

What I appreciate the most about In the Lives of Puppets is the beautiful overarching theme of found family. Giovanni Lawson is a humanoid android who raised the living human Victor as his son. Between Gio and Vic is a believably beautiful father-son bond. Although Gio’s condition causes him and Vic to switch the roles of who is the caregiver and who is being taken care of, their unconditional concern for each other is undeniable. This care extends to Nurse Ratched and Rambo, whose relationships with Vic are somewhere between siblings, friends, and caretakers. And the dynamic between Nurse Ratched and Rambo is both comedic and endearing.

But the aspects I appreciated about In the Lives of Puppets were overshadowed by things that bothered me, which can be lumped into three broad categories. I will be intentionally vague while describing these categories to avoid giving away any major spoilers. The first category is inconsistent storytelling. I do not mean that there is an unreliable narrator. At the beginning of the story, there is one explanation given for one of the main character’s origins. This explanation is then completely undone later and excused as the previous explanation being an intentional cover-up. But it feels more like an inconsistency that was not revised.

The second category is the connection between Vic and Hap. From the moment Hap is taken back to their lab, T.J. Klune wants the reader to know that Vic is in some way attracted to the young adult-looking humanoid android. This attraction is supposed to be reciprocated from Hap to Vic in the scenes that follow. But I just was not feeling it! Is Vic attracted to Hap because he is the first humanoid android he has ever met who was not his dad? And why is Hap attracted to Vic to begin with? This ties into the third category: issues with consent. It is heavily alluded to in the narrative that Hap develops feelings for Vic because Vic is the one who revived him. Considering the way in which Vic revived Hap—which I will not spoil—does that mean that Hap could actually consent to having this connection to Vic?

My overall rating for In the Lives of Puppets is 2.75 out of 5 stars. I really liked the first half of the story, but then I started to take issues with certain things. The issues I have with In the Lives of Puppets are similar to some of those I had with Wolfsong, but to a lesser extent. My interpretation of T.J. Klune’s writing is that he has a strange definition of consent. I also am not buying into the emotional connections between characters that he keeps trying to push onto the reader. I did appreciate the worldbuilding and individual characters featured throughout In the Lives of Puppets, but I was barely motived to finish the story, and there are other Sci-Fi’s or fairy tales retold that I would recommend instead of this one.

Dångkulo' na' saina ma'åse'! Thank you so much for reading my review of In the Lives of Puppets by T.J. Klune.

Rating Cheat Sheet

4.75 - 5.00 stars: Everyone should read this book! (If you’re into that sort of thing.)
4.00 - 4.50 stars: I appreciated many aspects of this book. I recommend it!
3.00 - 3.75 stars: I liked some aspects of this book. I won’t revisit it, but someone else might really like it.
2.00 - 2.75 stars: There were some things I appreciated about this book, but I do not recommend it.
0.25 - 1.75 stars: I do not recommend this book. I did not enjoy or appreciate the experience of it.

Post Date: 18 August 2025