[BOOK REVIEW]: In the Lives of Puppets by T.J. Klune

Rating: 5/5 stars

Year: 2023

Genre: Science-fiction, fantasy, romance, contemporary, LGBT+ 

Pages: 417

"You were made to bring happiness. You are alive in ways we are not. You are soft and fragile. But you are complex and disturbing and sometimes foolishly brilliant."

Pinocchio meets Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? in this heart-warming and heart-breaking tale of a human inventor named Victor, who was raised by androids and goes off to save his android father Giovanni from certain danger with the help of three defunct robots.

In the Lives of Puppets by T.J. Klune is truly a unique science-fiction story that has the same whimsical fantasy feeling and beautiful queer representation I've come to know and love with Klune's previous works but now with an added bittersweetness that took me by surprise. Like Klune's previous works, In the Lives of Puppets takes you on an emotional rollercoaster with these characters who you grow to love over the course of 400 pages which makes the ending just as heartbreaking as it was.

Speaking of the characters, the characters in In the Lives of Puppets were just wonderful. Our main protagonist, Victor is a sweetheart although ignorant of the world outside the forest he was raised in. He is what I believe to be a perfect protagonist. He's not a physical fighter yet he's strong and brave in his own way, although scared and fragile too. He isn't a superhero, he is human, and so realistically, beautifully human. He is also one of the rare cases of good asexual representation in media so I call that a win for the LGBT+ community.

I finished In the Lives of Puppets in three days, and after I finished it I was left in the biggest post-book depression I had ever been in. This book's ending was different from Klune's previous works which are often very happy and sweet. In this case, the ending was so bittersweet that it left me in tears and a bigger void in my heart. It was truly emotionally painful. I loved it. And, if you love post-book depressions and the feeling of someone repeatedly stapping a knife into your soul, you'll love this book. I don't say this lightly, but I truly believe that In the Lives of Puppets is the best read of 2023.