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Randal

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In the Lives of Puppets

by T.J. Klune (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

Reading for the 2nd time

read in March 2025

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Randal said: " I know I'm in the minority opinion here. I read Klune's other works and had mixed thoughts but at least something made the reading experience enjoyable. In the Lives of Puppets was an annoying, cheesy bore. I wanted to like it since It promises a loo I know I'm in the minority opinion here. I read Klune's other works and had mixed thoughts but at least something made the reading experience enjoyable. In the Lives of Puppets was an annoying, cheesy bore. I wanted to like it since It promises a look into man vs machine through a Pinocchio retelling, but the execution is half assed.

The most disappointing, were the characters. Except HAP, I didn't care for any of them. Victor is a generic hero which personality traits boil down to being shy and having a good heart. Geovanni, I did find his backstory interesting but wasn't on page for long for me to get attached. The two robot sidekicks were annoying and made a grading reading experience since they are in most of the scenes with their "quirky" banter. I hated Ranbo, his incessant talking, and clingness along with putting the characters in danger because he couldn't shut the fuck up. At least Nurse Ratched was helpful, Rambo is just a comic relief that fails at being funny or charming.

Speaking of humor, unfunny didn't laugh. To be fair I'm not a big fan of Klunes humor but this time it's at it's most cringeworthy. There's a lot of focus on either toilet or sexual humor. Why do they talk about sex so much? Victor is asexual, and I know asexual people can joke about sex or even have sex, but Victor is stated to be sex repulsed. All of the other characters are robots. Then why the hell is Victor, and the audience forced through all these bad sex jokes, over and over again for no reason?

The plot was okay, the story changes from cozy family times to a quest halfway through. I thought it would start sooner since the description made it sound like act 1.

The twist was predictable. I thought it happened after Geo gets kidnapped, at the end of act 1 in the story. It was fairly obvious if not outright stated what Geo did and what happened to humans. Then fast forward to the emotional climax with HAP's memories and then the truth is revealed like its shocking. I thought it was building towards something more but no, I already knew what the truth was and what was going to happen. I should have liked its introspection, but it fell flat. I found it interesting at first, but it devolved into a cycle of "humans are gone and Victor is alone, to Viktor represents hope, to forgiveness, to having a heart and emotions" It never goes deeper than that. ...more "

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(page 255 of 432)
— 14 hours, 35 min ago

Mar 21, 2025 06:04PM · see review