He’d found the little thing years before, repairing it himself with metal and care until the machine had come back to life, demanding to be allowed to clean—it needed to clean because if it didn’t, it had no purpose, it had nothing. Until one day, Victor repairs an android named Hap, and Gio is captured and taken to the City of Electric Dreams, forcing Victor and the robots to embark on a dangerous journey to save Gio. It wasn’t safe by any stretch of the imagination, but Vic had been doing this for years and hadn’t fallen yet. All while making it a Pinocchio retelling and giving it a splash of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, to boot.

TJ Klune has created an enchanting tale of Pinocchio in the end times , offering up hard truths alongside humor, kindness, love and, most important, hope.Emotions galore for a broken robot and a confused boy - a strange Pinocchio retelling that pulls at the heart strings in true TJK fashion. Gio's small family decides to risk all and go looking for him to save him from decommissioning and/or reprogramming.

Then one day a couple appears out of nowhere with a baby wrapped into rags, leaving him into Giovanni’s hands and they disappear as if they were never there! It’s too long, the plot is distinctly on the thin side and there’s way too much dialogue for my taste. I loved every minute of it - science fiction may not be my favorite genre, but the heart of the story - the characters' personalities - the wonderful and moving story - gripped me till the very end. From classic tales such as ‘Swiss Family Robinson’, ‘The Wizard of Oz’, and ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest’ to even modern movies such as ‘Real Steel’ and ‘Wall-E’, the content is a treasure trove of Easter Eggs for fiction fans.In a strange home built into the branches of a grove of trees, live three robots--fatherly inventor android Giovanni, a pleasantly sadistic nurse machine, and a vacuum desperate for attention. Readers who loved Klune’s previous works will find plenty of the author’s trademark charm, heart, and bittersweet.

Being queer himself, Klune believes it's important--now more than ever--to have accurate, positive queer representation in stories.Many characters struggle with their guilt, and the journey through the pages also becomes that of acceptance and absolution. I genuinely loved this narrative, the idea of living in the woods in treehouses was perfect but obviously there wouldn’t be a story if that was all there was! I can’t even count how many times this book made me laugh, made me smile, made me cry… it certainly packs a wonderful punch! Android inventor Giovanni Lawson finds an abandoned building in a remote, old forest and transforms it into somewhere to live but being so isolated he’s lonely. Laced with the touch of so many beautiful quotes - quotes galore that I would have highlighted so much more than I wanted, because it resonated so very much with me.

Even though this is fantasy/sci-fi, it is a very approachable book so don't let the genre scare you away. Along the way, you fall in love with the characters and their world, and it feels like you are really there, immersed in the wonder of it all. I loved the characters, their distinct personalities, their struggles, their discussions, and their journey.If you threw together Pinocchio, Martha Wells’ The Murderbot Diaries, Becky Chambers’ The Monk and Robot series, the setting of Fallout: New Vegas, the droids of Star Wars, the characters of The Brave Little Toaster, and the quest of The Wizard of Oz into a pot, you might have a stew that kinda sorta resembles In the Lives of Puppets.