The Backlot Gay Book Forum discussion

In the Lives of Puppets
By T.J. Klune
Published by Tor Publishing Group, 2023
Five stars

How do you even begin to talk about one of TJ Klune’s books? I never saw this one coming, although there are things about it that reminded me of all the books that came before, something that speaks ineffably of Klune’s unique gift and inimitable heart. And, I have to say, his growth as an artist.

The story begins, deep in a forest, with an enormous lie. Oddly enough, it is a lie whose enormity evaporates when the truth is revealed, because the truth is so much more—what? Shocking? Obvious?—than the lie itself. The lie allows us to slip into the story, and to believe it to be gentle and endearing, both things supported by the innocent adventures and comic banter of the three main characters: Victor Lawson, his robot sidekick Rambo, and their slightly sinister Mary Poppins caretaker known as Nurse Rached. Giovanni Lawson, Victor’s, um, adoptive dad, plays the loving-but-gruff TV father, even though we know from the very start of this book that something really weird is going on.

It is all a scam, and the author lures us into the illusion he creates, as delicately as a spider spinning its web, keeping us engaged and curious (and falling in love with this oddball sort-of-family) until the moment when he lowers the boom and rattles us to our foundations.

At first we think “Pinocchio,” and maybe even “Frankenstein,” but the truth is more immense than even those stories of love and obsession and the wish to create something living. I can’t say too much, for fear of spoilers, other than to note the beauty of Klune’s language, and his purposeful and powerful visuals. By the time the sylvan interlude transforms into a sci-fi adventure somewhere between “The Wizard of Oz” and “Blade Runner,” we are so invested in the book’s characters that we can’t stop reading.

This is an epic story of courage, loyalty, and the power of love to change everything. It is also about the ironic duality of human nature—creative and destructive, selfish and selfless, capable of the worst and the best. The story is adorable and appalling. It is terrifying and heartwarming, and I wept as much as I laughed as the story unrolled. Every bit of it is carefully orchestrated to make the reader feel things to the depths of their soul. And to believe that we have one.