In the Lives of Puppets

The forest is home to three robots: Father figure Giovanni Lawson, sadistic nurse robot, and a vacuum robot looking for love. It is also home to Victor Lawson, a human. It’s a family, hidden and safe.

When Vic salvages and repairs an unfamiliar android called “HAP,” he discovers that Hap and Gio share a dark past filled with human predation.

When Hap unwittingly alerts robots from Gio's former life to their location, the family is no longer hidden and safe. Vic's family must travel across an unforgiving, otherworldly country to save Gio from decommissioning or reprogramming.

Despite conflicting feelings of betrayal and affection for Hap, Vic must decide for himself: is conditional love possible for him?

Perhaps this is the fastest book I have DNF’d. As hard as it is for me to do, I can’t avoid it. It took me six chapters to realize I wasn’t able to finish... When the book introduced Rambo and Nurse Ratched, it was fun at first, but repetitive and predictable. FAST. I shouldn’t be able to predict dialogue within the first few chapters. I felt nothing for any of the characters.

When I hedged on DNF’ing, I thought I was overthinking. I gave it a few more chapters, but the story never picked up. The characters were one-dimensional, and the plot was stale. I had to admit defeat and move on to another book.

Based on the reviews, I think I’m the odd one out here, but that’s fine), and I’m pleased to hear that it brings some people's joy. It just won’t work for me today.

Despite not reading the entire book (obviously), even in the beginning, I could tell there was something missing. I don’t know what it is. I wanted to develop a liking for it, but it was beyond my ability. I suppose it's just not my cup of tea.