Gorgeous photo by @sarahreadss!
Hi fairy friends!
Welcome back to day 2 of our readalong for our April Adult featured book: In The Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune. I hope you’re all loving the book so far!
Today we’re reading from chapter 6 to the end of chapter 11. Let’s go!
Please be warned, the following section will include spoilers for In The Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune, from chapters 6 to 11. Please only read on if you’ve finished this section!
-!SPOILERS!-
With the help of Nurse Ratched and Rambo, Vic connects the heart he made for Gio to the android… and the android is immediately angry. Oh dear. Not to say I told you so, Vic, but didn’t I mention this is a bad idea?
Nurse Ratched is my favourite! I am absolutely cackling at her launching her tentacle into the android and yelling ‘Listen to Mother’. What a hero!
The android is out… for now. When he does wake back up, he’s not as angry. They give him the name Hap, partially because those are the letters visible along his plate, and partially because as an acronym ‘Hysterically Angry Puppet’ fits him to a T.
Something clicks inside Hap the minute that Nurse Ratched mentions Vic is human. He launches himself at Vic. It’s Hap himself who stops his murderous onslaught though. Pulling himself away and asking what’s happening to him. There’s hope for him yet I think!
When Gio finds out, he seems to recognise Hap? As soon as he sees Hap’s chest plate, a realisation seems to sink in and he tells everyone to leave the room. Bad idea. It’s spooked Hap and he takes off running through the forest.
When they find Hap, something interesting happens. He picks up Rambo and everyone jumps to the conclusion that he’s done it to be threatening or to hurt him, until Hap points out a butterfly. He picked up Rambo to protect the butterfly.
Hap eventually shows Gio his heart, shows him why he feels different now to how he felt before. Gio is undoubtedly proud of his son’s creation, but also horrified that Vic has bled into the heart. I wonder why? Does it make some kind of bond?
Hap is a quick learner! He seems to enjoy mimicking Vic’s humane actions, right down to shouting ‘Ow’ when Vic is shaving down his knee to stop it catching. Between that and Hap blowing an aggressive gale of wind at Vic’s soup to cool it down and Hap’s insistence to stay with Vic while he sleeps… I think I’m really starting to like him!
Their live resumes, Hap learning, Vic teaching… until they reach a spanner in the works. Something has come for them. Gio seems to know who and what they are. He tells Vic there are many things he should have told him. Gio puts them in some kind of safety bunker, making Hap promise to protect Victor and then activating a safety protocol in Nurse Ratched. And then he leaves.
The three androids are taking Gio back to the City of Electric Dreams, either for reprogramming or decommissioning.
Gio tells them he’s different, he dreams, he feels. And then, he pulls the heart out of his chest and crushes it between his hands. The smooth men destroy it all, their whole home, and then they take Gio with them.
Vic, naturally, is in complete shock at what he’s just seen. Gio though, seemed to know this was a probable outcome. He prepared a video for Victor, as soon as he found Hap. Gio created Hap, his real designation is HARP – Human Annihilation Response Protocol. Gio didn’t find Vic through a couple wandering through the woods either, he created him himself, to dispel his loneliness. He urges Vic not to try and find him, and then the screen goes black.
Do you trust Hap?
What do you think will happen to Gio?
What do you think Vic will do next? Gio told him not to find him, do you think he’ll go against his wishes?
What an emotional rollercoaster! I went from laughing to sobbing.
See you tomorrow for section three!
Love,
Shannon
I’m in shock! That part was so sad!
I do trust Hap, but I’m not sure if I should. I really don’t think we’ll see Gio again, but Vic is definitely going to go after him.
This part was a rollercoaster. I was laughing at Ratched’s comments. The messages on screen always crack me up
Hap is growing on me. I think he will take his order from Gio to heart (see what I did there?)and look after Vic.
I definitely think Gio will be seen again but might be a complete shadow of who he was to Vic. Vic is also likely to go find out more about this City and he probably wants to learn more about Gio and Hap. There is so much more to unfold I cannot wait to see what is next.
Do you trust Hap? yess i trust Hap, he seems to not have any of his old code left, you could say it was replaced with Vic’s blood and he has became more humane.
What do you think will happen to Gio? ngl I don’t think it’ll end will for him, might not see him alive again :(( or since Gio and Hap have the same heart as a battery, maybe Vic will need to chose between the two at some point?
What do you think Vic will do next? Gio told him not to find him, do you think he’ll go against his wishes? I think Vic will try and find Gio, even though it is against his wishes, Vic is human after all!
I am absolutley loving this book so far and find the topic of andriods/humans so interesting! Can’t wait to see how this story ends
1) I haven’t warmed up to him as a character yet, and I think he’ll frustrate, but I think, ultimately, he’ll be trustworthy, though I don’t know /when/.
2) With that ominous “much too late” comment, I would imagine he would die. Though, I don’t know if he’ll come up again later in the story, or if that one robot will get his, “revenge” and make sure he’s decommissioned/his parts used for other things rather than be reprogrammed.
3) I absolutely think Vic will go after Gio. And I can’t wait to see the outcome of it!
The sections are taking me longer than normal to finish, so hopefully I can keep up!
I am shaken by that last chapter!! I had no idea the beginning of the story was an invention. I love the subtle hints towards the Pinocchio retelling that are coming up throughout the story! I originally thought Gio would be Geppetto but it’s looking like Vic is, and Hap is Pinocchio! Especially with Nurse Ratched’s comment about her being a conscience!
I do trust Hap but I’m wondering if he will struggle to control himself now that we know he’s programmed to eradicate humans.
I think they will try to reprogram Gio so that he can do his old job again. And I think Vic will go after him anyway because it’s his Dad and he loves him.
Well that was a lot to process. I think incorporating wood into Hap was cool, and using wood for the heart too. With the blood playing a more and more important role I wonder what will happen in the future, maybe there are very few humans and for some reason now their blood is needed for evolution in the androids so they are being hunted.
I don’t trust Hap right now, I am guessing HAP stands for Human annihilation program or something. Rambo and I would disagree on that.
When Gio ripped out his heart I felt more suspicious about the blood and what is going on in the forest that they don’t want the rest of the robots to know about. I am stressed but not too stressed because I trust TJ Klune. I think Vic should just sit tight in his forest house remains, rebuild and listen to his father. He is gonna get himself into boiling water.
I was not expecting this.
For now I trust Hap (and I’m growing really fond of him so I don’t want it to be anything else).
I think we will see Gio again (we have too and I trust TJ on this matter).
Vic is so not doing as his father asks.
1. Do you trust Hap?
No, I don’t. I do believe Hap wants to change and be good, but I also believe that his programming won’t allow that to fully happen and will end up betraying them or something
2. What do you think will happen to Gio?
He’ll be brought back to work again, but I do believe he will remember Vic and won’t be demolished or lose his memories due to Vic’s blood in his heart.
3. What do you think Vic will do next? Gio told him not to find him, do you think he’ll go against his wishes?
Of course he will, Gio is one of the three constants in his life and has been there for the longest (duh it’s his dad) so of course he’ll go find Gio and bring him back home
So, as a TJ Kline reader… I trust Hap but I have no faith that Gio will be left unscathed by the end of the story. But I have a smidge of hope? Because I do really like Gio but also the circumstances of Vic’s birth were such a huge surprise for me!
The Pinocchio references are an amazing time in so of course I think that Vic and crew are going to go pursue the whale ship and go after Gio. I am guessing Hap will begin to have to start fighting more against deeply rooted program urges and I look forward to watching it play out!
I am so so curious about the importance of the blood! Does it unlock a new range of emotions for the robots? Does it allow them to feel ‘love’ specifically?? I’m sure we’ll learn more as Hap continues his character development. I wonder if he’ll grow into an entirely different kind of robot than Ratched or Rambo, since (as far as we know) he is the only one of the three who possesses Victor’s blood. I’m also very excited to see more Pinocchio elements coming into play.
I definitely trust Hap. If he was going to kill Victor, he would have already. We saw him fight against his program at the very beginning of his new life when he instinctively attacked Victor and made himself stop. If he can do that once, he will continue to do it.
I hesitate to say that I doubt we’ll see Gio again because I don’t want to have to see Victor go through that pain, but I don’t think he’ll make it. And if he does, he’ll be changed. The heart that made him learn and grow and love is gone. A replacement might restart his emotional development. We just don’t know.
I think Victor’s end goal will be to go against his father’s wishes and find him. I doubt it will be his next step. I think maybe he’ll try looking into this Blue Fairy thing. But eventually, of COURSE he will go after Gio.
Now that we know about Victor’s origins and the couple in the woods never existed…how do we know that any other humans exist at all? The curiosity is just eating away at me!
Do you trust Hap?
I don’t trust him but I trust the tests Gio conducted. I think something will remind Hap of what he did, I’m not sure if he will go back to Harp or not though.
What do you think will happen to Gio?
I think the smooth men will use his knowledge against him and Vic. I think even though his hart is not active his memory would be.
What do you think Vic will do next?
I think. Vic is going to go on a revenge trip with a roomba, and two murderous robots. Haha
Gio told him not to find him, do you think he’ll go against his wishes?
I think he will. It will be to rescue him hit also to take the system down. This will be when he finds out about his parents, maybe?
I don’t fully trust Hap but he’s growing on me. He seems to not have any of his old code left, so maybe the blood from Vic will help him have more emotions. I think they will try to reprogram Gio so that he can do his old job again and forget all about Vic. I’m pretty sure that Vic’s going to search for Gio even if he asked him no to. I am absolutely loving this book so far and find the topic of androids/humans so interesting!
Well, that was unexpected.
Daily Q&A:
Q:
1.) Do you trust Hap?
2.) What do you think will happen to Gio?
3.) What do you think Vic will do next? Gio told him not to find him, do you think he’ll go against his wishes?
A:
1.) I’d like to think so. Since being brought back, he’s shown every sign of being trustworthy. If he’s evolved past blindly following the programming that was wiped, he would be the best suited to keeping Vic safe.
2.) Probably be taken to the City of Electric Dreams to be broken down into parts for the Authority or whatever the clone-bots said.
3.) I’m sure he’ll want to try to bring Gio back, but if that’s his goal, he’ll need to make another heart to replace his (since he gave the 1st he made to Hap) … among other things.