The Motion of Puppets: A Novel - Hardcover

“At once old and new, borrowed and original, The Motion of Puppets disdains both genre and mainstream expectations to turn readers’ attention to the permeable boundary between life and its mimicry.”―The Washington Post

“Reminiscent of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline...Underneath all the changes, [Donohue's] story has the emotional depth, the love and grief of the old myth, only transposed to the sad, leaves-falling October Country of the mind.”―The Wall Street Journal

"[Donohue's] intricately plotted narrative blurs the lines between reality and fantasy. While a love story at heart, this inventive tale is suspenseful and absorbing. You will never look at a toy store the same way again."―Real Simple

“Poetic.”―The Charlotte Observer

“Think of it as Toy Story, if it had been written by Stephen King....Donohue is adept at creating brilliantly imagined worlds that offer both menace and allure. The Motion of Puppets is cunningly strange and hypnotic, and you’re likely to find yourself drawn into its seductive peculiarities....It seems merely like a magically effortless and enchanting piece of storytelling. But don’t be surprised if you notice a twinge of existential dread begin to build after you’ve finished the last page.”―Richmond Times-Dispatch

“Beautiful melancholy encapsulates everything evocative and haunting about The Motion of Puppets, a reimagining of a classic Greek myth that fixates on the power of loss and how we confront the aftermath of a sudden absence. Theo’s storyline in particular is heartbreaking and enthralling, combining the best parts of The Fugitive and The Vanishing in stirring form.”―San Francisco Book Review

"An engrossing novel of love, fancy, and enchantment."―Shelf Awareness

“The Motion of Puppets is the only novel I know to have fulfilled Robert Aickman’s famous statement about great supernatural tales, that they are the fiction most closely approaching poetry. Keith Donohue (The Stolen Child) has crafted a perfect fable based on the mysterious attraction of the puppet theater. Building upon the archaic superstition (exploited in Toy Story) that puppets have their own emotional lives, the author takes one more magnificent step and ties in the devastating myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.... Every part of this novel hums with mythic power, pulling on every heartstring.”―BookPage

"Full of glorious detail."―New York Journal of Books

"A masterpiece of psychological horror...Intricately plotted, absorbing, and suspenseful, this is a moving, modern story set in what feels like a fairy-tale world but is actually terrifyingly realistic."―Booklist (starred review)

“An inventive and suspenseful story told from an original perspective, Donahue’s novel examines how refusing to embrace the present and struggling to escape unavoidable circumstances can alter one’s life forever.”―Publishers Weekly