The Motion of Puppets

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

"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

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

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

"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