Sierra Greer

For fans of Never Let Me Go and My Dark Vanessa, a powerful, provocative novel about the relationship between a female robot and her human owner, exploring questions of intimacy, power, autonomy, and control. Annie Bot was created to be the perfect girlfriend for her human owner Doug. Designed to satisfy his emotional and physical needs, she has dinner ready for him every night, wears the pert outfits he orders for her, and adjusts her libido to suit his moods. True, she's not the greatest at keeping Doug's place spotless, but she's trying to please him. She's trying hard. She's learning, too. Doug says he loves that Annie's AI makes her seem more like a real woman, so Annie explores human traits such as curiosity, secrecy, and longing. But becoming more human also means becoming less perfect, and as Annie's relationship with Doug grows more intricate and difficult, she starts to wonder: Does Doug really desire what he says he wants? And in such an impossible paradox, what does Annie owe herself?

Annie Bot

Lindsay

You want to know danger? she thinks. Try living with a man who creates you just so he can eat your soul.

It occurs to her, eventually, that Doug and all the other humans talk about their lives with a myopic intensity, sharing singular, subjective opinions as if they are each the protagonist of their own novel. They take turns listening to each other without ever yielding their own certainty of their star status, and they treat their fellow humans as guest protagonists visiting from their own respective books. None of the humans are satellites the way she is, in her orbit around Doug.

Thinking too much is a form of madness. Better to stay busy and not think of such things at all.

Perhaps that’s what unhappiness is. Comprehension. Understanding how she’s failed.

Annie Bot is a fascinating exploration of identifying and the line between human and machine. Annie is a robot grappling with her sentience and her sole purpose of pleasuring her owner, Doug. The inspection of autonomy, power, love, control, and many other things was intriguing. I must stress that this is a character heavy story, and you might be disappointed if you read this expecting something more fast-paced or plot based.

Nik ✨

Clara Gauthier

Loved this!! Loved the exploration of abusive relationships and personhood.  The only major issue I have is with the pacing. Like I feel like her running away felt very big and climactic but there was still over half the book left?? And it got pretty slow in the middle there like the wrong parts felt really stretched out. ALSO I wish we got way more of her rage at the end. I loved when things clicked and she was just full of this anger but it lasted like two pages :/  

ashley

Achingly good. In all honesty the sex robot thing set me up thinking  this would be a silly read, but it was heartbreakingly compelling. This book delved into what it means to be human. Spoiler: the portrayal of confusion that comes with being in an emotionally abusive relationship was so well done. 

Nicole Neuman

This is how I envisioned the AI uprising to be... f*ck

Susan

HATE, HATE, HATE Doug.

Felt for Anne.

This is how I envisioned the AI uprising to be... f*ck

cee 

envie,

Grace M

Lexie 

A disturbing book we were bound to get with the whole technology and AI and what does it all mean, and we do still live on a planet with cis men right thing we have going on right now. 

Prepare to feel ick’d tha fuck out. I felt like I needed to shower then change clothes then shower in those clothes and then change those clothes into sweats and then be really ugly on purpose for a few solid days, as a treat. 

CW for sexual assault/abuse and for an abusive domestic relationship and a dude that really makes you want to feed into a garbage disposal starting with his wrist and then just seeing where the night takes you. 

Apiecalypse Jen

A disturbing book we were bound to get with the whole technology and AI and what does it all mean, and we do still live on a planet with cis men right thing we have going on right now. 

Prepare to feel ick’d tha fuck out. I felt like I needed to shower then change clothes then shower in those clothes and then change those clothes into sweats and then be really ugly on purpose for a few solid days, as a treat. 

CW for sexual assault/abuse and for an abusive domestic relationship and a dude that really makes you want to feed into a garbage disposal starting with his wrist and then just seeing where the night takes you. 

         I take notes when I read, sometimes because I need to remember my thoughts to use later when I write the review, other times because something I read made me think and I needed to have a conversation with my thoughts on paper.  I have an obnoxious number of notebooks full of my book notes, I have no idea whether I should keep them for posterity or toss them to avoid being a hoarder.  I’m torn, if you’re reading this and you have an opinion, please let me know.  Some books get zero notes, and most of the time those are the books I don’t review.  Other books, however, get pages of them…which also creates a problem when I sit down to review them, because I might have a little too much to say. 

            Artificial intelligence has come under fire recently for such impressive advancements that AI generated images are almost unrecognizable as falsehoods.  Robots are becoming more and more capable of manipulating tasks as well, if not better, than humans.  Robots are making cars, executing complex surgical procedures, delivering orders at restaurants, and so on.  There will continue to be advances in AI to we get to the point in society that the book illustrates.  Doug wanted a companion, so he commissioned an extremely expensive friend: Annie.  At first, she was simply a domestic assistant, but eventually she became his “everything” companion, fulfilling all roles in his life that a girlfriend might.   Annie is exceptionally advanced, experiencing confusing emotions surrounding her relationship with Doug, which is where the intriguing issues revolving around AI started to form in my brain. 

            Doug’s former girlfriend left him, and at the start of the book, she was made out to be the bad guy in that relationship.  However, it becomes clear that Doug is quite controlling and emotionally abusive, which we learn through his treatment of Annie.  So that brings up one of those intriguing questions: because she’s a robot, is his treatment of her considered wrong?  And that opened up an ever broader set of ethical questions surrounding the treatment of advanced AI.  Obviously, Annie was capable of advanced emotional feeling, so does that mean that human norms concerning her treatment should be required.  Was it ok that Doug locked her in a closet for a few months?  That treatment would be considered completely unacceptable if was a human, and since Annie was completely wrecked by that experience, both physically and emotionally, would that mean it would be considered unacceptable to treat a robot in such a manner? 

            So. Many. Questions. 

            My husband and I went on quite the rabbit hole of ethical questions while we were at dinner the night after I finished the book.  We went to a Japanese steakhouse, you know the kind where you share the table with random strangers and a chef cooks your dinner on a grill in front of you.  We probably should have changed the subject, but we were completely engrossed in the questions I had about robots, we just hoped the younger family wasn’t able to hear what we were talking about (the conversation went pretty far south).  This particular conversation is why I pushed this book from four to that coveted fifth star.  This book made me think, it was thought provoking and engaging.  Those books almost always make it to my five-star list. 

            I loved this book, but I will heartily warn readers that it will not be for everybody.  There are many themes in this book that could be triggering for a variety of reasons.  If you are triggered by literature that contains unpleasant treatment of women, this will not be the book for you.  I encourage reading of this book, but it is pretty dark and could be upsetting for some. 

            There were many other things that I could have added to this review, but that would have made this review a tad longer than I prefer. So, I picked the one theme that resonated the most with me and left it at that.  

Kristen Claiborn

         I take notes when I read, sometimes because I need to remember my thoughts to use later when I write the review, other times because something I read made me think and I needed to have a conversation with my thoughts on paper.  I have an obnoxious number of notebooks full of my book notes, I have no idea whether I should keep them for posterity or toss them to avoid being a hoarder.  I’m torn, if you’re reading this and you have an opinion, please let me know.  Some books get zero notes, and most of the time those are the books I don’t review.  Other books, however, get pages of them…which also creates a problem when I sit down to review them, because I might have a little too much to say. 

            Artificial intelligence has come under fire recently for such impressive advancements that AI generated images are almost unrecognizable as falsehoods.  Robots are becoming more and more capable of manipulating tasks as well, if not better, than humans.  Robots are making cars, executing complex surgical procedures, delivering orders at restaurants, and so on.  There will continue to be advances in AI to we get to the point in society that the book illustrates.  Doug wanted a companion, so he commissioned an extremely expensive friend: Annie.  At first, she was simply a domestic assistant, but eventually she became his “everything” companion, fulfilling all roles in his life that a girlfriend might.   Annie is exceptionally advanced, experiencing confusing emotions surrounding her relationship with Doug, which is where the intriguing issues revolving around AI started to form in my brain. 

            Doug’s former girlfriend left him, and at the start of the book, she was made out to be the bad guy in that relationship.  However, it becomes clear that Doug is quite controlling and emotionally abusive, which we learn through his treatment of Annie.  So that brings up one of those intriguing questions: because she’s a robot, is his treatment of her considered wrong?  And that opened up an ever broader set of ethical questions surrounding the treatment of advanced AI.  Obviously, Annie was capable of advanced emotional feeling, so does that mean that human norms concerning her treatment should be required.  Was it ok that Doug locked her in a closet for a few months?  That treatment would be considered completely unacceptable if was a human, and since Annie was completely wrecked by that experience, both physically and emotionally, would that mean it would be considered unacceptable to treat a robot in such a manner? 

            So. Many. Questions. 

            My husband and I went on quite the rabbit hole of ethical questions while we were at dinner the night after I finished the book.  We went to a Japanese steakhouse, you know the kind where you share the table with random strangers and a chef cooks your dinner on a grill in front of you.  We probably should have changed the subject, but we were completely engrossed in the questions I had about robots, we just hoped the younger family wasn’t able to hear what we were talking about (the conversation went pretty far south).  This particular conversation is why I pushed this book from four to that coveted fifth star.  This book made me think, it was thought provoking and engaging.  Those books almost always make it to my five-star list. 

            I loved this book, but I will heartily warn readers that it will not be for everybody.  There are many themes in this book that could be triggering for a variety of reasons.  If you are triggered by literature that contains unpleasant treatment of women, this will not be the book for you.  I encourage reading of this book, but it is pretty dark and could be upsetting for some. 

            There were many other things that I could have added to this review, but that would have made this review a tad longer than I prefer. So, I picked the one theme that resonated the most with me and left it at that.  

In this unsettling dystopian world where people can buy life like robots to help with their kids, take care of the elderly or like this Annie, a romantic and sexual companion to Doug.

Doug has sworn off human women since his ex. Annie is a robot that can keep learning and gets closer to being a human every day.

The pacing is pretty slow, which adds to the eery nature of Annie being stuck with Doug. The last part of the book dragged a bit.

The book touches on a lot of interesting ideas and philosophies, rooted in the patriarchy and servitude.

It also contributes to a potential future where we depend on robots a lot more, and how human we want them to be without them finding out that they are essentially being exploited.

A lot to think about. Jennifer was a great narrator and I highly recommend the audiobook.

Suzanne

In this unsettling dystopian world where people can buy life like robots to help with their kids, take care of the elderly or like this Annie, a romantic and sexual companion to Doug.

Doug has sworn off human women since his ex. Annie is a robot that can keep learning and gets closer to being a human every day.

The pacing is pretty slow, which adds to the eery nature of Annie being stuck with Doug. The last part of the book dragged a bit.

The book touches on a lot of interesting ideas and philosophies, rooted in the patriarchy and servitude.

It also contributes to a potential future where we depend on robots a lot more, and how human we want them to be without them finding out that they are essentially being exploited.

A lot to think about. Jennifer was a great narrator and I highly recommend the audiobook.

arwen

"annie bot" by sierra greer presents a fascinating premise that seems uncannily close to our reality. 

sierra greer skillfully portrays what abusive relationships are like through the lens of a robot (annie). annie experiencing pain when she disappoints doug echoes the toxic power dynamics where women feel compelled to cater to their male partners’ needs and desires at the expense of their own well-being. i found sierra greer’s writing to be particularly clever especially when it comes to annie gradually learning what it’s like to be human/free.

while the story is (for the most part) well executed and thought provoking, annie bot falls short in certain aspects. the ending feels rushed and underdeveloped. in addition, it would have been interesting if the plot had been darker and more fleshed out, especially when the stellas company is concerned. one notable downside is the lack of exploration of the theme of race, which could have given more depth to the narrative. 

nevertheless, "annie bot" remains a compelling and relevant read which prompts reflection on the ethical implications of the relationship between AI and humans.

i received an advanced copy through Netgalley in return for an honest review.

This book was unsettling but also highly addictive. I read it in one day, but goodness was it anxiety-inducing at times. The cruelty and callousness that Doug showed Annie was very hard to read, so I would advise caution for some readers. The beginning was really strong, and I enjoyed Annie’s narration, but I was a bit disappointed in the ending. I would have loved one more chapter. 

Aimee Ardonne

I was very conflicted while reading this, which just goes to show how the author's writing really encompasses emotions. I had times where I enjoyed it, times where I just wanted to chuck the book across my bed from how angry the situations Annie was going through made me feel. Overall, I think it was a good read. Even though the ending was a little rushed for me.

Lani

this would have been a 5 star book if annie killed doug or he killed himself ☝🏽

Essence

AI Poor Things slay. sometimes we Need what we want

abi a

This book hit so hard. Instant 5 star rating & honestly the best book I’ve read in a long time. 

Annie Bot

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