Reviews tagging 'Transphobia'

Annie Bot by Sierra Greer

7 reviews

desdoesbooks_'s review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This is the best book I have read in a long time. I meant to start it and read a few chapters before bed - I couldn't put it down and was up until the early hours of the morning first reading it then thinking about it. I have never known such realistic feeling characters in sci-fi. They are such a reflection of the experiences I (and so many people) have had that they are immediately relatable/identifiable. Heartbreaking, exhilarating, hopeful - I love this book.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Physical abuse and Trafficking

Minor: Racism and Transphobia

kaelilili's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Being unhappy implies that she has a capacity to be happy, but she does not have the right to be happy.

This is the best book I have read in a long time. It is a representation of having a narcissistic partner, and how your sense of self is tied to their perception of you. This was a powerful and challenging read that makes you question what it means to be a human with free will.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Rape, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Death and Fatphobia

Minor: Terminal illness, Transphobia, and Vomit

Vivid depiction of Annie being trapped in a closet with her libido set to 10. She is in agony until she lets her battery die, and as a result has some sexual trauma. She is then left in the closet for 7 weeks.

Very controlling and emotionally abusive “partner.”

hotwaterbottle's review

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Uncomfortable but clear-eyed look at power, ownership, and sex, through the eyes of a newly self-aware sex bot. Interrogates what it means to want to own someone just as much as what it means to be owned.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Fatphobia and Racism

Minor: Transphobia

Plenty of awful things told from the perspective of someone who doesn't understand how awful they are

vaykay's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming, Cancer, Suicidal thoughts, and Terminal illness

Minor: Death, Transphobia, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

chase0w0's review

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Body shaming, Misogyny, and Gaslighting

Minor: Transphobia

swell_gal's review against another edition

dark reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

I love the concept of this book. I think the story was interesting.

The themes of grappling with abuse were very well written. My main issue came from Annie as a robot powered by a highly evolved AI-driven program. She just read as so human. I know this is supposed to be where most of the ethical dilemma comes from, but I wish we were given more indications that she’s a robot, even if that’s just at the beginning and fades as she gains more humanity. For example, she scans Doug and can gauge his displeasure on a scale of 1-5. She can set her libido anywhere from 1-10, but there are no other metrics that she uses to evaluate situations (other than one scene at the beginning where she is able to log the messes around the house, including the exact number of crumbs on the counter). These kinds of features were very interesting to hear about, but it would have been interesting if she could gauge pupil dilation, heart rate, sweat, etc to understand human emotion on a purely analytical level. 

This leads me to my second qualm with the book. We hear about how Annie was switched into Autodidact mode, but I with we could have experienced that switch with Annie. Maybe when she first became autodidact she was using additional sensors to place Doug’s exact mood and adapt accordingly, but as she gained humanity these sensors became less sensitive and she had to start using her understanding of him to place his moods?

The last piece of this book that I struggled with was the dropped storylines. Annie felt jealous of Delta when Doug first got her, but she never mentions that to the therapist? The only time that Doug “cheats” on Annie is when Tina comes over at the very end? What about the entire Delta storyline? What was the deal with the young man who found Annie in the park? Was he a Zenith? The whole “learning to code” storyline was dropped only to be offered a sentence at the very end? Annie needed such frequent maintenance visits at the beginning of the book and at the end she hadn’t gone for multiple months and runs away without another visit planned?

I did not dislike this book as much as this review makes it sound. But I just felt like the Robot/human angle could have been so much more.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Abandonment

Moderate: Body shaming, Panic attacks/disorders, and Vomit

Minor: Transphobia and Alcohol

kate_reads_stuff's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I wanted to punch almost every male character in this book…which is kind of the point. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault

Minor: Transphobia