Reviews with content warning for Cancer - Annie Bot

WOW. While short, this book has so much to say. It explores so many themes of feminism, bodily autonomy, dysmorphia, abuse, tech ethics, sexuality, nature vs. nurture, beauty standards, and so much more. I also really love how referential it is as well. I see themes of parent-and-child from Frankenstein. Themes from the films Her and Ex Machina. From The Handmaid's Tale, which Greer nods to even herself.

I think one of the most interesting pieces from this book is how Annie's concept of her personhood mirrors the experiences of trans identity.

Annie insists she's a person with thoughts, feelings, and personal will. But while she never denies her own personhood, she also never claims to be human, and it even upsets her to pretend to be one at Doug's suggestion towards the end of the story.

Her origins are the most significant thing about her, so passing her off as a human will be a complete denial of who she really is.

It's like when transphobes say shit like "You're not a biological woman/man" to trans people as some kind of gotcha tactic, as if trans people ever confused their gender identity with their biological sex.

The mirroring happens again in the euphoria she experiences when doing human-like things, like when she speaks to Cody, before he discovers she's a Stella:

It's a new sensation, talking to someone who doesn't know she's a Stella. She wishes she could be honest with him.

Or when she and Delta are riding their bikes to the home, Annie eats power bars, drinks water, breathes evenly and pants, and feels sore from the exercise. Not just because she's trying to blend in to escape, but also because it feels natural to her. It's like... the euphoria trans people experience from gender-affirming practices like wearing clothes and makeup that suit their gender expression, or affirming medical care like FFS or HRT.

Greer even poses this comparison herself,

when Annie and Doug see Dr. Monica VanTyne, a therapist who specializes in "trans and nonbinary mental health as well as human-bot interactions" (Ch. 6). It's emphasized over and over again, when people are shocked at how they're unable to tell Annie from a real human. And Doug poses the same question to Annie about Dr. VanTyne:

"Could you tell she was trans?" he asks.
Surprised, Annie reviews her impressions of Monica. "No. Not from her appearance."
"She is, though," he says.

Like HMMMMMMMMMM sounds familiar, doesn't it?

Annie Bot is a great book. And that's just ONE of the many themes explored in the novel. I'm really excited to read this again in the future.

Content Warnings

ksilvio's review against another edition

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challenging 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

3.5

Content Warnings

jelkebooks's review against another edition

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challenging 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

2.0

Now, this book isn't what I typically read and review so I'm sorry if I seem a bit all over the place as I try to collect my thoughts on this one. Especially because I know my opinion on this book is VERY unpopular. I have heard so many great things about this book but it just did not work for me personally.
This started off alright. I quite liked Annie as a main character. I thought she brought in a very interesting perspective, and I just liked her personality. What she was going through also was quite interesting, and I was very curious to see what direction it was going to go in. I do think the messaging was quite obvious though right from the start, and therefore I very quickly had expectations for how this story was going to unfold.
Sadly enough, this didn't meet those expectations. I'm going to try and do this without spoilers so I'm sorry if it does not make the most sense. At first this book did seem to go in the direction I was expecting. I was excited to see what was going to happen next. However, then that gets subverted and it seemingly takes several steps back. Once that happened I feel like this book started to drag. Almost nothing was happening, almost nothing new was being brought to the table, and I was just bored. Then when the page count left has shrunk to a very minimal amount, and you think that there's no way this is going to end on such an anti-climactic note it seems like the author very last minute realised that indeed would be bad, and went back to its original set up in a way. It felt so rushed and unsatisfying. I kind of hated it. I don't know. It just really did not work for me, which is a shame because I think this does have a really strong concept. I just wish the execution was done a bit better.

Content Warnings

minishcap's review against another edition

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emotional tense

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

3.0

the first half of this book was great - super engaging, very interesting premise. i felt that after annie

was locked in the closet

everything began to go downhill.

the ending felt rushed and didn’t match the writing quality of the beginning - middle of the book.

i wish that the author expanded more on what it would mean for annie to

get more into programming and hack herself.

i thought this was intriguing and assumed that was where the story was headed, but it didn’t really go anywhere.

overall, it is a very gripping book and i thought that this was a very entertaining read!

Content Warnings

redefiningrachel's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective medium-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

Content Warnings

danie_joye_breit's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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

5.0

Content Warnings

peanutporridge's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

This was so interesting! The feminist antithesis to McEwan's 'Machines Like Me', if you will. I never thought I would empathise with and relate to a sexbot

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