Reviews with content warning for Eating disorder - Annie Bot

Reviews tagging 'Eating disorder'

Annie Bot by Sierra Greer

10 reviews

cristine's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I’m really torn with this one and keep fluctuating between a 3 and a 4. If you read this and accept it at surface value it’s not good and the amount of unnecessary sex scenes makes you roll your eyes. But if you read this and understand the depth and layers id the different themes explored (which I hope is what Greer was striving for) then it’s pretty darn good (still with a lot of unnecessary scenes and several inconsistencies. Thinking about the themes: women being demoralized to being used for cooking, raising children and sex but as robots that rich men could buy, emotional abuse, control, falling victim to the abuse mindset and having no control or understanding “who I am”, searching for freedom, finding identity, feeling isolated, being afraid to your true self, to name a few. Overall, I think this was delivered in a direct way that any critical thinker could understand the depth to this novel and ignore some of the holes. The ending was a bit anticlimactic and I really would’ve loved to know what happened next but I guess that’s for the reader’s imagination.

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m3lwar3's review against another edition

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emotional reflective tense 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? Yes

3.5

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cherieamour's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

I found this book to be a really interesting reflection on what it means to be a person and on womanhood and gender roles. it does a great job demonstrating what controlling and emotionally abusive relationships can look like and the ways that people can easily excuse things or write them off.

there were a couple of things that bothered me like the linger ng question on the young guy who thought he knew Annie and the random comment about the therapist being trans, it just felt awkwardly stuck on and I wasn't sure exactly why it was there, and the final third of the book felt so much slower than the rest of it had. I personally wanted to spend more time exploring Annie's freedom after she left as I kept thinking about how she would learn to really be herself and what that would look like. maybe it wouldn't have felt earned if she got away too easily as she had to earn Doug's trust again but I wasn't as interested in that aspect. I did also find the ending a bit huh? it felt a bit weird that Jameson's son would be so happy to take her in, he seemed nice enough but i wasn't sure how realistic it was. one last thing that I wasnt sure about was the relative lack of other futuristic tech. like if we've advanced enough to the point of creating sentient robots with essentially human skin, what else have we developed? there's no other fancy tech I can remember beyond the ai people Annie calls

I did have an interesting thought after finishing it that I'm not sure other people have discussed. I think it could be interesting to view the book through the lens of Annie as an analogue for a trans woman. more specifically the experience of being a trans woman in a relationship with a cis guy who doesn't want people to know his partner is trans. the way he fetishises her while also being ashamed to the point of feeling rage at the thought of people knowing they're together. the fight after she says "no one will know you're a fraud", the way that she's hyper vigilant when they're out about people knowing she's a bot. with this lens I could imagine the comment about the therapist being somewhat apt on the knowledge that you may get clocked as trans and while nothing happens to her, there's always a threat that looms with this. this is just my thoughts and it's not a perfect 1-1 obviously but I think it's an intriguing way to interpret the book

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christenebs's review against another edition

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tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes

4.0

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oddpilot97's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad tense 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

HOLYYYYY COW, this was good. And I’m not someone who says that lightly (I don’t hesitate to DNF and haven’t had a 5 star book in ages)

Lately I’ve been on a streak of reading books with amazing concepts, that I end up giving up on because it doesn’t deliver on that. This was almost the opposite. The plot line caught my eye, but I wondered if it was going to get either too one-note or too triggering. I don’t know where your mind goes when you think about someone who owns a sex robot, but mine automatically goes to a mega creep. Instead, the owner character had layers, and was more than just purely detestable.

The author added SO much nuance and complexity. I was eagerly wondering what the end result would be with every twist and turn. I was screaming for the protagonist to make the right choice the whole time, even as things got more and more complicated on which decision was truly best for her.

when I described some of the plot to my mom, she said “this isn’t just about robots is it?” she hit the nail right on the head. the story aptly draws a parallel to oppressive gender roles.

Annie’s owner treats her better than almost any other. even the techs at the company Who made her tell her she is lucky that he is her owner. But are you truly lucky if you are the most well treated slave?

Doug does horrible things —without a doubt. he modeled Annie after his ex girlfriend, a blatant crossing of boundaries. he is at times cruel, particularly when he locked her in the closet with her libido set at a 10. I hated him at so many points of the book. And at other times, I wondered if Annie did truly desire to be with him or if it was just programming. I was curious if there was any redemption possible for Doug.

P.S. what happened to Delta??? Justice for her.

There’s so much more I could say, and perhaps I will reflect on more of the themes and how they impacted me and return to update this at a later time.

TLDR: read it. It’s worth it.

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frances_frances's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

It was with some reluctance that I started this book. The premise felt overdone and I was wary of another story where the relationship between an infantilized dependent and a more powerful person goes unexamined and normalizes/romanticizes such power imbalances (think the movies Splash and Overboard). Refreshingly, Annie Bot wasn't like that at all. The entire book is interrogating power dynamics, autonomy, and personhood. Annie isn't childlike. It's true that she isn't familiar with human culture, but she isn't depicted as naive or helpless, just learning. There were many difficult scenes that were often understated or subtly creepy/tense. It felt realistic and conveyed the insidious nature of intimate abuse. A great book club pick

My favorite passage from page 229:
She has to laugh at herself. She does not know the most basic guidelines for a life. Despite Doug's constant guiding and correcting, she knows nothing of value. He taught her to yawn and stretch. He trained her to clean right. He locked her in the closet with her libido jacked up to ten. He loved her enough to want to raise a family with her. He expected her to lie about herself forever.

And then he set her free so she could love him?

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amina_writes_books's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective slow-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

3.75

I wish the author had studied up on AI and how the field of general intelligence is progressing to better inform her on slight behaviors that make little Sense. Feminist cues way too on the nose. Some other philosophical and societal commentary that was also too obviously made. Some really interesting insights nonetheless.

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bri_14's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Doug was/is absolutely insufferable! He’s a manipulative, abusive partner who is too insecure and self serving to be the husband or father he dreams of. Sierra Grier did such a great job displaying control and how it builds overtime. Not many start out with giving bruises and

locking you away for 7 weeks

. But it was cool seeing it processed by Annie. Seeing her grapple with her humanity and autonomy was probably the most humane parts of her bc those are things grown women still aim to learn.

Also loved seeing her leave Doug as soon as she has agency bc she didn’t love him, only gave him whatever he needed to feel pleased!

. Makes you question how many of us are ignorant to our little freedoms.

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kimkowalski's review against another edition

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reflective 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? It's complicated

2.75

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kt2e56's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

Stunning. Will be really poignant but also difficult for anyone who’s ever been in an abusive relationship or has struggled with the anxiety of being a people pleaser. A fantastic (and horrifying) sci-fi book.

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