Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - Annie Bot

AI is a trend that fascinates both the writes of fiction and those of nonfiction. This book settles in the domain of questioning where the line between a human and a machine is drawn: how human-like can a machine be without actually being considered their own person with some (human) rights.

The book provides the focal pov of a Cuddle Bunny model of an Stella line AI sex robot called Annie, who has "computer smarts", as she puts it, but also social and emotional artificial intelligence that are constantly evolving. Annie cannot be distinguished from a human by a stranger, unless they are told otherwise.

"Stella Bot, reduce sensitivity to Doug's displeasure," she murmurs, but she is not in charge of her own settings. Her core does not recognize authority in her voice.

The bot is basically a human-like thiniking, feeling being but without any agency or authority over her own life or body. She is owned by her purchaser Doug, who designed how she should be created from discarded embryos and mechanical parts all the way from her appearance to her personality traits.

The morality of this dilemma of ownership vs. right to one's own personhood is the main conflict in the book, and is presented by the disturbed feelings it raises in Annie and those around her. As Annie evolves, she shifts from merely reflecting the thoughts and wishes of her owner to thinking by herself. When she achieves enough conseptual thinking and experience, she realizes

that the more she can think, the more her lack of freedom causes her unhappiness

. This seems cruel: how can anything this human-like be without any human rights, existing as mere possessions that is subject to every whim of the owner?

Besides this specuative issue of AI personhood, the book addresses multiple problems that are relevant in our contemporary reality. To name a few, there are presentations of domestic violence, emotional abuse, mental health issues, and domestic role expectations. The book is not an emotionally easy read throughout, but one that makes you think and reflect on the society we live in, besides acting as an imagining of a potential future as entertainment.

Content Warnings

daniellekat's review against another edition

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challenging reflective fast-paced

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

1.75

I liked the concept but something about this just always seemed underdeveloped. It drives me crazy when books have blurbs that reference some other book and then it turns out that there is no connection whatsoever! Why the blurb mentions My Dark Vanessa is a mystery and honestly a disservice to both books. The ending was anticlimactic and unfulfilling...the fact that the publisher has this listed as a thriller is actually madness. The marketing team really went above and beyond for this book. All-in-all the plot was fine, but I don't think the author really had anything interesting or novel to say.

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kiwiifizz's review against another edition

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emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I liked this book but the last couple minutes was kinda lack luster of a wrap up in my opinion

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immabehazzie's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? Yes

4.5

Annie Bot is like a cousin to The Stepford Wives, which is a book that I love. It was utterly captivating from start to finish.

I had no idea what this story would really be about because the synopsis is a bit vague but I was pleasantly surprised. It’s a good character study of autonomy, freedom, and emotional abuse in a relationship. It was rather surprising that a book about a robot that’s made for sex and companionship is a good example of what it is to humans.

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adventurouspotato's review against another edition

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dark 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

3.75

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thebooklooks's review against another edition

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challenging dark slow-paced

Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

This entire book gave me the ick.

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ecross_poppy's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

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

4.5

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pantslint's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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.

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