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A review by tonjeh
Annie Bot by Sierra Greer
5.0
I’ve read so many books I’ve enjoyed this year but this might actually be my favourite one.
Doug is an emotionally immature man who’s made it a habit of controlling his partner. He wants the apartment to be spotless, but isn’t particularly interested in keeping it clean himself. He wants undivided attention, and sees any time spent with family and friends as a distraction; they’re stealing what attention could’ve solely been given to him. He has a problem with his partner finding hobbies or activities they’d like to spend time on, especially during weekends. Weekends should be reserved for him and his sexual needs. As his human wife understandably grows tired of this dynamic and takes out a separation, Doug could’ve done some interpersonal discoveries and sworn not to do his next partner as dirty. Instead, he decides to recreate his ex wife’s looks (with the only adjustment being a lighter complexion) in the form of a pleasure robot he decides to call Annie. Annie is programmed to fear nothing but to displease Doug, growing desperate every time she senses he’s not pleased with her, which she calculates through a scale she keeps in her head that ranges from 1-10.
I enjoyed reading Annie’s inner monologue of thoughts as her conscience grew and her priorities started to shift. The inner turmoil of developing her own needs and boundaries conflicting with her programming. Human-like in how she made progress but also had setbacks, how she would experience negative emotions and then an intense need to soothe them without being capable of doing that on her own (as her contentment was completely interconnected with Doug’s feelings and behaviour towards her.) I felt it was a very realistic development of her character. I felt discomfort reading about how Doug and his friend downright abused her without her having the insight of seeing it as that. At one part Annie is asked if Doug has ever hurt her, and she says no. Me as a reader sat there like… you’re kidding, right? But of course she doesn’t see it that way, she exists for him, so any toxic behaviour seems reasonable to her programming!
The book explores the thematics of a toxic relationship with a violent man. It’s baffling to think that society might one day develop similar services such as Annie for men who’s afraid to look inward and tackle their anger, shame, frustrations and negative personality traits and would much rather have a sex doll they can control who won’t challenge them to grow as a human. Ugh It’s just brilliant commentary on the violence of men particularly in relationships, and how they’ve developed this expectation of having access to a female body regardless of their own behaviour, like they’re entitled to it. Highly recommend!
Doug is an emotionally immature man who’s made it a habit of controlling his partner. He wants the apartment to be spotless, but isn’t particularly interested in keeping it clean himself. He wants undivided attention, and sees any time spent with family and friends as a distraction; they’re stealing what attention could’ve solely been given to him. He has a problem with his partner finding hobbies or activities they’d like to spend time on, especially during weekends. Weekends should be reserved for him and his sexual needs. As his human wife understandably grows tired of this dynamic and takes out a separation, Doug could’ve done some interpersonal discoveries and sworn not to do his next partner as dirty. Instead, he decides to recreate his ex wife’s looks (with the only adjustment being a lighter complexion) in the form of a pleasure robot he decides to call Annie. Annie is programmed to fear nothing but to displease Doug, growing desperate every time she senses he’s not pleased with her, which she calculates through a scale she keeps in her head that ranges from 1-10.
I enjoyed reading Annie’s inner monologue of thoughts as her conscience grew and her priorities started to shift. The inner turmoil of developing her own needs and boundaries conflicting with her programming. Human-like in how she made progress but also had setbacks, how she would experience negative emotions and then an intense need to soothe them without being capable of doing that on her own (as her contentment was completely interconnected with Doug’s feelings and behaviour towards her.) I felt it was a very realistic development of her character. I felt discomfort reading about how Doug and his friend downright abused her without her having the insight of seeing it as that. At one part Annie is asked if Doug has ever hurt her, and she says no. Me as a reader sat there like… you’re kidding, right? But of course she doesn’t see it that way, she exists for him, so any toxic behaviour seems reasonable to her programming!
The book explores the thematics of a toxic relationship with a violent man. It’s baffling to think that society might one day develop similar services such as Annie for men who’s afraid to look inward and tackle their anger, shame, frustrations and negative personality traits and would much rather have a sex doll they can control who won’t challenge them to grow as a human. Ugh It’s just brilliant commentary on the violence of men particularly in relationships, and how they’ve developed this expectation of having access to a female body regardless of their own behaviour, like they’re entitled to it. Highly recommend!