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A review by mcgbreads
Annie Bot by Sierra Greer
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
1.0
Sci-fi? Feminism? Bitch, WHERE? Please, show me.
This rant is full of spoilers, FYI:
The one thing this book does well is depict a psychologically and verbally abusive relationship. Even if you as a reader decide not to feel anything for Annie because she's a robot (I've seen someone actually say that on booktube, and found it extremely off-putting. What do you mean you can't empathize with this character because she's a robot??? Anyway...), everything that Doug does to her has to get you in some way. Especially if you've ever been in a relationship with even a pinch of that kind of abusive behavior. It was upsetting to read about and it was terrible all around.
Other than that, the story has a whole bunch of potential, but it just doesn't do anything worthwhile with it. It doesn't say anything about any of the big themes it touches on. (1) Why would you have your character decide to make his robot a whitewashed version of his ex-wife if you have absolutely nothing to say about race and racism? You could've left that out and it wouldn't have changed a thing, Doug would still be the biggest piece of shit.
(2) Why wouldn't you explore the journey of this robot gaining sentience and consciousness a bit better? Nothing to say about humanity or what makes us human. Just a robot that could mess with her programming a bit and gain agency, but also, that agency is held back. Why? I thought this was feminist.
(3) Why would you have so much sex in this book for no reason? We didn't need so many scenes of this awful fucking man using this robot. They felt gratuitous after a while. Especially because they had nothing to say about consent or SA or anything. That's another conversation this book just refuses to explore, and it's right there. Again, why would you establish something that touches on such an interesting theme and not explore it? Why wouldn't Annie wonder about consent when her programming changes so much? Especially near the end, when she's at a point where she has her own thoughts.
(4) When Annie finally leaves Doug, it's not because she outsmarted him or found a way to leave him. It's because Doug disables her tracker and basically gives her freedom because he thinks she'll stay put like a good little robot. It's not even that Annie manipulates him into it so she can be free. And then, she just leaves him. No revenge, no nothing. She could've reported him to someone or, at the very least, ruined his reputation by telling his ex-wife, telling the world, what we know to be his shameful secret: he has been fucking and abusing a robot that looks like a white-washed version of his ex-wife. No, she leaves him sleeping in his bed instead, and he's rich as fuck because of her, so he'll be perfectly fine. No consequences.
(5) Not only that, but when she leaves him, she goes back to the only other man she knows, the one she met when she tried to escape the first time (that was a much better attempt at letting this character have agency), a person she knows very little about. It's written like a happy ever after, where she found a new home and a purpose; helping other robots gain agency or whatever.
Like, is this a joke? Doug could easily find her like he did last time. He knows that's the only place she would go to cause it's the only other place she knows. Are we supposed to believe he won't do anything? The petty, small little man who likes to feel big by having power over a robot? MORE IMPORTANTLY, she's incredibly valuable to him. She made him millions and, right before she escapes, he breaks the news that he can make even more money from her. Again, are we supposed to believe he won't go and retrieve his extremely valuable property? She should've ridden into the sunset with the excitement of trying to figure out life on her own, WHICH IS WHAT SHE WANTED TO DO. She wanted to live. Why would you send her to be with another fucking man?
(6) Don't even get me started on the lack of worldbuilding. Categorizing this as "sci-fi" is crazy because the only sci-fi thing about it is the robots and we don't even learn much about them. We know they exist and the 4 or 5 different roles they can play, and we kind of know how they function (but even that has inconsistencies), but we know nothing about how they were created, how that kind of technology changed the world (it seems that not at all, btw, because when we do get a glimpse of the outside world, everything seems normal, not even a little futuristic), etc.
This was just so underwhelming. It lacked substance all around and it missed the mark on so many things that were right there. There's so much that could've and should've been said that it kinda pisses me off. This story not only wasted my time in the end, but it was also an unpleasant reading experience.
This rant is full of spoilers, FYI:
The one thing this book does well is depict a psychologically and verbally abusive relationship. Even if you as a reader decide not to feel anything for Annie because she's a robot (I've seen someone actually say that on booktube, and found it extremely off-putting. What do you mean you can't empathize with this character because she's a robot??? Anyway...), everything that Doug does to her has to get you in some way. Especially if you've ever been in a relationship with even a pinch of that kind of abusive behavior. It was upsetting to read about and it was terrible all around.
Other than that, the story has a whole bunch of potential, but it just doesn't do anything worthwhile with it. It doesn't say anything about any of the big themes it touches on. (1) Why would you have your character decide to make his robot a whitewashed version of his ex-wife if you have absolutely nothing to say about race and racism? You could've left that out and it wouldn't have changed a thing, Doug would still be the biggest piece of shit.
(2) Why wouldn't you explore the journey of this robot gaining sentience and consciousness a bit better? Nothing to say about humanity or what makes us human. Just a robot that could mess with her programming a bit and gain agency, but also, that agency is held back. Why? I thought this was feminist.
(3) Why would you have so much sex in this book for no reason? We didn't need so many scenes of this awful fucking man using this robot. They felt gratuitous after a while. Especially because they had nothing to say about consent or SA or anything. That's another conversation this book just refuses to explore, and it's right there. Again, why would you establish something that touches on such an interesting theme and not explore it? Why wouldn't Annie wonder about consent when her programming changes so much? Especially near the end, when she's at a point where she has her own thoughts.
(4) When Annie finally leaves Doug, it's not because she outsmarted him or found a way to leave him. It's because Doug disables her tracker and basically gives her freedom because he thinks she'll stay put like a good little robot. It's not even that Annie manipulates him into it so she can be free. And then, she just leaves him. No revenge, no nothing. She could've reported him to someone or, at the very least, ruined his reputation by telling his ex-wife, telling the world, what we know to be his shameful secret: he has been fucking and abusing a robot that looks like a white-washed version of his ex-wife. No, she leaves him sleeping in his bed instead, and he's rich as fuck because of her, so he'll be perfectly fine. No consequences.
(5) Not only that, but when she leaves him, she goes back to the only other man she knows, the one she met when she tried to escape the first time (that was a much better attempt at letting this character have agency), a person she knows very little about. It's written like a happy ever after, where she found a new home and a purpose; helping other robots gain agency or whatever.
Like, is this a joke? Doug could easily find her like he did last time. He knows that's the only place she would go to cause it's the only other place she knows. Are we supposed to believe he won't do anything? The petty, small little man who likes to feel big by having power over a robot? MORE IMPORTANTLY, she's incredibly valuable to him. She made him millions and, right before she escapes, he breaks the news that he can make even more money from her. Again, are we supposed to believe he won't go and retrieve his extremely valuable property? She should've ridden into the sunset with the excitement of trying to figure out life on her own, WHICH IS WHAT SHE WANTED TO DO. She wanted to live. Why would you send her to be with another fucking man?
(6) Don't even get me started on the lack of worldbuilding. Categorizing this as "sci-fi" is crazy because the only sci-fi thing about it is the robots and we don't even learn much about them. We know they exist and the 4 or 5 different roles they can play, and we kind of know how they function (but even that has inconsistencies), but we know nothing about how they were created, how that kind of technology changed the world (it seems that not at all, btw, because when we do get a glimpse of the outside world, everything seems normal, not even a little futuristic), etc.
This was just so underwhelming. It lacked substance all around and it missed the mark on so many things that were right there. There's so much that could've and should've been said that it kinda pisses me off. This story not only wasted my time in the end, but it was also an unpleasant reading experience.