Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Annie Bot by Sierra Greer

4 reviews

m_a_j's review

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? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Body shaming, Misogyny, and Infidelity

Minor: Grief, Cancer, Death of parent, Child death, and Vomit

vigil's review

3.75

I think this book is really thoughtfully written, and I will definitely be reading more from this author. one of my favorite themes is intimacy, power / control and i think the thesis of this book is asking if it's possible to be truly intimate with someone who has control over you. definitely more of a literary than a sci-fi novel, so i would approach it with that in mind. what you get in the blurb is all the scifi there is. i think enjoyment of the novel really hinges upon keeping that in mind. don't expect in depth details about robotic programming, because that's not what the book is about.  

this is such and uncomfortable read, and i wished death on doug every single page i'd say. he completely sucks in a very real almost banal way, and the constant refrain of

how good a boyfriend / owner he was (used interchangeably.) paralleled how that is often said of abusive men irl.

i'm not giving it 5 stars because of the improper pacing of the novel, especially in regards to the ending. i enjoyed it on a technicality, because i do think it rings as emotionally resonant for annie and the novel, but it happens far too quickly.

i did immediately notice the dynamic with cody, and how it immediately contrasts with doug, but they needed more page time to make her going to him at the end to feel believable. i can definitely see that as an ending, but the last they spoke he didn't recognize her as a human or a friend. and if she wanted to lean into that or not, either way it needed more work.

all together, i think this book needed arounf 50-75 more pages to round it out a bit more.

and poor delta :( it was an effective narrative choice, but it's still depressing.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Body shaming, Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

Minor: Cancer, Child death, Death, and Death of parent

toofondofbooks_'s review

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.5

This was a short one but it felt like it held a lot of weight. Not that it was terribly emotional in nature, but it felt emotional for me. Everything about the dynamic between Annie and her owner / "boyfriend" Doug made me feel really ill and I suppose that was the point. I also think you were supposed to empathize with him at points, but I really didn't. The feelings I felt just made my chest ache and I think that's the mark of excellent storytelling.

I also just really enjoyed that this was accessible sci-fi. the world is not overly complicated, and in fact very similar to our current world, but with human like robots you can buy if you're ridiculously rich. it wasn't hard to buy or to follow and I appreciated that a lot because a lot of what makes me not a sci-fi person is that I feel it can feel inaccessible to me as a genre.

The only thing missing for me is that it felt like there was a lot of time skips in the book and telling me what went on during the time period instead of showing me and I generally don't love when authors tell me things instead of showing me them. All in all though, great read.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Vomit, Slavery, Trafficking, Infidelity, Body shaming, Sexual content, Gaslighting, Fatphobia, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, and Rape

Moderate: Cancer and Death

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Child death, and Death of parent

katebrownreads's review against another edition

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, and Confinement

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Cancer and Child death