Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

Annie Bot by Sierra Greer

9 reviews

melissaslibraryy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

4.75

This book was so good and, everything I expected and more. The complexity of AI bots intermingling in society and how they are not that far off from humanity as one might’ve thought, is a scary feeling to realize especially with how far AI is progressing in real life.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Body shaming, Vomit, Sexual harassment, Confinement, Grief, Sexual violence, Fatphobia, Domestic abuse, Bullying, Gaslighting, Classism, Toxic friendship, Medical content, Abandonment, Misogyny, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Sexual content

gabs_parr's review

adventurous challenging dark 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

5.0

Annie is an autodidactic robot who was created to be the perfect girlfriend for Doug, her human owner. She’s always learning and getting smarter and more “human”. Doug initially loves that she’s not perfect and wants her to be like a real woman and to challenge him, but the smarter she gets, the more complicated their relationship grows. 

It’s kind of like Stepford Wives in the sense of perfect robot wives, but with more emphasis on power dynamics/control, autonomy, intimacy and what we actually want from relationships, romantic and platonic. This book is less a critique on the patriarchy, which was pretty much the main theme of SW, and instead it dives more into observations of what it means to be human and live the human experience. 

I’ve only just finished and I already know that I’m going to be thinking about this book for months to come. The relationships were just so dynamic and complex. Every character was various shades of morally gray depending on the scene we were in. No one was ever purely “good” or “evil”. There is no true good or bad guy. There are just complex emotions and relationships and deep rooted questions about autonomy, love, sex, and power. 

Annie’s inner relationship with herself is just as compelling as her relationship with Doug and both relationships will keep you guessing as to what her next move will be. I know I will certainly be thinking about her final choices for months to come (and Doug’s too, they both grew enormously and changed into almost unrecognizable characters by the end of this book). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, and Infidelity

Moderate: Body shaming, Fatphobia, and Misogyny

Minor: Sexual content, Vomit, Sexual harassment, Alcohol, and Death of parent

thatswhatshanread's review

challenging informative reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

It’s hard to describe how I feel about this novel. It was truly fascinating reading from the POV of a sentient, humanoid robot. It was absolutely maddening to read about said robot’s human owner, Doug, a trashcan of a man, but totally someone you know irl. Which is what made it so infuriating!! How men like Doug reduce women to serving their needs and desires. How women are all but taught (programmed, as it were) to please their male counterparts. It certainly sparked a lot of great contemplation, however theoretical, about ownership in the age of AI and increasing technological advances. I guess the point can be made that this book exists to possibly skew the path that the future holds for certain AI developments, but it may also exist to show how inevitable the future will be as it is in the book.

Was this story original? Yes. Was it empowering, hopeful feminist literature? Not really. While the ending did offer some payoff, a lot of the book frustrated me. Which, again, is maybe the point! So many thoughts about this book. Sierra Greer definitely debuted with an interesting one, that’s for sure. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Infidelity, Misogyny, Cursing, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Body shaming, Alcohol, Torture, Abandonment, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Physical abuse and Grief

kristenthemums's review

challenging dark emotional reflective fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse

Moderate: Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment

montyroz's review

adventurous dark 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence

s_shronda's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Toxic relationship

lizalovereads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

“He is the only star in their system, she realizes. he has no competition, no need to listen to Annie like she’s her own protagonist. Because she’s not. She has no outside separate life beyond his. They have no issue of imbalance between them because they have no question, ever, of who has complete power.”

I was really excited going into this book, but it left something to be desired. Though Greer tackled themes of ownership, humanity, emotional abuse, gender norms, casual racism, power dynamics, consent and agency, I don't feel that it added much to the conversation. I wanted it to be more bold. She did a good job with the character voice being believable as a robot, and with her development. But overall it became repetitive and the ending was lackluster. There were also some plot holes. The odd mix of literary and plot-based felt off kilter to me.

*also if unlikeable characters bother you then don’t read this because Doug is a grade A a-hole and that’s kinda the point!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Sexism, Sexual content, Confinement, Fatphobia, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Physical abuse, Abandonment, and Domestic abuse

emilienicolia's review against another edition

dark reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Confinement and Vomit

katbalts's review

reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

For how many books Annie Bot winds up reading, I really wish she had picked up gone girl or something. Like girl just kill him. 
Not what I wanted the story to be about, and lots of loose ends. Lots of “what ever happened with that” and “why wasn’t that pursued narratively” moments. Hard not to compare it to ex machina imo and ex machina does a lot of the themes in a more interesting way. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Body shaming, Confinement, Fatphobia, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Sexism, Domestic abuse, and Gaslighting