Book Review - Annie Bot by Sierra Greer

Title: Annie Bot
Author: Sierra Greer
Genre: Science Fiction
Published: 2024
 
Description: Annie Bot was created to be the perfect girlfriend for her human owner, Doug. Designed to satisfy his emotional and physical needs, she has dinner ready for him every night, wears the cute outfits he orders for her, and adjusts her libido to suit his moods. True, she;s not the greatest at keeping Doug’s place spotless, but she’s trying to please him. She’s trying so hard.
 
She’s learning too.
 
Doug says he loves that Annie’s artificial intelligence makes her seem more like a real woman, but the more human Annie becomes the less perfectly she behaves. As Annie’s relationship with Doug grows more intricate and difficult, she starts to wonder whether Doug truly desires what he says he does. In such an impossible paradox, what does Annie owe herself?
 
Review: This is the story of Annie, who is a cuddle bunny, which is a sort of sex robot called Stella. Really advanced android robots, that look exactly like a human being. You can’t tell the difference. They have three modes: nanny mode, maid mode and cuddle bunny mode. And also two settings: a regular mode, where they are basically robotic versions of a human who follow up the orders of their owner, or autodidactic mode to allow them to learn to be more like a human but still withing the restrictions of their owner. Annie is now an autodidactic cuddle bunny.
 
We learn from the start that Annie is servicing her owner Doug sexually every day and also learn that she was based on his ex-wife. While Doug was separated from her (not even divorced), he commissioned this Stella to look like his ex. Almost identical, because the company who makes these Stellas, don’t allow for people to recreate an actual person. So Doug made some changes. His wife was a black woman, Annie’s skin is lighter. And also lightened her eyes. But aside from that, she looks like his ex-wife. He turned his ex-wife into a whitewashed sex robot, essentially. And at this point, I was already alarmed.
 
Annie feels very human at the start of the book, even though you know she is not. She is programmed a certain way of course, but still acts like a human being within her programming. So much so, that people around her don’t realize she is a Stella. Because of this, there is not a lot of room for her to grow and at the end of the book, Annie doesn’t feel all that different.
 
Doug is the absolute worst, he is a terrible person throughout the entire book. And I simply don’t understand that people around him think he is a good man. And Annie, who does develop a sense of emotion throughout the story, seems to feel that too. I know she is programmed to please him, to serve him. But there is a moment in the book where she wants to get away from him. But after that, Annie still believes he loves her and that he is a good man. HOW? Doug is abusive, treats Annie like a slave, he gaslights her. An awful human. None of his behavior is okay. Even when talking about his relationship with his ex-wife, he didn’t seem to act very different from how he is now treating Annie.
 
I found it really hard to read about several of the abusive scenes in the book. Doug verbally and emotionally abuses Annie. And there was one particular scene, where he locks Annie up while turning her libido up to a maximum of 10. And Doug is constantly playing the victim, telling Annie how she hurt him. That was horrible to read.
 
I also hated the ending, which was meant to feel empowering and feminist, but turned out to be the exact opposite in my opinion.
 
I felt like this was the type of sci-fi book I would like, the premise sounded right up my alley. But I really hated it.  
 
Rating: 2/ 5