Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

Annie Bot by Sierra Greer

107 reviews

kenzzisaurus's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense fast-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 makes you uncomfortable in the best ways. The world is very easy to imagine being real and it’s easy to understand the frustration and growth of Annie and how Doug and her life changes because of this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Sexual content, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Body shaming

cturn's review against another edition

emotional reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

Characters - 6
Atmosphere - 7
Writing - 7
Plot - 8
Intrigue - 9
Logic - 6
Enjoyment - 7
CAWPILE score - 7.1

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Sexual content and Alcohol

Minor: Death and Death of parent

vaekay's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Torture, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Confinement, Alcohol, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Cursing, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, and Abandonment

Moderate: Body shaming, Suicidal thoughts, Cancer, and Terminal illness

Minor: Pregnancy, Death, Death of parent, and Transphobia

gabs_parr's review against another edition

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

mamawantsbooks's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-paced

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

I’m not sure what the goal of this book was but I felt gaslit by the last bit and 100% unsure what I was supposed to feel. It’s like Barbie meets AI sex dolls and that in itself sounds more interesting than the actual book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Misogyny, Gaslighting, Sexism, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Body shaming, Confinement, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

tfarfan's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

znvisser's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

4.25

 “She needs the chance to make mistakes and learn. Kind of like a kid.”
“She doesn’t look like a kid,” Roland says. Doug laughs. “Well, no. I’m not a perv.” 

Audience, Doug is, in fact, a perv. And an ass, because well, you have to be one to one to ‘own’ an AI woman and order her around. He gets annoyed at Annie for things that are either quite human or typically AI, so she can never win. 

This book positively surprised me! I was intrigued by this before the release but left it in the store because it looked really dialogue-heavy. My interest was reignited however, and I can’t deny it’s dialogue that pushes a lot of this story forward. But it surprisingly worked. It kept the pace up, and along with that, big events happened relatively early which kept me guessing for any further plot developments. 

Annie came alive to me and I experienced this abusive relationship along with her, rejoicing when Doug had better moods; because even if I didn’t see a way out for her either, at the very least it would mean she would be less miserable for a bit. Her emotional journey is what made this story so interesting. It begs the same question Westworld did in its earlier days: once technology reflects and experiences emotions, what really stops us from considering them human?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, and Domestic abuse

adhesivedolphin's review against another edition

emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I loved this book! Annie was immediately such an interesting and powerful lead. This book is full of trigger warnings for DV and connected issues of consent. It really explores the concept of abusive relationships in a setting where Annie literally has to obey him. It's an amazing expression of how sci-fi can be used to tell stories about life today. Beware the TW and stay safe!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, and Slavery

Moderate: Abandonment, Body shaming, Classism, Confinement, and Panic attacks/disorders

thatswhatshanread's review against another edition

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

rbz39's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.25

Sometimes you just read a book that messes you up for fun!
Horrifying but also fascinating and liberating. A fast-paced ride about free will and the relationship between androids and humans (which I hope doesn’t happen in my lifetime because good god this was traumatizing). The conversation about robots was exactly the kinda stuff I find interesting and I thought the end was very cathartic after the stress I went through reading. Annie is a magnetic narrator with a unique point of view and style. Really enjoyed this (although enjoy feels wrong given the content) and I can’t wait to see what the author does next. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Domestic abuse, and Sexual content

Moderate: Gaslighting, Body shaming, and Confinement

Minor: Death of parent