Reviews tagging 'Transphobia'

Annie Bot by Sierra Greer

5 reviews

hotwaterbottle's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-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

4.0

Uncomfortable but clear-eyed look at power, ownership, and sex, through the eyes of a newly self-aware sex bot. Interrogates what it means to want to own someone just as much as what it means to be owned.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Slavery, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Fatphobia and Racism

Minor: Transphobia

Plenty of awful things told from the perspective of someone who doesn't understand how awful they are

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

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

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

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

hazel_oat's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Confinement, Sexual violence, and Sexual content

Moderate: Misogyny, Gaslighting, and Body shaming

Minor: Transphobia

swell_gal's review against another edition

dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

2.5

I love the concept of this book. I think the story was interesting.

The themes of grappling with abuse were very well written. My main issue came from Annie as a robot powered by a highly evolved AI-driven program. She just read as so human. I know this is supposed to be where most of the ethical dilemma comes from, but I wish we were given more indications that she’s a robot, even if that’s just at the beginning and fades as she gains more humanity. For example, she scans Doug and can gauge his displeasure on a scale of 1-5. She can set her libido anywhere from 1-10, but there are no other metrics that she uses to evaluate situations (other than one scene at the beginning where she is able to log the messes around the house, including the exact number of crumbs on the counter). These kinds of features were very interesting to hear about, but it would have been interesting if she could gauge pupil dilation, heart rate, sweat, etc to understand human emotion on a purely analytical level. 

This leads me to my second qualm with the book. We hear about how Annie was switched into Autodidact mode, but I with we could have experienced that switch with Annie. Maybe when she first became autodidact she was using additional sensors to place Doug’s exact mood and adapt accordingly, but as she gained humanity these sensors became less sensitive and she had to start using her understanding of him to place his moods?

The last piece of this book that I struggled with was the dropped storylines. Annie felt jealous of Delta when Doug first got her, but she never mentions that to the therapist? The only time that Doug “cheats” on Annie is when Tina comes over at the very end? What about the entire Delta storyline? What was the deal with the young man who found Annie in the park? Was he a Zenith? The whole “learning to code” storyline was dropped only to be offered a sentence at the very end? Annie needed such frequent maintenance visits at the beginning of the book and at the end she hadn’t gone for multiple months and runs away without another visit planned?

I did not dislike this book as much as this review makes it sound. But I just felt like the Robot/human angle could have been so much more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Vomit, Panic attacks/disorders, and Body shaming

Minor: Alcohol and Transphobia

kate_reads_stuff's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

I wanted to punch almost every male character in this book…which is kind of the point. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault

Minor: Transphobia