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A review by bonhoefferfan
Annie Bot by Sierra Greer
1.0
Basically just pasting in here my ranting thoughts from elsewhere, and I rarely review books I didn't like, but this one just.. it hit me because it felt like there was so much promise with so much of it that we didn't get paid off in any way.
Someone described the book as "what if incels plus AI tradwifes" and that feels about right as a description. Yet somehow it gets even worse than that because not only is there no nuanced commentary but there's no payoff for the many points that were included.
First, the ending. Like, sure, she gets away, kinda? But Doug is the biggest POS I've read in such a long time. He's the worst. And on every level it was just worse and worse. Like, gaslighting tf out of her, treating her like an object, complaining when she says things back to him that he did (eg: when she says he got her new lingerie and something else and he's like you make me sound like a crappy person or something and it's like yeah, because you're a huge POS. If someone says back to you what you did without actually getting any of it wrong with intent or details and you're like "that sounds pretty crappy" then it very may well be because you're a piece of st!). And it just goes on... and on... and he's such a massive slimeball.
So why did the ending piss me off most? Well, because it reads like the author, Sierra Greer, tried to walk the line between delivering a happy ending with delivering Doug a come uppance vs. a meaningful/deep/sad ending or whatever you want to call it and it just didn't work. Like, the last 30-50 pages I had some expectations built in about what the FK happened to Delta, what's going on with these stupid programming things that kept getting hinted at, etc. and NONE of it got delivered as it felt like was promised earlier. None of it. Instead we got this kind of saccharine, almost happy ending that doesn't deliver on ANYTHING set up earlier in the book whatsoever. And I feel like as engrossing as this was, it had to stick the ending, and it flopped massively at the end imo.
It really felt like the author was setting up for a commentary on domestic abuse and how no one sees it. Everyone kept commenting how Doug took such good care of Annie but he was a total DICK to her all the time and so we as readers know that was all BS and then none of the premise gets delivered. Everyone basically just thinks Doug is this great guy except for maybe the therapist and while yes, that's how real life goes sometimes, it's also not at all satisfying especially with the ending we get because again, it tries to tie together a way to give Doug a come-uppance finally by having Annie escape or whatever but also doesn't actually have any of the emotional power that that escape feels like it should have if that's all we as readers get (as opposed to Doug getting exposed as a total creep).
Where's the payoff for the MANY times we heard about programming, dreaming, etc. as being issues? Where's the payoff for what the company that made the Stellas or whatever were trying to do? Where's the payoff for her seeing the other model early in the story who'd been switched in modes a bunch and just looked confused? Where's the payoff for like... ANY of the tech-related hints we got throughout. I thought we might even get some cliched robot revolution or something, anything, other than what we got, which felt like a big pile of NOTHING.
Okay, I don't know what else to say about it. It clearly hit me and felt un-put-down-able at points. I wanted to know what would happen to Annie. But we didn't get a satisfying resolution for soooo many points and I just am left wondering what the point of any of it even was.
Someone described the book as "what if incels plus AI tradwifes" and that feels about right as a description. Yet somehow it gets even worse than that because not only is there no nuanced commentary but there's no payoff for the many points that were included.
First, the ending. Like, sure, she gets away, kinda? But Doug is the biggest POS I've read in such a long time. He's the worst. And on every level it was just worse and worse. Like, gaslighting tf out of her, treating her like an object, complaining when she says things back to him that he did (eg: when she says he got her new lingerie and something else and he's like you make me sound like a crappy person or something and it's like yeah, because you're a huge POS. If someone says back to you what you did without actually getting any of it wrong with intent or details and you're like "that sounds pretty crappy" then it very may well be because you're a piece of st!). And it just goes on... and on... and he's such a massive slimeball.
So why did the ending piss me off most? Well, because it reads like the author, Sierra Greer, tried to walk the line between delivering a happy ending with delivering Doug a come uppance vs. a meaningful/deep/sad ending or whatever you want to call it and it just didn't work. Like, the last 30-50 pages I had some expectations built in about what the FK happened to Delta, what's going on with these stupid programming things that kept getting hinted at, etc. and NONE of it got delivered as it felt like was promised earlier. None of it. Instead we got this kind of saccharine, almost happy ending that doesn't deliver on ANYTHING set up earlier in the book whatsoever. And I feel like as engrossing as this was, it had to stick the ending, and it flopped massively at the end imo.
It really felt like the author was setting up for a commentary on domestic abuse and how no one sees it. Everyone kept commenting how Doug took such good care of Annie but he was a total DICK to her all the time and so we as readers know that was all BS and then none of the premise gets delivered. Everyone basically just thinks Doug is this great guy except for maybe the therapist and while yes, that's how real life goes sometimes, it's also not at all satisfying especially with the ending we get because again, it tries to tie together a way to give Doug a come-uppance finally by having Annie escape or whatever but also doesn't actually have any of the emotional power that that escape feels like it should have if that's all we as readers get (as opposed to Doug getting exposed as a total creep).
Where's the payoff for the MANY times we heard about programming, dreaming, etc. as being issues? Where's the payoff for what the company that made the Stellas or whatever were trying to do? Where's the payoff for her seeing the other model early in the story who'd been switched in modes a bunch and just looked confused? Where's the payoff for like... ANY of the tech-related hints we got throughout. I thought we might even get some cliched robot revolution or something, anything, other than what we got, which felt like a big pile of NOTHING.
Okay, I don't know what else to say about it. It clearly hit me and felt un-put-down-able at points. I wanted to know what would happen to Annie. But we didn't get a satisfying resolution for soooo many points and I just am left wondering what the point of any of it even was.