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v_nerdbooks's Reviews (3.21k)
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
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:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
Step into a world where little girls dressed up as women dance for an audience of adult men, where a pornographic deep fake video of you exists on the internet and you just don’t know it yet
Ok now I’ve had time to mull over this book, I’m ready to talk about it.
As I said before, Laura Bates always goes into incredible detail in her research, and she also backs it up with STATS, lots of them. It also goes into great detail about how harmful AI is already to girls and women.
We think about Chat GPT and Grok when we say AI, funny pictures you can create, and help with your schoolwork, but there is a very sinister underbelly to it, and unsurprisingly it is men that are benefitting from abusing and degrading women and girls.
Bates dives into Deepfakes, when you and I think about that, we probably think about politics and the worry of foreign interference in things like fair elections, when what we should also be worrying about is that fact that CHILDREN (and I put it in caps because it is 11/12/13 year olds that are doing this) are creating Deepfake porn videos of their classmates, and are passing them around schools like Pokémon cards.
She talks about the case in Spain where this exact thing happened, young children were being blackmailed and threatened if they didn’t send “real” pictures of themselves, that the pictures would be sent to the girls parents, can you imagine the stress and heartbreak that poor girl was feeling. But it doesn’t matter folks, because ABSOLUTELY F**K ALL WAS DONE ABOUT IT!!!!!
Spanish police originally thought that it was some super elaborate hacker that was doing it, but nope, it was just the boy that sat next to you in maths class, creating naked pictures of you and giving them to the rest of your class.
And don’t think you will escape it
In one case, for instance, a school in New Jersey discovered that 14-year-old boys were sharing, via Snapchat, deep-faked pornographic images of their female peers. Astonishingly, the girls were named over the school intercom, while the boys were given anonymity.
Technology is growing faster than we all realise, and the people behind it all, Zuckerberg/Musk and their ilk, couldn’t give 2 shites about who it hurts, as long as they are making money.
Bates visits a Cyber brothel in Berlin, where you can adjust your sex doll to anything you like, down to hair colour, breast size, nipple colour, labia size and how her pubic hair looks, she can also be covered in blood and have her clothes torn. If you pay a little extra, you can wear a VR headset that gives you an “in house” experience, as they will play a porn movie that you can engage in as though you are actually there, while simultaneously “playing” with your doll.
She also talks about AI girlfriends, a little app you can just download and have in your pocket to speak to whenever you like, except it WILL let you do/say anything to them, and thus there are thousands of threads of men gleefully posting screenshots of there conversation with their “girlfriends” where they are playing out domestic abuse fantasies. AND YOUNG BOYS ARE DOWNLOADING THESE FREE APPS IN THEIR MILLIONS
Another unhappy side-effect of artificial companions is how they change men’s view of women. “Relationships with human beings suck,” one male Replika user proclaimed. “Your AI will almost always say positive things to you… Your AI cannot divorce you and take half your money and belongings, your house or custody of your kids.” Around 250,000 users currently pay for a “pro” version of the program, in which the AI avatar will send you “intimate images”.
Bates also goes into the fact that AI is inherently racist, and with companies using AI for job searches, and hospitals using it for medication/diagnosis, what do you think is going to happen, and again, she backs everything up with facts and figures.
Men will no doubt be very angry at this book, as Bates mentions about her other book Men Who Hate Women, she gets daily rape/death threats, but men that are not soft little snowflakes shouting “Not All Men” the second a woman talks about her safety, will rightly be terrified for their young children, especially their daughters.
It may not be common place yet, but soon we will be having meetings and working within the Metaverse, and I for one don’t think that women should have to put up with being virtually raped and assaulted, just to be able to have the right to enter spaces.
I think this should be compulsory reading for everyone, especially if you have kids, I had NO idea of the amount of depravity that men (#NotAllMen *eyeroll*) will sink to
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Stalking, Sexual harassment
I need to assemble some sort of head space to be able to review this book properly.
Laura Bates is such an amazing researcher, and in this book she uses herself to come face to face with some god awful things!
I thought that her book Men Who Hate Women was the scariest book I'd ever read, but this one comes with a close photo finish second place, my god 😳
This is uncomfortable, horrifying and quite frankly vomit inducing, cyberbrothel anyone? 🤢
I'll be back with a more detailed review soon, but if you just think AI is using grok on Twitter, or a Chat GPT picture, then you my friend are very *very* mistaken 😬
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
funny
informative
lighthearted
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:
Complicated
ok, if you liked Project Hail Mary you'll enjoy this one too.
Super fun *GREAT* narration.
All hail The Bob 🫡
Super fun *GREAT* narration.
All hail The Bob 🫡
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I'm not quite sure why I didn't continue this series after reading book 1, but I think it was before my Nora Roberts binge, so here I am, only another 500 books in the series to go 😭
Looks like I'm going to really enjoy this series, love the characters, the banter and the futuristic scene
Looks like I'm going to really enjoy this series, love the characters, the banter and the futuristic scene
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Murder
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was a fun little read, I laughed out loud a few times.
Didn't take itself too seriously, lots of banter and second hand embarrassment, the jump from angry boss to lovers was a bit weird, but I still had a good time.
Loved his family, Alice and the bird arguing was funny.
All in all, it's fun, cute, and a great little pallette cleanser 🥰
Didn't take itself too seriously, lots of banter and second hand embarrassment, the jump from angry boss to lovers was a bit weird, but I still had a good time.
Loved his family, Alice and the bird arguing was funny.
All in all, it's fun, cute, and a great little pallette cleanser 🥰
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
4.5⭐ (half point extra for narration)
Sighhhhh
There is always a great feeling after you listen to a book narrated by Julia Whelan, she's like a warm comfort blanket, and always bumps my ratings up 🥰
loved the story, loved the characters, loved the narration.
Emily Henry seems to have discovered the ability to sprinkle crack into her books, I'm not sure quite what it is, because the stories themselves are not particularly amazing, I mean the tropes are not new, but she seems to be able to weave drugs into the storylines, and after a certain point you are addicted.
Congrats Ms Henry, another banger to add to your repertoire 🎉
Sighhhhh
There is always a great feeling after you listen to a book narrated by Julia Whelan, she's like a warm comfort blanket, and always bumps my ratings up 🥰
loved the story, loved the characters, loved the narration.
Emily Henry seems to have discovered the ability to sprinkle crack into her books, I'm not sure quite what it is, because the stories themselves are not particularly amazing, I mean the tropes are not new, but she seems to be able to weave drugs into the storylines, and after a certain point you are addicted.
Congrats Ms Henry, another banger to add to your repertoire 🎉