There was a lot to unpack with this story, and I’m still trying to figure out how I felt about it. The premise was very interesting, very unconventional. We see Cookie evolve from a mindless housewife to an intelligent heroine ready to right the world’s wrongs. I can’t describe much more than that for fear of spoilers. In the vaguest terms possible, I didn’t really like the ending. I didn’t think it resolved all of the problems, and I thought Maggie from the beginning was more complex than she seemed at the end.
A fun but thought provoking read. Four stars.

Alpha Bots is a take on The Stepford Wives with a robot-powered feminist uprising front and center. It’s fast-paced, funny, satirical, and absurd, with some campy horror thrown in (some parts are downright gruesome). Other readers have said this is Stepford Wives meets Fight Club meets Truman Show, and I think that’s pretty spot-on. These AI women represent the desires of bottom-of-the-barrel cishet men, from expectations of submissiveness to racial fetishism, but will they be able to push beyond their programming?

The satire gets dark, and this is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. It’s not for the faint of heart, for sure. I feel like Alpha Bots caught me when I was in just the right mood for it. I’m not sure I completely followed the plot, but it was an entertaining ride!

Note: There are a LOT of trigger warnings. You can find a chapter-by-chapter list in the paperback version’s “Look Inside” preview on Amazon.

This book was amazing had me thinking of Stepford wives and even a newer program humans very similar.
Loved reading this book think it may be the start of a series chapter 1 of new book was at the end but no spoilers here. If you watched humans when it was on tv and watched the stepford wives movies (original and newer version) then you will love this book.

This book simply wasn't for me. The plot was hard to follow, it was difficult to connect with any of the characters and I could never tell if this was meant to be satire or not. I think the author had some good ideas, but this wasn't the book I thought I was picking up.

I don’t really know how to feel about this book. The characters were interesting and it was paced pretty well, but at the same time I felt like it was a little long and could have been edited better. There was something that just felt missing with this book for me, and I’m not sure what that is.

**Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-arc in exchange for an honest review**

Boy did this read go into the uncanny valley for me fast. I'm currently studying a masters and my research topic has been along the lines of inauthenticity, the uncanny and the rise of AI, in particular focusing on sex robots, so Alpha Bots, really hit home in that regard. I would greatly recommend this book t those who love sci-fi books or films, it's very dystopian, and the best description would be if the realm of Bladerunner was combined with an episode of Black Mirror, you'd end up with this book, perhaps it's due to the global pandemic but if sci-fi satire has ironically become more of a please humanity don't go down this path. Especially given since the pandemic the purchase of sex dolls and sex robots has been on the rise!

*I received an ARC of this book from Net Galley in exchange from an honest review.*

Thanks to them and Ava Lock for allowing me to read this.

3.7 stars.

A dystopian world in which all females are bots and males but one are human. A depiction of submissiveness of women, how outrageous seemed to the 'perfect housewife' that there were others living differently, The Truman Show delusion and Stockholm Syndrome greatly intertwined.

Ava's style is quite easy to read but not too simplistic. It consists mainly on conversations, which speeds you up and gives you a constant sense of movement in time.

The rating given is because days after having finished it, I still have no idea how I feel. I loved the general story and the fact that it defends equality and diversity. However, at times I felt like reading scenes from any Tarantino film or The Fight Club, mainly. Certain ideas felt forced, as if introduced just because the writer wanted to mention them without previous or later connections.

One of the scenes was Tarantino style, but with badly harmed animals as explicitly pictured in words, which I personally find disturbing.

There are TW for abuse, explicit sexual language, animal harm, and explicit violence.

Mostly, I found this book quite entertaining, reflecting and enjoyable.

I would certainly recommend it if you like things like Transpoitting, Quentin Tarantino, The Fight Club, dystopian, sci-fi and a creative author.

Alpha Bots is one of those books that you'll probably either adore or be a bit puzzled by. I had the latter reaction - there's a lot going on in this story of humanoid female androids, their husbands, friendships, and controllers. Cookie is a fembot straight out of the Stepford Wives, but gets a chance at freedom. It all gets quite weird from then on, and you're never sure what's real or what's coming from an unreliable narrator. It felt disjointed as a result. The dialogue is entertaining and you do come to care for the women and their longing for something more out of life.

I was given a copy of the book to review by Net Galley. I have no conflicts of interest.

This one wasn't for me - which is a shame because the writing was really good. I picked this up as it was tagged as LGBTQ but the content is minimal. This isn't the kind of thing I would normally read, but I think if you're into AI and The Stepford Wives you'd really enjoy this book (disclaimer - I've never seen the movie).

I appreciated the storyline - I just didn't enjoy it per se. The strong womanoid characters are fascinating, as are is the story. It is quite dark, there's lots of trauma in various different ways, both emotionally and physically, but a lot of it is natural byproduct of the storyline.

Unfortunately for me the book is just a little bit too long - I felt like there were a number of filler scenes that weren't strictly necessary to move the story along - though again, this may just be because this isn't my kind of book and you might not notice if you're really into it.

All in all, if you normally read books along these lines I would recommend you read this one.

This reading was interesting, and very funny. I admit that it was very original, I really like being with Cookie in her journey.
I admit that while reading, I was impatient to know more about what Cookie was going to do next.
I aslo loved, how she became her own person and not the bots who was owned.

I'm more a fan of M/F books, and I had hard time from time to time with the LGBTQIA part !! I'm sure some people will definitely be into it and will love it, it's just not my thing !!

Very enjoyable with humor and mystery and fun characters. This is a good story wrapped in an interesting take on AI. Scifi fans will likely enjoy this one.

I really appreciate the review copy!!