This literary sci-fi was pretty interesting. I loved Annie’s character, who is an AI robot whose purpose is to satisfy her owner, Doug, in ALL ways.

Annie’s AI has advanced enough to be able to have emotions such as anxiety and desire and jealousy which makes her seem more human, but also more imperfect much to Doug’s dismay.

I enjoyed the writing and the world building in this book with the scientific advancements with these bots, AI friends, and more. I rooted for Annie the entire time and was happy to see her become more of herself as the story went on.

Overall the story was pretty mild and not terribly exciting. Also Doug is an awful person. There’s a lot of triggering things that take place including but not limited to SA, gaslighting, manipulation, and emotional abuse.

If you like well written, character driven literary novels with a sci-fi twist then this is the book for you.

Thank you NetGalley for my ALC of Annie Bot!

This book is about a realistic female AI robot (Annie) and her owner (Doug) and the intimate relationship they have. This is due to Annie Bot being on Autodidactic mode, which allows her to behave as a human as well as learn how to become more human-like with time. Her sole focus is to ensure she doesn’t cause Doug displeasure, and will do anything in her power to ensure he is satisfied.

I absolutely loved the cover!

I thought the narrator did a great job for the audiobook!

I thought the most interesting bit in the story was the beginning with Doug’s friend Roland, I enjoyed the social complexities and the internal conflict that came from that!

I had high hopes for this novel and coming out of the audiobook, I have to be honest - I was left feeling underwhelmed.

I felt the story lacked an overall clear direction, it was a lot of the same stuff being repeated so I was missing the complexity, the build up in the storyline. It had a lot of reiteration in regards to Annie’s actions and inner conflicts, it felt like the story was repeating within itself - I understand that is probably how Annie feels in being owned by Doug but it could’ve been written in a way that made it still feel fresh to the reader. It was a lot of her warming up and having sex with Doug.

The section of the book with Annie and Delta could’ve been explored more, their relationship together with Doug. The scene of the two of them together and the events that followed that didn’t feel complete. It would’ve been nice to have more of Delta, learn more about Doug and why he is the way he is, have Annie take more risks, explore Gwen character, Annie interacting more with others, expand on the Annie derived bots etc, just something to keep momentum going - I came out of it wanting more substance. I found the ending anticlimactic.

I enjoyed the audiobook format for the book!

Thank you Harper Audio & NetGalley for the ALC!

Narrator was fantastic. The first half of the book was a solid 4 stars. The second half really lagged. I was getting super annoyed with how slow it was going, but then the end happened. And while it was a twist it felt anticlimactic? Maybe I just need more time to process.

Oh my oh my oh my! This book!! Ex Machina meets Her. This is a book to make you uncomfortable and open your eyes to the world of AI and a possible future. It’s meant to make you uncomfortable and to be thought provoking. I couldn’t put it down!

I was fortunate to receive the audiobook and the way it was narrated was too perfection. The way she narrated her “inner thoughts” throughout the book kept me on the hook.

Each character is so well developed you’ll hate and love them. Annie is so humanized it’s scary. The way she thinks is so well put into words and she’ll make you stop and think. A MUST READ.

Huge thank you NetGalley and Harper Audio for the ALC in exchange for review.

First of all, thank you to Netgalley and Mariner Books for allowing me to read the audiobook ARC of Annie Bot. Annie Bot follows Annie who is a robot. She lives with her owner, Doug, and is wired to please him in every way possible. All of her emotions and actions are fine tuned to whether or not it will bring him pleasure. Annie is more advanced than other companion robots. She feels human emotions and starts to have thoughts of her own. She can rationalize and even starts to make her own decisions aside from what Doug wants.

I unexpectedly loved this book! I know that probably sounds crazy, but I fully expected a fever dream-esque book and this was full of emotion and girl power. The ending was the best! I loved it so much! I was so happy that Annie made decisions for herself and parted ways with douchebag Doug.

I think the only complaint I had about this book was that I wish we had seen more of her own decision making. It felt like a long build up to it and then we only got to see a small glimpse. I wish we had seen a little more.

This book is a feminist sucker punch to the patriarchy and I can't recommend it more!

4.5/5

Excellent audio narrator .

This book is hard to review because it’s one of those books that just left me feeling some kind of way.

It infuriated me, I was appalled by the way Annie Bot, a snuggle bunny AI girlfriend, was treated by her owner and society. Yes, she’s a robot but she is adaptive and learns to in a sense feel things much like a real human. Being a real human is what Annie Bot desires most.

It gave off Margaret Atwood vibes. If you like Handmaid’s Tale and other dystopian books, including books that address compromised female rights & freedoms, then I bet you’ll enjoy this one.

I’m glad I read it. It was definitely a solid read, but please check trigger warnings before diving into this one. They were so many instances of abuse. The author did an incredible job of making me feel a great sense of unease, aggravation and a call to action as if I were an AI myself being abused. You really feel 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 with Annie, her pain oozes off the pages.

Annie is tired of feeling less than…because now she really 𝙁𝙀𝙀𝙇𝙎, she understands that her situation isn’t right and it’s not fair but what can someone like her do about it???

The protagonist of this story is a self-learning bot in a long-term relationship. As she learns she begins to question her role in her life and society at large, and what autonomy she would like to have over her own life. This is a thought-provoking and timely adventure story as well as exploration of how our society treats women

So, this book was really interesting and extremely unsettling in parts. The dynamic between Annie and her owner mirrors the toxicity of abusive relationships, and it was unsettling reading about Annie's experience as an object. She is objectified, taken advantage of, and abused by the male humans in her life, and its uncomfortable reading about these experiences because of how realistic the circumstances are. There is so much humanity in Annie's character that I forgot halfway through this was about a robot, and it made me think a lot about the human experience, abusive relationships, the isolation of being a woman in a mans world.

I really didn't like this book at first, because of all the different themes I've mentioned above. But I think the concepts and lessons learned in this book are really important! This could bring out some great discussion!

Thank you, Netgalley, for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Annie Bot explores a setting that is often suggested to be reality in a future not far from ours in discourse on technological development and AI. I especially enjoyed how the author delves into power dynamics, human emotions, interhuman relationships, and autonomy, which made for interesting underlaying narratives, especially in connection to robots. 

During the first half, the narrative was a little all over the place! It was so quick-paced that by half of the book, I kind of kept asking myself what even could happen now to keep the plot progressing. But it did, and the second half was a lot better structured, in my opinion! It was so satisfying to watch the ending being very subtly set up and constructed and to see Annie's development, especially in the last 40% of the book.

Annie Bot by SIerra Greer is a fast-paced and compelling sci-fi cautionary tale. Annie is a Stella, a very human-like robot designed to be a life-like companion. As she is an "auto-didactic" model, she is constantly learning how to be a better partner to her owner, Doug. Annie is starting to feel some unsettling things-- like jealousy when Doug brings home another Stella to do their house cleaning. She also realizes that no matter how hard she is trying, she is often confused by what Doug wants and why he is not totally content with her.

This is an page-turner with a unique narrator. Annie is a robot who is complex and who is seeing first-hand what it is like being a woman and an object. There is a lot of commentary on society and where we are going with AI and also our regular old inter-personal relationships.

Highly recommend for fans of West World or The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa. Loved this one and can't wait to see what Greer does next!

This book had me feeling so many emotions!!! A robot named Annie is owned by her human, Doug. Doug specialized her to look almost exactly like his ex-wife. Annie is turning out to be a revelation of robot/AI girlfriends (snuggle bunnies) because she is starting to develop complex human emotions. One night, she runs away from Doug taking the other robot with her who cleans for them. She wants to find a developer so he can disable her GPS so Doug won't be able to locate her after he locked her in a closet for a long time. While reading this, I came to see Annie as more than a robot. She had emotions, she was feeling the way humans would in these situations. Doug gave off some serious red flags, probably due to his ex-wife. He has anger issues and doesn't treat Annie well...even if she is only AI. It is easy to not like Doug and see through his insecurities. You will be rooting for Annie to put Doug in his place and develop her increasing skills and interests. While I have seen fictional works depicting the negative possibilities of robots included in society, this book gives a different spin.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this! I listened via audiobook.
This book is about an AI made for the pleasure of a man. He’s a jerk, and constantly gaslighting/verbally abusing Annie. Annie is a sweet, complex, and incredible character. This book really allowed us to dive into her thoughts. I don’t think I’ve ever read anything like this before, and to be honest it was a little bit hard for me to get through. The plot was exhausting and her constantly trying to live up to his expectations was draining. This book is heavily focused on physical intimacy. The ending felt rushed.
I think that Sierra Greer did an awesome job writing Annie, and I’d recommend this book if you enjoy science fiction/AI.

Read this if you like:
•black mirror on Netflix
•technology / AI
•dystopian books

This book was so intriguing from the get go. With more and more AI being a thing in the real world, this is something that could happen in the not so distant future. It was interesting to see Annie adapt to emotions. Doug was a flawed character but he seemed real.

Thank you Harper audio for ALC

This ARC was gifted to me by MacMillan Audio, and I sincerely appreciate that, but I am still going to be honest in my review. I will include spoilers at the end to discuss some of the pros and cons, but for now here is an overview:

I requested the arc because I liked the premise: a robot designed to be the perfect girlfriend, given autodidactic capabilities, and then met with a fork in the road.

As I went through the story, I could tell this was a debut novel due to pacing and literacy devices used to explain Annie. That said, the author did a great job giving Annie a distinct, accurate, and vivid voice. If we look at this book through the lens of a character-driven novel, as opposed to a plot-driven one, (the book felt like it bounced back and forth a bit between the two) I would have given it four stars. I will definitely be picking up her future work.

SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT:

As a former victim advocate at a district attorneys office, I (predictably) saw themes of emotional domestic abuse with financial and mental manipulation. That’s why I was a little disappointed in the ending. I’m sure the author went back and forth between Doug releasing Annie and Annie releasing herself. I wish it had been the latter.

With crumbs of coding laced throughout, I honestly thought she was going to code herself to shut off her tracking and decrease her sensitivity to Doug’s disappointment to the point that she could leave. I think that would have been more representative of the real work required to change one’s mental framework in a way that allows victims to leave their abuser. I also think it would have been more rewarding to watch Annie save herself. That said, I understand why Doug had to remain in power until he gave it away, since she is a robot and not a human. I was just hoping for a creative loophole.

The audiobook narration on this book was perfect! No matter what speed I listened at, the “bot” effect was strong. In terms of the plot, writing, and character development, I enjoyed the story overall but felt that Annie’s character development was lacking.

Trigger warnings for abuse and sexual content. I listened to the audiobook, and I was very curious to see where the story would go. Annie is a robot customized by her human owner, Doug, to meet all of his needs, and the book follows her as she becomes more aware of her feelings, learns about secrets, and makes friends.

This book was phenomenal! It took me a second to get into it, but once I was in, I was hooked.
This book was complex, devastating, and made you think. Seeing the evolution of Annie and how she processed life was captivating.
I will say, I didn’t love the narrator, but once I got past her voice and just focused on the story I was able to move beyond her voice.
Would definitely read more from this author!

Thank you Mariner Books for my free ARC of Annie Bot by Sierra Greer — available Mar 19!

Read this if you:
🤖 maybe might sometimes love the idea of a robot spouse/partner who does whatever you want
🧼 would rather do anything but clean your house
🎥 watched the movie "Her" and loved it

Annie is a Cuddle Bunny, more or less the perfect robot girlfriend for her owner, Doug. Recently they've switched her in autodidactic mode, and she's becoming more human every day. But when Annie's new desires start competing with Doug's, how can she reconcile her feelings and her place in the world?

UGH this book is beautiful and absolutely infuriating. I think the thing that enraged me most was how similar the thoughts of a literal man-pleasing ROBOT were to my actual thoughts as a human woman in my early twenties. Just, wtf. I loved Delta, and Annie, and their adventure, and everything that happened at the end of this book. It's so unique and so worth your time!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

DNF at 21%

I understand what the author was going for, but there were just way too many sex scenes with Annie in the first 21%. That's not for me. The writing was good, and I think the author was exploring interesting ideas about consent and AI mental development.

Title: Annie Bot by Sierra Greer
Publication Date- 03/19/24
Publisher- Harper Audio
Overall Rating- 4.5 out of 5 stars rounded up

Review: Review copy given to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I want to start this review off by saying that the audio is very good and the way to go. The narrator really brings the intensity of the story to life. Annie Bot is the story of a bot who is essentially a intimacy bot. This is not a fast paced story but is never boring. It brings to light a lot of potential ethical dilemmas. This book should be required reading for men. No joke. It articulates well the ways women are used and emotionally abused and manipulated that aren’t as obvious to most people.

We have a very insecure man who has recently went through a divorce. He is rich, too rich, and has bought a 220k robot to serve his needs. In this not so distant future, robots have more abilities of thinking, feeling and acting autonomously. There is a significant amount of emotional and sexual manipulation and control. Those aspects were difficult to listen to at times so just be aware of that.

Going into this you should expect a thought provoking novel that has a realistic plot and characters. Sierra Greer knows how to write in ways that make you uncomfortable but force you to think. Even though this takes place in the future, I think this novel could open the eyes of a lot of people, maybe even some who don’t realize the relationship they're in is potentially similar. Amazing ending. Such a great read.

This is pitched as for fans of Never Let Me Go and My Dark Vanessa. I will add the Echo Wife to that list.