This is a 2.5 star read for me. I always round half stars down.

I usually enjoy Aimee Ogden's work, so I was really sad that I didn't like this book. I also hate writing "it's me, not the book" reviews because I feel like those aren't very useful to people who aren't me, but here goes.
There was a lot going on with the setting to the point where the plot, or, more specifically, information I needed to understand the plot got gobbled up in world building and I had to reread to figure out what was going on. There's so much written into such a short narrative that the story feels almost cramped to me. I wish the plot and its implications had a little more space to breathe.
I also had a hard time connecting with Scorn. This is maybe a "me" problem, but I didn't find Scorn's arc to be particularly satisfying. The ending to zir story, which was about trying to do zir own thing without parental help or validation, felt kind of contrary to that. It also didn't feel very cathartic to me as Scorn and the character ze meet at the end had very limited interaction in the earlier parts of the book. I like narratives about characters that defy their parents' expectations, so I was excited about this book, but I don't feel like the execution did the premise justice.
The final thing that rubbed me the wrong way was the use of marginalized people as background details. This might be a combination of "it's me, not the book" and unfortunate timing of publication, but with the recent emergence of commercially viable chatbots and Chat GPT trying to make several entry level jobs obsolete, a book that has an AI protagonist, makes several references to AIs replacing humans in the workforce, and then turns around and acts like climate refugees who have been refused jobs in the name of profit margins are horrible people for being prejudiced about AI doesn't sit right with me. This is compounded by the fact that Scorn was developed by very powerful people who are in some way responsible for this inequality, yet Scorn doesn't seem to acknowledge the advantages ze has because of this.
To conclude, my complaints are pretty subjective and I feel like some people would enjoy this book, as it isn't badly written. The blurb recommends this book to Murderbot fans and while I'll stick with Murderbot, I think other people might enjoy this book too.