Annie Bot has spice! This story is so different from what I'm usually drawn to but for some reason it worked for me. I loved this book. Greer really has an imagination but was able to craft a believable story with human emotions and relationships. I'm giving it five stars. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

ENORMOUS FUN….
HILARIOUS….
STEAMY
CHILLY
CAUTIONARY…..

It’s here:
Artificial Intelligence….
and (near future) “Annie Bot” is the sexy-perfect-girlfriend-‘robot’-of-the-year to root for!!!

Sierra Greer hit it ‘out-of-the-park’ with her witty-terrific-entertaining-debut.

Honestly — this book is fun - a little naughty -
I’m dying to share more — but going in blind —is the way to go!
So I hate to spoil the ‘discovery-thought-provoking-pleasures!!
Things go right . . .
Things go wrong . . .
[welcome to Relationships 101 in all its shapes and colors].

A Robotic Reading Delight…
….AI Technologically Supercharged extravaganza.
Sooooo…..
Grab a glass of your favorite icy drink with a bowl of pistachios to munch on… and ENJOY!!

A couple of excerpts ….
[little amusing teasers]:
“It is not a time for talking at all. She has reached the right temperature now. She gets her breathing and heart rate up. She moans deep back in her throat. He does not like her too loud. She make sure not to stimulate her orgasm until she is certain he is going or just after. Never before”.

“Does anything bother you?”
“Of course. Pain does. Displeasing Doug does. So does confusion”.
“Now we’re talking. How do you displease Doug?”
“I don’t clean very well, she says, glancing at the pistachio shells”.

One more except
BECAUSE . . .
I’m sooooo with Annie on this:
“Annie gravitates towards novels by women:: Sally Rooney, Britt Bennett, Emily, St. John Mandel. She appreciates how the novels transport her, how they make her feel connected to human women, especially outsiders”.

This is a truly outstanding novel that examines the human experience by exploring the relationship between a female robot and her male owner.

Annie Bot was designed to be Doug’s perfect girlfriend. She is a robot built to learn Doug’s needs and obey his commands. She was created to satisfy him both emotionally and physically. Doug decides to treat Annie as if she is human and teaches her how to interact with the world and think for herself. As Annie learns what it must be like to be a human woman, she becomes aware of her own mind, her emotions, and starts to question why she is owned and yearns for her freedom.

The writing is so marvelous that there were several times I was caught up in the story and my emotions that I forgot Annie was a robot. It also seemed that Doug forgot Annie was AI as his punishments mirrored how some people treat their significant other when they feel betrayed. The author delves into issues everyone experiences in their relationships such as trust, intimacy, jealousy, control, manipulation, and safety. This story makes you consider how identity, happiness and awareness all evolve in time. The last little morsel that I loved about this book was Annie’s love of books and how they became her escape at times.

This is the perfect time for this book to be written with the explosion of AI products and the ethical issues they already pose. This book takes it to a more complex but realistic new level.

Easily one of my favorite reads of the year. I will be thinking about this book for a long time.

Great book that poses thought-provoking scenarios to readers that tackle themes such as: autonomy, domestic abuse, gender dynamics, theory of the mind, and what it means to be human.

Annie Bot is an extremely well written book. I had no expectations going into this read but came away pleasantly surprised.

I especially loved that Annie learned by human experiences, she learned emotions and learned the incredibly difficult task of relationship building. She also learned about manipulation thanks to Doug and Roland.

This book sheds light on power shifts in relationships, control dynamics and other subjects that are less talked about. I feel like the author wrote about these with a careful hand and brilliantly.

I will definitely recommend this book to my friends. Excellent write !

This story proved to be one of the most distinctive narratives I've encountered this year, making it a worthwhile read. It revolves around Annie Bot, a female AI android, designed solely to cater to her owner, Doug. Her unwavering dedication to his satisfaction becomes the core of her existence, shaping her sense of happiness. However, as she gains emotional intelligence and self-awareness, she grapples with a complex mix of emotions, including loneliness, desire, and self-esteem.

Reading this book was a unique experience due to its narrative perspective—a journey through the evolving consciousness of an AI striving to mimic human behavior. This narrative feels especially relevant in our era of advancing AI technology, prompting deep philosophical contemplation. The story also skillfully highlights the issue of abuse within relationships marked by imbalanced power dynamics, shedding light on how individuals with less agency can be manipulated and exploited. The prose flows smoothly, making it easily digestible. While the main characters receive substantial development, a bit more depth in some secondary characters would have been appreciated. Nevertheless, the concluding chapters certainly compensate for any earlier shortcomings.

Easy 4 star review!

I haven't read a book in a long time that really made me think outside of the box, until this one.

Where does feelings and thoughts come from? Can a robot have thoughts? Feelings? Free will?

I loved how the author made this simple argument and really made it feel real. I don't want to give away any spoilers, but this book makes you really think about who has power and why.

This was a quick read, but a heavy thought one.

Perfect book to discuss with loved ones, book clubs, and friends.

A nuanced take on autonomy that tackles both the physical and mental aspect of the idea; emphasis on the idea part. How do we go about actually utilizing autonomy without having some form of agency? While this book does a great job assessing the first part, I think a sequel could take on that second aspect… Or maybe I just really hope we get more of Annie.

I loved how this book shows a robot named Annie looking and being more like human. Moreover, she acquires knowledge about human existence. This book shows about learning to do things as a different person (even if their a robot) and other things.

Thanks to Mariner Books and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book and write a review.

The stepford wives meets our new entanglement with Ai. Not the most literary of writing, it such an interesting and captivating story. The question isn’t new, what happens when technology becomes sentient, can it? While the question is old, the authors ability to answer in a fresh and current way is amazing, great book

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of Annie Bot.

Robots can be scary. That's why I requested Annie Bot, even though the premise isn't scary.

But, robots can be scary.

Right now, fears of AI are high on everyone's mind as it influences many facets of our lives, the premise of Annie Bot offers another way of using AI, but at what cost?

Doug, a human, owns a Cuddle Bunny named Annie Bot. She is his companion who satisfies all of his needs, domestic and sexual.

When a sexual dalliance triggers Annie's path to discovering her 'humanity,' it sets her off on a course of self reflection and empowerment no one could have imagined, least of all Annie herself.

Doug is a douche, with a lot of personal problems. There's no sympathy or concern for him, though I wondered why the author didn't make him a more sympathetic character.

I wouldn't have minded Doug procuring a sex doll if he hadn't crafted Annie in the image of his ex-wife, Gwen. Someone has serious issues!

There were a few things I didn't understand, plot holes never fully explained.

How did Annie achieve sentience? How did she realize she was happy, sad, depressed?

Because her settings were placed at a certain level?

She spends most of the narrative trying to satisfy Doug sexually, pleasing him with her cooking and housecleaning skills, and worrying constantly about displeasing him with her off the cuff remarks.

As the story develops, characters remark that Annie has become such a unique bot because of Doug's influence, but that doesn't make sense or sound right.

I didn't understand what triggered Annie's sudden ability to develop human emotions and desire to be a human female.

The author could have fleshed out this part better, as well as develop Doug as a more well rounded character, not just a loser who can't (or refuses) to have a relationship with a human woman.

The writing was fine, but repetitive; how many times can you read about Annie and Doug having robot sex, Annie cooking and cleaning, Annie pissing Doug off.

Instead, the tone was only mildly serious but I feel iff the author had chosen to go in a darker direction, Annie Bot could have been really interesting.

I absolutely loved reading this book. I was completely drawn into the topic and could not stop reading it.

Annie Bot was so much more than I could imagine. It definitely felt like a hybrid of a feminist read and coming of age story about love, freedom, and finding yourself. Not the themes I'd expect from a book about a robot but I had to constantly remind myself that Annie was a robot. I don't know what else to say but I really enjoyed this book and I look forward to reading more from the author.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!

This was a real surprise! I finished it in a day and really enjoyed the pacing and questions it asked, as well as the descriptive language of Annie experiencing the world around her. I thought it'd be more in depth black mirror episode feeling, but it really was interesting and nuanced.

“Annie Bot” takes on the timely and controversial issue of the ethics of relationships between sentient robots and their human owners (specifically, sex robots, though there is some discussion of other types of care work, such as nannying), and delivers an entirely predictable and underdeveloped “feminist” condemnation of the practice. The male characters are essentially one-dimensional misogynistic creeps that literally objectify the women in their lives in just about every way possible. While it’s natural to assume that there would be a patriarchal shaping of these relationships, why automatically think that this gendered differential would be incompatible with a legitimate relationship? (I’m thinking here of sci-fi movies like Blade Runner (1982), Lars and the Real Girl (2007), and Her (2013), among others.) Moreover, I found it difficult to make sense of the relationship’s power dynamic as it was portrayed: Doug (the human) is shown to be ashamed of “fucking a doll” and yet he customizes her appearance to resemble his ex-wife (surely a kind of violent gesture towards both the robot, Annie, and his ex-wife, Gwen). It’s also not clear why Doug would feel this shame, as his friend, Roland, very clearly admires Annie and how expensive/well-made she is. There are also some odd racial components that are alluded to but not explored in depth—a strange and inappropriate gap in a relationship of forced bondage. This novel would have had to be written in a much more nuanced/incisive/intelligent manner to achieve the impact that the author seems to have been striving for, but as it is, the text is moralistic to the point of being preachy, confused and even inconsistent in its political commitments, and overall, not a particularly memorable or thought-provoking storyline. Three out of five stars.

The ARC for this text was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars rounded up. One of the most unique stories I’ve read this year and well worth your time! This story follows Annie Bot, a female AI android, whose sole purpose is to please her owner, Doug. She has a blazing devotion to keeping him pleased and bases her happiness around him. As she becomes more emotionally-intelligent and cognizant, she struggles with her mixed feelings of loneliness, desire, and self-worth.

This was a strange reading experience in that it’s from the perspective of an AI who is still learning how to mimic being human. I think it’s a really relevant book right now with the growth of AI technology, and it makes you question the philosophical repercussions. It also brilliantly showed the the abuse in relationships with skewed power dynamics, and how those with less power can be manipulated and taken advantage of. The writing was very smooth and digestible. While the two main characters are heavily fleshed out, I did want a little more from some of the others. The ending though, definitely made up for it.

Overall, this is an excellent book that touches on important themes without feeling overly heavy and taxing. I’ll definitely be recommending this!

Thank you to NetGalley and Mariner Books for the eARC. Opinions are my own and freely given.

Unfortunately this was not my kind of thing, I didn't like the story at all. It wasn't a bad book, just not one for me. The writing was solid, so I think this will be good for certain readers.

Would've appreciated an excerpt with this. Love the premise, but the third present POV and detached narration didn't work for me.

Let me begin by saying this book was complete unlike anything I thought I would ever read. But - IT WAS AMAZING. I picked it up not expecting much and by the end of the first chapter I was hooked. It had me questioning “How would I feel about AI if they had human-like emotions and feelings?” And, well, the answer is apparently a lot. This book made me angry at times, happy and others and completely satisfied by the end. Annie was such an easy character to root for which was surprising considering she isn’t human. But we get to take a deep dive into her “mind” and how she is feeling. It makes you feel angry for her because even though she has an “owner” it poses the question at what point we start treating something with human capabilities as more than an object?

Oh boy, I had feelings about this book... I read it in one sitting.
first.. hot... but in a gross way, then.. this is fucked up and icky and I feel like I'm being gaslighted.
then.. the ending, won't spoil.
Doug is an asshole.

I really hope we never get the technology to merge an AI with a robot body.

I just reviewed Annie Bot by Sierra Greer. #AnnieBot #NetGalley