Annie Bot was created to be the perfect girlfriend for her human owner, Doug. Designed to satisfy his emotional and physical needs, she has dinner ready for him every night, wears the cute outfits he orders for her, and adjusts her libido to suit his moods. True, she’s not the greatest at keeping Doug’s place spotless, but she’s trying to please him. She’s trying hard.
She’s learning, too.
Doug says he loves that Annie’s artificial intelligence makes her seem more like a real woman, but the more human Annie becomes, the less perfectly she behaves. As Annie’s relationship with Doug grows more intricate and difficult, she starts to wonder whether Doug truly desires what he says he does. In such an impossible paradox, what does Annie owe herself?
Annie Bot by Sierra Greer is not what I was expecting, at all!
What an incredible book. I have to admit that I wasn’t sure when I first heard about it, but then I saw several positive recommendations on TikTok by readers I follow and feel have similar tastes to my own (varied) and realised that though I had been putting off picking it up, I would likely find it an enlightening and enjoyable read.
I was not wrong. Annie Bot is the story of a sex toy robot created to be the perfect girlfriend; she is a Stella ‘Cuddle Bunny’, sexy, charming, designed to please her master. However, after her programming is amended, she becomes an autodidact, and she starts to think for herself, growing and learning from her environment. She is modelled after our antagonist’s ex-wife (to be honest, I can see why she left him), though whiter, bustier and more compliant. But with the bonus of thought processes, consideration and an understanding of what her world should be like, she starts to change. Realising that the relationship she has with her owner is not healthy – he occasionally shuts her in a closet when she doesn’t obey his every whim, and on one occasion shuts her in there without access to a charger and allows her battery to completely discharge – she runs away.
Doug is not at all complex, in comparison with his robot ‘toy’. He is a very basic human, driven by his desire to control the woman in his life. Though there are times when he appears to be ashamed of the fact that the only female company he can keep is a robot, there are also moments when he loves to hold that over her. He knows that Annie has been programmed to care for him and seems to take pride in hurting her, to the point that he purchases another robot and uses her as a way to make Annie jealous (when they bond he shows even more of his unpleasant character by discarding the new robot swiftly).
Doug is greedy, and smug about it, boasting about how much Annie cost him, and how much money she is going to make for him by being the advanced prototype for a new companion bot that others will purchase! He seems to enjoy causing those around him pain, and some of this is tied in (I felt) to how he ensured Annie bears a close resemblance to the woman who left him, his ex-wife. It feels as though while he didn’t want people to talk about how his companion/girlfriend is a robot, he also wanted people to talk about how she was a ‘better’ version of his ex!
I loved reading about Annie and learning how she adapted to her life and taught herself how life should be. That she was able to think for herself, despite her somewhat despotic and abusive owner’s feelings on the matter, was admirable.
This was a feminist novel with a difference. Annie was expected to be a Stepford Wife, and she managed to move away from this despite the restricted nature of her existence. A great and thoughtful read.
