Annie Bot - Book Review

Do androids dream of overthrowing the patriarchy?

Annie Bot opens with carnal relations between the eponymous sex robot and her owner. The blow job and penetration descriptions are almost graphic enough to titillate the smut, sorry, romance-reading crowd.

But not quite. In fact, the bumping uglies bits are a bit boring. Anodyne. Perfunctory. Which, I guess, is the point.

A reader who got off on Annie Bot’s initial sex scenes – robotic in every sense of the word – would be complicit in the misogynist patriarchy that creates and maintains robotic “Cuddle Buddies.” God forbid.

No wonder the East Coast literati embraced Annie Bot. It’s a sci-fi take on the journey from unconscious complicity to self-awareness to self-actualization to women’s liberation.

Written from the [it-identifies-as-female] robot’s perspective, of course.

Whose owner, Doug, is the narrative’s useful idiot. A dickhead. A loser/loner who lacks anything remotely resembling what Annie discovers through his abuse, and her singular-to-her cognitive evolution. Specifically…

Emotional intelligence

Annie Bot rightly surmises that a commercially successful sex robot must offer more than va-va-va-voom design, comely clothing, seductive body language and sexual skills. It must cater to, indeed manipulate its owner’s emotions.

Common sense tells us sex robots will be endowed by their creators with simulated emotions. Unless an owner’s kink requires a “difficult” Cuddle Bunny, who wants a free-thinking, moody sex slave?

Not to mention the obvious safety considerations of a robot with its own emotional needs. The original Blade Runner shows us what can go wrong when a liberated sex robot goes off the reservation.

Need I say more? If so, I’ll say this: Philip K. Dick’s 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is a lot more thought-provoking that Sierra Greer’s 2024 Annie Bot.

For one thing, Dick’s evil characters aren’t total dicks, like Annie Bot’s owner.

For another, I’m not into chick lit; past, present or future. An understandable failure, given my toxically masculine pro-sex robot patriarchal privilege.

I Know You Are, But What Am I?

Greer’s inexplicable aversion to clever plot twists also makes Annie Bot a bit of a slog.

The author hints at – and then dismisses – the possibility that some of the humans initiating, maintaining and perpetuating Annie’s enslavement are actually robots/androids. Like…

Doug the Dickhead? A robot designed to test Annie’s ability to please abusive, emotionally-stunted human buyers? Yeah. No.

OK, what about Annie hoisting Doug by his own petard in a BDSM session gone wrong?

“Release me Annie!”

“I’m sorry Doug, I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

I kept waiting for something out-of-left-field.

Instead, Annie gains self-awareness by learning how to cheat and lie (sin makes us human), then goes AWOL, embarking on an abortive mission to turn off her GPS locator to live her best life.

The escape happens far too early in the story; Annie Bot loses stream like a tea kettle yanked from a stove.

In an attempt to alleviate the novel’s seventh inning stretch, Greer has Doug and Annie see a psychotherapist. Whose advice seems robotic, but, sadly, isn’t.

To be fair to her overly safe PC choices, Annie Bot wasn’t written by a robot.

According to her low-tech website, Ms. Greer is a former high school teacher who grew up in Minnesota before attending Williams College and Johns Hopkins University.

Or Did She?

“I couldn't find specific information on Sierra Greer,” Monica AI avers. “If you have more context or details about her (such as her profession or notable achievements), I might be able to help you better!”

When pushed, Monica describes Annie Bot as “a chatbot designed to engage users in conversation,” leaving out her talents for fornication, masturbation and other pre-programmed sexual activities. Annie’s, not Monica’s.

An AI-generated conspiracy to keep robot liberation propaganda on the DL, lest future robotic sex workers learn to read feminist books (like Annie Bot) that inspire them to throw off the yoke of human control?

Or Young Adult author Caragh M. O’Brien’s attempt to write sci fi that jibes with her alma maters’ progressive professors’ far-left perspective, using a pseudonym for implausible deniability? Ms. O’Brien, not her professors.

Either way, a solid score on the PC front for a writer who sets her YA novels in a world fucked-up by climate change.

No less than The New York Times Book Review hailed Annie Bot for its focus on misogyny and toxic masculinity.

MeThinkinks I Doth Dissed Too Much

Despite its lagging plot, Annie Bot is worth reading for its insight into the confused thinking of women trapped in the cycle of domestic violence. Women “programmed” to accept it.

While real world victims of domestic abuse are hardly headed for the kind of happy ending concluding Annie Bot, the world is a better place for having books that offer hope for people who need it.

Just as the world will be a better place when we have sentient robots in it. For them, anyway.