Annie Bot in Play Book Tag

May 29, 2025 John Warner rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science-fiction, speculative-fiction, robots, coming-of-age, jsw-2025

This speculative fiction narrative is a thought-provoking and emotional exploration of identity, technology, artificial intelligence, and what it means to be human. As I read this novel, I found connnections with Shelley's Frankenstein, the Bible's Adam and Eve story, and Phillip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?.

Anna is a Stella, an android who is constructed for a particular purpose, e.g., housekeeping, nanny, or the perfect companion or girlfriend. Since Anna is sold as a Cuddle ...more

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Feb 19, 2025 ilovebakedgoods (Teresa) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: women, suspense, fantasy, futuristic, relationships, feminism, pink-cover, sci-fi, 2025, women-2025

In a nutshell: It was oppressive to read about Annie's submissiveness and servitude and it was invigorating to read her autonomy.

Fuck Doug, fuck misogyny, fuck men seeing women as either: homemaker, mother, sex object, or in this case, all 3.

Praise feminism and praise autonomy for women and female robots designed to be "cuddle bunnies" (puke).

This book reaffirmed my lack of desire or willingness to submit to any man, ever. ...more

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Oct 15, 2024 Flo rated it liked it

Shelves: sci-fi, feminism, 3-star

3.5 stars rounded down!

I have apparently been super into robot/AI and all the moral quandaries associated with that topic lately. I was super interested in the plot and set-up of this novel, and I feel like the author could have gone so much further with it than she did. This topic opens up so much about consent, feminism, body image, and more, and a lot of these issues were touched upon, but never fully explored or expanded on to the point where it could have gone. These are the reasons that I 3.5 stars rounded down!

I have apparently been super into robot/AI and all the moral quandaries associated with that topic lately. I was super interested in the plot and set-up of this novel, and I feel like the author could have gone so much further with it than she did. This topic opens up so much about consent, feminism, body image, and more, and a lot of these issues were touched upon, but never fully explored or expanded on to the point where it could have gone. These are the reasons that I read books about sentient AI, so not be missing these made this book feel a bit like a let-down. Ultimately, this book just had a lot of unfulfilled potential and I wish the author had made different choices with/about it. I feel like the Murderbot series really does the sentient robot/AI thing well, whereas the author ended up fumbling a bit with this book.

Regarding characterization, I enjoyed reading about Annie from her POV and learning about the things and people whom she interacts with, especially with Doug and his friend Roland. I really enjoyed the way that this book pointed out the men's sexism and abuse without outright saying it; in fact, Annie is "happy" most of the time with Doug at first because she doesn't recognize that it is abuse. It's very much reminiscent of emotional and verbal abuse where the partner doesn't necessarily accept or know they are being abused at first until things come to a head.

Per another reviewer: The portrayal of an emotionally abusive relationship with the lingering threat of violence felt all too real. The only difference between Annie and those of us who have been there is that Annie is a robot. But isn’t that what abuse essentially does to a person? It makes us feel inhuman. It takes away our identity, our autonomy. It molds us into what our abuser wants us to be, and it tries so hard to convince us that this is what we want to be, too. It tells us that everything our abuser feels is our responsibility.

If the first half of the book had a low-key sinister vibe to it at first though, the second half of the book drops that completely. I felt like things took an upturn as Annie started developing her sentience, and I wanted the sinister nature of the book to continue throughout the rest of the novel. The second half of the book got a bit more boring, especially because Doug, which still a terrible person, sort of felt softened to the point where I didn't feel that tension that was drumming along in the first half. There were also a bunch of characters who showed up and then just disappeared forever without any real resolution (even though we "know" what happened to them, it just felt unresolved) - and what was with that guy who Annie thought she recognized (or maybe he recognized her? I forget the particulars because that's how memorable it was).

And then the ending was just like...WTF? It just left everything unresolved, and it really was not a good ending for what the rest of the book was. (view spoiler) WHO KNOWS? Not me, or apparently the author!

To the author's credit, I did enjoy watching Annie learn to understand and recognize her own emotions beyond those that related to Doug. I think a lot of people have difficulty with emotions, so reading about it from a robot's POV felt like great commentary, since even humans aren't great at them sometimes lol. Also, I like any books that are like "fuck the patriarchy!" I just really wanted more from this novel overall. I would recommend this book for anyone who likes Black Mirror, sentient AIs, and reading about emotionally difficult topics from a different lens/POV. ...more

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Aug 07, 2024 Nadine in NY Jones rated it liked it

Shelves: literary-schmiterary, is-it-real-or-is-it-memorex, lotsa-buzz, fantasy-and-sci-fi, r2024-in-2024

Wow. I read this in one breathless gasp, because I had no idea where it was going or what was going to happen next, and I had to find out..

Annie is the most human and relatable robot since MurderBot.

I can’t give this five stars, though, because it all fell apart in the second half, (view spoiler) ...more

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