Synopsis:
She’s human in every way that matters.
Annie is the perfect girlfriend. She has dinner ready for Doug every night, wears the outfits he buys for her, and caters to his every sexual whim. Maybe her cleaning isn’t always good enough, but she’s trying really hard.
She was designed that way, after all.
Because Annie is a robot. But what happens when she starts to rebel against her stifled existence and imagine the impossible – a life without Doug?
Review:
This was DISTURBINGLY ADDICTING.
An increasingly likely dystopian sci-fi about a highly advanced, sentient AI sexbot named Annie, designed as the perfect, obedient partner for her owner.
When Annie is set to ‘autodidactic’ (learning) mode, Annie becomes more human-like, exhibiting and feeling emotions and inner turmoil. This leads to tension and conflict when her behavior diverges from her owner’s, and everyone’s, rigid expectations.
She doesn’t understand why, when Doug could be in a relationship with a human, he has chosen to have Annie as his girlfriend. Unless, she provides something that a human can’t, like undivided attention. He is the only star in their system, she realizes. He had no competition. No one needed to listen to Annie like she’s her own protagonist, because she is not. She had no outside, separate life beyond his. They have no issue of imbalance between them because they have no question ever of who has complete power.
This is primarily a story about power dynamics and autonomy. Seeing the world through Annie’s eyes is both tender and frustrating as you see how much she wants to be the best for the people around her (specifically her owner), but also how that makes her accept toxicity and controlling behaviours as her due and the norm.
I am sure there is a conversation in here about a dynamic that mirrors an abusive, unhealthy human relationship – but I’ll leave that to better placed people and book clubs.
Full disclosure: I tend to skip spice (sexual scenes) in books (romantasy, romance). However, there was a strange fascination to how everything played out here. I’m not saying go into this expecting to be scandalised, but this offers interesting dynamics of sex, power, and control.
I don’t think this was an overtly feminist book. There’s no moment of rage or realisation that massively changes the trajectory of Annie, but rather small steps and backward stumbles. Rather like us humans.
“When we indulge the cruelest sides of our natures, it often feels powerful and honest,” Monica says. “It gives many people a thrill. But afterward, the effects can be devastating. We are shocked to realize we can be so vindictive. We cannot reconcile this new behavior with who we think we are, and this creates a dissonance, a deep confusion. We can feel both justification and self-loathing, and this can, in turn, fuel more anger toward the person we’ve abused.”
This book feels a lot longer than it actually is – in a very good way. A lot was packed in whilst also keeping the plot quite contained. Maybe it’s because being in Annie’s head was so fascinating for me.
The audiobook was very good as this was a very dialogue and internal monologue heavy book.
I did find it icky that the owner customised Annie as an exact replica of his Black ex-girlfriend except with white skin. I know we’re supposed to find the whole thing uncomfortable, but there was no nuanced exploration or discussion around the race aspect.
Overall, a standout, strong read.
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