Review by Booklist Review
Annie is a synthetic woman created specifically to love her owner, Doug. She was made to resemble his ex-wife and caters to his every whim. There are other types of bots, such as those who exist solely to clean or assist in a household, but Annie is a Cuddle Bunny--she provides affection, affirmation, and sex. Bots have both organic and inorganic parts, and they can be controlled or uncontrolled in different facets. Doug has turned on autodidactic mode, which allows Annie to think for herself, and now she is growing mentally like no human ever could. Annie's sentience causes a rift between them; Doug pushes back when Annie wants to learn about coding and technology, and he punishes her when she does him wrong. Annie cares for Doug and wants to make him happy, but he is smothering her--and what can a bot do when she is owned by a man? In illustrating the push and pull within their relationship, Greer's debut takes a sharp aim at domestic abuse. Annie's entrapment feels controlling and claustrophobic, yet she and the reader are both sympathetic towards Doug. This nuanced novel provides a fascinating look into a future we may never wish for.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This edgy, high-tech bedroom comedy from Greer (the Birthmarked trilogy, written as Caragh M. O'Brien) follows a glitchy sexbot and her wealthy owner, Doug. Custom-designed from eye color to cup size, Annie is programmed to please, even ramping up her body temperature from a battery-saving 75 degrees to a cozy 98.6 whenever she senses Doug getting in the mood, which is about every other page. But Annie is an "autodidactic" model, and her ability to self-teach has her dabbling in computer programming and experimenting with free will, including a tryst with Doug's best friend. When Doug finds out, their relationship turns (even more) toxic, and Annie flees to Lake Champlain to find Jacobson, the technician who programmed her, hoping he can help. But Jacobson has other plans--he wants to implant Annie's uniquely advanced Central Intelligence Unit into a facsimile of his son who was killed in war. The robot science is scant (there's more about Annie's skimpy outfits than her wiring) and the plot is slow to boil, but Greer's take on human-AI relationships captivates (some of the best scenes are of Annie and Doug in couples therapy) while avoiding the overdone trope of androids longing for consciousness. Annie knows who she is; it's the human who turns out to be the "fraud." There's lots to chew on. (Feb.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
DEBUT Annie is an android, designed to meet her owner's specifications and programmed to please him in every way. Doug wants a replacement for his ex-wife and encourages Annie to learn and develop her artificial intelligence to be a perfect girlfriend for him. He changes Annie's settings to allow her to be autodidactic and to learn and develop human traits of curiosity, desire, and secrecy. Then a chance visit from a friend introduces new concepts to Doug and Annie's seemingly idyllic relationship: jealousy, suspicion, and anxiety. As Annie learns and becomes more human, she begins to question her own existence. How does she feel about being owned? What is the true nature of love? Does she have a right to freedom? The next generation in a long line of retellings of Ovid's Pygmalion myth, Greer's novel presents an intricate, intimate look at the fundamentals of human relationships. Easily accessible for general readers and science fiction aficionados alike, the book reflects the transformation of Annie into a complex emotional being. VERDICT Unflinching in its examination of humanity, Greer's debut novel is a must-buy for libraries.--Lydia Fletcher
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A robot's sentience chafes against her programming's restraints. Using shells grown from abandoned human embryos and proprietary central intelligence units (CIUs), the Stella-Handy company manufactures male and female bots (Handys and Stellas) that can be programmed to provide their owners with housekeeping services, child care, and intimacy. As a Stella set to "Cuddle Bunny," Annie should exist solely to satisfy her wealthy owner, Doug; that clarity of purpose is complicated, however, by the fact that, a year and a half ago, Doug placed Annie in autodidactic mode. Though Annie's self-guided quest for knowledge and growth does make her seem more human, it occasionally conflicts with her prime directive--a situation evidenced when Doug's best friend, Roland, pays a surprise visit. After Doug falls asleep, Roland convinces Annie to have sex with him and not tell Doug: "A secret will make you real," he says. Doug has a history of doling out vindictive punishments when Annie upsets him, so when he discovers her infidelity, she flees, terrified he'll erase her CIU or turn her off. But even if she finds someone willing and able to deactivate her tracking feature, the question remains: Can Annie survive in this world without Doug? Greer's tale unfolds courtesy of a close third-person-present narrative that beautifully captures the way Annie experiences life, at once as a computer and as an emotionally intelligent being. The nuanced plot titillates while sensitively exploring issues of consent, self-empowerment, and domestic abuse. Provocative and powerful. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
