Annie Bot is a sci-fi novel that is brave enough to ask a novel question—“What if sexism were real?”

I kid, I kid. (But only a little.)

Unfortunately, this book is deeply informed by the Black Mirror school of social commentary, which is to say that there’s very little substance, but the glossy sheen of its sci-fi veneer might lead one to believe otherwise. This is a story that doesn’t have any concept of female agency apart from its abuse.

Annie never acts; she only reacts.

There’s probably a version of this book that could actually do something with that premise, but Sierra Greer writes like it’s enough to just point at emotional abuse—not with the conviction that it’s important to name it, but with the self-congratulatory certainty that nobody else has noticed it’s a problem. I think this approach plays into a dangerous cultural trend of misidentifying acknowledgment as empowerment, and ultimately, the author’s absolute fixation on male toxicity without a meaningful counterpoint actually erases the book’s protagonist.

Annie only self-actualizes through her abuse, and I think that communicates a really dangerous message.

Worse still, I think the author often tries to have her cake and eat it too, reveling in the violence of her depictions. Certain scenes waver between bodice-ripping erotica and, “Yeah, this is abuse,” but not in a way that seems intentionally ambiguous. It feels more like Greer wanted to write “spicy” scenes without being judged for their implications.

It's pretty irresponsible.

I don’t expect Greer to lecture readers, and I don’t think harsh content is a problem—it’s possible for a character to be disrespected within a book while being respected by an author. I just think that real world horrors deserve more than tepid “girlboss” moments, and Annie Bot does little more than aestheticize abuse in a way that suggests a perverse detachment from its realities. 

This whole thing is just sickeningly regressive.

Ugh.