Annie Bot by Sierra Greer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Honestly? I can't really call this SF. The thinnest veneer is in place.

The reality is simpler: this is a power-dynamics contemporary novel with a sharp focus on relationship expectations and imbalance.

I can't help but remember an almost countless-seeming similarities to Stepford Wives, Pleasantville, so many sitcoms riffing on this, or any number of good horrors that do a similar push-pull. So it really boils down to this: does the tale pull off its intent? Am I sufficiently horrified about how this man treats a thinking, feeling being because he thinks he owns her?

Of course. I was right there by page two or three. Maybe by the time I finished reading the blurb.

But here's where I get a bit annoyed: if we're going to start it off with house duties, the unpaid and generally unthanked chores as the ground floor of the injustice in any relationship, then we ought to acknowledge that this isn't a feminist issue. This is a straight power-imbalance issue in any relationship that could go either direction. It's a sore point for me. Almost any of the key anger-issues in this novel could easily be transferred to the other partner in a relationship. It just begs the question: who has the most power, and how is it abused?

The fact that this novel DOES have a resolution that's both grown up and hopeful is quite good, however, and I appreciate that aspect of it.

Now, if only we could take a good long look at the real underlying issue--of power imbalance-- and not just the fact that so many people just assume that sex (in this case, the female, or the sex-bot) is ALWAYS, as a matter of record, the inherent loser of any power-differential. Example: any same sex couple could go through this exact same story, as well as the differential for those men who stay home with a wife who works.

Taken as an allegory, and stretching our imaginations to fit our actual situations, this novel would still work fine, of course, but it still begs the question. Is this, or is this not, a FEMINIST novel? For all these reasons, I have to say no.

Personal note:
If anyone reading my reviews might be interested in reading my own SF, I'm going to be open to requests. Just direct message me in goodreads or email me on my site. I'd love to get some eyes on my novels.

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