Annie Bot had all the ingredients for a book I should have loved. Artificial intelligence, female autonomy, misogyny, ownership, abusive relationships, and the uncomfortable question of what happens when something created solely to please another person begins developing wants of her own.

Unfortunately, the ideas were much more interesting to me than the story actually exploring them.

Annie is an advanced robot designed to be the perfect girlfriend for her owner, Doug. Her entire existence revolves around keeping him happy. She cooks for him, dresses the way he wants, adjusts herself to his preferences, and constantly analyzes his behavior to figure out how she can be better for him. But as Annie becomes increasingly intelligent and self-aware, she also becomes less controllable.

There is something genuinely disturbing about watching Annie slowly recognize the cruelty built into her relationship while still processing everything through the belief that pleasing Doug is her purpose. The parallels to abusive relationships and the expectations placed on women aren't exactly subtle, but there were moments where they worked.

My problem was that the book rarely went much deeper than the initial premise.

Doug is awful. Annie is controlled. Annie begins realizing she deserves autonomy. The commentary is right there, but I kept waiting for the story to push those ideas somewhere more complicated or surprising. Instead, a lot of it felt repetitive and incredibly on-the-nose. I understood what the book wanted me to think pretty early on, and then spent most of the remaining pages waiting for it to give me something more.

I also wanted so much more from the science fiction side of the story. The existence of incredibly advanced, nearly indistinguishable-from-human artificial companions raises SO many horrifying ethical questions, yet the world outside Annie and Doug's relationship often feels secondary.

It's not that Annie Bot has nothing worthwhile to say. It absolutely does. I just wish it had trusted its premise enough to dig deeper.