NO SPOILERS
The Confessions
By Paul Bradley Carr
Pub date: July 22, 2025

This was not my usual style of book but I did enjoy it and I would definitely recommend to others. The pace was good, and the writing was great. I enjoyed most of the characters.
I will definitely pick up other books by this author.

Thank you Paul Bradley Carr, NetGalley, and Atria Books for this ARC in exchange for my review.

KT

I loved the concept of this book, AI causing the world to meltdown. In practice however, the story didn't flow well. There were too many parts that seemed to be added as action just for the sake of having more action. A little too uneven for my taste.

This was not my usual style of book when it comes to content, but I did actually enjoy it! The pace was good, the characters were unlikable and you didn’t mind seeing them fail once in a while (haha). This fell short for me at the end, however. It was so abrupt and I don’t feel like I got that sense of story completion that I like to have when I read a book.

Thank you to Paul Bradley Carr, NetGalley, and Atria Books for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This was the first book by this author and I was definitely interested throughout the story with the sci fi elements tied in with the futuristic world of AI. I did lose interest towards the end though.

The book was decent. I still liked it. I wasn’t as sure at first if it was one I was going to be able to get into with Al being the main topic. I try to avoid read world things from books. Some of the storylines from it felt kinda rushed but it was enjoyable and had me wanting to read more. Thank you net gallery for the arc

The Confessions by Paul Bradley Carr
Reviewed by Marla Dupont

Would you be interested in a futuristic page-turner? This book is for you! Kaitlan is the CEO of a tech company that built LLIAM AI from the ground up. One day LLIAM sent out “confession letters" to everyone and went offline. Everyone relied on LLIAM to tell them what to do, what to eat, basically what to do with every aspect of their lives. This threw the whole world into complete and utter chaos! Kaitlan raced against time, facing numerous obstacles as she tried to save her job, the company, the world, and even her own life. This had a lot of twists and turns, which kept me on the edge of my seat wanting more. This book shows us what can happen when we rely on technology for all aspects of life; we lose our human instincts and become out of touch with reality.

The Confession is well written; he introduced the characters with such grace, and everything flowed together. There wasn’t anything in the book that I disliked at all. I had to force myself to stop when I had other things to do. That is how wonderful this book is. You won’t want to put it down.

This book had everything it needed to be an amazing book: action, adventure, thrills, and surprises on every turn. I would give this book 5/5 stars and would recommend this book for young adults into adulthood. I have enjoyed reading this book.

In the day and age of AI. Take this book as a warning!

LLIAM becomes sentient and unleashed letters of all wrong doings of his users. That leads to utter chaos and a twist you won’t see coming.

This is the perfect beach thriller and for those who loved WILLIAM..•

This started out very intriguing with all the letters going out revealing secrets. Then AI shuts down and no one seems to know how to do anything which was comical. It lead to a lot of running around trying to get AI back up and it seemed to loose my interest as it became more and more far fetched. I think I wasn't the target audience for this as I lost interest. I couldn't root for any of the characters.

A topic like this was inevitable.

The hot topic in computer science is AI so one shouldn’t be surprised when artificial intelligence is at the core of current thrillers.

Martin, a genius chip designer, developed the ultimate chip for the core of an AI supercomputer. With that as his foundation, he put together a computing system and company that integrates AI supercomputers worldwide (and ALL that data) with a goal of his system, aka ILLIAM, making all the hard decisions . . . all of ‘em. From 'what should I wear today' to 'what looks good for dinner' to curing cancers to nuclear disarmament. The result would be worldwide harmony. A lofty goal.

But ILLIAM is missing a necessary trait. So Martin enlists the help of a former nun (Maud Brooks) to teach ILLIAM to understand and apply the human side including emotions, feelings, and consciousness. To make ILLIAM be more human in its decisions. During this period of ILLIAM’s growth, Martin tragically dies from an accidental fall.

But like in 2001 A Space Odyssey or Terminator, the computer becomes self aware. As ILLIAM becomes sentient, it starts to realize that humans really aren’t all that nice to each other (remember, it has access to virtually all knowledge) and sets out to right as many wrongs as it can. To do so, ILLIAM sends out letters to millions around the world telling the recipient what they’d done wrong or how they’ve been wronged. To add to the unfolding chaos, ILLIAM effectively turns itself ‘off’ isolating itself from further programming input. This shuts down utilities, stock markets, international trade and more, throwing the world into chaos and anarchy with the risk of nations devolving into tyranny.

While the company tries to right the ship, the CEO, Kaitlin Goss, is on the hunt for a duplicate chip hidden away by Martin. If that chip can be found, it can be installed and rebooted sending ILLIAM back to the day before all hell broke loose, where it was before all this took place. If successful, ILLIAM’s future can be rewritten to avoid what’s taken place.

A couple big ifs.

The premise of this book had promise and I sped through the first third of the book in a heartbeat, but as the world descended into chaos and Kaitlin Goss was running around California trying to stay ahead of any number of people who are also teetering on the edge about getting ILLIAM back online, or if that is even wise . . . my interest began to wane. I grew tired of Goss’ rationalization of her role in all this, of who Martin was or was evolving to be (think of Zuckerberg/Bezos/Musk with a Messiah complex) and struggled to finish. Yeah, Carr’s purpose may be a cautionary tale of AI-based computer domination. And I won’t be surprised to find dozens of books in the near future with similar cautionary tales.

For me, I’ll just stick with crime, noir, and political thrillers.

Fast-paced and wildly entertaining, The Confessions is one of those books where you have to suspend disbelief early on and just enjoy the ride. By chapter three, it’s clear you’re either in for the over-the-top premise—or you’re not. I chose to go with it, and I’m glad I did. It kept me turning the pages.

The storyline is bold and slightly outrageous, but in a world increasingly shaped by AI, it doesn’t feel entirely implausible. That said, there were a few things that held me back from rating it higher. The writing style felt clunky at times, and while I didn’t mind the overt messaging, the delivery came off as a bit unpolished. The use of multiple POVs added intrigue, but also left me feeling like I was missing key information—I even found myself flipping back chapters to try and piece things together.

Still, despite its flaws, this was a quick, fun read with an intriguing concept. I’d definitely be curious to see what the author does next.

Thank you to Paul Bradley Carr, Atria Books, and NetGalley for the ARC copy.

I feel a touch bad to think I didn't care for this book because I really should have. It had all of the things that I like, ie, a touch of a sci-fi theme with the AI in the future of our world, people racing against time to save the world, including a military group that was trying to take control.

I could go on, but that alone should have made for a story that I typically like. Unfortunately, I found this fell off the rails pretty quickly.

Firstly, the AI was called LLIAM. Unfortunately, on almost every single page, that was mentioned so often that it was hard to read. It was like being yelled at multiple times on a page or in a paragraph. It was hard to ignore. It was a tactile thing, but it bothered me, and I had a hard time concentrating on the story because of it.

Putting that aside, the other thing was that I didn't like the characters. Kaitlin, our CEO and the heroine of the story, was unlikeable. When we found out at the beginning that her husband had cheated on her, I laughed. It was then that I knew this was going to be bad, because I don't think that was supposed to be my reaction!

To be completely fair, it could have, again, been because I found it difficult to read overall because of the constant break with the AI's name. I have issues reading manuscripts that aren't formatted correctly because they are in an unedited format, so this could be something similar.

Now, having said that ... the ending was jarring. I won't say more, but I sat there and thought to myself, "That's it?"

So yep, that's it.

What a ride! This was great speculative fiction about what could be reality in the very near future. To think that our decisions?lives could be dictated by AI is terrifying. What a thought provoking, edge of your seat read!

4 stars!

Woah. Where do I begin? This was such a fast paced, action packed, thriller! It seriously had me hooked from the beginning to the end - wondering what was going to happen with every page. I told so many people multiple times that I thought that this was such a creative idea for a novel and I really enjoyed reading something completely different than anything I’ve ever read.

—

This book tells the story of LLIAM, a decision making AI. Everyone becomes dependent on LLIAM to make every single decision for them, down to the mundane tasks of picking out what to wear that day and what they should eat for breakfast. One day, LLIAM crashes and the world is stunned. Not only did their decision maker desert them, he is sending out letters to everyone confessing the crimes their loved ones have committed. The race is on to get LLIAM back up and running but it is not as simple as one may think.

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This book does contain a lot of tech information and some of which was too much for me, so keep that in mind while reading. However, it got me thinking a lot about society and the impact AI has on the world today. If you are looking for a fast paced, high speed, thriller - this one is for you!!!

PUB DATE- July 22,2025

A huge THANK YOU to @netgalley & @atriabooks for the opportunity to read and review this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Actually ended up really enjoying this hook. A lot different than I expected it to be. Has a lot of twists and turns

Thanks to Atria books and NetGalley for this arc!

I liked this book overall, but AI isn’t my favorite topic. If you are into AI and futuristic plots I think you’ll love this book! I don’t feel like it really fits the thriller genre though. Overall it’s a good book though.

I liked the premise of this but it didn't work for me, the style felt a bit flat, maybe that was deliberate given the theme. A futuristic novel where Lliam, Ai makes al the decisions for everyone and what happens when it doesn't and people secrets are revealed. The book has a definitive bias. It was't what i expected it to be so some of that was me wanting something else, so others will probably like it more.

An excellent read for any and all readers! Author comes at you with both barrels and knocks you out of your shoes! Great job fleshing out all the characters. I give this book FIVE stars! Definitely recommend!

I really enjoyed Blake Crouch and John Marrs' futuristic books about AI and the moral/ethical dilemmas the characters face. I thought that this book would be similar to that, where an AI evolves to have feelings and in its guilt, it confesses the many horrible things it helped commit. However, this book was more about Kaitlin and Maud trying to out-maneuver each other to help/hurt the AI (LLIAM) instead of the ethical and global implications of the AI's confessions.

A good portion of this book was dedicated to Maud and Kaitlin driving across California to potentially save or destroy LLIAM. While their struggle with their own moral issues was somewhat interesting, I was hoping that the book would have a broader focus--what happens to the rest of the world as a result of LLIAM shutting down? What happens as a result of the confessions? There were touches of this throughout the book but I think that if the author wanted a story that made the reader consider the ethical issues with AI a more global approach would have worked better. As is, I wasn't invested in Maud or Kaitlin because I thought they were both somewhat wrong.

This book was marketed as a thriller or suspenseful read, and I don't think it lives up to that, which was ultimately disappointing. I also wasn't the happiest with the ending. I don't feel like it tracks with the rest of the story and I don't like how iffy it was. With a book like this, I think it needs a nice, solid ending to wrap it all up.

All in all, the premise had a lot of promise but I don't think the delivery lived up to it. Thank you to NetGalley + Atria Books for the ARC.

Loved this one! A surprisingly not too far away possibility for speculative thriller/fiction, this one is based off the idea that AI makes every human decision now and includes many twists and turns, definitely give it a try!

Thanks to netgalley for the ARC!

The Confessions by Paul Bradley Carr is an interesting thriller that plays off of our feEers of what the future of AI could look like.

Millions of letters are sent everyday. They contain everything from confessions to murder, affairs, family secrets and simple hellos. But with our ever evolving world surrounded by technology a computer named LLIAM is built. LLIAM is the world's most powerful supercomputer, built to solve tough decisions for its users. The world comes to rely on LLIAM for things like where they should work, who should live and who should die, who you should marry etc. Leaving these decisions up to a super computer just seemed easier.

One day the super computer goes offline. People don't know what to do, they no longer remember how to sort through their problems and make decisions as they haven't had to for so long. All of a sudden letters are sent all around the world, confessing everything. All the bad, all the secrets. People are left to confront their secrets and their dark ways.

The only hope, a ex-nun named Maud who originally taught LLIAM what it means to be human. But then she receives a letter too, proving that the CEO who came to get her, isn't innocent.

Can the wrongs be rited? Can humanity be saved?

Thank you to Paul Bradley Carr for working with NetGalley. I received an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion and review.