I have never read anything from this author before. But after reading this terrific novel, I am going to request his previous books from my local library.
A trip to their oldest son's lacrosse game end in tragedy as the family is involved in a tragic car accident. Who is to blame? The son driving? Family members working/texting? Add artificial intellegence to this mixture and the author has written a hard to put down book! A great book for reading groups, one that people will be talking about for awhile. Highly recommended!

Bruce Holsinger is on the short list of authors whose books I will buy without even looking at a description of the book. His work is interesting, compelling, thought-provoking, and I always walk away richer from the experience of reading it.

Culpability. Okay, I love a vocabulary word for a title. There is going to be thinking and analysis ahead for me, and I love it.

Tackling issues of class, family, truth, ageism, humanity, technology, parenting, and every subconscious upper middle class fear, Culpability is both a microscope and a mirror for the external and internal forces shaping us both as individuals and a society.

So here is the concept: an alpha teenage boy is driving a car installed with an AI designed intuitive software so that car is essentially self-piloting. His entire family rides with him, each absorbed in his or her own tech-related pursuits. An accident occurs, two people are killed, and this event is the stone dropped in the pond that creates the ever-widening ripples of the book. I won't share more (largely because I don't like to know much about the books I am reading; I just want a thumbnail sketch and a recommendation) but this book is GREAT. Definitely read it. Then call me so we can talk about it.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Spiegel & Grau for the ARC!

Thanks to NetGalley, Spotify Audio, and Spiegel & Grau for the advanced reader copy and audiobook.

When Noah and his family are driving to a lacrosse tournament, his son Charlie behind the wheel of an autonomous driving vehicle, Noah is thinking of nothing more than completing a task for his job as a lawyer and thinking about how Charlie will leave home soon to play lacrosse for UNC. Everything changes when Noah's daughter Alice screams for Charlie to watch out and Charlie overrides the autonomous setting to jerk the wheel over; the result is an accident that causes broken bones, a severe concussion, and the death of an elderly couple who were in a car coming in the opposite direction. In an effort to decompress before Charlie has to leave for North Carolina, and to get away from the dark cloud hanging over them while the police investigate the accident, the family heads to a rental house on Chesapeake Bay. Once there, the family encounters Daniel Monet, a tech billionaire who moves in the same circles as Noah's wife Lorelai, a leader in discussions around AI usage. As the week of vacation unfolds, each of the family members secrets about the accident come to light and when another horrible accident happens the family must either pull together or fall apart.

I started out reading the ebook of CULPABILITY but the formatting was too confusing to follow (moving between Lorelai's written work, chats between Alice and an AI "friend" and the general storyline), so I moved to the audiobook, which was much easier to navigate and kept me more engaged with the story. That said, this novel takes a while to get going (other than the accident that starts the whole thing) and it's unclear exactly how all the discussions around AI and its ethical use are relevant until the end of the story. I really enjoyed Holsinger's previous novel, THE GIFTED SCHOOL, and prefer that one to this newer story, but CULPABILITY does leave the reader with lots of questions about the impact of AI on our daily lives and what it means about who's making decisions and therefore who's culpable when things go wrong.

Culpability is out July 8, 2025.

blimey. me and my soap box about AI have a long standing relationship! so maybe i was picking at a stinging scab by allowing myself to read and be drawn into this one haha. but i did. and it was brilliant. but wow did it only lead me to more questions. and definite unease both over the system itself but more so over the quietened,ssshed up, or just ignorant lack of questions that seems to be had over the system.
this book covers the consequences of it so well though. i was gripped, interested and hooked.
we so often see futuristic films of what "robots" will do or be to us. but again this is somehow missing or quietening the point. it makes the robot somehow removed from us. but the robots are already here and not putting them in IROBOT form against Will Smith doesn't mean they arent here all around us. this book takes it right into a family. right there. in our world.
it revolves around a car crash that ends in the death of a pair in the other car. but it also involved a car and its AI tech. the family in pieces goes to recuperate. but once there away from it all they seem to leach out their own and other secrets to how they were culpable. but the question of guilt also now comes with torturous questions due to the involvement of this other.
this book did nothing but fuel my own question over the ethics of AI but it was a brilliant book all the same.
i also like how Bruce never made this book preachy nor did i get the feeling it was being pushed as one side or the other. there was just a really good story that made us and helped us in thinking this through all on our own.
what i did get a big new thought from this book. which is pretty obvious really is... who is to blame, could be to blame,get away with blame when more and more of us in run by robots? how will people be wrongly or rightly blamed? get away with being blamed? or not react accordingly?

I'm a fan of Bruce Holsinger's writing, and this might be my favorite of his books. In Culpability, Holsinger takes on the thorny issue of responsibility in the age of AI. The novel tells the story of a family (mom is a philosophy academic whose expertise - to the tune of a Macarthur genius award - is the moral dilemmas posed by AI, dad is a lawyer) who are in a car accident in which a smart driving car is implicated. Other dilemmas arise as the plot moves forward, and the book does a nice job of posing critical questions while never swerving from the importance of plot and character. This is a book that would make an interesting book club pick, and I will recommend to readers interested in edgy lit fic about our changing world.

Wow wow wow. This book is a powerhouse that explores the "of the moment" topic of AI and how is impacts the daily lives of those who use and create it. This book is a little bit family drama, a little bit thriller—with some very human and engaging characters and a bit (too much, for me) super sophisticated thinking and complex technical content about AI and its applications. It is a really engaging read and i really recommend it. I can see it being adapted for a movie - and i would go see it!

The Cassidy-Shaw family is left reeling and each with their own secrets after their autonomous van collides with another car and kills an elderly couple.

I loved this one and couldn’t put it down! Not only does it have a super entertaining story but it makes you think, as it brings up so many ethical considerations of AI and the future of AI. I hope we see more of these type reads within contemporary fiction.

“No matter how much money we throw at the problem or how many guards we hire or how many tracking apps we put on our phones- no matter how good your algorithm is - we can’t protect them from everything.”

Culpability comes out 7/8.

Culpability is a fascinating story weaving ethics and morality of an increasingly AI controlled world, with intricate family relationships and drama.

I devoured this book, captivated by each characters’ motives and dilemmas, convicted by the ignorant nature with which I regard AI’s (and smart tech’s) prominence and control in my own life.

Culpability would make for a great book club discussion! I’m so glad I read this.

This is my first book by this author and I will certainly read his other works. I am a tech-minded person, with a curiosity and apprehension about the increasingly fast adoption of AI into everything in the world without thinking about the consequences. I loved reading this book as it explored the moral and ethical sides of AI, along with the family’s drama as it unfolded. It was a fascinating read and kept me reading - I think I finished it in two days. This will stay with me for quite a while as the world continues to grapple with AI, and how much I want to incorporate it into my own life.

"In the face of Artificial Intelligence, we are all in something like at the position of Adonis, confident in our invulnerability and oblivious to peril. Yet we are also Venus, whose role in the myth is to voice a kind of maternal protectiveness and fear."

When the Cassidy-Shaws' autonomous minivan collides with another car in lethal crash, seventeen year old Charlie is behind the wheel. But, with the AI driving, who is at fault? Charlie? His dad working on a legal brief in the front seat?

Told in multiple POV, Culpability explores the complications of technology, the enormity of wealth and privilege, and the human connection and frailty of family. Truthfully, I adored everything about this novel. The cover, the mystery, and the probing subject matter made these characters stick in my mind.

Thank you to Spiegel & Grau and Netgalley for an advanced copy of Culpability. I have adored Bruce Holsinger's back catalog and this one does not disappoint!

In a world moving to dependence on AI, Culpability is a very timely book that will really make you think. As a mom of teens, there were topics covered that I want to be more aware of even though I would rather stay blissfully ignorant of. From self-driving cars, to smart homes, to chatbots, this book covered it all, while also giving commentary on AI through articles written my the mom in the story.

None of the characters were very likable which will usually turn me off of a book, but it really speaks to the author’s writing that I was completely engaged through the whole book.

Rating:
I really liked it

What you’ll find:
Leave the World Behind Vibes
Feelings of unease
AI’s infiltration in life

Thank you Spiegel and Grau for a digital ARC through NetGalley.

Unsettling. Provocative, Topical. Holsinger’s previous two books (The Gifted School and The Displacements) also left me feeling off kilter, and this latest one does much the same. Focusing on the use of artificial intelligence, a family is used as the axis on which to explore how it impacts our everyday life. The father is a worker bee attorney, nothing specialized, while his wife is an internationally renowned scientist dealing with AI. Their three children get caught in the crosshairs of a LOT of the adult choices. Throw in a billionaire across the bay of their vacation home and we’ve got a book that continuously had me turning pages. This would be a fantastic book club book as there’s so much meat on that bone to discuss in today’s world!

I enjoyed Noah as a character, following his point of view of it all, and also the dystopian/futuristic vibe of this story, filled with family drama and realistic issues and struggles. The IA elements can bring some horror touch to it, intentional or not.
This was the 3rd book I've read from this author and, even though Holsinger's writing has worked for me before, this time it worked a little less.
Something didn't clique with me. Maybe I wasn't in the right vibe for such a story, maybe I'm not really into AI discussions on books. And that's just me. I cannot pinpoint anything essentially wrong with this book. It just didn't work that well for me.
If you have read something from this author before and enjoyed his writing style, consider giving this new book a chance.

A compelling family drama about secrets and the choices we make. It is a contemporary novel that touches on the impact of AI and I will be thinking about it for a very long time. An incredibly thoughtful book that we should all read.

4.5 stars Really liked this story as it makes you think. When everyone could be at fault, where does liability lie? This would be a great Bar Exam question for that reason alone.

A family of five is driving to a competition for one of the children. Mom & dad are busy on their laptops, one in the passenger seat, one in the back seat while their 17 year old is behind the wheel of a self driving car and the other children are along for the ride. Who is responsible for the accident they are involved in?

Dad is an attorney, mom is a genius in the AI field and chose this particular vehicle as the safest possible one to be riding in. Everyone has a secret. We get to know each of the characters and the secrets. Very hard to put this down; I wanted to read all night!

Thank you NetGalley for one of the best stories I have read in months. Honest opinions expressed here are my own and are freely given.

When the Cassidy-Shaws’ self-driving vehicle is involved in a head-on collision, all five members of the family feel like they are to blame for the accident. As the story unfolds over a week in the Chesapeake Bay, one must wonder where the ethical and moral responsibilities lie in an increasingly AI world.

Just like Holsingers’ previous books, this story is compelling. I couldn’t put it down as I quickly came not only to care about each of the characters in the story, but I also wanted to know how/why each of them could be to blame for the accident. At times, the book felt similar to John Marrs’ book, The Passengers, because they both make the reader grapple with a reality that is in the not-so-distant future.

Admittedly, I don’t know the intricacies of AI technology, but as these authors use it as the backdrop of their books, I can’t help but worry about the future of humanity. I am increasingly worried about how we curtail some of these concerns and also confused as to why those in higher positions aren’t also heeding the warnings. While this book wrapped up with a satisfying conclusion, I am still left with so many unsettled thoughts regarding autonomous vehicles and potentially other catastrophic situations that AI may present in the future.

Bruce Holsinger always seems to tackle a contemporary challenge in his novels and Culpability does as well as it takes us into the world of AI and its ethics and legalities, a topic that seems relatively unexplored in fiction to date.
While driving to a lacrosse tournament in Delaware in their auto drive car, Noah and his family (wife, Lorelei, and kids Charlie, Alice and Izzy) are in a horrific car accident. Noah narrates the story, interspersed with a text chain on something called AviPal between Alice and "Blair". There are also excerpts from articles by Lorelei, generally on the morality of AI.
Their story takes place in the undetermined future "in this new American era of oligarchy, deregulation, and caprice, ' and raises the important question of who's responsible when AI makes a mistake.
You are certainly immersed into the world of AI in the novel (which is a good and bad thing) but my favorite aspect was around the family dynamics. I wasn't a big fan of the texting relationship between Alice and the bot, and thought that Alice's character wasn't as fully developed as it could have been with the novel's focus on Charlie.
Thanks to Netgalley and Spiegel & Grau for the opportunity to read Culpability. I received a complimentary copy of the book and opinions expressed are completely my own.

AI , artificial intelligence, and how we use it. Culpability makes you think about far reaching effects and ethics. Interesting book with great storyline. Well done.

A publicist for Spiegel and Grau highly recommended this book to me at a book event, so of course I had to do that! A book that really makes you think about technology and how it impacts our daily lives. What happens to a family involved in a tragic accident while in an autonomous vehicle is explored in this riveting novel that will keep you turning the pages as quickly as you can. Each family member feels culpable in some respects, but who is at fault? Highly recommend

I really wanted to enjoy this one, but unfortunately, it just didn’t work for me. Things picked up a bit around the 65% mark, and I was curious to see how a particular situation would unfold—but once that resolved, the story fell flat again. I can see how others might enjoy it, but it wasn’t the right fit for me. It leaned too technical and lacked the emotional depth I need to connect with the characters.

Thanks to @netgalley for sending me an advanced copy to read and review.

⚠️ Content notes: strong language throughout (including the use of God’s name), alcohol use, mentions of drug use, complex family dynamics, and one open-door scene between a married couple (brief and not graphic). Car accident resulting in deaths.