Bruce Holsinger writes propulsive, reading fiction that asks big questions. This novel is centered around AI and what it means for humanity and our responsibility. I enjoyed it quite a lot, but I didn't love the first-person present perspective. Other than that, this is a great summer read that will have you thinking.

I'm pretty uninterested in all things AI, it is just EVERYWHERE and honestly I don't like the little I know about it, and have a lot of concerns! But if there's any author I trust to write a timely and compelling book about a hot button topic, it's Bruce Holsinger. And this delivered. It wasn't perfect, and honestly clunky in some parts, but I couldn't put it down. A family is in a car accident in a self-driving car, killing the people in the other car. While on vacation a few weeks after trying to regroup, new things come to light about the accident. I don't want to say much more, but not only did this book focus on interesting ethical dilemmas and looks into the future, there was a really surprising story of marriage at the heart of this book as well.

This is an interesting premise, as society seems to be embracing AI in more and more areas every day. The dangers of AI are shown here in a way that will likely resonate with many readers. The book starts off in an engaging manner, but that falls off a bit as it unfolds. The formatting was confusing, but perhaps that won't be the case in the final version of the book. There is little distinction between some of the characters and their conversation with the AI bot, and that made things feel very jumpy and disconnected. Some of the twists are predictable. Things do come together a bit by the end, but things still feel unfinished.

After a fatal car accident involving a vehicle with autonomous driving, each family member has secrets about their own fault in the accident. Recovering from their injuries and needing a break, the family travels to a house on Chesapeake Bay and confronts the moral implications of the crash and how it will affect all of their lives.

As someone who is very frightened by the growing presence of AI in our world and the consequences and ethics of that, this book was very much up my alley. Part family drama, part exploration into the morality of AI, and part thriller, this book is unlike anything I’ve ever read before. As I was reading, I felt more and more unsettled with every page. I never got bored but I will admit to having to put the book down several times because of how eerie it was to me. This was highly realistic and that made it all the more frightening. Although I did get very irritated with pretty much every character at times during the book, I believe that was intentional and definitely adds to the realism. Since I feel like including anything more in my review will give too much away and this is a book that is definitely best to go into as blind as possible, I will just say that Culpability by Bruce Holsinger is compelling and definitely worth the read!

A huge thank you to Spiegel & Grau and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

First time reading rhis author
It was quit interesting and learned about AI
It was a sad story starting out with Charlie 17 yrs old behind the wheel driving his family of 5 when all of a sudden they are in an accident
His little sister Alice blames it on him because he was texting.
When the take a vacation to the lake and Charlie meets the neighbor next door he is smitten with her
Although her father is a multimillionaire
When more tragedy strikes secrets revealed by all the family members
Police investigates questions and a few twists before Charles knows his fate.

Set against the backdrop of a fatal crash involving a self-driving minivan, Culpability follows the Cassidy-Shaw family. Seventeen-year-old Charlie is technically driving, though the autonomous system is in control. When an accident kills two elderly passengers in another vehicle, the question of blame unravels a tense moral and emotional drama. Was Charlie’s intervention timely or reckless? Does responsibility lie with the human driver, the supervising adult, or the AI system? To recuperate, the family isolates at a Chesapeake Bay cottage, but tranquility unravels when they cross paths with a charismatic AI mogul and his daughter, and their own secrets begin to surface.

Told from the father's viewpoint, the novel delves into parental guilt, marital strains, adolescent rebellion, and emotional unease. His self-doubts are a constant thread through the story. The book read like a thriller momentum and I appreciate the single POV as it made the twisty story a bit easier to follow.

If you're drawn to moral complexity, current tech dilemmas, or character-driven domestic suspense, this is a top-tier summer read. Oprah even selected it for her Book Club and I feel like it would be a great selection for yours as well.

Thanks to NetGalley and Spiegel & Grau for the eARC.

We follow a family after a car crash, but what about the automated car? This book really lets you tackle the role of technology, family, and who is responsible during and after a tragedy. I enjoyed this story and it will stick with me.

🤷🏻‍♀️Who is responsible for the accident? The automated car? The person who yelled a warning? The passengers absorbed in work? The person behind the wheel? - and in life, when we keep secrets, or withhold facts to avoid confrontation - who are we really protecting?

💫Culpability pulls you into this family drama and asks all this and more. This book will have you examining some of the choices we make in life - and also exploring the bigger questions - who takes responsibility when a life is lost? And - how are the tangled webs of AI changing relationship dynamics?

📕 This read grabbed me from the start and wouldn’t let go. I’m still thinking of the questions this book raises - to which there is no clear answer. Not every character is likable - their flaws are on display and anchor into the plot of this story. This is not a lighthearted read! Recommended for those who like to explore the tangled webs of family systems and what makes them tick, and the clogs in the wheel that can make them unravel.

📣 It’s easy to see why this book was chosen as an Oprah Bookclub pick for this month! Congratulations @bruceholsingerauthor !

🙏Thank you to NetGalley, Spiegel & Grau, and author Bruce Holsinger for an advanced copy of this e-book.

➡️Don’t miss the @oprahpodcast episode about this book!

Culpability by Bruce Holsinger is a very interesting combination of current technology (Artificial Intelligence) and timeless concepts such as grief, morality, family dynamics, marriage, and the privileges of the ultra-rich. The author cleverly includes excerpts from a position paper on AI to add facts and philosophical points.

A snapshot: a family of five is driving to a sports event when the unthinkable happens - there's a horrible crash and people die. This occurs early and the rest of the novel unspools from that event.

This would be an excellent book club book as it includes many discussable topics. I'm not sure how the plot will endure as tech rapidly advances, but it will be an interesting time capsule if nothing else.

I'll be thinking about Culpability and its implications for quite some time. Thank you to Spiegel & Grau for sharing a review copy with me.

Culpability by excellent novelist deals with complex concepts currently at play in society. In this instance, a family is out driving their AI vehicle when one of the family members disengages the AI to prevent an accident. Unfortunately, two people are killed, and an entire debate arises from the questions of artificial intelligence versus traditional driving and whether, indeed, artificial intelligence is beneficial. While Capability is not a typical mystery, it still contains the elements that make it an engaging book that should be read. Responsibility and culpability may be synonyms for each other, that is, for the reader to decide. In this book, we are privileged to listen in as one family member, the father, contemplates and cogitates over fault, responsibility, and the central question of AI and its inherent value to society. Culpability is a book anybody who has pondered the question of artificial intelligence, and its utility and/or its intrinsic values to individuals and society, should read.

I was captivated by the exploration of this family's inner dynamics. Holsinger skillfully delves into the complexities of loving our family while pursuing our individual passions. Although I've tried to avoid dwelling on AI, as it feels inevitable, I found value in examining it more thoroughly through this fictional narrative.

This all too real, yet fictional work explores the important question- if we create AI, are we responsible for the downfall of these mechanisms when they don’t work? Are we too reliant on the technology created by man to the point where we deny culpability of our own actions?

The Shaw family of 5 explores the very real consequences of their AI guided SUV disconnecting from auto-drive on a trip where their eldest son Charlie is caught texting and “driving.” But if everyone else in the car was also distracted, who is really at fault? While we explore the family dynamic thoroughly in this book, we also get a closer look at the applications of these complex algorithms that are not too far-fetched in real life today.

I appreciated the technical explanations and ethics discussions of this book, while also yearning for more legal aspects of AI. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

A car accident that kills an elderly couple begins this family drama that centers around the ethics of Artificial Intelligence. This is going to be a popular book with lots to discuss. Older teens should like this as well.

I finished this with complicated feelings—mostly on purpose, I think. Culpability is smart, timely, and full of sharp commentary, but it’s also slippery in ways that kept me both intrigued and frustrated. Most of the story unfolds through Noah’s perspective, and to be honest, I never fully warmed to him. His version of self-awareness often felt like a performance—like he wanted credit for noticing his own blind spots without actually changing much. That said, I think that was part of the point. He’s the “scaffolding,” as he calls himself—forever holding up the brilliance of others, but rarely taking a hard look at the power and privilege that gave him that role in the first place.

There’s so much here about parenting, marriage, class, race, technology, and responsibility. Some of the most gripping scenes—especially between Noah and Detective Morrissey—cut through all the rationalizations and force a real reckoning. The final stretch of the book is tense and emotionally charged, and I appreciated how Holsinger doesn’t offer easy answers.

This would be a phenomenal book club pick. It’s the kind of novel that makes you want to talk back to the characters and hash things out with a friend over coffee. Even when I didn’t love being inside Noah’s head, I never stopped thinking. And honestly, that might be the most generous thing I can say about a book.

Thank you to Spiegel & Grau for the gifted ebook and audiobook.

A thought-provoking and relevant piece of fiction about AI, and a stirring family drama dealing with the aftermath of tragedy.

There were a few moments the pacing felt off - dragging too much one way or speeding through another section - but overall this was a good read. The characters were brilliantly done and the implications behind AI in daily life smartly woven into the plot.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

Wow! Not only was this a page-turner, but it really made me think. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and have been recommending it to all of my friends.

“Even as you read these books words, there are AI systems at work all around you, with profound bearing on the disposition of your food, your money, your shelter, your safety. They manage investment portfolios, coordinate global supply chains, and keep networks secure. They direct air traffic, drive trucks and cars, detect fraud, and optimize irrigation schedules.
Increasingly, they fight wars.
And there is almost no one teaching them how to be good.”

Have I gotten your attention? This book will blow your mind with passages like this over and over again.

I don’t want to spoil any of this story for you, so I’m going to be intentionally vague here. This is a story about artificial intelligence and morals and lies and responsibility and gray areas and family dynamics and the power of money. There are NDAs and emergency rooms and assumptions and so many lies.

There are so many ways that this book will make you think.

“When humans do something wrong, they generally face consequences. Even when our wrongdoing goes undetected by another—a parent, a spouse, an institution, law enforcement—we tend to experience guilt, shame, or regret. Only a psychopath lives free of remorse.
Algorithms face no such consequences for their misbehavior, either societal or emotional. Punishment, guilt, culpability are alien to them. There are no moral qualms in an algorithm.
Yet without acknowledgement of wrongdoing, how can there be regret? Without self-consciousness of guilt, how can there be remorse?
And without regret and remorse, how can there be moral growth?”

This book challenged me and will stick with me in so many ways. Although technical at times, the story is so good and these characters all drew me in for different reasons.

How do you use AI in your life?

In this well-paced domestic drama, the Cassidy-Shaw family is in their self-driving SensTrek minivan on their way to attend son Charlie’s final event of his youth lacrosse career. 17 year-old Charlie is behind the wheel, his father, Noah, who narrates the tale, is in the passenger seat, and his mother, Lorelei, and two sisters, Alice, 13, and Izzy, 11, are in the back. Noah, an attorney, is banging out a routine client memo, and Lorelei, a MacArthur Genius Award recipient whose expertise is artificial intelligence, is preparing for a conference in Montreal. A Honda Accord veers into the minivan’s lane, and Charlie jerks the wheel in a split-second reaction, killing the occupants of the Honda, Phil and Judith Drummond, retirees on their way home after vacationing with their kids and grandchildren.

Charlie and Noah escape the accident with no physical injuries, but Izzy suffers a fractured leg, Alice suffers some lacerations and a concussion, and Lorelei is in a neck brace for weeks. Despite seeing a counselor, the family contend with psychic wounds. Lorelei, who has battled crippling anxiety since the seventh grade and is a world-class catastrophist perhaps because of her cutting edge research in the dawning age of AI, is preoccupied with the Drummonds. She declares to Noah, “We killed two people.” Noah, a first generation college kid who is intimidated by his wife’s professional stature, ponders if the SensTrek would have prevented the accident altogether if Charlie hadn’t reacted. When Detective Lacey Morrissey with the Delaware State Police investigates the moments prior to the crash, she assures Noah that the mini-van was equipped with very sophisticated AI technology that will illuminate the events resulting in the crash. Noah worries that the equipment that was intended to keep them safe could be deployed by the police as evidence against Charlie. Alice and Izzy are keeping their own secrets about the moments prior to the crash, each believing that she is responsible for the incident.

The family decides to recuperate by renting a vacation home on the Chesapeake Bay for a week. Noah is disturbed when he finds that a public waterway where he and Charlie have been paddle boarding has been declared off-limits to the general public. Noah learns that the refurbished horse farm skirting the bay is owned by Daniel Monet, the founder of a multinational tech firm with significant holdings across a wide swath of the generative and practical AI space, a major Democratic Party donor, and a philanthropist supporting center left causes. The handsome and charismatic Charlie attracts the attention of Daniel’s daughter, Eurydice, and the duo begin to spend time together. When the Cassidy-Shaw family are invited to a dinner at the Monet’s compound, Noah is disturbed when Daniel and his guests seem to be overly familiar with Lorelei. Was Lorelei having an affair with Daniel? Is that how she was able to secure a rental that he owned and was able to contact him on his cellphone when the air-conditioning went on the fritz?

Holsinger has done a masterful job of weaving cutting edge technology throughout the plot. The friendless Alice confesses her darkest secrets to an AI chatbot. Drones are deployed for a search-and-rescue operation. Excerpts from Lorelei’s paper, “Silicon Souls: On the Culpability of Artificial Minds,” are threaded into some chapters which sharpen then moral issues at the heart of the novel. Lorelei counsels: “We must always take responsibility for our own mistakes. Yet in this new age of intelligent machines, we must take responsibility for theirs. Thank you Jessica Bonet of Spiegel & Grau and Net Galley for an advance copy of this thought-provoking story.

Wow!! This was a fantastic novel, combining a completely engrossing family story with surprisingly interesting and thought-provoking commentary about ethics and Artificial Intelligence. The Cassidy family are traveling, with 17-year old Charlie at the wheel, Dad (Noah) in the front passenger seat, and Mom (Lorelei) and daughters Izzy and Alice in the back of their new mini-can equipped with the latest autonomous driving technology, when suddenly there's a crash. The family members all survive, with varying degrees of injury, but an older couple whose vehicle was hit, are both killed. What follows is a detailed exploration of each family member's reactions to the crash that changed all of their lives.

With excellent character development, mostly realistic scenarios, and a manageable dose of the science involved with AI, this novel presents a compelling story that readers will find themselves thinking about over and over.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #Spiegel&Grau, publisher for providing a complimentary eARC in exchange for an objective review. Today, 7/8/25, is publication day for Culpability, and I suggest you get your copy as soon as possible.

Can the distinctly human concept of morality be applied to AI? Who is at fault when a human overrides an AI-powered vehicle to prevent a collision, resulting in two deaths? Bruce Holsinger’s new novel promises to address these and other questions regarding the way AI has seeped into our daily lives and will only continue to become more relevant when it comes to examinations of power, control, freedom, and safety. These big issues are woven into a compelling family drama centered around one deadly car accident and the five family members who may be culpable in their own ways.

I could not put this book down because I knew there would be some big twists and reveals coming my way. I got so caught up in the drama that I was willing to overlook some thematic heavy-handedness and a lot of really surface-level character development. The father of the family is the book’s sole narrator, other than the use of excerpts from documents and a transcript of conversations between one of the daughters and a chatbot. While I often think that novels with several POVs suffer from an overabundance of perspectives, this novel could have used another narrator. A great deal of exposition was done through the father’s perspective and it seemed a little unrealistic. We can’t truly know each character’s motivations and explore their culpability if we only see the story through one character’s eyes.

Aside from these point of view issues, I was fairly disappointed with the conclusion of the novel. It’s hard to explain this critique without spoiling anything for other readers, but I think there was quite a lot of juicy rising action without a correspondingly satisfying resolution.

Despite these flaws, I do think this book is worth reading because it was a highly entertaining and suspenseful reading experience that also provided a lot of opportunity for reflection on a topic that will only continue to become more prevalent in contemporary literature. This would be a great book club selection— I could see a group of readers debating Culpability at length.

Thank you to NetGalley and Spiegel & Grau for the opportunity to be an early reader of this title, available now!