Are you looking for a summer read that doubles as a thought-provoking book club pick? Look no further than Culpability.

The story opens with the five members of the Cassidy-Shaws en route to a lax tournament when they are involved in a devastating accident in their self-driving car. Now the family is headed to the Chesapeake Bay for a week to recoup before facing the aftermath of the accident back at home.

But each family member is hiding secrets about the accident. Noah, our protagonist, is grappling with being distracted in the passenger seat when his 17-year-old son, Charlie, is behind the wheel. Lorelei, his wife, is an expert in the field of AI morality, and she was the one insistent that the car they were in was safe.

Scattered throughout the book are interviews on the effects of AI and quotes from Lorelei’s fictional book, which explores the moral consequences of machines without morals. Each family member is reacting differently to the accident, and their week on vacation has the power to push them together or drag them apart.

Why Kirsten loves it
This novel ponders the very real human culpability when AI is involved. And it’s not just examined via the autonomous car — bots, drones, and even smart home systems are examined with a critical eye throughout the story. I love how Lorelei and Noah’s relationship was depicted – while they struggle throughout these events, it was refreshing to see a man supporting a woman who is a rockstar in her field.

Holsinger was able to frame the abstract complexities of the consequences of AI into a compelling story that was as entertaining as it was demanding of deeper study. I hope this book gets into the hands of readers everywhere so that we can all ponder the message within.

This book centers on the Cassidy-Shaw family. The teenage son is behind the wheel of a self-driving minivan when it is involved in a fatal car crash. Several family members are injured, and the family rents a house on the Chesapeake Bay to recuperate. Their neighbor there is Daniel Monet, a tech mogul, and the majority of the novel revolves around their interactions. This family drama explores the ethical consequences and moral responsibility of AI. While I found the family drama part lacking, I did really enjoy the ethical exploration. There was so much I hadn't previously considered about AI and found myself thinking about it long after I finished the book. As for the family drama aspect, I found the characters fairly 2 dimensional and though they all were harboring secrets regarding the crash, most of these were not very interesting. I really liked Holsinger's previous novels, and though this was not a complete success for me, I will continue to read his books. Thank you to NetGalley and Spiegel & Grau for an advanced digital copy. 3.75 stars

Are humans culpable for AI's mistakes? How do we live with ourselves when we implicitly elect others to die to protect our own? Holsinger is exploring this beautifully and I tore through this book. It has the perfect blend of plot and substance. At the 70% mark I did have some spoiler related questions as to why Holsinger made certain choices, but this is a perfect summer read that will actually make you think.

Real Rating: 4.5* of five

I am not used to this plot twist. The consequences of a fatal car crash? How many times...the crash was caused by AI doing the driving? *sits bolt upright*

That by itself gets my undivided attention. Of course you'd expect something more complex in the way of complications to sustain a novel-length story. You get it in the form of many, many questions, many...let's call them "obfuscations" by people who should know better, and many evil-intent lies told by scumbags.

It really is a novel of the moment. It's not a nonce book, though it has trappings still new to our culturally changed time. The real, deeper exploration is, as we're ever and always confronted with, how far will you go to protect someone you love? That is an evergreen plot because there is no one answer, no one way to think about your own answer, and a never-ending carnival of reasons the question keeps needing an answer.

Tragedy strikes an ordinary family somewhere every minute of every day. When the world is in the midst of an upheaval like the ever-increasing dominance of AI...which doesn't exist, it's really just a handy term for "data-mining executive algorithms" or some less punchy way of saying "fast, fancy databases"...the question of culpability (and Culpability) is a great way to interrogate personal responsibility. It's always worth interrogating. The parents who broke the rules and trusted AI to backstop them? Culpable. The kid who was, well, a bog-standard overconfident kid? Culpable. The vile scum who unleashed an ill-considered AI tool on the world without effective controls?

Do I even need to type it?

It was a very effective choice, making the mother an AI researcher; it left us without a clean shot at our tech-billionaire villain. (Wouldn't matter to me if he was the kindest, most fleecy-li'l-lambkin of a good guy; anyone involved in this AI nightmare of surveillance and control, with corporations acting as the Stasi, the KGB, and the CIA rolled into one, is guilty of something far worse than mere negligence.) The author's made it impossible to assign all blame in only one place. That means we're all left to think through who owes what to whom, in guilt terms; what happens as a result of our decisions is the root of all family relationships. This family's in crisis, but the way they got there? That started a long time ago.

Really back when these two Millennial solipsists had children; nay, when they hooked up the first time. No one seems to like anyone else in the autonomous van that wrecked; no one seems to know why anyone else feels the way they do; the parents are aware of their kids as entities but don't seem to understand why they're acting the way they are. In many ways, I got the impression that Author Holsinger was using the AI-aided disaster to interrogate whether the family in the van is a family at all. Are they in any fundamentally-human way related, or are they merely biologically similar in statistically significant degrees? The AI plot, then, is both point and pointed; we're asked to think about consequences, and should not stop at the simplest ones.

It's a story familiar in its outlines and so makes that deeper probing far clearer in purpose and execution. Because I've read a zillion family-in-crisis tales, that fact of defending your young was just expected and unsurprising. The last half of the story, after the consequences were pretty much on the table, was where I engaged my deeper reading skills. We're led to contemplate, and to contextualize, love and guilt and privilege and responsibility as a nexus; if you could do that without applying it, and its results, to yourself, I think you're deluded.

It is obvious Culpability was a carefully selected title. Guilt and responsibility twined like snakes around each other, and around duty and obligation. These are topics readers love in their stories because they are truly universal. The ending of this story is not going to please everyone. It is absolutely the best ending to my thinking, because it foregrounds the single greatest weakness of trusting, as in "with your life," A System:

Humans are chaotic, and no system will ever manage chaos.

Culpability is a masterfully written novel that deserves a full 5/5 stars for its gripping narrative, nuanced characters, and thought-provoking exploration of guilt and responsibility. From the very first page, I was drawn into the story’s tense atmosphere and emotionally charged dilemmas, each twist revealing new layers of complexity and humanity. The author’s skillful prose and keen insight into the human psyche make every character feel real and relatable, while the moral questions at the heart of the plot linger long after the final chapter. "Culpability" is both a page-turner and a profound meditation on the choices we make, making it a must-read for fans of literary fiction and psychological drama alike.

ulpability is one of those books that should have been a home run for me. i am a well-established hater of AI, and the concept of a novel that explores the ethics of AI and its integration with human philosophies and blame is so compelling. probing the relevant 21st century questions about tech ethics in the context of a family drama rather than speculative fantasy/sci-fi could, in theory, make these concepts feel much more pressing and tangible.

the first third/half-ish of the novel was really working for me. aside from noah spending a weird amount of time convincing the reader of how hot his son was (did this really need to be written in first person??), i found the questions that it posed about AI to be interesting, the story tightly paced and effectively sinister when it needed to be. but the middle dragged a bit, and the elements of the story that initially felt dark and mysterious started to fizzle and drag without ever really becoming interesting, the twists predictable, the characters stagnant.

and with every chapter, yet another social problem is probed at without really fleshing out any of the ones before it. we jump from the military industrial complex to bias in the american judicial system to the contemporary trolley problems baked into decision-making algorithms. it all just feels so flat in the end, and the ending leaves me questioning a bit what holsinger’s opinions on AI really are, let alone what he’s trying to express through each character.

the mixed-media format added a nice texture to the novel, and this book does feel prescient in really undeniable ways. but i also resist the idea that runaway AI is a foregone conclusion, or that these kinds of pseudo-human decision making technologies are something that is mostly good with a dash of ethical dilemma thrown in. holsinger might just be a bit more centrist about the issue than i wanted and was expecting 🤷‍♀️

thank you to netgalley and spiegel & grau for an e-ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

Culpability is such a prolific novel about artificial intelligence and the ethical minds behind its programming.The synopsis for this one is pretty spot on, so I won’t retell that here. I do think the book is pulled in several directions, but was thought provoking regarding ethics. The family drama is all over the place and seems less focused. It was trite at times. However, I think that it made this book a better fit for me to have that additional layer of intrigue among the Cassidy-Shaws. I was engaged with the story from beginning to end. The narrative is split between Noah’s perspective, Alice’s conversation with Blair, and snippets from Lorelai’s work on the ethics of AI.


Culpability’s narrative is a novel concept. I cannot think of another book that falls in this category to have a likeness to compare it. Already I know that some concepts and ethical dilemmas observed here will stay with me. What a well done book, in my opinion!


Thank you Netgalley and Spiegel & Grau for this ARC!

Culpability by Bruce Holsinger is a highly recommended family and AI drama. It follows the aftermath of a family's accident in their AI controlled autonomous minivan and the implications of AI in their daily lives and has been described as a psychosocial thriller.

The Cassidy-Shaw family is on their way to a lacrosse tournament in Delaware. The father, Noah is working on a legal memo in the passenger seat; 17-year-old son, Charlie, is in the driver's seat. In the back seats are mother, Lorelei, a genius who is a leader in the field of artificial intelligence, along with daughters Alice, 13 and Izzy, 11. When their self driving mini van crashes into another car, the mini van is sent rolling while the other car catches fire and the passengers die. Noah and Charlie are unscathed while the others are all rushed to the hospital with various injuries.

The resulting police investigation seems to implicate Charlie, but every member of the family feels some culpability for the accident which unfolds during a stay at a summer rental house on the Chesapeake Bay. Each member of the family has a secret that they feel implicates them in the accident. The stay on Chesapeake Bay further complicates the plot.

Noah narrates most of the story with excerpts from both an article by Lorelei entitled “Silicon Souls: On the Culpability of Artificial Minds,” and Alice's conversation with an AI chatbot. What follows is a compelling realistic morality tale that explores a traumatic family event along with both the moral responsibility and the ethical consequences of AI in out everyday lives. The use of AI in various forms is present throughout the novel.

The writing is excellent and insightful in this topic-driven novel. While the the character's are sufficiently developed and face several challenges, the bigger topic is AI and our connection to devices. Noah struggles with an inferiority complex, which influences his narration of the events and his interactions with his family but he also sees them with compassion and acceptance when they admit their struggles. This would be an excellent book club selection for the myriad of discussions that could result.

Culpability by Bruce Holsinger is a great choice for anyone who would appreciate a novel following the implications of AI in our daily lives. Thanks to Spiegel & Grau for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

The review will be published on Edelweiss, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

The author takes life as it exists right now and puts us in a completely recognizable near future world where there are self driving cars and weaves the story of a family impacted by AI in many of the ways it is currently infiltrating our world. The book didn't so much come up with a warning or statement about AI, but simply allowed us to go along for a ride with this family as it deals with the implications of it in every day life in a way that is just so imaginable - like a year from now, we may be there. The twist is that the mom in this story (not the narrator - that is her husband) is a genius and leading expert on AI ethics. Fascinating story that was fast paced enough to keep me moving along. Sitting with it afterwards, I'm not sure if there was a message I was supposed to take away, but like the authors other books, it is just a book that expertly weaves in life as we know it today and society on the brink (and midst of) change.

With AI about to impact all of our lives I found this book super timely. Chat bots as friends and our moral guides and self driving cars are no longer a concept for the future. How we manage our dependence on these tools is such an interesting area. This family drama is perfect for book club and lots of discussion.

This book sounded interesting and I was looking forward to reading it. However the book felt stiff to me and I struggled to finish it. I’m sure there’s an audience for this book but unfortunately it wasn’t me

I love family dramas, but I wasn't drawn into this story. It started out as a page turner but then felt flat and went in too many directions. I couldn't connect to any of the characters. I thank Bruce Holsinger for writing a timely story about AI's impact on our lives, but I am probably not the right audience for this book.

Thank you, Spiegel & Grau and Net Galley for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest comments.

A compelling and topical family drama. When a teenager driving the family minivan ends up killing two people, questions arise about who was really at fault. Should the parent in the front been paying more attention instead of typing on a computer? What about the artificial intelligence powering the car’s auto drive setting?

Things get even more complicated as the driver’s mother, Lorelei, is a revered thought leader on the topic of artificial intelligence. When the family finds themselves vacationing across the water from a tech billionaire, even more drama ensues. I found this to be an immersive and engaging read, especially as the rise of AI raises all sorts of questions around ethics. I would have loved to have (more of) Lorelei’s perspective versus Noah’s (the husband, a self-deprecating lawyer and man seemingly content to fade into the background).

Thank you to Spiegel & Grau and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy.

I saw a book blogger talking about how this book was their favorite book they’ve read so far this year, and reading the blurb, it really intrigued me since AI has become such a hot topic in the world. The subject of moral dilemmas was what hooked me into requesting a copy of this ARC. AI has quietly invaded SO many aspects of our world that when it really blew up many people were shocked that it felt like it happened so fast, but it’s really been happening for a long time. Everything from authors using ChatGPT to help them (or have them) write a book, to creators using AI to help them design art, book covers, paintings, whatever it may be, has caused such controversy, especially in the arena of using someone’s voice or likeness in movies without those people being paid for their intellectual property. So, when I saw the concept of this story, who is really at fault if something horrific happens, but the humans weren’t the ones controlling the car, I had to see what it was all about.

Firstly, I must admit I really didn’t like any of the characters in this story, particularly Noah. All he seemed to do was stand by and narrate his and his family’s lives, without really participating in them. He came across as someone who felt very inferior to his wife, made worse with the way her whole family treated him like he was nothing more than a lacky. And even when he knew he should interact with his children because things were obviously not good, he chose not to because he either just didn’t have the energy, or he didn’t want confrontations, or I don’t know why.

Each person in this story had serious flaws and was hiding major things, which is all fine and dandy, since that is the reality of life, but all of it just seemed to fall flat. Perhaps it was the author’s writing style that caused this to not work for me. Ironically, it felt to me like some of it may have been run through ChatGPT, which would be sort of funny.

Overall, it was an interesting read and gave me a lot to think about. Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with an advanced review copy of this book in exchange for my honest an unbiased opinion.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #Spiegel & Grau for providing me with an advanced copy of Culpability.

Well well well what do we have here? Book of the summer alert, book of the summer alert 🚨 🚨 🚨. Thankfully I saw a write up about this book umm somewhere (get off my case there’s so many places to find book recs these days) and was lucky enough to receive an advanced copy.

This is THE summer read. It’s THE beach read. It’s THE poolside read. You name a summer locale and this book should be tucked under your arm, cocked, and ready to read. The characters are rich and unpredictable, same goes for the plot, and there is a constant thread of suspense you feel as the reader throughout the book.

The NE of the US is definitely having its literature moment with North Woods, The History of Sound, and now Culpability. The first two books are two of my favorite reads of the year and Culpability continues the streak by being my favorite book of the summer.

It’s topical, clever, and one hell of a ride (pun intended).

Culpability, by Bruce Holsinger, is a great choice for a book club read.  With A1, autonomous vehicles, and other technological advancements, there is a blurring of the lines between what is lawful and what may be morally correct.  When a car being navigated by technology, with a boy behind the wheel who has a provisional license, is involved in a deadly accident, who is at fault? Is it the company providing the technology for the autonomously driven car, the car manufacturer, the person behind the wheel, or the adult in the passenger seat? I'm not sure what the laws are governing situations like this, but the outcome in the book was interesting.  Not only does it introduce the legalities involved, but it also delivers an eye-opening look at just how much technology has made our every move traceable. I appreciate NetGalley and the publisher for providing the ARC ebook that I read and reviewed. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for a review.

This book is close to a 4-star but I couldn’t quite get there. The storyline itself is certainly engaging….family in autonomous vehicle, in a fatal accident and the fallout from that across multiple dimensions. There’s a strong overtone of warning about AI which I appreciated…all that those of us who are laymen simply don’t know about and couldn’t understand anyway.
But some of the story construct felt “trope-y”… wealth, privilege, beauty…and it irked me that the brilliant woman in the story had to be some kind of neurotic character clearly struggling with some type of mental illness. The narrative voice of the father ultimately felt whiny as an aggrieved character who never quite measures up.

A thought provoking novel about the ethics of AI and autonomous vehicles wrapped in a family drama. Narrated by Noah, the dad, it's about what happens to the family after their autonomous minivan hits and kills an elderly couple. Teen Charlie was at the wheel, sort of but he's not the only one who feels guilty. This takes place at the family retreat, which was meant to be healing but which turns out to be a chance for everyone to let go of secrets. Their secrets are the sort we sometimes see (this is, after all a family with teens) but they are nonetheless burdensome. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. A well written topical read.

This is a timely and poignant novel that deals with a compelling and relevant topic- AI. I can see this being a great book club pick with all the layers of family dynamic and the implications of the issues presented in the book in society today.

Good to know: one instance of open door intimacy

Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to read this ahead of publication!

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. I absolutely loved this book! The theme of AI is so relevant in our world right now so it really kept me captivated. After the car accident, I was so interested in what really happened and which family members had secrets. The haunting secrets are just running rampant through the family in this book which I enjoyed and it kept me on my toes and held my interest the entire way through.