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.

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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.

Overall I did like this book. I was not sure at first if it was one I was going to be able to get into with AI being the main topic. It is developed and leaves you with enough questions that you want to keep going to see what happens. Some of the storylines felt rushed and did not give enough details or follow through to give clear insights of what was happening. The ended fell a little flat for me and left me with questions of what actually happened to some of the characters. Overall a good quick read. Thank you for the ARC.

This was interesting. I was so intrigued by the plot. I felt like there was quite a lot missing in the writing style that made it difficult to really get into. The writing sounded amateurish which did not match the content. But, overall, it was a decent story.

This was a good book! Not my favorite because I have a hard time with the AI topic, but the overall story and message I could appreciate. I almost didn’t keep reading it but there was JUST enough to keep me interested and wanting to know how it would end.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read it!

This was a quick and fun read that had me continuously wanting to put it up and keep reading. You can tell by chapter three that you have to suspend disbelief and just have fun. One of those plots that you either go with it or DNF. It kept me turning the pages. The premise is over the top but I can see real life being this dependent on AI.

The biggest things that stopped me from rating it higher and being fully immersed are the writing style and plotting. The writing was clunky. I didn’t mind the heavy hand messaging but the delivery felt amateurish. The story is told in different POVs and a lot of the time it felt like I was missing information. Sometimes I would go back chapters to
see if missed something.

Overall a quick but flawed read. I would read the author’s next book.

4 solid stars! this was a high tense thriller that kept my engaged the whole time. i was hesitant at first with the premise of the book but ended up enjoying every second! i was on the edge of my seat and i did not want to put it down! i read this in two sittings. great story & looking forward to reading more by this author.

I thought this book was pretty good. The whole plot is based off an Ai computer leaving millions of people with unanswered questions. It’s like chatgtp but on a much larger scale with much higher risks. I thought the storyline was interesting but I just felt the ending left you wanting more.

I really wanted to love this book. The plot was intriguing and first, I was pulled into the story. However, about halfway through, the story started to drag. The characters weren't developed enough for me, I didn't really connect with any of them, and the storyline fell apart. By the end I was confused, several plotlines had just dropped off or weren't resolved.

Like I said, strong concept, but the execution fell flat for me.

It was ok and different! A very slow burn at first. Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this in exchange for an honest review!

On top of mirroring our world, Carr infuses the story with a fast-pace that keeps your interest at maximum levels with one big twist after another. It’s thoroughly thrilling, superbly thought-provoking, and overall an absolutely engaging experience that will have you finishing it in two sittings if not just one prolonged session. The impact however is a long-lasting one as you find yourself pondering over the well-crafted ideas that Carr conveys through his taut writing.

Hard to believe The Confessions is Carr’s debut in the thrillerverse because it feels like the work of a veteran who balances gritty and grounded human emotions, actions, and the grand stakes so adroitly without the slightest hiccup.

This was a good book, it takes place in the near future where a "super" type of application - LLIAM - provides information to people for most aspects of their daily life, it is also the only application like it in the world and is used world wide by millions. Letters begin arriving to people these letters contain information to the reader about someone the reader knows, that reveals secrets that person has been hiding from them, an affair, a murder, embezzlement etc. At the same time LLIAM shuts down, and users cannot ask it for day to day assistance, like banking, traffic, weather, recipes, etc, this also affects government who also rely on it to make top secret military decisions. Kaitlan Goss is the CEO of the company that runs LLIAM, and she's the one tasked with trying to figure out why it has gone off line. Kaitlan has also received a letter, hers is about something she had done many years ago to ensure she would become CEO of the company and she doesn't want that to become public knowledge. Kaitlan goes on a journey to hunt down Maude one of the developers of LLIAM and who has a chip that would restore LLIAM, with the world at a literal shut down, retrieving the chip and installing it is her top priority. A good portion of the middle of the book is about her travel to find Maude, the people that are tracking her every move and her, in some cases, making things right with people she had wronged on her way to the top. Overall a good book, I would recommend. Thanks to #Netgalley and #Atria for the ARC.

This was such a suspenseful novel and had that element that I was looking for and enjoyed from this type of book. The characters had that element that I was looking for and was hooked from the first page. It had that thriller element that I was hoping for and really enjoyed this concept. Paul Bradley Carr wrote this well and can't wait for more.

At its heart, this may be a touch more a morality play than a thriller, but it’s still a very good read!

While we’ve read thousands upon thousands of stories that address AI, computers, and what it really means to be human, in The Confessions, the author takes that concept in a devastating new direction. Our computer learns something unexpected and brings us to the brink of something both horrifying and incredibly sad.

There were times in the book where our characters were more focused on ethics – and their own slightly (and sometimes not-so-slightly) skewed sense of morality and when it’s okay to do bad things for the greater good. And, I’ll be honest, there were times I wished the book was a little more thriller-based. But if you want a book that makes you think along with the thrills, this one works.

I also found that I wanted to book to be a little more global in scope. While there were a few examples of things that were happening world-wide, they were few and the book felt a bit narrowly focused for something that was supposed to impact most of the world.

I am uncertain how I feel about the ending. It’s…soft and I think I wanted concrete.

All in all, a very good read that will stay with me.

• ARC via Publisher