What the reality is when AI moves faster than humans - the results of tragedies caused by AI, the ethics of what AI is doing in our world from children to adults, the lawsuits that will spring up one after another.

So if your 17-year-old is sitting in the drivers seat of a driverless car with a parent in the front seat. Both are distracted by electronics and a car accident happens. This is just the set-up for this story as there is so much more that happens, leaving the reader with so much to ponder. Despite this being a fictional story, there is so much is coming our way in this world of AI. This is a book to read and really think about.

My thanks to Net Galley, Spiegel & Grau, and Spotify Audiobooks for advanced copies of this e-book and audiobook.

Thank you to NetGalley and Spiegel & Grau for the free copy in exchange for my honest review!

It would be hard to pitch a book that’s more relevant to the current moment than this. Holsinger has a skill for combining readable prose and a propulsive plot with thought-provoking themes and even philosophical musings. His topic here is AI, so buckle up.

CULPABILITY follows the Cassidy-Shaw family in the aftermath of a tragic car accident. The teenage son was driving an autonomous vehicle, so who’s to blame? That’s our jumping off point, but there’s a lot more to it. If you’re interested in thinking more deeply about this topic through an easy-to-consume story, I’d highly recommend picking this up. If you’re exhausted by hearing about AI all day every day (like I am) you might want to skip this. It gave me a lot to chew on so I’m glad I read it but I also found myself feeling exhausted by the subject matter, not so much because of the book itself but because of the context in which I was reading it. It’s a fast read with great summer vibes and even a billionaire side character, so I think this would make for a great beach read or book club pick if you’re in the right headspace for it!

Thanks to NetGalley and Spiegel and Grau for the eARC.

I absolutely loved this book. A not-too-far in the future book about AI in our lives, who is accountable, the algorithms we use to do good and the still unknown, even with AI and algorithms to help along the way. I read and enjoyed The Gifted School last year and this book was even better.

I first heard about Culpability from an article that popped up in my Google feed. It was from Simple Life magazine’s book editor saying this new release from Bruce Holsinger is *the* book of the summer. Intrigued, I turned to Netgalley and was delighted to see it available for review.

The opening epigraph is unusual in that it isn't a saying from some famous person or passage from a well-known poem. Rather, it is an excerpt from the main character’s wife’s thesis on ethics and artificial intelligence. (It turns out she is very well-known in the field of artificial intelligence.) This small bit immediately drew me in and I wanted to know more.

The Cassidy-Shaw family is on a road trip to their son’s last sports tournament before he heads to college. Young Charlie takes the driver's seat even though he won’t actually drive the family’s relatively new self-driving minivan. A car on the freeway collides with them, causing an accident that leaves the family with various non-life threatening injuries and an elderly couple dead. But, was it the AI programmed car that caused the accident? Or was the “driver” of the automated minivan guilty of vehicular homicide? These are just some questions that arise as the story develops and the truth of what actually happened unravels.

There is much more to this novel than the car accident. It’s a carefully constructed family drama full of secrets and lies. I could not put it down.

Artificial intelligence is as much a character as the cast of human ones--smart houses, a military owl drone fleet, and an AI app-based friend/confidant are just a few examples. Which is more dangerous: tech with human engineered consciences or human consciences interfering with tech?

At its core, Culpability is about how morality and artificial intelligence collide for an ordinary family. I really enjoyed this well-paced, thought-provoking novel. What would you do in this situation? What are the ethical consequences of AI?

Thank you Netgalley and Spiegel & Grau for early access to this free e-book. Culpability is scheduled to be available in print and audiobook formats on July 8, 2025.

Culpability was an intricately written novel exploring the implications of AI on the modern world through the eyes of a family enduring an unthinkable tragedy.

This novel is layered, poignant, and intense. It’s quite interesting the stylistic choices of the author, because it tells the narrative from the father’s pov, through the daughter’s text messages, and through the mother’s academic paper.

I felt the story built for a long time, and it wasn’t gripping until about 60% in to the novel. It felt that from the tragedy at the beginning, there was a long purgatory where we waited and waited while a foundation was built to get to the 60% and on pacing. I understand why it was done that way, but the novel lost me for a bit in that middle zone. This also was accentuated by the fact that I didn’t like any of the characters. From the parents to the kids, I didn’t love any of them, so I didn’t care if good or bad things happened to them.

From 60% and on I was very invested in seeing how the author would weave all the details together while keeping to the overall theme of the culpability of AI. In the end, I think he left a lasting impression and posed some important questions about the world. I’d recommend this to anyone interested in AI, or to those who like nonfiction, because a lot of the book felt like an academic paper.

Culpability was out of my comfort zone, but I was impressed with the outcome!

I loved Bruce Holsinger’s previous book The Displacements and his latest creation, Culpability, is just as exceptional and unique! This novel has it all: a captivating plot which starts with a bang, a family drama that explores sibling, parent-child, and husband-wife dynamics so realistically, family secrets, and a little bit of mystery. There are also small snippets of a nonfiction book within the novel that allow for a deeper exploration of the ethical and moral consequences of AI. I love when a fiction book can also make me think about deeper issues and this novel does just that but within the framework of a very compelling narrative. I highly recommend this unique, informative, and interesting novel!

Thank you to NetGalley and Spiegal and Grau for an advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

Bruce Holsinger writes timely, uncomfortable and smart books so, so well. I loved The Gifted School and I think this is even better. The dangers of AI and a world relying so heavily on technology will resonate with SO many readers right now. I can’t wait to hand sell this!

Um wow!!! Just wow! I've read many AI related books and generally have loved them. And I love the overall question of how AI will fit into our every day lives. (Autonomous cars will probably always freak me out.) And while the place of AI in our lives is a main story line in this book, there are so many other concepts for consideration throughout the book. I loved how well and naturally they were all woven together and how the Noah and Lorelei's relationship is warped through different views of the situations. I loved how the children were represented throughout the story as full characters, not supporting props for their parents. This book is complex but so well written that the reader is carried along for the ride!

I first heard about Culpability on the Currently Reading podcast, and it sounded like a perfect summer read. Thank you to Spiegel & Grau and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

This novel follows Lorelei, Noah, and their kids - Charlie, Alice, and Izzy - whose lives are upended when an accident occurs with 18-year-old Charlie at the wheel of an AI-driven car. Two people are killed. The family survives. But what follows is more than just grief and survivor’s guilt: it’s a layered story about responsibility, ethical questions around AI, and the ripple effects of one tragic moment.

Lorelei works in AI with a focus on its moral implications. Noah is an attorney wrestling with his own emotions. As the family tries to process what happened during a summer getaway, they become entangled in even more drama.

I won’t spoil anything, as this book is quite plot-driven. While some turns were predictable, others caught me off guard. What stood out most were the family dynamics. The title Culpability resonates not just in the legal or technological sense, but in how people shape and affect each other’s choices.

The writing was so natural and approachable that I briefly thought the opening was perhaps an author's note introducing the book! It has a summery, accessible vibe but tackles weighty, timely questions. Can we program AI to make better decisions than humans? Can it protect us from our own flaws?

A thoughtful, engaging, and timely read. I really enjoyed it.

Culpability was a fast-paced, gripping read that I couldn't put down. I needed a book to get me out of a reading slump and this was definitely it! From the very first chapter, the story hooked me, and the twists just kept coming. Every time I thought I had things figured out, something else happened and made me read on. The suspense built beautifully, and I found myself eagerly flipping pages to see what would happen next. This was a great book!

A story about how one family handles it when life becomes messy and complex. I really enjoyed this book and the moral side of AI. It made me think as well as entertained me. All the time the family spent on the water during a vacation gave me summer vibes.

I think this is my favorite book so far of 2025! Thank you to @netgalley for the ARC!

This is an interesting book as it tackles big questions like the moral responsibility of AI/machines and programs mixed together with a family drama with complex relationships and dynamics.

It hooks you right from the start with a pretty devastating car crash and you want to stay with this family to see how everything plays out. The characters are relatable, flawed and also likable to a degree with some secrets and mystery intermingled. I connected least with the wife but I really enjoyed every aspect of this story and the big questions it asks of the reader without giving answers.

I finished this one in a couple of days as I found excuses to keep reading and reading and I can do the laundry later right?

Highly recommend!

the beginning of this story, with the car accident taking place, hooked me. the way that the "self-driving" feature of the car played a part in the accident brought up an ethical dilemma which served as the center of the story. slowly, the family begins to break down and deals with the grief and the effects of the accident very differently. this book tackles the cupability of AI, morality, and how it plays a role in the every day lives (in sometimes subtle ways).

i enjoyed the beginning but felt a bit disconnected towards the middle. the writing was dense and it took awhile for me to to get back into it. the formatting was also super confusing - this may be because it was an ARC and idk if this formatting will be in the final edition but it definitely hindered my reading experience. there are quick jumps between the narrative, then lorelei's reports/research, and then the daughter, alice's conversation with an ai bot. there was no real distinction between, we kind just jumped into each section without cohesion so it threw me off in almost every chapter.

i definitely think this was an overall effective and thought provoking read on ai and the future of ai. eveyrthing comes together in the end but you're still left feeling as if there's more to the story. kind of haunting to be honest. a solid read!

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.