Big moral questions, overwritten prose, and just enough intrigue to keep me engaged. The premise of Culpability is compelling: A self-driving car accident, a fractured family, the creeping unease of living in a world increasingly run by AI. Holsinger sets up an interesting contrast -- familiar family drama playing out against the backdrop of rapidly evolving technology, begging the question: How much responsibility do human beings bear when we cede our control over to algorithms.

Unfortunately, the novel doesn't quite stick the landing. While the ethical dilemmas are timely and thought-provoking, the writing feels overwrought, like every sentence was run through thesaurus dot com (honestly, some of it gave the energy of chatgpt). Instead of letting the story do the work, the prose tries too hard. And while there are some interesting moments of tension, Culpability dodges the most interesting question at its core: are we still accountable for tragedies when we've outsourced our decision-making to machines?

A decent read, but could have gone deeper.

Thank you to Spiegel & Grau and NetGalley for the advance copy