I can't help but feel this book has flown under the radar a bit - and I must now seek justice for it! I know it's a cliche to say, but I could not put this book down. I'm not normally one for psychological dramas, but combine it with strained family dynamics, discussions around neurodivergence, and the a look at the total reliance on technology the world has become accustomed to, then I immediately have to give it full marks. What Holsinger has managed to do is write a book about the strengths and weaknesses of technology where it doesn't feel like it's being shoved down your throat, nor are we being bashed over the head over how damning it all is, which is a hard line to tow. The phones and the computers and the self-driving mini-vans are secondary characters to this story, not evil villains that must be killed off in the end, which makes the social commentary sit all-the-more comfortably during the read (and uncomfortably when you're confronted with how much you rely on your phone on a daily basis.) The truth of it is stark and transparent; the family in this could easily be a family you know, and the warning of AI use in the current climate is not one to be ignored. This was not an easy book to digest, but it's a book I could devour again and again and again. My copy was kindly sent for free by the publishers, for which I'm so grateful.

This book defies neat categorisation. Culpability is a family drama, a coming-of-age novel, a philosophical inquiry, and a quietly terrifying meditation on responsibility in the age of artificial intelligence. It should feel overloaded. Instead, it feels precise. The premise is deceptively simple. A privileged family. A self-driving minivan. A fatal accident. A teenage boy at the wheel. Five people in the car, and every one of them carrying a secret that implicates them in what happened. From there, the novel fans outward. Into questions of agency and blame. Into the ways families communicate and miscommunicate. Into the gap between intention and outcome. Into the unbearable truth that responsibility is rarely singular. “Artificial Intelligence confronts us with the problem of distributed culpability.” Yes, AI is central here. The book engages seriously with algorithms, autonomous systems, and the moral fog they create. But this is not a tech thriller. It is far more interested in the human aftermath. In guilt. In fear. In how quickly certainty fractures when you are forced to ask not who caused this, but how did we all contribute? The teenagers are especially well drawn. Awkward. Guarded. Tender. Reckless in the way only adolescents can be. Their interior lives feel authentic, not symbolic. The sibling dynamics rang true, as did the way secrets mutate when held too long. I also appreciated that the parents are not flattened into archetypes. Yes, this is a privileged family. That is part of the point. But privilege does not protect them from moral collapse, only from its immediate consequences. The portrayal of the mother’s neurodiversity was a standout for me. Subtle. Respectful. Woven into the fabric of the marriage rather than spotlighted as a trait. There is real care in how her mind works, how the family accommodates it, and how that accommodation blurs into love. “I am the stolid husband who buys two beds and two sets of sheets so his wife can get enough sleep.” The twists are clever without being over the top. Revelations feel earned. And the philosophical passages never tip into lecturing. They sit alongside the narrative rather than towering over it. “The algorithm will never bleed for us. The algorithm will never suffer for us.” What stayed with me most is the book’s refusal to offer clean answers. No one is fully innocent. No one is entirely guilty. Life is not an algorithm, and the novel understands that deeply. This is thoughtful, unsettling, and quietly absorbing. A book that trusts the reader to sit with ambiguity. 4.25 out of 5. Recommended for readers who enjoy morally complex family dramas, contemporary fiction that engages seriously with AI without fetishising it, and novels that ask difficult questions without pretending to solve them.

This story follows a family of five during and after their driverless minivan collides with another car, killing two elderly people. Miraculously the full family of 5 survive, but at what cost? Injuries can be healed but the wounds that are inflicted on this family aren't just skin deep. There follows, love, jealousy, anger, regret and guilt from all parties. Not quite realising that there's no one person to post blame on.It's a real life horror of how one person's success can lead to such violence and chaos without even intending it too & how jealousy creeps into so many of our daily interactions.I wish that the ending was wrapped up a bit better as I do feel it was left quite open & I would've loved some different points of view aside from the father and eldest daughter BUT overall still a good book.