463 reviews for:

Culpability

Bruce Holsinger

4.0 AVERAGE

emotional reflective tense fast-paced
challenging emotional informative mysterious reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced
challenging informative
emotional informative medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

 
A self-driving vehicle gets in an accident and kills a sweet elderly couple. Who is to blame? The teenager in the driver’s seat who didn’t have his eyes on the road, his sister who screamed from the back seat and startled him, his father who was sitting in the passenger seat working and not paying attention either…or the designer of the AI that may or may not have malfunctioned resulting in the accident? 
Holsinger explores the thorny ethical issues of AI using the accident as the taking-off point. That’s when this novel is at its best — when it’s considering these issues. There’s definitely a saggy middle to this book, though, as we spend a lot of time with this family on their week-long vacation to recuperate after the accident. 
I did enjoy this, though — it’s a quick read and asks some important questions we should all be thinking about as AI (for better or worse…mostly worse) becomes more and more an inescapable part of our lives. 
emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I did not like this book. The family just felt so entitled. I didn’t care much for any of the characters or what happened to them. It was trying to say something about AI and its dangers but it didn’t hit the mark for me. 
challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix