General Fiction | Book Chatter

Culpability
By Bruce Holsinger
Spiegel & Grau, July 2025, 380pp.

The Short of It:

Tech advances, taken to any extreme cause irreparable damage.

The Rest of It:

When the Cassidy-Shaws’ autonomous minivan collides with an oncoming car, seventeen-year-old Charlie is in the driver’s seat, with his father, Noah, riding shotgun. In the back seat, tweens Alice and Izzy are on their phones, while their mother, Lorelei, a world leader in the field of artificial intelligence, is absorbed in her work. Yet each family member harbors a secret, implicating them all in the tragic accident.~ the publisher

I’ve been looking forward to reading this one for awhile. To begin, let’s look at the definition of culpability:

responsibility for a fault or wrong; blame.

Really? Going in, I considered that title while I was reading and was left scratching my head. Why? Because I really didn’t feel that any of these characters felt the weight of their mistakes.

Autonomous vehicles. This one was fully occupied by a family who chose the let the vehicle drive itself. I see autonomous vehicles like Waymo out and about in Century City here, and I’ve observed them in traffic and they are pretty responsive. Probably more so than say a kid on their phone.

There you have it, the conflict. Seventeen year-old Charlie was at the wheel when a car turned into their lane. His response was hampered by the fact that he was actively texting at this critical moment. With his mom and sister behind him, and his dad to his right, you’d think that focus would be on the road but every person in that car was occupied. It was in autonomous mode, after all. Are you to blame when in autonomous mode?

As the Cassidy-Shaws recover from their injuries, they decide to do so by renting a house by the water. A little R&R while they ride out the investigation. At first, none of them are all that concerned and honestly, this bugged me. If this was an error in judgement, or a malfunction with the autonomous technology, it still doesn’t change the fact that people were permanently impacted by this accident.

As a mom, Lorelei seems very distracted and not terribly bothered by any of it. To her, it’s not even a possibility that the technology played a role. She helped develop it and pushed her family to adopt one of these vehicles. But sure, she doesn’t want her kid to face jail time for a simple mistake.

Charlie’s father Noah, a lawyer is much more bothered by the investigation because he knows how these things play out. Culpability, accountability, and yes, money. Money is actually at the forefront to all of it.

While staying at this rental house, he notices the behemoth property across the way. Rich people. Security. Helicopters flying in and out. Business mogul Daniel Monet zips in and out with his beautiful daughter on his arm and then, in a matter of minutes, Charlie is going out with Monet’s teenaged daughter.

I was really surprised at the decision to go this direction. Merging the lifestyles of the rich and not-so famous without fully fleshing them out, was a risk and one that didn’t work for me. I suppose the author was making a statement that money can buy lots of things and that even poor choices can be made better by throwing some money at them. I didn’t care for this aspect of the story at all.

Turns out that Monet and his shallow offerings actually have a lot more to do with the Cassidy-Shaws than you think. A thin thread, at that. Again, not fully developed or explored. There is no accountability for their actions in this story.

What a missed opportunity to explore the ramifications of AI in society. I work in higher ed. AI is all the rage. I possess three Micro-Certs in AI adoption for higher ed and there are definitely roadblocks and hazards to consider, some of which include environmental impact. Did you know that for every prompt it takes six bottles of water to cool the data center holding all that information?

In education, AI use can be a benefit or a curse. For research it’s handy but the data integrity can get muddy when it’s using data from multiple sources. AI also gets confused. It’s called Hallucinations. This is where gibberish is the outcome.

Today, there is legitimate concern that AI is replacing humans. Look at the kiosks at McDonald’s. Newer restaurants no longer have the option of a person taking your order. It’s a dicey gray area and needs to be pursued with caution. Culpability had the chance to fully explore that realm and honestly, chose not to.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Bookshop.org affiliate links.

Beautiful Ugly
By Alice Feeney
Flatiron Books, Jan 2025, 320pp.

*No Spoilers*

The Short of It:

Not at all what I expected, but in a good way.

The Rest of It:

Grady calls his wife to share some exciting news as she is driving home. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he eventually finds her car by the cliff edge the headlights are on, the driver door is open, her phone is still there. . . but his wife has disappeared. ~ the publisher

I was in bed, late one night trying to find something to read and happened upon Beautiful Ugly. It’s been on my list for awhile. I had no idea what it was about. I just knew that many have read it and it had pretty good reviews so I borrowed it from Libby and dove in.

I am not sure what I thought the story would be about but I didn’t expect suspense, or a whodunit. I was pleasantly surprised and yes, a tad confused. Grady’s life is upended when his wife goes missing on that fateful night. It was supposed to be a night to celebrate. He had just made the bestseller list and as a writer, there isn’t much that’s better than that.

But Abby, goes missing. The love of his life. On the phone one minute and then gone. Vanished. Some time passes. Grady is floundering. The success of his novel was satisfying but now he has to come up with a second novel and the ideas just aren’t there. His agent, a long time friend offers him a cabin on a small, Scottish island and encourages him to get away. A change of scenery will do wonders.

Grady isn’t so sure but his options are few. He’s down to his last few bucks and even his beloved black lab, Columbo looks at him questioningly. Like, dude, is this our life now? No, not if he can help it.

He heads to the island. It’s a whole production. There’s a ferry but it only heads in twice a week and the timetable seems to be made-up half the time and non-existent other times. He loads up his belongings and heads out. Then, he sees her. A woman in a red coat, just like Abby’s. Is it Abby? Could it be her after all this time?

When he arrives at the island. People are friendly enough but reserved and odd. Only 25 people on the entire island so he is definitely the main attraction as he forages for food and supplies. No internet. No phone lines. Remote. Isolated. Trapped.

Here, I tread carefully. The island is not what it seems but Grady can’t put his finger on why. He’s been drinking more and sleeping less. Imagination and truth become intermingled. As a writer, he can easily convince himself that something is amiss. I mean, he is a storyteller and looks for these kinds of clues all the time. Nothing makes sense. Who can he trust while on this island? Anyone?

I was successfully led by the hand through this story. It’s a page turner and will leave you scratching your head. What the heck is going on?? Is Grady losing his mind? Is he dreaming? I was surprised at the end. I didn’t see that coming. As the story unravels, it becomes a tad less believable but you won’t notice because you will be racing through it to figure it out.

Recommend.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Bookshop.org affiliate links.

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