Who's to Blame (My Review of Culpability)

Well, it finally happened. I definitely would have thought it would happen earlier this year, but I finally had my first five star read of 2026! I am talking about Culpability by Bruce Holsinger, now let's jump right into my review and thoughts on the book because I have A LOT to talk about.

One of Oprah's many book club picks for last year, she had a lot of good ones so I'm excited to see her picks for 2026

So to give everyone a quick synopsis, the story follows the Cassidy-Shaw family as they deal with the aftermath of being in a car accident where half the family is left injured. The main twist is that they were in a self-driving car so the question then becomes who is to blame as the other people involved in the other car of the accident are deceased. Was it Charlie, the oldest child and the one behind the wheel or can the blame be placed on the technology?

This book was incredibly topical as we deal with AI on a nearly daily basis. It has flooded almost all social media platforms and AI programs have attempted to make our lives easier, with varying degrees of success. Looking at you Duolingo, we don't need AI to help us learn a new language.

I also loved the characters, as I mentioned in previous review posts, I love messy family dynamics and this group felt real and authentic. The arguments between the siblings felt very reminiscent of arguments I had with my own brother, mostly because we also argued about dumb things. I also felt bad for our main character Noah as his wife's Lorelei siblings always made him feel not good enough for their precious sister. I do think the point that I loved the most about this book was the pacing, it felt like a bit of a mystery as we do not know how the family will make out till the very end of the book.

I felt strung along in the best way possible, I felt like I was swept up in this tornado of blame and kept spinning around until the last page. The blame kept shifting from person to person as the pages went on and we get a new secret revealed each and every time. This is your SPOILER WARNING, from Alice the eldest daughter having conversations with an AI bot named Blair for the entire book and Lorelei being the designer of the AI system that was present in the car crash at the beginning of the book. I gasped when I read that portion at the end when Alice ended up being the one responsible for the crash as she screamed to get back at her siblings for teasing her.

It also brings up a great lesson about accountability, especially for those that grow up with a certain amount of wealth. Sometimes you need to let your kids learn from their own mistakes, especially after covering up those mistakes with vast amounts of money. Overall, I think this was an amazing read and everyone should check this out! Got my fingers crossed that I don't have to wait another two months for my next 5 star read.