For all its eerie timeliness, Culpability should age better than yesterday’s Instagram post. Holsinger, a medievalist at the University of Virginia, has a sharp eye for the eternal values and foibles that animate human affairs ... Not to say it’s didactic, only that it presents deep ethical questions about fault and responsibility. It’s also an irresistibly anxious book ... If you want an engaging novel sure to spark great discussion about...thorny future, this is it.
Holsinger...ratchets the stakes even higher, pushing us to the brink of incredulity. It’s as though he was hellbent on delivering a Book That Will Make You Think when an old-fashioned domestic drama would have sufficed. Not that the two are mutually exclusive, but in this case we lose some emotional depth to philosophical questions (albeit important ones) ... To Holsinger’s credit...answers are nuanced. He peppers his novel with snippets of magazine articles, research papers and text messages ... Elements like these can be a distraction in a novel; here, they provide texture, moving the narrative forward and gently educating readers about the potential and pitfalls of newfangled technology.
Dizzying questions ... Complicated and compelling ... A family drama and a thriller, a heartwrenching emotional story and a meditation on our digital age. It’s the kind of novel I love to recommend because it will appeal to every kind of reader.
Holsinger seems to have created his own subgenre of psychosocial thriller, spinning super-smart, propulsive page-turners out of zeitgeisty worries ... If you are not already hooked on Holsinger, it’s time to join the club.
