Author: Bruce Holsinger
Year published: 2025
Category: Adult fiction
Pages: 380
Rating: 4 out of 5
Location: (my 2026 Google Reading map): USA (DE, MD)
Summary: 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.
During a weeklong recuperation on the Chesapeake Bay, the family confronts the excruciating moral dilemmas triggered by the crash. Noah tries to hold the family together as a seemingly routine police investigation jeopardizes Charlie’s future. Alice and Izzy turn strangely furtive. And Lorelei’s odd behavior tugs at Noah’s suspicions that there is a darker truth behind the incident—suspicions heightened by the sudden intrusion of Daniel Monet, a tech mogul whose mysterious history with Lorelei hints at betrayal. When Charlie falls for Monet’s teenaged daughter, the stakes are raised even higher in this propulsive family drama that is also a fascinating exploration of the moral responsibility and ethical consequences of AI.
Review: AI is everywhere and I feel like we're letting it run amok with hardly any checks on it. People have relationships with AI, use it not to feel lonely, to write emails, business proposals and college admission essays, and so much more. Is it stopping us from thinking for our selves? From doing analysis? Or is it the next incredible wave that will improve our lives in ways we cannot even fathom?
These aren't exactly the issues covered in this book, but an autonomous car certainly is. I've ridden in a Waymo (driverless car) and used Tesla's "full self-driving (with supervision)." Both seem super useful, especially for drivers with DUIs, who are older, visually impaired, etc. But what happens with distracted drivers? or with drivers who try to interfere? Those questions are at stake in this well done novel.
As with life, all of the characters in this story are good with positive intentions, but they also have selfish streaks, times when they lie, and behavior that isn't ideal. But don't we all? I think that's why this book works. We can see ourselves in the Cassidy-Shaw family. What would we do to protect our child? To protect ourselves? Can we blame a machine? And what is all our tech tracking?!
Challenges for which this counts:
- 20 Books of Summer
- Cover Lovers--Someone who is barefoot
- Literary Escapes--Delaware
No comments
Post a Comment