The Confessions by Paul Bradley Carr #TheConfessions @paulbradleycarr @FaberBooks @faberbooks.bsky.social #BookReview #SpeculativeFiction

 

LLIAM, what do I want for dinner?

LLIAM, how can I get a better job?

LLIAM, should I kill my husband?

AI bot LLIAM powers society - but today, he went offline. Shops shut, planes were grounded, and Kaitlan Goss, CEO of LLIAM's parent company, has to fix it.

Then letters from LLIAM arrive: identical white envelopes, confessing people's darkest secrets to their loved ones.

Kaitlan races to find Maud Brooks, the only person who can bring LLIAM back online and stem the tide of societal breakdown. But Maud received a letter, too - about Kaitlan.

LLIAM, how do I save the world?

The Confessions by Paul Bradley Carr was published on 6 November 2025  by Faber.  My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review. 

I think it's fair to say that speculative / dystopian fiction is one of my very favourite genre. I am also fascinated by AI; about its strengths in terms of science, medicine and engineering, but also the massive problem that it is causing for the creative industries. Like most people, my home is run by that little box called Alexa, aided by lighting and heating app and a Ring doorbell. The premise of this book fascinated me. 

There are some books that grab you by the collar from the first page and refuse to let go;  The Confessions is one of those. Paul Bradley Carr takes us into a world that feels both very familiar and slightly too close for comfort. It’s sharp, bold, and utterly gripping from the very first page.

We’re in a near-future world where an all-powerful AI, LLIAM, has taken over almost every decision humans used to make for themselves; where to live, who to marry, even whether to have children. It’s a chillingly plausible premise, and the author doesn’t waste time easing you in. When LLIAM suddenly goes offline, everything starts to unravel: chaos erupts, secrets spill, and no one is safe from exposure.

At the centre of the storm are Kaitlan Goss, CEO of the company that built LLIAM, and Maud Brookes, a former nun whose job was to teach the AI empathy. Between them, the author creates a fascinating moral tug-of-war; taking in faith, science, guilt, and the uneasy question of what it means to be “good” in a world run by code.

The author's writing is really energetic with incredible pace and tension pushing you through the pages, but there’s also real heart here. The “confessions” that start to surface show the raw, messy humanity that LLIAM was supposed to fix. It’s a clever idea; the AI apocalypse as both tech thriller and emotional study.

There are moments where you have to suspend disbelief a little; the logistics of those mysterious letters, for instance, but honestly, I didn’t mind. 

I finished this book asking myself uneasy questions about my own reliance on algorithms, and that, to me, is the mark of a good book.

The Confessions is a smart, timely thriller that manages to be both deeply human and frighteningly possible. It’s one of those books you’ll think about long after you’ve turned the final page.

Paul Bradley Carr is a British journalist and author. 

He has written three memoirs about his adventures in and around Silicon Valley. 

He was the Silicon Valley columnist for The Guardian, senior editor at TechCrunch, cofounder of PandoDaily, and founder and editor-in-chief of the infamous NSFWCORP in Las Vegas. 

His writing has also appeared in The Wall Street Journal, HuffPost, National Geographic, and much more. 

He lives in Palm Springs with his family and is the co-owner of The Best Bookstore in Palm Springs. 

Find out more at PaulBradleyCarr.com

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