When they all have motive and opportunity… an elite team of academic researchers are thrown into a tailspin to prove themselves innocent when two of their own are murdered on campus. The threads slowly unravel as secrets are revealed through out the investigation …

I really enjoyed this book once I got into it! The first few chapters (maybe about the first 25% or so) took me a minute to get into the story as I struggled a bit to follow all the characters (there are so many haha!) and how they were all connected to each other, but once the murders actually took place it was gripping and fast paced to the finish and I couldn’t put it down!

I’m a sucker for a locked room murder mystery and I have become quite fond of the academia setting in novels too so this one seemed to check all the boxes! I thought the concept was great, the characters were interesting and execution of unravelling the twists was very well done.

I just personally got quite confused attempting to keep up with all the different characters and POVs which detracted from my overall enjoyment of the story. I also thought the ending was somewhat predictable (I sort of had a hunch about 75% of the way in) and thus not was thrillingly suspenseful as it probably could have been.

I would definitely categorise this as more of a Mystery than a Thriller.

All in all it was a good, solid read that any murder mystery fan would be satisfied with.

Thank You to NetGalley for the opportunity to enjoy this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

This book could easily be summed up in 2 parts: before the killer is revealed and after. While there was some foreshadowing of the culprit, once they were revealed it felt like a different book.

The premise is interesting and I was getting How To Get Away With Murder vibes in the beginning. I am a big fan of dark academia and thought the concept of lying was an interesting one. The book felt very surface level though. I never felt like I truly understood their research project or the characters themselves. There is a lot of irrelevant distraction in the first 70%. There are characters that are brought in to never amount to anything, background information hinted at that you think will be relevant and it's never brought up again...a lot of red herrings here. Which is normal for a thriller..but somehow this one just felt choppy. But, while this would normally really bother me, I am not mad about it. The suspense and suspicion cast was well done and kept me engaged the whole time. I will say that even though the killer is captured in the end, I was still left with more questions than answers and the last chapter leaves me wondering if this will have a sequel.

Once the killer is revealed, the pacing picks up quickly. When their motives/actions/and actually trying to catch them came into play, I really enjoyed it. Overall though, the way the suspense all tied together was underwhelming and made the first half irrelevant.

It's hard to like any of the characters because you never really get to know them. They all seem to have something they are hiding and while it's used to cast doubt, their stories are never used to connect you to them. They're all intriguing but other than the connection between Britt and Chris, nothing really feels memorable. I also feel like more could have been done if the book wasn't written from the POV of every character.

Overall, I enjoyed they thriller/suspense aspects of this book. It's a quick read and I was definitely kept on my toes the whole time. Despite some things that didn't work for me, I was entertained while reading it and intrigued by where it was going.

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the ARC.

This was a slow starter for me, and I ended up feeling that I never really connected with it. I liked the mystery and never picked the killer, but I found the study they were doing to be confusing, and this probably made my enthusiasm wane.

I really liked the partnership between Larson & King - I would enjoy reading more books with them working together. However, I didn’t particularly like any of the other characters. When the story picks up, I found that I was drawn into the mystery and all the twists that were revealed.

Dark academia, locked room mystery in a snow storm…and a murder?? Why in earth wouldn’t you race to pick this book up.

I absolutely flew through this twisty and intriguing story of PHD students studying lying and deception. When one of them is murdered on campus, how are the police going to solve this? They are all masters of deceit, and are all hiding something dark from their pasts. Any of them could be the killer? But who? And why?

I have read several of this authors books now and throughly enjoyed them all. Never quite knowing where things will go, and so many twists and turns you will feel like you are in a roller coaster at Disneyland.

Highly recommend. Thanks so much to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for my advanced copy to read. Get your copy on September 12th and be prepared to lose your day reading it.

Dark academia thriller with plenty of twists and turns all the way to the end. Dynamic characters, clever writing, and exciting plot.

This premise was super interesting, a group of PhD candidates studying lying and deception find one of their classmates dead, and are all under suspicion by the local police. Listening to these people, who are experts in lying itself, talk with the police and each other really had me scratching my head wondering who I could believe.

I wrote little notes as I was reading to remember my thoughts as I went along, and I really was all over the board with this one. The opening chapter had me completely engrossed and ready to go. Then for maybe the first 50% of the book I wrote that it was slow and it felt like there wasn't much on the line. Then, when things picked up, I was IN. I fell of the wagon and stopped writing any of my thoughts down because I was so hooked. The suspense definitely ramped up and had me on edge waiting to see if I was right about who the killer was. The very end had me reading so fast to see if everyone would make it out alive. At first I felt sort of indifferent to all the characters, but as time went on and POVs rotated through many of the people, I really became attached and felt like I understood them much better. There were a few connections during the wrap up I didn't fully understand, but overall I really enjoyed this one. Power through the first part and know you will enjoy the end of the ride!

This Is How We End Things was a suspenseful dark academia whodunnit following the students in a psychology graduate school program when two of them end up murdered. I loved the frequently shifting POVs that really helped to elevate the tension and mystery, and the way everything came together was fantastic. If you enjoyed other books such as In My Dreams I Hold A Knife and They Never Learn, definitely pick this one up!

I've read multiple of Jacobs' books now and I never knew that he is a practicing psychologist who writes books on the side, which is so fricken cool and added a whole new level to this book. The research and effort put into this was fantastic and as someone who also attended a graduate level psychology program, it was depicted perfectly.

Thank you so much to Source Books and R.J for my physical copy and to Netgalley for my kindle ARC!

Well this book started off with a bang! The beginning was creepy and had me hooked from the very start. So many possible outcomes too really had me turning pages fast to find out what was happening. I loved this book and would definitely recommend it to any suspense lovers!!

R.J. Jacobs has written a page turning psychological thriller set in a snowy university campus and following a group of psychology grad students and their professor who are running experiments on the science of deception. When one of them is found murdered in their department, the only suspects are the grad students themselves, who all hold secrets of their own and their expertise in lying makes a hard task for Detective Larson who finds herself second guessing all she knows about finding the truth.

This snowy setting and the female lead cop was giving me Fargo vibes which I loved and as I really hadn’t read a hooking dark academia thriller since The Silent Patient and The Maiden’s, I enjoyed this so much. It is very fast paced and written from a few different point of views which adds to the who done it mystery. I loved theorising as to who the murderer might be and kept jumping around to different people.
I’d love to reread this once the final edits are done and the book is published, such an entertaining mystery!

I initially picked this up because of the comparison to The Secret History and to be honest they were not anything alike and I often wonder why publishers make such comparisons?

Despite my expectations I was still pleasantly surprised by this one, I particularly loved the procedural and clinical aspects of the police side as well as the psychology department.

There were a lot of characters to keep track of and at times I got confused and lost, I think the author was just taking in too much and needed to streamline.

The twists did land and it was a compulsive read.

Thank you to the publisher for the digital arc all opinions are my own.

I downloaded this book a while ago but then got distracted and it took me a while to get back to it, but when I did, I finished it in basically two sittings. This was my first book by RJ Jacobs and I loved it. As an academic, dark academia is always a fun subgenre, especially when thrillers are your favorite genre. Addictive, full of twists and turns, and nicely developed characters, I could not stop myself from turning the pages as the story unraveled. Five graduate students involved in psychological research about deception are investigated when one of them ends up murdered. The experiment they are working on is controversial, but their advisor is known for pushing the envelope and is renowned in the field.

I loved the strong female detective, Alana Larson, in charge of the investigation, and all of the characters had me second-guessing who the killer could be. The ending ramps up the suspense and the momentum really picks up in the end.

The only confusing part was the campus officer who is introduced as "Officer Patrick King" but who later Detective Larson repeatedly calls "Tim" whenever she calls him. Perhaps he was renamed in one of the drafts but somehow it didn't get changed on every page? Either way, it was easy to figure out from context so this didn't affect my enjoyment of the book. I'll definitely be reading more of this author's work!

It took me several pages to get into this book and I wasn't sure where the story was going to take me. I'm so glad I continued reading because it turned into quite the mystery. By the time I was halfway through, I couldn't put it down... I felt like I was the detective and had to solve the crime. Great read and well written, solvable crime but not obvious. Who couldn't ask for more. Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for allowing me to read This is How We End Things.

A group of doctoral candidates discover a murdered colleague which is then followed by the murder of their mentor. The concept was a good one but the execution of the plot was muddy with lots of holes. It felt as if an editor came through and slashed a few pages per chapter which seemed to leave a lot of the story line connections missing.

This had excellent character development, an interesting premise and an intense setting. Two murders take place at a small N. C. college during a snow storm. The murders are among a group of psychologists who all have hidden secrets. I kept guessing as to who the culprit was but was unsure until the end. I thoroughly enjoyed this and the snowstorm setting really drew me in.

What a great premise! This is How We End Things is about 5 grad students in a psychology department who are helping conduct a study on deception. They are at a North Carolina University under the tutelage of notorious professor Joe Lyons who has no qualms when it comes to blurring ethical lines in the name of groundbreaking research.

First, there is the startling incident involving one of the disgruntled participants in the study which nearly gets the whole thing shut down. Next comes the violent and unexpected murder of one of the grad students whose death rocks the sleepy college town. Who among them has the means and motive to deceive?

On paper This is How We End Things should have been right up my alley. Psychological thriller- check! Academic setting- check! Lies and deception- check! But if I’m being honest, while the potential was there, it wasn’t all that I hoped it would be. I never felt any kinship towards the characters, it was as though they were kept at arms-length. And the setting wasn’t moody and ambient enough to pull off the ‘dark academia’ label in my opinion. It could be a ‘me’ thing, but I felt as though the study wasn’t woven into the story as seamlessly as it could have been. The capacity was there for this to be on the level of show-stopper, The Silent Patient, but the execution was lacking.

However, This is How We End Things is solidly readable and an enjoyable way to spend a few pleasant afternoons. It is definitely more plot-driven and while I was never swept off my feet, it maintained a consistent pace and managed to genuinely surprise me. I enjoyed the psychology references and allusions to the Stanford prison experiment. The concept of a professor deviantly pursuing ethically murky studies is a goldmine of an idea, I just felt like the book had the potential to be so much more than it ultimately was.

This book was super suspenseful! 6 psychology grad students are conducting an experiment based on lying and deception that is going well until they test a subject who they push too far.

There’s murder, deception, secrets, all rolled up into a locked room thriller when these students are trapped bc of a snow storm.

I had my suspicions about the who done it part from somewhat early on but I loved seeing how everything unfolded.

I found a few parts went on a little longer than needed but over all I really enjoyed this.
Thank you netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy

I really enjoyed this one. I love thrillers that take place in an isolated setting, and this utilizes that trope really well. The plot is unique and the characters are all interesting and fleshed out. This was definitely an enjoyable captivating read.

This one was sooooo good! I can see myself recommending this to all kinds of readers. I think this will be praised across the board.

This book was great. I went into this selection blind. I am finding I do enjoy books in an academic setting. I never really considered the idea that I was into dark academia, but I totally am. As a Psychology graduate, I loved that the characters were Psych students. Psychology def goes with the dark vibe the book sets, the fact we go along with the characters as they participate in an unethical experiment was wild. Using body language to decipher behavior is so interesting to me. This book was interesting and well-paced! At some parts, I felt like the book/characters were trying to trick me lol. There were a few times I had to go back to make sure I didn’t miss anything. I know that sounds silly, but I was so invested that it was that deep for me. I mean, who doesn’t love a good murder, with a whodunnit vibe, splash in some secrets and a little betrayal and deceit and here we are! Once the big mystery is solved and all the facts come out! OMG! It’s like everything just fits so perfectly together. The writing was great, and I enjoyed this adventure. Can’t wait to read more by R.J. Jacobs. I recommend this book!
4 stars!
Thank you, Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for the Arc!
This is How We End Things is *expected* to be available September11, 2023

So incredibly atmospheric this one is so eerily haunting. I think the atmosphere is really what made me enjoy it and feel chilled to the bone.