This Is How We End Things is a twisty suspenseful thriller that is perfect for fans of dark academia! The cast of characters are interesting and complicated. The way the author slowly revealed their secrets was really interesting and had me going through a whole list of suspects before the end. There are some breadcrumbs but the mystery was not easy to figure out. If you’re a fan of thrillers and dark academia then This is How We End Things would be an excellent addition to your TBR!

𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐖𝐞 𝐄𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬
𝐁𝐲 𝐑. 𝐉. 𝐉𝐚𝐜𝐨𝐛𝐬
𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐫: 𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬 𝐋𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤
𝐏𝐮𝐛 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: 𝟗.𝟏𝟐.𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑

I’m a fan of dark academia, and R. J. Jacobs set this story up nicely.

A group of graduate students are assisting Professor Joe Lyons, Chair of the Psychology Department, in conducting his unauthorized study on lying, deception, dishonesty - call it what you will.

Of course, they have to deceive their participants, which causes stress and frustration. Coming into this study, the five grad students already had a mistrust for one another as well. Seems everyone has something to hide. Things get out of hand when one of Dr. Lyons's grad students is killed. As a detective is sent in to investigate, a
brutal snowstorm hits, trapping the remaining grad students and the detective alone on campus.

The prologue will grab you, unnerve you, maybe!

This premise, the whole idea of the science of lies, really intrigued me. Can we quantify what makes a good liar? Or the stress factors that lies put upon us before we break? I enjoyed the author’s writing, which made sense since he has practiced psychology for years. I felt he could have delved deeper into the mind games, but maybe that’s next with that ending!

𝘗𝘴𝘺𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭, 𝘢𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘤, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘥-𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮 - 𝘢 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵-𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘳.

Thank you @suzyapprovedbooktours @bookmarked and @rjjacobs75 for a spot on tour and a gifted book.
Thank you Recorded Books for the gifted audiobook.

3.5 rounded up to 4

This was a well produced audiobook. The narrator keeps you engaged, and wanting to keep listening.

Who can you trust when all the suspects study lying? That's the question the book's detective, as well as, the reader are faced with from the very start. This book is a combination of dark academia and locked room mystery. With all the grad student suspects being possibly unreliable narrators the story always keeps you doubting. The premise is interesting, and leaves you questioning what really happened until almost the end. After slowly getting to know each of the students, you end up wanting to know how they move on from this. I know I want to read more about these characters, and find out what is next for them.

Rating: 3.5/5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
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This Is How We End Things is a dark academia, or at least supposed to be, set in North Carolina and Dorrance University. A group of graduate students working on a research project on lying under professor Joe Lyons, until someone ends up dead..
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This Is How We End Things is told in multiple points of view, but I felt it mainly focuses on Scarlett, one of the graduate students, and Alana Larson, the detective on the case. Throughout the entire story, you seem to not that all of the graduate students seem to be hiding something, that they all seem a bit shady if you will. I managed to figure out the culprit around the 60% mark; I just had an inkling due to certain behaviors, though did enjoy the execution and how everything tied together.
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This one starts out a bit slow, but as the story progresses and pieces of the puzzle start fitting together, this one picks up and becomes pretty fast paced. This one kept my interest throughout as I wanted to know who was responsible for everything. They snow atmosphere makes this one even more of a thrilling read as you really feel the pressure to get the suspect in custody before the storm. My biggest beef with this book is this one really didn’t have much to do with the research study on lying. I thought that that would tie into this whole situation, and I guess to a point things did tie in, but I just wanted more with the research study.
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I listened to this one and it was narrated by Chelsea Stephens. She did a great job at all the voices and bringing this story alive. Definitely would recommend the audiobook.
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This was just released on 9/12, and would recommend it to my dark academia / cat and mouse fans. Huge thank you to NetGalley Highbridge Audio and R. J. Jacobs for the ALC in exchange for my honest review.

3.5 stars.

This was a solid and decently written locked room mystery, with some suspenseful moments. It read more like a detective novel/police procedural than a thriller though… It almost felt like it was setting up an ongoing detective series and had the vibe of being the first of many.

The narration was excellent and I fully believe it made this more enjoyable. I will absolutely watch out for other things by the same narrator. As for the story, the backdrop of the psychological experiment didn’t feel fully developed to me, and wasn’t strictly even necessary for the execution of the plot. Really it just gave the reader the expectation that all the players involved were used to—if not good at—lying. The snow storm setting however, was a lot of fun and really amped up the tension and isolation aspect of the story. The characters themselves lacked some development and could have been a little more fleshed out, in my opinion. You never really come to a point where you care about what happens to any of them. Honestly, the psychology student’s POVs were totally overshadowed by the police detective’s POV, which very much dominated and added to the feeling of this being a detective novel, not a psychological thriller.

Overall there was nothing groundbreaking here, but the story was enjoyable. The twist was expected, although not poorly done. If you're looking for shock value and mind-blowing twists, look elsewhere. If you're looking for a quick, cozy mystery/detective story for fall, this could be your thing. This could be a great fit for fans of Lucy Foley, Sarah Pearse, and Alex Michaelides.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the advanced digital and audio copies in exchange for an honest review.

Many thanks for Netgalley for the eaudiobook! I requested this audiobook because I was super excited about the dark academia, small knit group mystery - I'm an absolute sucker for those. This was not it all. I believe this book has been marketed wrong and I had known, I wouldn't have requested this (I HATE detective/police mysteries). The writing was well, so I'm just kinda disappointed.

Dark Academia ✅
Psychology of Deception ✅
Whodunit Mystery ✅

Mini Review:
All these elements drew me to This Is How We End Things. The twisty plot and multiple unreliable POVs move the story at a breakneck pace, creating a very binge-worthy book. Add in a snowstorm (locked room sub-genre) makes this perfect to add to your fall/winter TBR.

Chelsea Stephens performs an excellent narration, adding tone and inflection to create even more tension and eeriness to this atmospheric story! But the large cast of characters made me gravitate to the physical book, and, often, I read along while Stephens narrated. I suggest pairing the two formats if you can for a well-balanced (albeit stressful - a thriller lover’s favorite) experience.

This one was a real bait and switch. I was expecting/hoping for a dark academia read. The marketing of this title appealed to that sensibility, and the vibes start off right--but it quickly falls off. I don't care much for detective stories. Unwitting, unlikely detectives sure...but never real police officers. Novels with police officers ALWAYS end up feeling procedural. There were a lot of characters and it was quite slow. I recommend not marketing this as dark academia and try to appeal more to the police procedural crowd.

This Is How We End Things by R.J. Jacobs is a super entertaining page-turner with great thrilling vibes. The college campus was the perfect setting for a fast-paced whodunnit murder mystery. Unfortunately, I was able to predict the culprit very early on. Not their reasons for committing the crime, but something about them just gave me sketchy vibes. It’s always a big bummer for me when that happens. I love to be fooled, shocked, and completely bamboozled by the author. It makes my entire day to have my predictions thrown out the window, stomped on, and burned to ashes. Overall, this was a quick and easy read that’s perfect for fall reading. It’s eerie, atmospheric, and has an intriguing plot that will keep you on the edge of your seat! I was very happy to finally check out this author’s work, and will definitely read more from him in the future. This Is How We End Things is available now, and it gets 3.5/5 stars from me!

This is How We End Things by R.J. Jacobs - I really enjoyed this one! Psychological stuff has always interested me, so to make a thriller inside a psychological study? You got me sold! I had a feeling who the person was, but stuff at the beginning threw me off a bit, but it ended up being my guess in the end, and I was proud! The ending of the book was so crazy with all the reveals! As I said, I guessed who the killer was but I had no idea how he was connected, just that he was shady and his showing up at that specific time was even more shady. And that female detective? She was strong as crap. Running around bleeding to death and still ending things.

This Is How We End Things takes us on a trip to the dark side of academia. In this thriller we see 6 graduate students who do mildly unethical studies on the students at their university to learn more about lies or deception. Everything is going well until it isn't. One of their team members is brutally murdered and then their professor is also brutally murdered. The suspects are the other 5 team members. All of whom have been trained in deception. Who is the killer?

I kind of like the story and the mystery aspect that we have. I really liked the characters that are kind of not the strong focus like the cute little 6 year old who seems way older, Iris. She steals all of her scenes. . I also really enjoyed Britt, she is moody and smart and looks like the goth chick in the academic setting. Other than that the detective investigating the case was pretty cool. I found the rest of the characters a little bit flat but when you have so many it's hard to build everyone one up.

Overall, the suspense was amazing, especially towards the end. I was thoroughly captured by the imagery portrayed in the story. It really felt like you were in each scene, you were the one fighting for your life, or in the snow with no socks on. The narrator did a fantastic job as well bringing the intensity to our characters. Everyone had their own voice. I did find the bad guy to be predictable, but there were plenty of red herrings thrown in as well. I would love to see this as a series with our fearless detective.

Ultimately, this one is fine nothing groundbreaking, but nothing crazy weird or bad at all

It’s pretty generic in many ways, but does somethings good honestly, I finished early and we can go when I don’t remember much though

I listened to an an advanced readers copy of the audiobook for R.J. Jacob's new book This is How We End Things, courtesy of Netgalley and the publisher Sourcebooks Landmark. This was a thoroughly enjoyable psychological thriller, set in the context of a university psychology department where a Zimbardo or Milgram-like experiment was being conducted on deception. It involved six graduate students and a professor, and every one has something in their past that they don't want to reveal, in a quest to understand the science of lying. The experiment itself becomes secondary, when there is a murder - and then a second murder.

The book is a mystery intended to figure out whodunnit - but with a group of individuals who all have a history of lies and secrets - figuring out who committed the crime is not that easy. The author adds a winter storm into the mix, where the surviving students are basically trapped by a snow and ice storm.

The audiobook was compelling and enjoyable to read. You do have to focus a bit on who's who, given the number of possible suspects, but it's a great read and well worth the time invested.

Read Completed 9/23/23 | 3 stars.
Thank you to NetGalley for this audiobook review copy and the publisher, Sourcebooks, for approving the request. This did not affect my reading or opinion in any way.

This book promised a lot of things but didn't really deliver on them.
- Dark Academia: it was dark, it took place at a school... the main characters were grad students and there wasn't much academia about it other than the fact that there was a school there.
- Tight-knit group of grad students: Not really. They weren't very tight at all. There was a couple having an affair, two students who were tight but we didn't know why until later (a reason that was used for literally nothing, a waste), and two who were a potential love story. They were actually at each other's throats a lot.
-Studying the acts of lying: It... was there? It really didn't come into play at all except for creating some drama in the beginning??

This had SO much promise to be super twisty, unreliable narrators everywhere, clever characters, unique connections... it just fell so, so flat in so many ways. I ended up leaving my rating at 3 stars because it was ** fine **. I made it through the book, didn't think about DNFing, but man, it just really didn't deliver.

The ending was very lack-luster and when I found out who the killer was, I just wasn't impressed. I didn't fully see it coming, but I did have a hunch. There was still a surprise there but the way it all wrapped up was a little too popcorn thriller and much less the psychological mind-bending thriller the was promised to the readers. It also felt a little cheap... I'm gonna have to spoiler tag this. (view spoiler)

I don't hate that I read it. I would have been so curious if I didn't, and I did like ALWAYS THE FIRST TO DIE by this author. Sadly, I think that's he only one of his that I've really liked so far out of the four that I've tried.

This was an interesting concept with so much characters to keep up with. When a woman involved in the lab is found dead, staff and lab participants are all put into question.

Are you looking for your next read to add to your TBR? I’ve got just the book that is perfect for this time of year. It’s a binge worthy dark academia story that’s twisty and atmospheric, and has all the locked mystery/whodunnit vibes.

"A captivating exploration into the psychology of lying, and a high-stakes, dark-academia thriller full of twists and secrets." ―Megan Miranda

WHAT TO EXPECT:
-Dark Academia
-well developed characters
-creepy and atmospheric
-police procedural
-multiple POVs

*many thanks to Sourcebooks, High Bridge Audio and Netgalley for the gifted copy for review

This book was a classic thriller set on a university campus. When psychology students are working with a professor on tests related to deception, there was always going to be something that went wrong. Soon enough things take a turn for the worse and students start to go missing, turning up dead. The story follows one of the detectives in the case as well as the students suspected of the crime. A good story with a decent pace that will keep you guessing all the way until the end, when all is revealed.

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗪𝗲 𝗘𝗻𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀
𝗥. 𝗝. 𝗝𝗮𝗰𝗼𝗯𝘀
𝗢𝘂𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝘄

📖 When a student is murdered on campus, finding the killer is next to impossible when all the suspects are experts at lying.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

• Dark academia / psychological thriller / whodunnit
• Snow storm / locked room mystery
• When a research study goes wrong
• Collage campus setting
• Atmospheric / wintery vibes
• Multiple potential suspects
• Explores the psychology of lying
• For fans of "Lie to Me" show
• Very fun, twisty, and kept me guessing til the end

🎧 Chelsea Stephens nails this performance of a large cast of characters

Thank you #partners @bookmarked & @recordedbooks for my #gifted copies

**Review as posted on my IG this week

I enjoyed this, and I suspect a part of it is because the narrator was so good, giving life to the characters and making them real. A good whodunnit, laced with unexpected deception and trickery, and rather interesting research studies. I think I'm going to look out for more by this author.

3 and a half stars.

Thanks to NetGalley for my ARC.

I found this book to be ok. I liked the premise of the story but feel the execution could have been better. Basically I felt there were to many characters. I didn't feel I that I knew enough of the characters and motivations.