A solid debut, with a great dark academia, secret society concept. The opening 25% really had me hooked into the mystery and disappearance of Maya's sister, Naomi. I really liked the Princeton setting, and learning more about the elitist secret organizations on the campus. But it felt like the remainder of the book just stalled. There were dual timelines, which I typically enjoy, but in this context, I just kept waiting for anything to happen in either timeline. This is definitely a slow burn, and while I found the ending satisfying, I'm not sure if I think the middle section was worth the journey. However, I plan to give this author another read in the future!

If you like to read somewhat seasonally and tend to gravitate towards dark academia in the fall this would be an excellent choice for you! I love a campus novel and add in secret societies, sisters and some mysteries and I’m hooked. This flips between sisters Maya in the past and present and Naomi in the months leading up to her death and while the chapters were mostly short, the pacing was more steady. This isn’t a one sitting type of read, it’s the kind where you wanna sink your teeth into it and spend some time with it which is exactly how I read it. Though there is one core mystery there are several other threads making this such a multifaceted read and the author also explored race and privilege in this setting in such a smart and gripping way. It had a ton of depth and substance so if you like mysteries with layers try this.

Ohhh this one was good! It was a fast-paced engaging story about the secret societies at Princeton University filled with lies and manipulation by using wealth and powerful connections. I found this topic fascinating and was googling to learn more about these societies. The dual POVs and timelines from Maya and Naomi kept me hooked and I couldn’t wait to learn more about each of their backstories. There were a few surprising moments and because so many characters were questionable, it kept me guessing. Overall, Society of Lies has a unique and interesting plot with a suspenseful, dark tone throughout! A fabulous debut by Lauren Ling Brown! 👏🏻

This book took me on a ride. There was a lull for me and I wasn't sure but once it picked up I couldn't put it down and read the last 50% in a day. If you like a twist I would read this one.

I think this was an interesting study in friendships, sacrifice and yes secret society life. The Greystone society had so many shady dealings, but the tmfriends had even more.
I look forward to more from this author!
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

This book is a slow-burn mystery with a lot of buildup and little action in the first half. The plot revolves around two sisters, Maya and Naomi, who are ten years apart and both have ties to Princeton. After Naomi, the younger sister, is found dead, Maya, the older sister, takes it upon herself to investigate.

The narrative unfolds from three perspectives: Maya in the present, Maya in the past, and Naomi in the recent past leading up to her death. Maya’s past scenes are written in past tense, while the present-day and Naomi’s perspectives are in the present tense.

The story had me going down a rabbit hole of eating clubs at Princeton as I was reading. I loved the depiction of the secret society. Just when I thought I had one piece of the puzzle figured out, Lauren Ling Brown added another one seamlessly.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

I really enjoyed this book! The dual stories and the way they converged, the heart-pounding action, and the secrets all came together so well. I couldn’t put it down!

This book felt like a mash up of In My Dreams I Hold A Knife and The Secret History. I try to go into thrillers not knowing much, so I was really pleasantly surprised by this one. It had a great thriller/mystery at its heart but also really genuine explorations of class, race, and privilege.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

I really enjoyed this book! The suspense definitely kept me turning pages. I loved the different povs.

This book follows two sisters Naomi and Maya who have lost their parents and end up attending college at Princeton (at different times) both being in this secret society with murder and mystery. When one sister dies the other knows it was no accident.

Overall, this wasn't a bad book, it was just very messy. It may work for some of you but it definitely was not for me (or atleast the second half). The first half was well done, and got me hooked, but the pace overall was a bit too slow for my liking.

My thanks to Net Galley and Random House/Ballantine for this arc. Unfortunately, I didn't care for this book. Premise and mystery set up was Maya Banks gets a call that her sister drowned near Princeton, the same college she went to tears ago. Was it an accident? Maya doesn't think so and sets out to prove otherwise. The story is told from the pov of the 2 sisters to establish what happened.

My issues: 3 time lines going all over the place. Headings of number of months before the death, number of weeks before the death, time period listed after the death. Very confusing to follow with no continuity of flow. There were no characters I even liked. Can't recommend.

An okay mystery/thriller that could have been better with some stronger characters!

When Maya's only living parent dies right before she heads to Princeton, she is swallowed by grief and feels unable to take care of her sister Naomi, who is ten years younger. She has a hard time making real friends -- so its a total surprise when she gets tapped for the most influential secret society on campus. The connections she makes in Greystone easily alleviate all her problems -- money, lucrative internships, and even guardianship for Naomi. But there is a darker side to such power that ends up in the death of one of their members.

Now that Naomi is a Princeton student herself, Maya is desperate to keep her away from the same players who corrupted her time at school. But her inability to be fully honest with Naomi leads to a rift between them -- one that is unresolved before Naomi shockingly dies graduation weekend.

Naomi was investigating Greystone at the time of her death -- and Maya thinks its the cause behind it. But in order to get to the bottom of what happened in the last hours of her sister's life, she will have to come clean about what happened at Greystone when she was a member.

This dragged in bits and the sisters POVs were so similar I sometimes had a hard time differentiating. As a result, I didn't feel as connected to the characters or the storylines as I wanted to!

Page turner. Dark academia centered around 2 sisters and Princeton eating clubs. The book keeps you guessing and wishing the sister wasn’t dead. I liked the side characters and the pace of this book.

Dark academia and secret societies. More mystery than thriller. Two POVs, sisters attending Princeton about 10 years apart, unreliable narrators. The younger sister dies mysteriously before graduation.

I was caught up in the lives of the students. I think that I liked the secondary characters more though. The story was good but, sometimes, the characters felt too similar.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballatine for the ARC.

Yale has secret societies; Harvard has final clubs; Princeton has eating clubs. And Princeton alum Maya has advice for her younger sister, Naomi — “stay away from the eating clubs, especially Sterling!” But, just as younger rebellious sisters are….the advice is ignored and Naomi dies a few days before her Princeton graduation. Overdose? Accidental drowning? Naomi was apparently investigating a suspicious death that happened when her older sister attended. Maya definitely suspects murder and she needs to confront her own symbiotic relationship with the secret society that she was part of ten years ago, but has claimed her as a member forever.

This tale of dark academia was written by a Princeton alumna and has three POV/timelines: present day Maya investigating her sister’s death; Naomi’s months before her death; and 10 years ago when Maya was Naomi’s age. It’s also about the difficulties of being biracial (Asian/Black) and truly intelligent and talented among the privileged elite who were simply awarded their spots in the Ivy League. Not all of Maya’s/Naomi’s colleagues are bad and both sisters walk the tight line of fitting in and getting ahead without making enemies who can crush your future with their connections and money.

The author writes the characters of Maya and Naomi so well and their lack of mutual understanding of each other is frustrating. There’s so much depth to both and even though we know Naomi’s fate, the pacing is phenomenal — so much unease comes from racial, class, and gender tensions. There are multiple twists at the end, but there is great satisfaction with karma and justice. I read this thriller in one sitting. 5 stars! I hope we can see more of Laren Ling Brown’s talent in the future.

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): YES A lot. Lila and Margaret have green eyes; Liam has murky greenish-blue eyes; Nate’s eyes have flecks of gold in a sea of green.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO Some ungrateful peony bouquet abuse occurs.

Thank you to Random House/Ballantine and NetGalley for a free advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

This was probably a case of the “wrong book at the wrong time” for me. I found myself wanting to skim through the last 50 percent just to finish it. That’s never a good sign. However, I had some additional problems with the writing.

My overall impression is that this book’s three separate timelines (with two coming from the same POV, just at different times), overcomplicated the plot. Two of the three storylines were so similar that it made it even harder to keep them all straight. Additionally, the two main characters (two sisters) were also almost interchangeable, and I found myself struggling to differentiate them. All of these factors contributed to my disinterest.

If you love mystery-thrillers set on college campuses with dark academia vibes, you might like this one. But I would recommend other, similar books before this one.

Thanks to Netgalley and Ballantine Books for the opportunity to read this digital ARC. This will be published Oct. 1, 2024.

Thank you so much to @randomhouse
and @netgalley for the early release copy. This was a doozy and kept me going!

Maya graduated from Princeton and is back for her reunion. Her sister Naomi is graduating, so this is truly special time for Maya.
When Naomi dies, and the police rule it an accident, Maya believes there is so much more going on here.
Maya begins to retrace her sister's steps leading up to her death, and slowly unravels that Naomi stumbled onto a dark secret society at Princeton. Even more troubling is that Maya's past seems to have something to do with all that is revealed. You won't guess the killer, I swear.
This is out October 1. Grab it, you won't be disappointed.
#netgalley
#randomhousepublishing
#SocietyofLies
#crazybooknerd

3.5 🌟

Money and power rule everything. 😬😲

Can you love and hate a dual POV? I really liked that we got to see both Maya and Natalie's POV in this story but it did get confusing at times. Also, this is a very slow burn so you need to just stick with it. After reading this book and the darkness surround the ties to money and power, I've never been so thankful to grow up middle class. 😅

Thanks, Netgalley for the ARC of this book!

Really enjoyed this book! Wasn’t a favorite of mine but overall I still liked it and am glad I read it, I would definitely read more by this author in the future!

⭐️: 4/5

I’m not sure why but I went into this one with kind of low expectations, probably due to the fact that I’m a thriller snob and have a lot of icks when it comes to them, but this one blew my expectations out of the water! From the start, I knew that the structure of this one would be up my alley, with multiple timelines and multiple POVs. Then with the slightly dark academia vibe, the plot managed to pull me in and get me invested. Secret societies at Ivy League universities is a thriller plot that, when executed well, will never get old.

As the story went on, it became unexpectedly racially charged, which I actually appreciated a lot. Having attended a Northeast liberal arts college, I know how well those type of institutions hide racist incidents or attitudes while simultaneously publicly shouting about how important diversity is to them. It’s pervasive and deeply ingrained in the culture, which is sometimes hard to see until you’re in the thick of it.

This was a pretty good mystery/thriller, especially for a debut! The ending was appropriately dramatic and shocking, with twists and turns along the way. I think for thriller authors, there’s a lot of pressure to create twisty plots, and sometimes the urge to shock the reader can lead to over the top and out-of-nowhere reveals, which this one avoided, thankfully. I will say that the story of an outsider gaining access to the inner circle of the rich and influential is a little passé, but I suppose the continued use of that theme shows that it still has some intrigue.

Thank you to @netgalley and @randomhouse for this eARC for my review!!