Society Of Lies is everything you want in a college campus thriller. The dark creepy vibes surrounding this campus and the death of a student. The dual perspectives makes you even more invested in the story. The writing style is why I loved this book so much! I could vivdely imagine what this looked like and what each character looked like. It made it so much more interesting because I felt like I was there myself!

The only thing that knocked off a star for me is that I think this is about 100 pages too long. This has the potential for being one of those thrillers you start and finish in one sitting, but it's just a bit too long.

I picked this one because who doesn’t love a dark academic murder mystery, especially when there’s a secret society involved? And, better yet, the story is set in the town where I live, at the university I work at! I love Princeton and was thrilled to see it featured in the story, although a lot of the plot took place outside the university.

The story was good, but it didn’t captivate me the way I had hoped it would. It took me a little longer than usual to get through it, and I found myself getting lost pretty frequently. It was hard to differentiate Maya’s voice and experience from her sister Naomi’s. Normally I like shorter chapters, but with all the jumping around in time, I would have preferred longer sections with the same characters.

Everyone in the book is generally selfish, privileged, entitled, and oblivious. I didn’t feel particularly connected to any of the characters, and I was suspicious of everyone connected to Sterling or Graystone, even though it seemed pretty clear who was to blame for Lila’s death. If you like this sort of thing in your thrillers, it’ll be worth a read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy, in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine, Bantam @randomhouse and Netgalley @Netgalley for the e-arc. All thoughts are my own.


How far would you go to belong?

Maya has returned to Princeton for her college reunion. She graduated ten years ago, and now she’s attending the graduation of her younger sister Naomi.

Unfortunately, the weekend becomes Maya’s worst nightmare when she learns Naomi is dead. The police say it’s an accident, but Maya knows there is more to the story.

Maya starts to piece together what happened leading up to her sister death, but the more she learns, the more she realizes how much Naomi hid from her. Looks like Naomi joined the Sterling Club, of which Maya was also a member.

Naomi isn’t the only young woman who’s turned up dead. With everything pointing to Maya, and secrets, she wonders how she can piece everything together.


Okay. I liked this book, but I didn’t love this book. I think that had the pacing been faster, I would have loved it. Because of the pacing, I found my mind wandering at time, and was struggling to stay engaged. Now, I really enjoyed the different points of view a lot of fun. It was a challenge trying to keep the past and present timeline within the same character straight. I think that had the pacing been faster it would have been easier, which seems counter intuitive, but for me, if the pacing is quick then I’m immersed and fully paying attention. I loved the setting of the college and secret societies. This is always a fun setting for me. I did stick this one out and felt that the ending kind of came a little out of left field in an unbelievable way. But I will say that it was unpredictable, and I did have fun with it.

Overall, this was a worthwhile read and I would recommend it to certain folks, especially for those who like books about secret societies.

3/5 ⭐️
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC which is coming out on August 13, 2024.
Dark academia thriller, I enjoyed the secret society part of the book, it was a bit slow for me and had a lot of repetition, but overall is a good read.

I enjoyed the book. It kept me engaged. It didn't keep me on the edge of my seat and ready to explode but it was so close to that. PAUSE - I say this because I felt there were some parts that had a little too much summary than action.
It's the first novel written by the author and I'm really impressed because this is amazing and I do want to read more from her in the future. I can't wait to see what magic she does with that ink and paper 😍

My review of the book:
The first thing that drew me in when I saw the book was the cover. There was something about those half-light glow from the window at night. It was almost as if the cover was whispering silently. Next, the title caught me and I knew I had to find out what the mystery was all about, what lies had been hidden. I knew it was going to be about death obviously but I didn't know it was going to be this complicated. Surely, I was NOT expecting all the random plot twists and turns. It was as if when I finally got a hang of it and could make a decision, another piece of evidence came in to throw me of course.

This one has everything I love in a thriller.
✔️Twisty plot
✔️Family drama
✔️Dark academia (bonus!)
✔️Dual POV & multiple time lines expertly woven together
✔️Secret societies
Easy five stars for Society of Lies! The story pulled me in from the first page and refused to let me go. I look forward to reading everything from Lauren Ling Brown.

I really enjoyed the twists and turns of this story!

You follow sisters Maya and Naomi. Maya is in town and supposed to be celebrating Naomi’s graduation from Princeton, which Maya attended 10 years prior. The morning of graduation Maya gets the devastating call that they found her sister dead. As Maya continues to search for the truth, she finds out her sister may have been involved in the same dark, twisted, secret society that she had also been involved in 10 years before, which just might actually be the missing key to figuring out what really happened to Naomi.

This book is written in a dual POV. Maya in the present time and Noami’s prior to her death. Due to this writing style I found it difficult to keep track of whose chapter I was currently reading because of the reputation of characters and settings. Many times I found myself going back to figure out whose chapter I was in. Also, the author made both sisters narrations very similar which proved difficult as well.

I did love the dark, thrilling, campus vibe the author gave to the story. I’m a sucker for secret societies so I loved the preface of the book! The suspense kept me on the edge of my seat and wanting more. I thought many times I had it all figured out and was proven wrong time and time again.

All in all, such a solid book. Especially for the authors debut novel! I highly recommend to those who are intrigued by suspenseful and thrilling books and are wanting to go on a rollercoaster ride of emotions along with the characters!

As always, thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the ARC copy of this book!

I received Society of Lies as an ARC from NetGalley for an honest review. This was a slow start for me. The book is set at Princeton and follows two sisters, one an alumni and one a current student. Both girls were in the same secret society at Princeton which plays a large role in the story. The current student is found dead a day before her graduation and the story pieces together what happened. There were alternating perspectives and timelines which got a bit confusing. You have to really pay attention to the date and name of the character at the start of each chapter. About a third of the way through the story picked up and I wanted to keep reading.

Overall, this is your typical thriller. Lots of twists and wrong turns to keep you guessing. I liked the setting and the added bonus of the eating houses and secret societies at elite universities. However, i felt like there were too many characters and alternating both characters and timelines got a little muddy within the story. The ending was also a bit unbelievable and I think could have been made more realistic. Overall, a fun easy read.

Maya returns to Princeton to celebrate her little sister Naomi’s graduation. Instead of a celebration it becomes an investigation into Naomi’s death. Fantastic premise! I am a sucker for dark academia and secret societies. Unfortunately the pacing and the choice to alternate POV and timelines really didn’t work for me. Started with a bang and was engaging for the first ~10-15% as the characters were introduced but slowed way down. The back and forth between Naomi and Maya past and present was too much for me. Wanted to be more in the moment of one of the timelines. Expected the secret society to be more tense and thrilling than it was. If you enjoy campus novels and rich people behaving badly, this might be for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bantam for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This story was a great start for this author!

I love a story with a WOW ending, and this one did not disappoint. It flowed great between the two sisters prospective. The timeline changes lost me a little bit here and there, but to NOT so much as to mess of the storyline.

I love that it reads like a Lifetime Movie. I have already be curious the of "secret" clubs on college campuses. This book takes you deep into that world, though it is fiction, I can imagine it look some of the plot from real life stories.

Finally, I suggest this book to the reader that likes a surprise ending, and doesn't mind stories with a twist. GREAT READ!

The premise of this book really drew me in. I love reading about “secret societies “ and watching movies like The Skulls. This book did not let me down. I was really surprised by the ending and think this was a great debut novel.

This is a mystery that will suck you in from pg.1. The secret societies at Princeton, the secrets and mysteries, the drama, the twist…. All of it is exactly what I’m looking for in a campus mystery.

Thank you NetGalley, Lauren Ling Brown, and Bantam for this advanced galley.

This book has everything you could want in a thriller, secret society, murder, corruption, secrets and betrayal. This book is also about sisters and friendships. It’s a very twisty story that has a huge surprise towards the end that I never saw coming. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced free copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I received a copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

This novel is a dual POV between sisters following a similar timeline around their individual experiences at Princeton while we also follow older sister Maya in the present. At times I did have to think about which POV I was following because there are similar names and occurrences. Little sis Naomi digs into the past while we follow Maya’s perspective and then we find the truth from an unexpected source.

It wasn’t the most gripping or fast paced thriller, but I didn’t see the end coming nor did I predict the final twist. I never love when fiction carries political drama over race/covid unless it really adds value, which in this case I don’t think it did. Overall it was good read!

Loved this book!! It reminded me of like the old school lifetime movie thrillers you’d watch in your teens where they were set on college campus.

I received a free copy from NetGalley. Not the typical rich kid sorority college novel, this one has more depth. It does just back and forth with time/narrator which is a little confusing in the beginning when you are learning the characters as each timeline/narrator have a lot of the same secondary characters.

I enjoyed the two timelines between the sisters in their experiences with the Sterling Club and the consequences of becoming a part of the exclusive society. From the outside, the best of the best come from the organization, but what hides behind closed doors suggests something much darker that keeps them all tied together. I thought the plot was super intriguing and I loved the gothic campus setting of Princeton, it was all very descriptive. It got to be slow and because it went so back and forth between the sisters, it could be confusing. Overall, it was an enjoyable novel as the reader uncovers the power behind the organization.

Overall this book had a very interesting plot that kept you on your toes the whole time you were reading. I loved the dark and rich world that Lauren created of the Greystone in Princeton and how interconnected those circles are post-graduation. The book leans into the fact that privilege can help you in many situations.

I thought the relationship dynamic between Maya and her sister Naomi was so interesting and layered. Maya had to put herself through so much in order to better support her sister. Naomi never really understands those struggles and does not listen to Maya's warnings about secret societies at Princeton and then gets involved in unveiling and digging deeper resulting in getting her killed.

I thought Maya's pursuit at trying to figure out what happened to her sister was so interesting, and I loved the flashback and flash forward between chapters. I did think the book was very slow paced and I wish we dug a little bit deeper into Maya's marriage and relationship.

I would recommend this book, but keep in mind the slow pace.

When Maya’s sister, Naomi, dies, she can’t get over the feeling that it wasn’t an accident. Maya’s journey to find the truth will expose long buried secrets and instigate grudges anew.

I didn’t love Society of Lies, I simply liked it. It was an interesting concept and I throughly enjoyed the Ivy League setting. I had never heard of dining clubs before so that was fun and new to learn about! The twists were entertaining enough and the main characters, Maya and Naomi, were likeable. I did feel like the book was slightly character heavy and I struggled at times to keep Maya’s college friends straight. I also felt like this story was a little long winded and could have been condensed some.

Overall, Society of Lies is a fine book with good characters and a great setting but lacked an “it factor” that I can’t quite pinpoint.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bantam for the opportunity to read this early ARC before it’s intended release date of August 13, 2024.

4.5 stars - This book was extraordinarily good for a debut novel. A slow burn, dark academia thriller that gave an inside look at the elite at an Ivy League school. There were three timelines with two POVs but it was written in a way that was easy to understand. The characters were well rounded and likable. The twists kept coming and I could barely breathe the last 10% of the book. I definitely will read anything this author writes!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for providing me with an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Goodreads review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6310097752