Thank you so much to Lauren Ling Brown, Random House Publishing Group, and NetGalley for my ARC of Society of Lies. I was so excited to read this debut novel from Brown.

The premise of this book and the plot line are really good. The characters are all likable and relatable. My main issue with this book is that it is slow. And I mean PAINFULLY slow. When I read, I want a book that I’m happy to pick up. This almost felt like a chore to go back to. I love multiple POV books but the POVs here were so similar that I kept getting confused. The book had me guessing through the entirety and I never was right, which I really enjoyed. 2.5/5 stars rounded up to 3.

As other reviewers have mentioned, it's a little tricky to keep track of who's viewpoint you are reading and which timeline as the experiences are very similar. But once I got used to that, it was an enjoyable read. Young adult is still not my favorite because I'm apparently a grumpy Boomer, but it was a great premise and the writing was well done.

An interesting read about student life on one of the premiere campuses in the US. The story was interesting, the mystery was complicated with many twists and turns, the ending was satisfying. My only concern while reading it was how much of what it described really does happen on campuses like Princeton so I was glad the author clarified that in an end section of the book.

Society of Lies
By: Lauren Ling Brown
Pub Day: August 13, 2024
Publisher: Bantam

4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

An incredible debut novel!

Maya was in an exclusive club at Princeton, which lead to a secret society. This society proved to have very complicated repercussions for her and others for years after graduation.

When her little sister is accepted to Princeton, Maya is concerned. When her little sister Naomi ends up dead before graduation, things get more twisted. Could the society have something to do with her death? Maya starts her own investigation because she wants to know what really happened.

A page turner full of deceit, twists and corruption! College is hard enough without the added pressure of what is expected and deaths of those close to you!

Nothing like a dark academia story.

This story is dual pov with three timelines. Maya is the older sister Naomi, her story follows her own time at Princeton within her secret society as well as present day following Naomi’s death. Naomi’s story follows her time at Princeton up to her time of death.

This was a great dark academia book but I feel like it’s unresolved somehow. Our main villain was a little too chaotic at the end, especially when they didn’t show huge signs of that mania from the get go. I did enjoy the fictional eating club and secret society though.

Maya is looking forward to her return to Princeton for her college reunion. She’s not only looking forward to meeting up with old friends, but she will also attend her sister Naomi’s graduation.
Her dream weekend suddenly becomes her worst nightmare when she gets the news that Naomi is dead. Maya refuses to believe the results of the investigation that show her death was an accident.
As Maya investigates the events going on in her sister’s life during the months leading up to her death, she finds Naomi has been subject to several suspicious activities that were a threat to her life after she joined an exclusive social club on campus. Maya also belonged to the club and was aware of the dangers surrounding membership. Naomi never told Maya of her plans to join. She believes that joining the club may have been responsible for Naomi’s death. She wasn’t the first woman to turn up dead. Maya returns to her past and to the secret she has kept for so long. Could she have saved Naomis’ life?
An emotional, riveting story that will keep you on the edge of your sea with twists and turns you will never suspect.

I love a good dark academia so I figured this book would be right up my alley. Society of Lies follows sisters, Maya and Naomi, through multiple timelines leading up to Naomi’s death. There were 3 timelines throughout and dual POVs with the sister and this is ultimately what stopped me from rating it higher. It was confusing to hop between 3 timelines, especially since the sisters had basically the same exact voice. Neither sister was distinct or stood out. And there was almost no interaction with them together throughout the entire story, past or present, which made it really hard for me to connect to them. Why should I care about Naomi’s death when I don’t even feel like Maya cares all that much? It seems like she was looking for answers out of guilt as opposed to genuine care. I just didn’t understand their relationship, so as the main characters it threw me a little.

The second half of the book the tension did pick up a lot and I enjoyed that a lot. I guessed part of the ending, but the other part was pretty outlandish. There were also a few loose ends that never got tied up. Overall it was a decent read that I got through really quickly, so would recommend for something light and quick that you don’t have to think too hard about. You probably won’t remember these characters the day after you’re done with the book, I know I didn’t. But solid 3 stars. Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Overall, I really enjoyed Society of Lies. I appreciated both Naomi and Maya as characters. I liked how the POV moved from one character to another and also how it was pre-death of Naomi and post-death. I liked how it went from several months before to a few weeks after.

At a deep level, it gets to the root of human relationships and the need to belong/be accepted. Naomi and Maya both got too deep into Greystone and, by the time they realized it was a problem, it was too late.

I was legitimately surprised by the twist at the end. I felt like it was well done and well written.

Maya returns to Princeton for her younger sister’s graduation. But the day before graduation her sister, Naomi, turns up dead after getting too close to solving the mystery of another dead girl found on campus when Maya was a student there. Maya knows more than she has let on and did this silence contribute to her sister’s death? This was a quick paced novel thanks to the plot and the short chapters. It’s told in the alternating points of view of the sisters who both went to Princeton and joined the same eating club, so their experiences were very similar which may make it confusing at times. This was the best storytelling of what you imagine the dark side of ivy secret societies to be. So many twists and turns and characters to keep you guessing. The author explores themes of privilege, race, money, and power, as well as the destructive power “silence” can have. Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for this gifted copy in exchange for my honest review.

While I really enjoyed this dark academia book, the timeline was hard to track and follow closer to the end.

My interest in the story was up and down, it just felt like there was a lot of information and not enough getting to the point. The last 30% of the book I ended up just skimming to the end.

Still a good debut book

I quite liked this book, it had a very cool dark academia-like vibe (think Ninth House or The Maidens vibes with the secret societies at prestigious universities). The book took place from 3 points of view: Maya in 2010 as she joins Sterling House at Princeton, Naomi in 2023 (the months leading up to her death) as she also joins Sterling House, and Maya in 2023 trying to investigate Naomi's mysterious death. Admittedly, it was a little bit hard to keep track of which POV I was in (sometimes I had to just refer back to the name at the start of the chapter) as Maya and Naomi were doing very similar things.

I thought the book excelled with highlighting what could have been the dark side of the Princeton Eating Clubs. Maya and Naomi both investigate mysterious/troubling things around Sterling House (and Greystone) and delve into some very corrupt things happening. It was very interesting to see the mysteries around the house unravel and see that the people in it were mostly decent.

This book read more as a mystery than a thriller, which was fine with me but not what I expected from the summary (maybe I was biased by the cover). The first part was a bit difficult to get into, and the book continues on at a slow and steady pace until the last 1/4, where it picks up very quickly. It's well worth getting through the setting-building and meeting the characters to get to the heart of the story.

One small thing I wanted to touch on was that the main characters were mixed race--their mother was Chinese and their father was black. I found Maya and Naomi's experiences and struggles with that very interesting, and appreciated the nuanced handling of this, rather than it being the central focus of the book. I love when interracial. people just get to live their lives in books without their ethnicity being front and center.

Also the ending? Not what I expected at all but it kind of made sense. I feel like it would have been difficult for me to predict this solely from reading what was going on. I can only think of one instance that would have made me suspect this person. I did like it, and it worked.

Overall a wonderful debut novel from Lauren Ling Brown and I know she will continue to write amazing things in the future!

Thank you to NetGalley + Random House Publishing - Ballantine for this ARC!

I love a good murder mystery… especially when paired with drama and secret societies (I was getting The Skulls movie vibes). This book was so well balanced. I was intrigued from the beginning and liked how the author rotated between the two sisters points of view to provide a more robust story.

There were a few plot twists I didn’t see coming, however, one of the main ones I was able to catch on to pretty quickly (though I think this may have been intentional).

This book had drama, suspense, and good character development. there were a lot of characters involved (being that it took place mostly on a college campus), but it was easy to remember who was who.

I could definitely visualize this story as it unfolded and felt like it would be great on the big screen! Which, once I read the authors note at the end (definitely read this part) and her bio, I learned that she is a screenwriter. This was her debut novel and her writing and storytelling were on point. I hope she writes another novel because I will definitely want to read it!

Thank you @netgalley, the author Lauren Ling Brown, publisher Random House Ballentine & Bantam for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book comes out August 13th and you definitely want to add it to your summer reading list! 👏🏻

this is a mystery about two sisters, I read in two days, it was hard to put down. Lots of twists and turns. good read.

Great book I wanted to read this from the very first time I seen the cover it just caught my eye & the book did not disappoint ( great plot and kept me hooked the whole time ) thank you for the chance to read this book

good mystery about friends death and solving the mystery about her sister and friend. liked the time line of chapters of working up to the end. I had an idea maybe of who did it. Loved learning about these fake supper clubs at Princeton. good mystery

I wish I could have binged this, but life happened and let me tell you something, in between reading sprints this was all I was thinking about.
Secret society, trust no one, lies and secrets lasting years and years. What more do we really need?
The shifting timelines and POVs each pushing you further into the story with cliffhangers plot twists and development after development.
This was so fun, I highly recommend this! This is perfect for those just getting into this genre but also well seasoned mystery thriller readers.
Thank you NetGalley, Lauren Ling Brown, and the publisher for this eARC!

Really enjoyed this novel. Alternating between two three time periods was a bit confusing, but everything made sense at the end. Definitely a great whodunit! Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group Ballantine for the ARC.

A decent academic thriller. 2 deaths, 10 years apart, both memebers of Princeton's elite eating club, Sterling. Intriguing premise...but, I didn't hate it, or love it. Kept me interested just enough to get through to a somewhat a predictable ending.
Although, I liked the short chapters and the 2 points of view story line, I found this novel hard to read. The story is told between 2 sisters, Maya and Naomi, and, in the present and 10 years ago. Both characters have overlapping plot lines and the similarity in their voices made it very difficult to keep track whose story I was reading.
Having said that, this was a fairly good debut novel. I would read another one from LLB.
Thank you, Netgalley, Lauren Ling Brown, and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine for the ARC!

Society of Lies” was a wonderfully written story of two sisters-Maya and Naomi. The story immediately drew me in. The author was very descriptive which I often felt like I was in the story. Each chapter focuses on the POV of one sister. The only issue I had was I sometimes had to go back to the start of chapter to remind myself which character I was reading about. Otherwise, I enjoyed the book very much. I couldn’t put the book down toward the end because I had to know how things concluded. I would have never guessed the ending. Wonderful twist and turns. I definitely recommend reading this book. Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for allowing me to read this book.

This book is about Naomi (before her death) and her sister Maya who attend Princenton 10 years apart. Both uncovering different information about secret societies on campus.

This book offered up a bunch of twists I didn't see coming and a couple I was able to figure out. The writing makes the story very intriguing but it is hard to keep track of the variety of characters at times.


Thanks to NetGallery and Random House Publishing/Ballantine/Bantam for the e-arc of thos book.