In North Carolina, five graduate students are conducting a study on lying. Not so ironically, each one of them enters the study, already mistrusting the other.

Then the unthinkable happens and one of them is murdered. The obvious killer points to a subject of their study who recently blew up. However, upon further investigation, other motives (and suspects) come to light. But when you’re surrounded by masters in the art of lying, how do you know who to trust?

For whatever reason, I had a hard time getting into this book. The initial snafu felt a bit little a red herring, meant to throw the reader off course, arguably unnecessarily. Instead, it served as cause of confusion, and suffered from a lack of cohesion.

I stuck around to find out whodunnit, but I can’t lie, I didn’t find that I cared all that much. Many people are loving this book though, so if a murky murder mystery set in an academia backdrop is your jam, you might consider checking this out for yourself.

This Is How We End Things by R.J. Jacobs is publishing tomorrow! This is so worth picking up. The action starts immediately and never slows down. Dark academia and a whodunit mixed with a haunting atmosphere creates the perfect spooky season/cold weather read. Jacobs creates characters that feel real and while I guessed the culprit, it was a fun journey.

If you're a liar, the grad students of Hull Hall will find out. Just don't trust them in the process...

Dark academia isn't always my favorite genre, but R.J. Jacobs wowed me with This is How We End Things. It's twisty and fast-paced, but at the same time realistic. I thought I had it figured out, due to the multiple red herrings carefully dropped throughout the book, but I was still completely surprised and blown away by the ending.

ARC audiobook provided in exchange for an honest review.

Chelsea Stephens did a fantastic job with the narration of this book! It was clear and concise and always easy to understand from who voices which character was speaking. I really found the story interesting with the majority of the characters being in graduate school and studying psychology. The mystery aspect really had me stumped early on as the culprit seemed completely obvious but went an entirely different way from the one I was expecting! If you enjoy psychological thrillers be sure to give this one a try!

An entertaining thriller overall, but within the genre this one is pretty forgettable. I enjoyed the premise of the psych study on lying, and I wish that it would’ve come into play more in the story.

The characters were just okay. None particularly stood out to me and I feel like no one had much of a discernible personality beyond being relatively unlikable. I wish the author could’ve differentiated the writing/tone more between characters.

However, I found this super hard to put down, and if a thriller sucks me in, it’s doing something right. This is a good choice if you’re looking for a locked room mystery that you can fly through.

4 deserted campus stars

The setting is perfect – school break means a nearly deserted campus, a rare brutal snowstorm, graduate students eager to make their mark with psychological research, and then throw in two murders. What could be better?

The action takes place in North Carolina on a beautiful college campus. There are five graduate students and their professor, Joe Lyons. There are short chapters about everyone, so we get to know them; that doesn’t mean they are likable though. Except for a child, Iris, she was amazing!

I liked the detective on the case, her first murder case. She interviews everyone and quickly learns they are clever liars and have secrets. She teams up with a seasoned campus officer, and I liked their teamwork.

I suspected everyone at some point in this one, and when there was an arrest, I knew I was correct about a few things!

I have enjoyed this author’s previous works; this one was another worthy thriller.

This dark academia follows 5 research students (and there’s a 6th new hire) under the study of Dr. Lyons as they run a morally grey research study. Each of them has their own personalities and their own reasons for being there. When one of them ends up dead, the study takes a dark turn. The detective on the case has decipher through suspects that have dedicated their lives to the study of deception.

This was an engaging read and an interesting premise. I enjoy potentially unlikable characters, although I did like a couple of these. The study, the interpersonal connections, and the secrets among the grad students was enjoyable. I did find it quite easy to figure out who was actually behind the crimes-probably by half way in the book. Takes some suspended belief and the ending might be predictable, but it was still entertaining.

I wanted to like this--campus novel, murder mystery, all the psychology grad students a suspect, but this was only OK for me. The writing wasn't spectacular. I enjoyed the story, and I kept reading because I wanted to find out what happened. There were a lot of clues and a lot of red herrings, and I kept changing my mind, so that was fun.

Thank you to NetGalley, R.J. Jacob’s and Sourcebooks for the free e-book in exchange for an honest review.

I love the fast paced and dark atmosphere of this one! I loved the college aspects and the bit of gore and surprise. I’ve definitely got the R.J. Jacobs bug now and I just want to read more!

Interesting premise for a book. A group of graduate students are involved in a psychology experiment that ends up in murder. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t get into this book. Too many details that didn’t pertain to the story

A dark and dreary atmosphere surrounds the university at the end of a long cold winter while five psychology graduate students and their professor Dr. Joe Lyons conduct a study experiment in lying and deception on a number of diverse students who aren't privy to the subject matter at hand. Shortly after this the study begins an unprecedented volatile reaction from one of the subjects fuels another student's violent response bringing about a sudden unexpected halt to the experiment but before the experiment can be called off an extremely brutal murder occurs without rhyme or reason which has the detective working the case stumped. Just when the police believe they've found their main suspect another murder occurs that completely baffle them and they are at a loss on who could be responsible and now everyone will become a suspect since there are many clues floating around although no hard evidence readily available.

An enjoyable an entertaining mystery thriller filled with several suspects, red herrings and inexplicable murders. The author R.J. Jacobs did a fine job of keeping my interest with colorful and interesting characters while trying to figure out the "Who Done It" puzzle and why? Especially, why were the murders so violent and gruesome? Could one of Dr. Lyon's small study really be a cold blooded killer? If so, the experiment should have been about murderers and their victims instead of simple deception. Recommended for any reader who enjoys locked room mysteries or a good mystery in general.

I want to thank the publisher "Sourcebooks Landmark" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this digital copy and any thoughts or opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I have given this book a rating of 3 PUZZLING 🌟🌟🌟 STARS!!

Thank you so much NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for my gifted eARC

This is a fast paced thriller written in multiple POV and so much fun

A group of graduate students are working on a rather controversial psychology experiment. The experiment of lying and deceit. To achieve results, their method emotionally stresses the subject and they assess how they respond to the sudden change

One day their experiment goes awry, causing the professor, Dr. Lyons, to pull back from the project. Little does the team know, that within 24 hours two lives will be lost and the killer is closer than they all think

Dr. Lyons, Scarlett, Britt, Veronica, Robert, Elizabeth, and Chris all have secrets ranging from petty theft to jail time. But are they capable of murder?

It has been so long that I’ve read a book that was this well written to have the reader think every single person was a suspect. I continuously changed my mind each chapter and was still surprised at the end!

If you enjoy dark academia thrillers with multiple POV, I definitely recommend you pick this one up!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy of this book! It was a thrilling read, and I enjoyed the setting very much. I think everything about this book was enjoyable. It was enjoyable in its storyline, its tropes, and its characteristics. I do believe there could have been more innovation in the plot to make it stand out as different from similar works in the genre, but as I said, the book was enjoyable.

There was a lot of promise here. Maybe it's been a while since I was a psych major, but so much was troublesome just from that lens. The whole thing was an obvious ploy. I don't want to get too much into spoilers. It was really obvious who was going to die and who was being set up to be the killer. For a thriller, there was no thrill. I knew where this was going every time I started a chapter. It was just finishing it. I was disappointed. It could have been good.

was so excited to read this novel as it is dark academia, locked room mystery and a lot of psychology. I love the idea of looking at the psychology behind someone’s actions. The prologue grabs you right away, but the story is a slow burn, picking up pace as you continue to read.

There were a lot of character POV’s. After the first 3 chapters, I had to stop and go back and write down who each person was and there role in the book. Once I did that, it made the book flow so much better. I had a pretty good feeling about who the killer might be around the 40% mark, but it didn’t take away from the story as I felt I could have been wrong.

This! This is what I look for in tight tension, closed in spaces. Tastefully done!!!

There’s a brutal murder in the science department of a campus and the suspects are the students. Six students are studying the psychology of lying and testing it amongst themselves. They each have their own secrets, they wish to keep hidden, but not all secrets are easy to keep.

This is a who-done-it, locked in a school, murder mystery. It’s tight with tension and fast paced. Though some things were predictable, I enjoyed the story.

This book will definitely grab your attention and keep reading. I really recommend it if the premise is your type of story.

Thank you to Source books and Netgalley for my gifted copy.

Dark Academia, featuring psychology sign me up! I really enjoyed this one, with the experiments they were running and trying to understand the characters that are running the department. Everyone has secrets and lies they are trying to keep hidden and I loved that. We get all of multiple POV and little hints at the end of chapters that just make you want to turn the pages faster to figure it all out. I wasn't able to guess who the murder was until close to the very end and I loved that!

Real Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars

This book is fine, and that’s the issue. It’s…fine. It’s a good read. It’s interesting enough.

But from its generic cover to underwhelming prose (this book is categorized as literary fiction and I couldn’t disagree with that assessment more) to trite predictability, This Is How We End Things is just another average psychological thriller with lofty aspirations.

I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy the book, because I did, but only in certain places and in certain aspects because this book suffers from hefty unevenness. To be brief about it: In my opinion, this book only gets interesting when it talks about the psychological aspects of the plot. Whenever we get to the characters on a personal level, though? The whole thing wilts. Maybe that just betrays my love of social psychology, abnormal psychology, and sociology, because the whole reason I wanted to read this book is because I’m fascinated by the art of deception. Maybe I’m biased because I wanted way more psychology and way less interpersonal drama. Who knows? All I know is today this book was just another average psychological thriller that gets some extra brownies points for keeping my attention and being a little more interesting than the others.

I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: Crime Fiction/Dark Academia/Murder Thriller/Psychological Fiction/Psychological Thriller/Suspense Thriller

This is How We End Things by R.J. Jacobs is another well written thriller by an extremely talented author. This is a creepy compelling thriller that will keep you guessing from start to finish. Mr. Jacobs descriptions are spot on. If you have ever been alone somewhere during a major snowstorm, especially on a college campus, you will understand. A group of grad students and their professor find how eerie and mysterious it can be. Mr. Jacobs characters are well developed and believable. The story is told from multiple point of views to keep you turning the pages quickly. A story dealing with lies, deception, murder, mystery and many dark and twisted secrets with all kinds of creepiness mixed in. It is very mysterious and thought provoking and I loved it!!! Kudos to you Mr. Jacobs, this is the perfect book for this time of the year.

Thank you NetGalley, Sourcebooks Landmark and R.J. Jacobs for this captivating story to read and review.
#netgalley. #sourcebookslandmark. #rjjacobs
#thisishowweendthings. #arc. #psychologicalthriller. #

Many thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for gifting me a digital ARC of the new novel by RJ Jacobs - 4.5 stars rounded up!

Five graduate students are working under Professor Joe Lyons, conducting experiments into the science behind lying. When one of the students is found dead, everyone's secrets start to come out. Is one of them capable of committing murder?

This one hit all the marks for me - I love a dark academia thriller, a locked-room type mystery where everyone is suspect, and add in a once-in-a-century NC snowstorm for good measure! In fact, I could have had more insight into the study of lying, because I thought that was so intriguing. Why do we lie? Can you tell if someone is lying to you? Should these type experiments even be done? This book kept me glued to the pages and I didn't have a clue about the culprit. Don't miss this one!