I recently finished reading "Society of Lies" by Lauren Ling Brown, and I must say it was an engaging thriller that kept me glued to the pages. The author’s writing style is captivating, and the plot is filled with twists and turns that kept me guessing until the very end. The character development was well-done, and I found myself invested in the protagonist's journey.

Meh. This book was fine. But the idea is overly done and has been done better. Didn't hate it but it was not my favorite.

Society of Lies is an intricately woven dark academia thriller that explores the difficult choice of if you should play the game when it's the only way to survive, or risk standing up for what you believe in.

Maya is excited to attend her Princeton reunion to see all her friends, but also to see her sister Naomi graduate from Princeton herself. But Maya's excitement is sharply cut off when she gets news that Naomi was found dead in a lake. Maya can't help but reflect on her time in Sterling Club, and the secret society within Sterling Club, while she was at Princeton, and if the events of her past are related to Naomi's death.

Told in alternating timelines and perspectives, we learn what happened in the months leading up to Naomi's death, and the fatal events of Maya's time in college as well. As their intertwined stories unravel, the insidious machinations of Sterling Club come into focus for a shocking finale.

Society of Lies takes a hard look at the systems in place that threaten the possibility of equal opportunity, the uniquely isolating situation of being biracial, and the quandary of playing along and winning or standing in opposition with the risk of losing.

Fans of In My Dreams I Hold a Knife and Ace of Spades will love this one!

I love dark academia books and Society of Lies fit the bill perfectly. The story is told through the view points of Maya and Naomi, sisters 10 years apart. At first it was a little confusing because the timeline and the povs jump around fairly quickly but once you settle into the characters you know when you are and who is talking. I loved the secret society aspect of the book and the way even though both sisters went to a Princeton, years apart, both were apart of the same society and both were dealing with the same mystery, just in different ways. I was invested in how the book would wrap up and had several theories but I actually didn't see part of it coming. Brown does and excellent job at casting doubt on multiple characters and even after the reveal, I still expected another shoe to drop. Society of Lies was a great debut and I look forward to more books by the author.

The book cover is GORGEOUS! I love all the little details in each window, and it's why I rushed to request a copy. However, I'm not the biggest fan of the author's writing style. I was never able to fall into this world.

What a great suspense novel. I loved this and can't wait to talk about it in my tiktok videos. I love a good Ivy League college campus thriller and this delivered on every level. This was what I wished the St Ambrose School for Girls was, and I finally got it.


Thank you to Netgalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Maya and Naomi are sisters. Maya is getting ready to attend Naomi's graduation from Princeton the same school Maya went to. Only now Maya isn't celebrating Naomi's graduation she is mourning her sister. Who killed Naomi? Has Maya's past caught up to her? What happened at Princeton 10 years ago? Maya now needs to find out what really happened to her sister.

I did enjoy this book. I liked that it was told by the two sisters present and past. The only problem I had with this book was that it took to long to get to the exciting conclusion. A conclusion that kept me at the edge of my seat. I also sometimes had to reread a chapter because i would mix up when the events were happening and to which sister..

This was a real thriller. Knowing you could have prevented her sister's murder weighs on Maya. Why didn't she open her mouth and tell the police what really happened all those years ago. Relying on her college friends who have become life long friends help keep Maya from really losing it. Will she be able to keep investigating her sisters death but also keep herself and her family from becoming the next victims?Maya does her best to give Naomi the best life she could when her mother dies. With Maya being older than Naomi it was hard for her to take care of her sister and yet make a life for herself. A life that included making money and accepting help that is tied to her college days. Being part of a secret society isn't all fun fun fun. You end up owing people for you induction into this lifestyle, sometimes with you life.

An excellent thriller with and exciting ending. I guess you could say you should really think before you leap when it comes to picking rich friends and a secret society I really did not see the ending coming expecially with who was involved. Those are the kind of thrillers I enjoy.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing/Ballantine/Bantam for the ARC. Also I hope to see a lot more from Lauren Ling Brown. This is one book I'd recommend to my fellow readers.




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This is one hell of a first novel! Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for my approved ARC. I’m a sucker for an on-campus thriller and this certainly delivered. While I think some parts could have been sped up a bit, I enjoyed this book and felt surprised at the final twist. I didn’t expect such a well-developed plot. While it was sometimes confusing, it came together in the end in a very satisfying way. If you’re into dual points of view and some very sneaky crimes, this is a good book for you.

I’ll definitely be looking forward to more from this author in the future.

Society of Lies is the debut novel by Lauren Ling Brown. The book is about sisters, Maya and Naomi, and their experiences with a secret society at Princeton.

The story is told in alternating POV and alternating timelines. The timelines are current-day Maya, Maya in college, and Naomi in college leading up to her death.

The book starts off great with the death of Naomi and Maya wanting to investigate. But after some time, the 3 timelines started to bleed together. Also, during Maya’s timeline, she is focused on Naomi’s death, while in Naomi’s timeline, she is trying to figure out what happened to a girl who died in Maya’s timeline. It was a lot of character crossover.

Overall rating 3 1/2 stars. I had a hard time finishing the book. But the ending did have a couple of nice twists so I added an extra 1/2 star. In general, too much going on for my personal preference between the multiple deaths and three timelines.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Ballantine for the eARC.

The story was suspenseful, I'll give it that, and reasonably enjoyable. But I had a few issues with it. First, Maya is an idiot if she thinks going to Princeton (herself or her sister) is the determining factor in whether one has a decent life or not. Certainly not worth what she does (no spoilers, but seriously?). The problem is that the whole story seems to be based on this bogus premise. Second, it probably wasn't the author's intent, but I now have a strong dislike of Princeton. Apparently, these "eating clubs" are a real thing, even if the secret society is pure fiction. Maybe the author did too good a job at introducing me to life at Princeton. ;)

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a free e-ARC of this book.

Society of Lies by Lauren Ling Brown is a captivating debut novel that delves into the mysterious world of secret societies, the unbreakable bonds of sisterhood, and the complexities of privilege within an exclusive college setting. This dark and haunting tale kept me on the edge of my seat, unable to tear myself away from its intricate twists and turns.

Really really liked this debut novel! Love reading murder mysteries set in a college campus and this one being set in Princeton was even better even if at times it felt very pretentious, with their own vocabulary. Good characters throughout, especially the sisters Maya and Naomi. I thought Naomi's storyline was much more suspenseful and easier to follow. Maya's storyline is mostly told in flashbacks. I'd definitely recommend.

I love a thriller where the setting is a college campus! The plot had me interested from the get-go.

I appreciate the publisher and NetGalley for giving me an ARC.

I received a digital advance copy of Society of Lies by Lauren Ling Brown via NetGalley. Society of Lies is scheduled for release o n August 13, 2024.

Society of Lies takes place at Princeton. Naomi is supposed to be graduating, but is instead found dead. Her older sister Maya is devastated, and believes it was not an accident based on her own experiences on Princeton’s campus ten years ago. As Maya investigates her sister’s last months, the past and present twine together in ways that are as dangerous for Maya as they were for Naomi.

This story is told from the point of view of both sisters. We follow Naomi through the six months before her death while Maya bounces between current day and ten years in the past. Both of the sisters have history and motivations that are believable for the story. Given that Naomi is a student at the same school her sister attended, there are a lot of echoes in Naomi’s story. She is interacting with some of the same people Maya did in some of the same places. These same people and places appear in Maya’s chapters, both in the present and the past. This echoing made sense for the story, and helped to develop the themes, but did make it difficult for me to keep the two women’s stories straight. I often had to search for a character name in the chapter I was reading or flip back to the start of the chapter to remember which sister I was with. Given that the echoing is central to the story, I’m not sure that the author could have done anything to help with this.

I did also have some issues with character choices, particularly in the last half of the book. Both women are clearly intelligent. Yet, they make choices (some small/ insignificant, others large and important) that don’t match their intelligence. Yes, we all make bad choices, but they take place in situations and circumstances that make them make sense at the time. In this novel, some of the choices were just dumb with no contextual reason. These were choices the character needed to make to push the story where the author wanted them to go.

In terms of plot, Brown does a good job of giving us lots of potential bad guys. There are very few characters here that I felt confident ruling out as the person responsible for Naomi’s death and the events in the past. Once the truth was revealed, it did make sense, and matched the clues we had been given along the way.

Overall, Society of Lies is a satisfying thriller that digs deep behind the walls of Princeton’s (fictional) secret societies.

I enjoyed this book and the twists throughout. I always enjoy stories told from multiple perspectives in multiple timelines. However, in this case the two sisters stories in college were so similar that I kept forgetting which one I was reading and getting the details mixed up. It was a little confusing in that sense. But overall I enjoyed the plot and the dynamic character development that led me to believe the killer could have been any one of many different people.

This was so enjoyable! I was really in the mood for a mystery thriller type book and this fit the mold perfectly. I loved how the author wrote this book, with it being present day in Maya’s pov and then going in the past and getting Naomi’s pov but additionally going further in the past and getting more of Maya’s pov of when she first got into Sterling/Greystone. It gave both main characters so much depth and made you really feel for them. The pov’s really helped bring this story to life. I was so invested in the society life, the secrets, that alone made me want to keep reading. I found myself constantly going back and forth over “who done it”, seriously at some point everyone was a suspect and for good reason too. Overall, I liked how this book was written and really enjoyed the plot and how the events unfolded. For this being this author’s first book I hope she writes more in this style because I would definitely give another a read in the future.

Lauren Ling Brown's debut novel "Society of Lies" is a gripping exploration of secrets, belonging, and the dark underbelly of elite institutions. Set against the backdrop of Princeton University, this thriller weaves together multiple timelines to create a complex and engaging narrative.

The story follows Maya, a Princeton alumna who returns for her college reunion and her sister Naomi's graduation. However, the celebratory weekend takes a tragic turn when Naomi is found dead. As Maya delves deeper into the circumstances surrounding her sister's death, she uncovers a web of lies and hidden truths that force her to confront her own past.

Brown's narrative structure, alternating between Maya's student years in 2012, her present-day life in 2024, and Naomi's experiences in 2023, initially presents a challenge to the reader. However, this complexity pays off as the story progresses, with the parallel narratives converging to reveal surprising connections and twists.

The author skillfully builds tension throughout the novel, particularly in the final third when the various storylines begin to intersect. The exploration of the Sterling Club, an exclusive social organization with a secret society at its core, adds an intriguing layer of mystery and danger to the plot.

This thought-provoking thriller not only entertains but also raises poignant questions about the lengths people will go to belong and the consequences of keeping secrets. For readers who enjoy suspenseful campus novels with a dash of social commentary, "Society of Lies" is a compelling choice that will keep you guessing until the very end.

A hearty thank you to Random House and NetGalley for providing an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. This is one book you don’t want to miss.

I enjoy "Dark Academia" that actually makes an attempt to subvert the White, colonial origins of the genre (see R. F. Kuang's "Babel" or SJ Sindu's collection of short stories "The Goth House Experiment") and Lauren Ling Brown has delivered, on one hand, a blunt but effective rebuke of the obscene entitlement afforded the rich, powerful, and well-connected. However, on the other hand, the messy execution of the plot and the confusing narrative framing undercuts an otherwise strong message, leaving me underwhelmed. The story follows two sisters a decade apart in age through their separate experiences in a fictional secret society at Princeton known as "Greystone". Both sisters reckon differently with their status as mixed race Black and East Asian students in an overwhelming White institution - Maya, the older sister attending Princeton in the 2010s, by attempting to assimilate and use the society to get ahead, while Naomi, a member of Gen Z attending in 2023 works to dismantle the society from within.

This isn't a spoiler because you discover it basically on the first page - but Maya's primary storyline is concerned with trying to solve Naomi's murder in the present, interspersed with flashbacks of her own time at Princeton, while Naomi's backtracks from several months before her murder to the day of her death. To say that this was confusing would be an understatement. Maya and Naomi are two sisters with similar lived experiences attending the same university while in the same secret society, albeit in different decades. I was constantly confused what time period the story was taking place in, and mixing up which characters and relationships were important in each timeline. It didn't help that several characters exist across Maya's present, Naomi's present, and Maya's past, making it difficult to place exactly what was going on where. Furthermore, while Maya and Naomi are well built out as protagonists, none of the side characters feel especially deep or meaningful, especially given that a large handful of them exist solely as red herrings in the hunt to find Naomi's murderer. Despite the insightful commentary, this is ultimately more of a thriller than anything else.

Maya and her younger sister, Naomi, are orphans. When Maya gets into Princeton, she sees it as a way to make a better life for her and her sister. Of course, college fun distracts her a bit, but she makes what she believes to be lifelong friends. But there’s something darker lurking amongst the campus. She knows something isn’t right, but what can a young adult do when up against powerful, wealthy people? This is a great read about Maya, Naomi, their friends, and all the craziness of college life (and then some!).

Synopsis:

After graduating from Princeton, Maya returns after ten years for her sister, Naomi's graduation. When Maya's weekend is ruined by news of Naomi's death, but while the police maintain it was an accident, Maya believes there is more to the story. As she digs into Naomi's life, she realizes that there is much she did not know about Naomi's life. Despite Maya's best intentions and warnings, Naomi joined the elite club known as Sterling. The more Maya uncovers about Sterling and Naomi, the more she must confront her own life and lies.


Review:

Let's start with the positives.

The sisterhood bond in the novel accurately reflects life. Lauren Ling Brown crafts a bond between two sisters with a ten-year difference in a way that feels true to life. In my experience as an older sister, Maya's commitment to Naomi feels very much like my commitment to my sisters. Maya struggles to balance her life with her husband and daughter while also trying to support her sister. While I do not have that exact experience because my parents have been extremely supportive and helped all of us, I know that I would do whatever it takes to ensure they were safe and successful.
Lauren Ling Brown's writing is incredible. The dark academic setting of Princeton is deeply unsettling and while not centered around real life, feels like something that could happen. As a debut novelist, I was surprised she wrote with such finesse and prowess.
Lastly, the commentary in the novel is powerful. Brown herself is interracial and has faced her share of racism. In the novel, Maya and Naomi are half-black and half-Chinese. As such, they face a lot of racism. When she meets with a professor about a potential job, he explains that she is perfect for the job because the company is trying to reach a diversity quota. However, she must lean into one side of ethnicity more than the other because her "ambiguity might confuse them." If Naomi does this, she will ignore one-half of her identity and dismiss her identity, her family's struggles, and her personal experiences. The commentary here is different from what I have read in other books. Sure, I have read books that comment on race and sexuality, but focusing specifically on the struggles of being an interracial person of color was interesting and enlightening.

Now, let's move on to what I didn't enjoy.

While I liked the plot and the twists, the pacing did feel off. At 384, the novel is on the longer side for a thriller, and that comes through in the last 15% of the novel. For the first 85% of the book, the plot moved quickly, and I could not put it down. However, towards the end of the book, the reading got slightly laborious. Told in dual timelines, it began to feel like I was reading the same plot points from different perspectives. As an avid thriller reader, I expect the last 15% of a story to be fast-paced with various twists and thrills. Here, however, the novel took a drastic turn in pacing. Because I enjoyed the other 85%, I blame the pacing issues on the author's novice.
If you have been around for any length of time, you can probably guess what my next complaint is. If you guessed a time jump, you would be correct. Right when we figure out what is happening and what the truth is, there's a sudden time jump. GASP! Man, I hate when time jumps are used as a plot device to avoid solving or explaining the issue. What's even crazier is I knew it was about to happen. I could feel it in the unraveling and the pacing. Authors, why? Do you not know how to end your story? I'm just confused at this point.

Final Thoughts:

As a whole, I thought Brown's debut novel was successful. The descriptions of elitism and the dark academic setting were intriguing. Despite my issues with the novel, I would recommend this book and will be reading more from Lauren Ling Brown. As such, I give her debut novel a 3.5 out of five. She is a promising author with a unique perspective and writing style that draws readers in.


Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy.