Breakaway Books

Authored by Lauren Ling Brown; Published August 2024; Mystery

⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️🏖️🏖️

Society of Lies was made for the conspiracy theorists who go to town on elite institutions’ shadowy secrets and private clubs. If you’re looking to indulge that part of yourself, this is the book for you.

In Society of Lies, Maya arrives at her sister Naomi’s graduation from Princeton, also her alma mater, to the horrific news that Naomi has been found dead. As she frantically tries to uncover what happened to her little sister, Maya remembers the crimes she witnessed during her own time at Princeton and wonders if there might be a connection between her secret society and the events playing out around her sister’s death.

As a pure mystery, this novel has some distinctive highlights: Red herring after red herring appeared, and it was undoubtedly difficult to tell which were critical clues to the crime at hand. That being said, one of the villains was clear from the start, and pursuing him quickly became the meat of the book. But, even if it was a tad predictable, I couldn’t put this one down once I reached the last third—there was far too much happening, and I needed to know how it ended. It’s not a mystery that made me contemplate the depths of human nature or fall in love with the characters, but it was exciting.

But a big part of this book is the setting and its trappings—an Ivy League university and its exclusive societies. It was difficult for me to sympathize with many of the characters, who seemed to be perfectly fine with bending the rules if it suited their aims, and much of this characteristic seemed to be attributed to their wealth. Perhaps this is representative of the inhabitants of elite universities, but I wonder if it may be leaning into a stereotypical representation. Even Maya, who wanted nothing more than to take care of her sister who was dangling on the edge of poverty, was drawn into the borderline corrupt culture with little struggle. Maybe it’s my optimism speaking, but I like to think there would be more of a fight, even from college students.

Overall, there may be some key tropes underpinning Society of Lies—but that doesn’t mean it’s not an exciting read.