Society of Lies by Lauren Ling Brown
🏛️ Society of Lies by Lauren Ling Brown ⭐ 3/5 — Great Start, Messy Finish
📘 Buy Society of Lies on Amazon
Genre: Campus Thriller / Secret Society Mystery
Author: Lauren Ling Brown
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Vibe: Ivy League corruption, dual timelines, sisterhood, betrayal, and way too many people named Cecily doing shady things.
⚠️ Trigger Warnings
-
Racism, sexism, and classism
-
Grooming and sexual coercion
-
Death and murder
-
Substance use
-
Abuse of power
-
Revenge and blackmail
🚨 Spoiler Warning
Full spoilers ahead! I’ll be diving into exactly who killed who, who covered it up, and who probably should’ve stayed out of Princeton altogether.
🏛️ Overview
I love a dark academia setup — secret societies, elite campuses, rich kids with too much power, all that morally gray chaos. The first half of Society of Lies absolutely had me. I was hooked. 👏
The premise? Fantastic. The dual timeline between two sisters (Maya in 2011, Naomi in 2022)? Perfectly executed early on. I was ready for this to be one of those Reese’s Book Club thrillers that actually delivered.
But somewhere around the halfway point… this story got messy. Like, “wait, who’s lying to who and why are we at another ski trip?” messy. Still, the concept is strong enough that I pushed through — and to its credit, the ending does answer all the “who did what” questions (though it skips some of the why, which bugged me).
📚 Plot Summary (Spoilers!)
The story follows two sisters, Maya and Naomi, ten years apart — both Black Chinese American and both connected to Princeton’s most elite and secretive club: Greystone Society, which operates within the fancy Sterling Club.
👩🎓 Maya’s Timeline (2011–2012)
Maya gets pulled into Sterling and then into Greystone thanks to her wealthy, manipulative friends like Cecily and Daisy. When she learns that Greystone’s powerful alumni are bribing and laundering money to secure their children’s Princeton admissions, she’s torn — but ultimately goes along, accepting $10,000 and an internship for helping cheat the system.
When Maya’s friend Lila Jones tries to expose Greystone and their shady professor Matthew DuPont (who’s been sleeping with students — and Lila in particular), everything spirals. During a ski trip, Maya and her friends plan to drug DuPont to make him confess to abuse, but things go wrong. Lila drinks the spiked drink, goes missing, and is later found dead in the snow. Her death is ruled “accidental hypothermia.” Sure, Jan.
Maya suspects foul play but can’t prove it. She buries the secret — and her guilt — for the next decade.
🎓 Naomi’s Timeline (2022–2023)
Naomi, Maya’s younger sister, follows in her footsteps and also gets into Princeton (against Maya’s wishes). Naomi’s sweet, brilliant, and determined — but she’s also naive enough to think she can handle Greystone’s corruption on her own. Spoiler: she cannot.
Naomi becomes close with Amy, an aspiring journalist investigating Greystone’s crimes. But when Amy’s secret life as a camgirl is exposed (via stolen footage projected during class — yikes), her internship and credibility are destroyed. Naomi, however, keeps digging.
She finds a video that proves DuPont killed Lila years ago — with unintentional help from Cecily, who turns out to be both DuPont’s lover and partner-in-crime. When Naomi brings this evidence to Cecily, Cecily panics and kills Naomi with a lethal injection of ketamine.
💀 And that’s how Maya’s sister dies.
🔍 The Present Day
Now married with a daughter, Maya returns to Princeton after Naomi’s death to find answers. What she uncovers is a web of lies, blackmail, and rich-people rot that started over a decade ago.
-
DuPont stalks Maya and her child.
-
Cecily manipulates everyone to cover her tracks.
-
Marta, the housekeeper, secretly holds all the evidence (and a whole lot of guilt).
In the climax, Margaret (one of Cecily’s relatives and Naomi’s guardian) kills DuPont to protect Maya. Cecily then tries to kill Maya — but Marta turns on her and knocks her out with a shovel. Finally, someone in this book does something that feels cathartic. 👏
In the end, Maya scatters Naomi’s ashes in the ocean, fulfilling her sister’s wish for peace — and hopefully leaving Greystone behind for good.
💭 My Thoughts
Okay. Let’s be honest: this book had so much potential.
The first half? 🔥 Secret societies, moral gray areas, intense sister dynamics, and real social commentary about race, privilege, and corruption in elite spaces. It’s like Gossip Girl meets The Secret History, and I was so in.
But the second half? Whew. It’s like someone dumped a thousand puzzle pieces on the floor and said, “Figure it out.”
The pacing loses focus, the motivations get muddled, and there are so many overlapping betrayals that it’s hard to tell who’s scheming for what anymore. I also couldn’t shake the question: if Maya knew Princeton and Greystone were this dangerous, why on earth did she let Naomi go there?! 😩
Still, I have to give credit — the ending ties up the plot and delivers justice (even if it’s a little over-the-top).
👍 What Worked
✔️ Fascinating dual timeline — at first.
✔️ Elite academic setting with a sharp critique of privilege.
✔️ Strong start and juicy twists.
✔️ Themes of sisterhood, guilt, and ambition.
👎 What Didn’t
❌ The middle-to-end chaos.
❌ Too many overlapping subplots.
❌ Motivation gaps — especially Maya’s.
❌ Felt overcomplicated instead of clever.
☕ Final Thoughts
Society of Lies is one of those books that I wanted to love more than I did. It starts strong — dark, academic, full of promise — but by the end, it’s tangled beyond recognition. Still, it’s an entertaining ride with solid commentary on power, race, and institutional corruption.
⭐ 3 out of 5 stars.
Would I recommend it? Sure — if you’re into campus thrillers, secret societies, and morally murky plots. Just… maybe take notes along the way.
📚 If You Liked Society of Lies, Try:
-
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
-
The It Girl by Ruth Ware
-
The Cloisters by Katy Hays
-
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
Comments
Post a Comment