Reviews for Society of lies : a novel
Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.
Maya Banks is excited to see her sister Naomi graduate from her alma mater, Princeton, but what is supposed to be a celebration turns into a nightmare when Naomi is found drowned in Lake Carnegie. Maya is convinced Naomi's death wasn't accidental, and she believes it could be tied to Greystone, the secret society both sisters joined. Maya's suspicions center around a charismatic professor, Matthew DuPont, whom she believes might have something to do with the allegedly accidental death of her friend Lila when she was a freshman a decade ago. Unbeknownst to Maya, Naomi had learned about Lila's death and was investigating it with her roommate. Brown's debut unspools in three time lines, those of Maya in the present, Naomi in the months before her death, and Maya a decade ago. This can be a lot to keep track of, but the engaging mysteries at the heart of the story as well as how Maya and Naomi grapple with how being mixed-race makes them feel othered in the largely white Ivy League world will compel readers to keep turning the pages.
Publishers Weekly
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Film editor Brown sets her sights on the lily-white world of Ivy League secret societies in her underheated debut. Naomi, the younger sister of New York City art dealer Maya, who is half-Asian, half-Black, is preparing to follow in Maya’s footsteps and graduate from Princeton University. Naomi’s commencement ceremony lines up with Maya’s 10-year reunion, so Maya prepares to reconnect with old classmates as she heads to New Jersey for the weekend. Not long after she arrives, authorities pull Naomi’s body from a river near campus. Though her death is ruled an accident, Maya fears her sister was murdered. From there, the perspectives and timelines split: Naomi recounts the months leading up to her death, while Maya conducts an investigation and reflects on her own time at Princeton. When Maya learns that Naomi ignored her advice and joined the same secret society Maya belonged to—one mostly populated by the white children of well-connected families—she revisits a decade-old campus death and worries she neglected to sufficiently warn her sister about the nasty games played by Princeton’s elite. Brown has a knack for atmosphere, but her pacing drags, and it’s difficult to differentiate between the voices of her protagonists. This struggles to stand out from the pack of campus thrillers. Agent: Alexandra Machinist, CAA. (Aug.)
