Society of Lies: A Novel

Content Warning: The source text features sexism, racism, grooming, and emotional trauma.

The Princeton fictionalized in the novel symbolizes a toxic social environment. This is shown in both of the novel’s timeframes: first when Maya experiences and navigates its challenges and, again, when she returns a decade later. In Chapter 1, Maya returns to Princeton for Naomi’s graduation; by the end of the chapter, Maya learns that Naomi is dead. What Maya experiences in 2023, she felt as a student. One of her first memories is of a boy pouring beer on her from an upstairs window at the Cottage eating club. Ostensibly, her initiation into Greystone gives her confidence and a friend group. Yet Greystone exposes her to greater adversity since the secret society subjects her to a world of lethal deceit. Minus Princeton, Greystone doesn’t exist, so Greystone and Princeton are synonymous. To “escape” Greystone, Maya must leave Princeton. She starts spending her weekends in New York City with Nate. Maya says, “[W]hen we came back to campus, the protective cloud would dissipate, and my memories would crowd in” (523). Returning to Princeton is tantamount to going back to a site of trauma. It inevitably disquiets her.

As the story progresses, this