Dark academia, embracing identity and a moral dilemma all come together in the novel “Society of Lies,” a new mystery-thriller by Los Altos-raised author Lauren Ling Brown. Released in early October, the work has been named book of the month by actress Reese Witherspoon’s book club.
“The story centers around a young, Black and Asian woman who saw the world how I did when I was 18,” Brown said. “When I was in high school (at Menlo School), I didn’t really feel like I fit into a lot of spaces. And I wanted to really bring that truth to the character as she explored college campus life.”
Published by Penguin Random House, the novel follows Maya, the protagonist, as she returns to Princeton University to attend the graduation of her younger sister, Naomi. There, she discovers that Naomi has died under mysterious circumstances while part of a secret club that Maya had been involved with.
“Once I had that character, I introduced the dilemma, ‘How far would you go to belong if a secret society gave you a golden ticket and promised you the life of your dreams, but then you learn that they were doing something awful to someone else?’” Brown said.
Ten years ago, Brown didn’t dream of becoming a published author.
After graduating from Princeton – where “Society of Lies” is set – Brown moved to the Los Angeles area to pursue her master’s degree in screenwriting at the University of Southern California, working in post-production and editing after graduating.
“After I took my first creative writing class, I still didn’t think it was possible to have a career as a writer,” Brown said. “Even though I loved it and dreamed about writing a novel someday, I didn’t really know if I could do it. I didn’t have a lot of confidence.”
However, in January 2021, Brown’s career took a turn.
“I was writing on the side as a hobby for many years,” Brown said. “During the pandemic, I was going through a difficult time, and I spent a lot of time indoors. So I started writing as a way to deal with that. I wrote a couple of other novels first and (“Society of Lies”) was my third try, and I found an agent by cold emailing them.”
Since then, Brown revised and edited her novel for almost four years with not only professional editors at her publishing house, but also her family and friends.
“My mom was actually one of my first readers, and some friends who were really generous with their time also read my work and gave me feedback,” Brown said. “It’s really hard to write on your own, so once I had an agent and editor, they really guided me through the process, which was nice.”
Brown’s mom, Christine Ling, also acknowledged her daughter’s resilience throughout the process.
“Lauren pursues something and sticks with it – the number of drafts she cranked out and she sent to me for editing, she thinks it’s 30, I think I read 50 different drafts,” Ling said. “And then when it was submitted to the editor, they suggested that she develop the sister’s character. And so within a short period of time, she was able to crank out this novel and include this sister in there, and weaved the timeline together.”
For Brown, storytelling serves a deeper purpose.
“We can change people’s perspectives with fiction and we can build empathy and talk about subjects that we don’t often talk about,” Brown said. “Reading books with friends or with family, though we might not all agree on the subjects that are brought up in the book, helps us understand each other better and realize that we’re more alike than we think by talking about them.”
“Society of Lies” is available at Linden Tree Books and online.
