Society of Lies: A Novel

A snowstorm sends Maya into Princeton’s Firestone Library, where she meets Lila Jones. Lila has red hair, and she wears Doc Martens and torn jeans, an unusual aesthetic for Princeton. Lila is a member of the Sterling Club, and Maya has her Sterling initiation soon. Maya works on an essay called “Female Hysteria in the 19th Century—Nervous Disorder or Disordered Society?” (205). Lila is studying the 20th-century Western poet T. S. Eliot. Her thesis centers on time and memory in Four Quartets (1941). Lila quotes a haunting passage from Eliot’s four-poem series. She tells Maya to be careful. In a separate written note, she tells Maya to get out of Sterling while she can.

While getting breakfast, Naomi runs into Ben, who says Jamie isn’t his girlfriend. They broke up months ago, but Ben didn’t correct her because seeing Naomi with Liam made him jealous. Naomi says she still has feelings for Liam. Ben thinks Naomi deserves someone “better.”

Amy isn’t in class, and when Naomi returns to their suite, she finds it “destroyed.” Bottles, clothes, books, and trash litter the floor. Amy is bleeding from the broken glass.