Thank you Libro.fm / Highbridge Audio, for the ALC of This Is How We End Things in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: Highbridge Audio
Published: September 12, 2023
Summary:
Riley Sager meets If We Were Villains in a compelling new psychological thriller by RJ Jacobs, following a tight-knit group of graduate students studying the psychology of lying. When one of them is discovered dead after an experiment, everything the group thought they knew about deception crumbles…
Campus is empty, a winter storm is blowing in, and someone is lurking in the shadows, waiting for their chance to kill again.
Forest, North Carolina. Under the instruction of enigmatic Professor Joe Lyons, five graduate students are studying the tedious science behind the acts of lying. But discovering the secrets of deception isn’t making any of the student’s more honest though. Instead, it’s making it easier for them to guard their own secrets – and they all have something to hide.
When a test goes awry and one of them is found dead, the students find themselves trapped by a snowstorm on an abandoned campus with a local detective on the case. As harbored secrets begin to break the surface, the graduates must find out who’s lying, who isn’t, and who may have been capable of committing murder. It turns out deception is even more dangerous than they thought…
A foreboding new dark academia thriller of deception and suspense, This is How it Ends follows the unraveling of a close group of students as they contend with what it means to lie, and be lied to.
My thoughts:
This is the first book I’ve read by R.J. Jacobs and it definitely will not be the last. I had been meaning to give this author a try for a while now and I am so glad I finally did.
I love dark academia and this one totally hit the spot. And when you add in a group of graduate students studying lying, how could I not be intrigued. And when one of them is murdered, it adds a whole new layer to the mix as it soon becomes clear someone has something to hide.
This locked-mystery was so dark and twisted and it kept me guessing all the way through. I had no idea who to trust, what direction it was headed and even when I thought I knew where it might be going, I was totally wrong.
If you like smart, tense reads, this is one definitely for you. I can’t wait to now go back and read R.J.’s backlist…the question is, where to start?
Audio thoughts:
I loved this story and I think the narrator, Chelsea Stephens, did a great job with the large cast of characters. She really made this audiobook come to life.
