2.5 and barely that. This book put me to sleep, literally. Many reviews have mentioned the multitude of issues, including pace, so there’s no need to rehash anything in too much depth here.

Society of Lies truly has an interesting concept but it unfortunately was too slow for me. I only finished because I had the audiobook and saw I was already 50% of the way through when thinking about DNFing. Sadly, it just takes too long to get where it’s going. Then when it gets there, it discards of anything left that was holding your attention or making you care. It’s by no means a terrible book and it does also tackle racial identity, privilege, and access in a perfect setting. Personally, it’s more of a softer take on dark academia and thrillers than what I usually enjoy.

But it may be the book for you.