Among the Bros
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4.1 • 101 Ratings
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- $22.99
Publisher Description
“Among the Bros is a harrowing and disturbing book. I have read about fraternity life but nothing like this. This book will blow your mind, each page digging deeper into the unimaginable. Except every word is true.”—Buzz Bissinger, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Mosquito Bowl and Friday Night Lights
A brilliant young investigative journalist traces a murder and a multi-million-dollar drug ring, leading to an unprecedented look at elite American fraternity life.
When Max Marshall arrived on the campus of the College of Charleston in 2018, he hoped to investigate a small-time fraternity Xanax trafficking ring. Instead, he found a homicide, several student deaths, and millions of dollars circulating around the Deep South. He also opened up an elite world hidden to outsiders. Behind the pop culture cliches of “Greek life” lies one of the major breeding grounds of American power: 80 percent of Fortune 500 executives, 85 percent of Supreme Court justices, and all but four presidents since 1825 have been fraternity members. With unprecedented immersion, this book takes readers inside that bubble.
Under the live oaks and Spanish moss of Travel + Leisure’s “Most Beautiful Campus in America,” Marshall traces several “C of C” boys’ journeys from fraternity pledges to interstate drug traffickers. The result is a true-life story of hubris, status, money, drugs, and murder—one that lifts a curtain on an ecstatic and disturbing way of life. With expert pacing and a cool eye, he follows a never-ending party that continues after funerals and mass arrests.
An addictive and haunting portrait of tomorrow’s American establishment, Among the Bros is nonfiction storytelling at its finest.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Comedies like Animal House and Old School celebrate college frat life and its drunken high jinks, but investigative journalist Max Marshall’s thrilling true-crime book uncovers the privileged, problematic reality. Following a highly publicized 2016 campus drug bust, Marshall embedded himself as a student at the College of Charleston—and got a firsthand look at the rise and fall of kingpin Mikey Schmidt, who used the Kappa Alpha organization and other sympathetic fraternities as a national distribution network for controlled substances. Marshall chronicles the local Kappa Alpha chapter’s rise and fall, from wild parties with hip-hop stars to shocking episodes of drug-addled violence. Like an anthropologist studying a different culture, Marshall writes matter-of-factly about the destruction the group caused while other Greek organizations looked away. Narrated by actor Stephen Graybill, Among the Bros provides an up-close deep dive into an unsettling true story.
Customer Reviews
Project Ecstasy
An interesting look into the Southern college fraternity experience and its history. This is a true crime story full of binge drinking, pill popping, extreme hazing, and drug dealing. And although it’s a crime story, the message is that there really are no consequences for those in the fraternity network. The only issue I have with the book is that it gets really repetitive at times in its depiction of the drug usage.
Morning Glory Milking Farm was better
Spoiler alert: rich white Southern frat men are spoiled and get away with criminal acts. Got 60% and DNFed. There’s so much redundancy and unnecessary information in it
Detailed reporting & research
Very logical, descriptive and deep research. Entertaining albeit a dark dark side to fraternity life and addiction. I am a bit surprised that all this took place just 10 years ago. This would make an interesting movie although I assume movie execs do not want to promote fraternity life. The only knock IMO is there was data or opposing information on fraternity life. I can assume the positive outweighs the dark side but it would be good to include in this story as a counter balance. Summary, if you are looking for the darkest side of fraternity life that jumps head first into hard core crime, abuse and kids running from problems, this is it.