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The Found Object Society
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An atmospheric speculative suspense novel following a mysterious society offering its members the chance to relive the death of another person whenever they want—and the self-destructive woman determined to uncover its secrets
This ambitious, genre-bending debut is perfect for fans of time-travel fiction including Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library and Gareth Brown’s The Book of Doors
For twenty years, Greta Davenport has lived with the guilt of surviving the accident that killed her parents. She’s tested the limits of her own mortality ever since, but little gives her the dopamine rush she craves. Not until the night she almost drunkenly crashes her car into a tree, and a peculiar blank card slides under her front door—an invitation to the Found Object Society. What she discovers there is beyond comprehension: an opulent, subterranean playground filled with aisles of objects from different eras and regions of the world. Pick an object and go on a voyage to relive the final moments of the person who died holding it, along with an unparalleled, irreplicable high. Greta’s hooked, but she can't quiet her questions about the society and its enigmatic creators, the answers to which have implications far beyond her growing dependence on the voyages. Death is addictive, and what she uncovers will put her entire life into question.
A fever dream of a novel with episodic, time-traveling chapters told from multiple points of view, The Found Object Society examines the depraved whims of the ultrarich and the breadth of unresolved trauma—all while asking how grief and the choices we make in its aftermath can change the course of our lives. Michelle Maryk’s wholly original and ambitious debut opens an impeccably wrought speculative world of greed, power, and destiny.
This ambitious, genre-bending debut is perfect for fans of time-travel fiction including Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library and Gareth Brown’s The Book of Doors
For twenty years, Greta Davenport has lived with the guilt of surviving the accident that killed her parents. She’s tested the limits of her own mortality ever since, but little gives her the dopamine rush she craves. Not until the night she almost drunkenly crashes her car into a tree, and a peculiar blank card slides under her front door—an invitation to the Found Object Society. What she discovers there is beyond comprehension: an opulent, subterranean playground filled with aisles of objects from different eras and regions of the world. Pick an object and go on a voyage to relive the final moments of the person who died holding it, along with an unparalleled, irreplicable high. Greta’s hooked, but she can't quiet her questions about the society and its enigmatic creators, the answers to which have implications far beyond her growing dependence on the voyages. Death is addictive, and what she uncovers will put her entire life into question.
A fever dream of a novel with episodic, time-traveling chapters told from multiple points of view, The Found Object Society examines the depraved whims of the ultrarich and the breadth of unresolved trauma—all while asking how grief and the choices we make in its aftermath can change the course of our lives. Michelle Maryk’s wholly original and ambitious debut opens an impeccably wrought speculative world of greed, power, and destiny.
448 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication February 10, 2026
11699 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
July 7, 2025
The Found Object Society is a mindwreck in the very best way. Wholly original and intoxicatingly hypnotic, Maryk’s debut will sweep you into a lush and dangerous world where nothing is as it seems. Prepare to be spellbound.
October 13, 2025
2 ⭐ I was fortunate to receive an ARC copy from NetGalley, but unfortunately the ARC was almost unreadable due to formatting. Words, lines, punctuation bled together making for a really unenjoyable reading experience. Also I found the MFC to be unlikeable, which makes it hard for me to get into a book. The plot was interesting but the format I received (and I tried redownloading, reading on different format, etc) was extremely distracting.
July 19, 2025
Thank you to NetGalley and Hyperion Avenue for the chance to read this eARC in exchange for my review!
The Lost Object Society seems to take the phrase “I’ve lost someone” and stretch it into an allegory of emotional disconnection, grief, and the ache that follows the death of a loved one. The theme is clever and the feeling of “lostness” (people, self, time) is present throughout. The story has something to say about what happens when you try to sidestep pain rather than confront it, leaning into vices like sex, substance use, and emotional detachment as a way to create distance from the person or thing you’ve “lost”.
The plot and pacing are major strengths here. I felt like the novel moved quickly and the themes are present enough where I wanted to stick around to see what it was all leading to. Unfortunately, the writing itself doesn’t rise to the level of the ideas it wants to explore. Dialogue often feels unnatural, with the main character Greta using cringeworthy phrases like “doodads,” “gobbledygook,” and “high school steadies”. Greta talks about her Mercedes as a “Merc” and it just feels jarring and distracting. She’s supposed to be a hot, rich, 40-year-old and her inner monologue feels very “boomer”.
The repeated mention of a $500k payment to the Society is also hard to ignore, especially because it doesn’t seem to serve the story meaningfully. We’re already aware the main characters move in elite, wealthy circles so the emphasis on this astronomical figure feels unnecessary. If this group is meant to explore collective grief or healing, making it only accessible to the ultra-rich feels tonally dissonant and undercuts the emotional weight the book is trying to deliver. Why would only the elite be given the chance for redemption on a major loss?
Structurally, The Lost Object Society reads more like a screenplay than a fully fleshed-out novel. Descriptions of settings are thin, inner monologues lack depth, and in the final pages I found myself completely lost. The ending leaves more confusion than closure, and not in a deliberate, thought-provoking way.
Ultimately, there’s a compelling story here and I’m very impressed that it is a debut novel. The themes resonate, and the pacing keeps things moving, but the execution in character voice, dialogue, and worldbuilding leaves some to be desired.
The Lost Object Society seems to take the phrase “I’ve lost someone” and stretch it into an allegory of emotional disconnection, grief, and the ache that follows the death of a loved one. The theme is clever and the feeling of “lostness” (people, self, time) is present throughout. The story has something to say about what happens when you try to sidestep pain rather than confront it, leaning into vices like sex, substance use, and emotional detachment as a way to create distance from the person or thing you’ve “lost”.
The plot and pacing are major strengths here. I felt like the novel moved quickly and the themes are present enough where I wanted to stick around to see what it was all leading to. Unfortunately, the writing itself doesn’t rise to the level of the ideas it wants to explore. Dialogue often feels unnatural, with the main character Greta using cringeworthy phrases like “doodads,” “gobbledygook,” and “high school steadies”. Greta talks about her Mercedes as a “Merc” and it just feels jarring and distracting. She’s supposed to be a hot, rich, 40-year-old and her inner monologue feels very “boomer”.
The repeated mention of a $500k payment to the Society is also hard to ignore, especially because it doesn’t seem to serve the story meaningfully. We’re already aware the main characters move in elite, wealthy circles so the emphasis on this astronomical figure feels unnecessary. If this group is meant to explore collective grief or healing, making it only accessible to the ultra-rich feels tonally dissonant and undercuts the emotional weight the book is trying to deliver. Why would only the elite be given the chance for redemption on a major loss?
Structurally, The Lost Object Society reads more like a screenplay than a fully fleshed-out novel. Descriptions of settings are thin, inner monologues lack depth, and in the final pages I found myself completely lost. The ending leaves more confusion than closure, and not in a deliberate, thought-provoking way.
Ultimately, there’s a compelling story here and I’m very impressed that it is a debut novel. The themes resonate, and the pacing keeps things moving, but the execution in character voice, dialogue, and worldbuilding leaves some to be desired.
July 20, 2025
4/10.
I received early access to this book on Netgalley.
The Found Object Society by Michelle Maryk is a speculative suspense novel following Greta Davenport after she is contacted by the titular society and invited to join other extremely wealthy people who are running from their pasts by indulging in "voyages," experiences of inhabiting the body of someone who died a traumatic death in the days or weeks leading up to that death. I was intrigued by this premise and excited to see where it was taken by the story, but ended up not feeling that the prose or characters lived up to the premise. The writing was very breezy and readable, but devoid of any of the elevated diction that I feel would better have served the setting and premise. I'm told how incredibly mysterious, intriguing, and enigmatic the society is, but I was never really made to feel it. I consistently did not enjoy the dialogue and did not engage very strongly with any character's voices. One exception is the story of Lassiter, whose deeply disturbing point of view and story effectively got under my skin in the way a good thriller does. It made me wish the rest of the book was more of a thriller, rather than a speculative novel, because I never felt that the latter was executed in a compelling way. Greta is an out-of-touch, super-rich woman whose perspective we follow throughout the book. She is someone I never related to, or wanted to root for, which is fine, but when an unrelatable/selfish character is the PoV I like to see more over-the-top aspects of the characters personality or situation to be compelled by. However, it felt like most of the book treated Greta like a relatable protagonist, rather than leaning into her role as an example of how sick people become when they have that much money. The result is that I found Greta a very bland character to follow, even through a plot that had a lot of aspects I was interested in. The plot was fairly strong, but I felt that the ending missed the mark. This one wasn't for me, but I might still recommend it to readers who enjoy fast-paced contemporary speculative stories with more colloquial prose.
I received early access to this book on Netgalley.
The Found Object Society by Michelle Maryk is a speculative suspense novel following Greta Davenport after she is contacted by the titular society and invited to join other extremely wealthy people who are running from their pasts by indulging in "voyages," experiences of inhabiting the body of someone who died a traumatic death in the days or weeks leading up to that death. I was intrigued by this premise and excited to see where it was taken by the story, but ended up not feeling that the prose or characters lived up to the premise. The writing was very breezy and readable, but devoid of any of the elevated diction that I feel would better have served the setting and premise. I'm told how incredibly mysterious, intriguing, and enigmatic the society is, but I was never really made to feel it. I consistently did not enjoy the dialogue and did not engage very strongly with any character's voices. One exception is the story of Lassiter, whose deeply disturbing point of view and story effectively got under my skin in the way a good thriller does. It made me wish the rest of the book was more of a thriller, rather than a speculative novel, because I never felt that the latter was executed in a compelling way. Greta is an out-of-touch, super-rich woman whose perspective we follow throughout the book. She is someone I never related to, or wanted to root for, which is fine, but when an unrelatable/selfish character is the PoV I like to see more over-the-top aspects of the characters personality or situation to be compelled by. However, it felt like most of the book treated Greta like a relatable protagonist, rather than leaning into her role as an example of how sick people become when they have that much money. The result is that I found Greta a very bland character to follow, even through a plot that had a lot of aspects I was interested in. The plot was fairly strong, but I felt that the ending missed the mark. This one wasn't for me, but I might still recommend it to readers who enjoy fast-paced contemporary speculative stories with more colloquial prose.
July 22, 2025
Thank you NetGalley & Hyperion for sending me an Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for a review.
My rating would be 2.5/5
The Found Object Society is a story about Greta Davenport, a woman who’s lived through the death of her parents and continues to grieve the choices she made 20 years later. The book follows her through her journey with the Found Object Society, where she is able to live through the deaths of individuals through the objects they last held.
Some things that were great about the book:
- the different stories that were incorporated into the plot through each persons death/voyage were so fun to read
- the different time periods felt really nostalgic
- the way Greta would grieve in her ways felt very real. Wanting to simultaneously erase an event from your memory but also punish yourself with it to feel something. That really struck me.
Other things that were not so great:
- the authors attempt to comment on race was so odd. if you’re going to talk about racism there’s a better way to do it than to just reference to Ezra’s blackness twice. it felt really weird to read Greta talk about being in a “white as white as it gets” newspaper…like she is an upper class white woman, what exactly about this newspaper column bothers her? It’s not like she was some sort of activist or even an ally, she was just a rich privileged white woman as seen through her actions with her drivers. That bit about race just felt unnecessary because it wasn’t done well
- Greta & Ezra’s relationship lacked chemistry. As much as I wanted to see it work it just felt so bleh. It didn’t make sense to me that they fell in love within a week over the society’s antics. Like yes they shared a trauma bond but honestly all they did was talk about death & be intimate with each other. It felt like they didn’t have anything else going and that those two things were not enough to be in love and again like there was no chemistry at all. Also the way they met was ridiculous and made me cringe.
- The ending felt rushed and didn’t really explain anything. the ending was actually a little confusing. Miranda saying she’s going to put Greta out of her misery & that she can’t exist in two places? It didn’t make sense like yes I know she’s dying but I just didn’t understand how & why anything was happening. Ezra showing up at her voyage didn’t make sense either. Greta saying no to Bridget was so confusing because didn’t she kill her parents anyway????? Like either she was just stuck in the past or she just died and that was a dream but the author literally did not explain anything it felt so unsatisfying to finish the book.
And then Lisbeth getting an invitation at the end and how Miranda mentioned the paradox / complicated voyage. UGH. Like it felt so unresolved at the end I was not happy with it at all especially because they built up so much suspense around Greta’s last voyage.
For a debut novel Michelle Maryk did great, but she definitely needs to work on her plot lines/endings a little more to be successful in the future.
Last thing, I think it’s so funny that she’s swedish and she was making fun of that swedish actress in one of the voyages hahaha
My rating would be 2.5/5
The Found Object Society is a story about Greta Davenport, a woman who’s lived through the death of her parents and continues to grieve the choices she made 20 years later. The book follows her through her journey with the Found Object Society, where she is able to live through the deaths of individuals through the objects they last held.
Some things that were great about the book:
- the different stories that were incorporated into the plot through each persons death/voyage were so fun to read
- the different time periods felt really nostalgic
- the way Greta would grieve in her ways felt very real. Wanting to simultaneously erase an event from your memory but also punish yourself with it to feel something. That really struck me.
Other things that were not so great:
- the authors attempt to comment on race was so odd. if you’re going to talk about racism there’s a better way to do it than to just reference to Ezra’s blackness twice. it felt really weird to read Greta talk about being in a “white as white as it gets” newspaper…like she is an upper class white woman, what exactly about this newspaper column bothers her? It’s not like she was some sort of activist or even an ally, she was just a rich privileged white woman as seen through her actions with her drivers. That bit about race just felt unnecessary because it wasn’t done well
- Greta & Ezra’s relationship lacked chemistry. As much as I wanted to see it work it just felt so bleh. It didn’t make sense to me that they fell in love within a week over the society’s antics. Like yes they shared a trauma bond but honestly all they did was talk about death & be intimate with each other. It felt like they didn’t have anything else going and that those two things were not enough to be in love and again like there was no chemistry at all. Also the way they met was ridiculous and made me cringe.
- The ending felt rushed and didn’t really explain anything. the ending was actually a little confusing. Miranda saying she’s going to put Greta out of her misery & that she can’t exist in two places? It didn’t make sense like yes I know she’s dying but I just didn’t understand how & why anything was happening. Ezra showing up at her voyage didn’t make sense either. Greta saying no to Bridget was so confusing because didn’t she kill her parents anyway????? Like either she was just stuck in the past or she just died and that was a dream but the author literally did not explain anything it felt so unsatisfying to finish the book.
And then Lisbeth getting an invitation at the end and how Miranda mentioned the paradox / complicated voyage. UGH. Like it felt so unresolved at the end I was not happy with it at all especially because they built up so much suspense around Greta’s last voyage.
For a debut novel Michelle Maryk did great, but she definitely needs to work on her plot lines/endings a little more to be successful in the future.
Last thing, I think it’s so funny that she’s swedish and she was making fun of that swedish actress in one of the voyages hahaha
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 30, 2025
The premise of this book is so interesting. Would you want to relive someone’s death? If you could change the past, would you do whatever you could to do it? I felt the first part of the book was really building and then everything happened very quickly and left me a little disappointed. But it did make me think!
August 20, 2025
ARC read- releases February 10, 2026
20 years ago Greta Davenport survived the car accident that took her parents lives and has lived in guilt since. She escapes her grief by finding a rush in near death experiences and one night receives an invitation to the Found Object Society. The society allows her to experience another persons death by touching the last object they touched. Greta’s immediately addicted to the voyages but she soon discovers something that could change her life.
💰✨🕰️
While I did find this book to be interesting, there was much more that I didn’t like than I did like. I found it really hard to care about the story because of how much I disliked the fmc.
The first chapter literally starts with Greta’s, the fmc, inner monologue saying she doesn’t care that she’s about to drive drunk, which is icky but then the chapter just keeps going on and on about how she takes pride in being a good drunk driver and then she does in fact drive drunk. I understand that the point is to establish she doesn’t care about dying but it was so uncomfortable.
The obvious thing is that Greta is literally getting high off of experiencing other people’s deaths, which I found kinda gross. I understand that it is the entire point of the book but the way Greta talks about it is icky. Like I get it, they’re escaping their own grief by experiencing another’s but that’s not how Greta describes it. She always talks about the “rush” and the “pleasure” she gets from her voyages.
Another issue I had was that Greta’s inner monologue is constantly talking about how wealthy Greta is. She’s filthy rich but its like the author just gave her trauma to make her more relatable or to make it okay that she’s literally getting high off of other peoples deaths. I cannot even count the amount of times that Greta says, in one way or another, that she’s rich. It wouldn’t be an issue if there wasn’t so much attention called to their wealth especially when it usually involved her calling someone else poor- it just felt unnecessary and distanced me from the story every time it was mentioned.
Greta is also always talking about the drugs shes taken and the similarities of addiction between them and the society but then turns around and talks about how she looks down on people on the street who have addictions and sees them as inhuman. Granted, she realizes she may have been wrong to think that but only because she realizes that her and Ezra aren’t much different than those “sidewalk drifters”.
I understand her and Ezra’s relationship- it lacks chemistry and is extremely rushed but that makes sense for what’s happening in the story. It could have used a little bit more development though.
There is also some parts where the author tries to comment on race that just felt weird- some other reviewers explain it better.
The books ending feels so rushed and random and doesn’t completely make sense. It is set up for another book but I felt like there should have been a bit more explanation, especially if it is a stand-alone.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC- I received this eARC for free and all of my opinions are my own
20 years ago Greta Davenport survived the car accident that took her parents lives and has lived in guilt since. She escapes her grief by finding a rush in near death experiences and one night receives an invitation to the Found Object Society. The society allows her to experience another persons death by touching the last object they touched. Greta’s immediately addicted to the voyages but she soon discovers something that could change her life.
💰✨🕰️
While I did find this book to be interesting, there was much more that I didn’t like than I did like. I found it really hard to care about the story because of how much I disliked the fmc.
The first chapter literally starts with Greta’s, the fmc, inner monologue saying she doesn’t care that she’s about to drive drunk, which is icky but then the chapter just keeps going on and on about how she takes pride in being a good drunk driver and then she does in fact drive drunk. I understand that the point is to establish she doesn’t care about dying but it was so uncomfortable.
The obvious thing is that Greta is literally getting high off of experiencing other people’s deaths, which I found kinda gross. I understand that it is the entire point of the book but the way Greta talks about it is icky. Like I get it, they’re escaping their own grief by experiencing another’s but that’s not how Greta describes it. She always talks about the “rush” and the “pleasure” she gets from her voyages.
Another issue I had was that Greta’s inner monologue is constantly talking about how wealthy Greta is. She’s filthy rich but its like the author just gave her trauma to make her more relatable or to make it okay that she’s literally getting high off of other peoples deaths. I cannot even count the amount of times that Greta says, in one way or another, that she’s rich. It wouldn’t be an issue if there wasn’t so much attention called to their wealth especially when it usually involved her calling someone else poor- it just felt unnecessary and distanced me from the story every time it was mentioned.
Greta is also always talking about the drugs shes taken and the similarities of addiction between them and the society but then turns around and talks about how she looks down on people on the street who have addictions and sees them as inhuman. Granted, she realizes she may have been wrong to think that but only because she realizes that her and Ezra aren’t much different than those “sidewalk drifters”.
I understand her and Ezra’s relationship- it lacks chemistry and is extremely rushed but that makes sense for what’s happening in the story. It could have used a little bit more development though.
There is also some parts where the author tries to comment on race that just felt weird- some other reviewers explain it better.
The books ending feels so rushed and random and doesn’t completely make sense. It is set up for another book but I felt like there should have been a bit more explanation, especially if it is a stand-alone.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC- I received this eARC for free and all of my opinions are my own
September 8, 2025
This book had such a cool and unique premise. The idea of a secret society where members can relive the final moments of someone else’s life is both eerie and fascinating, and it set the stage for some really atmospheric, imaginative scenes. I especially loved the glimpses we got inside the Society itself. It felt vivid, mysterious, and full of possibility. Those moments had a cinematic quality, and I found myself wishing we could have spent more time there, traveling through its corridors, experiencing more of its rules, and uncovering its secrets alongside Greta.
By contrast, much of the time spent outside the Society felt slower and less engaging. The external plotlines stretched on longer than necessary, while the parts I was most invested in, the Society and its inner workings, were more limited. That imbalance in focus made the pacing feel uneven. And when the story finally reached its climax, the ending came across as rushed, leaving me wanting more space for the revelations and fallout to fully land.
That said, there’s a lot to admire here. The novel is ambitious, atmospheric, and thought-provoking, tackling big ideas about grief, trauma, and the addictive pull of both danger and escape. It has a dreamlike, speculative suspense quality that lingers, and at its best, it feels like stepping into a fever dream of time, memory, and mortality.
While it didn’t quite stick the landing for me, I still think it’s a compelling and original debut. For readers who enjoy concept-driven, genre-bending fiction like The Midnight Library or The Book of Doors, this one is worth picking up. Just know that the execution may not always match the brilliance of the premise.
Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for this ARC!
By contrast, much of the time spent outside the Society felt slower and less engaging. The external plotlines stretched on longer than necessary, while the parts I was most invested in, the Society and its inner workings, were more limited. That imbalance in focus made the pacing feel uneven. And when the story finally reached its climax, the ending came across as rushed, leaving me wanting more space for the revelations and fallout to fully land.
That said, there’s a lot to admire here. The novel is ambitious, atmospheric, and thought-provoking, tackling big ideas about grief, trauma, and the addictive pull of both danger and escape. It has a dreamlike, speculative suspense quality that lingers, and at its best, it feels like stepping into a fever dream of time, memory, and mortality.
While it didn’t quite stick the landing for me, I still think it’s a compelling and original debut. For readers who enjoy concept-driven, genre-bending fiction like The Midnight Library or The Book of Doors, this one is worth picking up. Just know that the execution may not always match the brilliance of the premise.
Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for this ARC!
August 15, 2025
Out February 10th, 2026
If you’ve ever wandered into a thrift store and felt like every dusty trinket had a secret story to tell, this book is your vibe. It’s quirky, heartfelt, and just a little bit mysterious—like a scavenger hunt for meaning in the middle of everyday chaos. The characters are delightfully offbeat, each carrying their own emotional baggage (and sometimes literal baggage), and the way their lives intersect feels like fate with a sense of humor.
There’s something quietly magical about how the story unfolds—like watching a mosaic come together piece by piece. It’s not flashy or dramatic, but it sneaks up on you with its charm. The relationships are messy in the best way, full of awkward moments, unexpected connections, and the kind of vulnerability that makes you want to hug a stranger (or at least text someone you haven’t talked to in a while).
This one’s for the sentimental scavengers, the people who keep old ticket stubs and believe in second chances. It’s a gentle reminder that sometimes the most meaningful things are the ones we almost overlook. And honestly, it’ll make you want to start your own found object society—just to see what stories might be hiding in plain sight.
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Hyperion Avenue for this ARC!
If you’ve ever wandered into a thrift store and felt like every dusty trinket had a secret story to tell, this book is your vibe. It’s quirky, heartfelt, and just a little bit mysterious—like a scavenger hunt for meaning in the middle of everyday chaos. The characters are delightfully offbeat, each carrying their own emotional baggage (and sometimes literal baggage), and the way their lives intersect feels like fate with a sense of humor.
There’s something quietly magical about how the story unfolds—like watching a mosaic come together piece by piece. It’s not flashy or dramatic, but it sneaks up on you with its charm. The relationships are messy in the best way, full of awkward moments, unexpected connections, and the kind of vulnerability that makes you want to hug a stranger (or at least text someone you haven’t talked to in a while).
This one’s for the sentimental scavengers, the people who keep old ticket stubs and believe in second chances. It’s a gentle reminder that sometimes the most meaningful things are the ones we almost overlook. And honestly, it’ll make you want to start your own found object society—just to see what stories might be hiding in plain sight.
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Hyperion Avenue for this ARC!
August 26, 2025
3.5 ⭐️
Thank you Net Galley, Michelle Maryk, and Hyperion Avenue for the ARC!
The Found Object Society follows FMC Greta Davenport on a journey of grief after the death of her parents 20 years prior. Greta essentially has hit rock bottom emotionally and has become numb, until she is connected to The Found Object Society that becomes her newest addiction.
This book does a great job of painting a picture for the reader, especially when narrating the voyages to different time periods. Although the first quarter felt slow, the pacing of the book picks up and is easy to get into. Michelle Maryk does a great job of intertwining realistic elements of addition, power, greed, and privilege throughout the book.
You’ll either love or hate the action packed ending of the book. I loved it and felt like the author did a good job of cleaning up some loose ends while still leaving enough room for the reader’s imagination to wander.
Thank you Net Galley, Michelle Maryk, and Hyperion Avenue for the ARC!
The Found Object Society follows FMC Greta Davenport on a journey of grief after the death of her parents 20 years prior. Greta essentially has hit rock bottom emotionally and has become numb, until she is connected to The Found Object Society that becomes her newest addiction.
This book does a great job of painting a picture for the reader, especially when narrating the voyages to different time periods. Although the first quarter felt slow, the pacing of the book picks up and is easy to get into. Michelle Maryk does a great job of intertwining realistic elements of addition, power, greed, and privilege throughout the book.
You’ll either love or hate the action packed ending of the book. I loved it and felt like the author did a good job of cleaning up some loose ends while still leaving enough room for the reader’s imagination to wander.
October 8, 2025
If you were given the opportunity to experience death... without actually dying... to be able to see it through someone else's eyes...would you do it?
It has been twenty years since the accident.
Twenty years since Greta somehow survived the car accident that took her parents. Took the sizable inheritance left behind for her and has since danced with death... trying to find something that will fulfill her needs for a dopamine rush....
Until the night she nearly suffers the same fate as her parents, sliding a vintage Mercedes off the road while driving under the influence... narrowly sliding between the trees instead of slamming into them.
Shortly after... she receives a mysterious card slid under her door. It appears blank.... unassuming.
An invite to a secretive, elite society known as the Found Object Society... a subterranean playground filled with many objects collected over time... allowing the rich to "experience" a "voyage" ... or in other words... to experience someone's final moments...
Greta becomes more addicted and reliant on these so-called voyages... and with that comes more questions of who is exactly behind the Society...
What she discovers may change her entire life.
Perfect for fans of The Midnight Library... Michelle Maryk has come out with a beautifully suspenseful and addictive novel that will captivate you... that will give you a look into the depravities and desires of the ultrarich... a glimpse into what cravings may be if you have all the wealth in the world..but also brings heavy emotional topics such as trauma and grief, giving us an avenue to explore how trauma and grief affect us and the choices that we may make after these events.
Mindwrecking and intoxicatingly complex... prepare to be swept away into the sands of time by Michelle Maryk and The Found Object Society.
Thank you to Hyperion Avenue and Netgalley for this copy in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own, and the rest of my reviews can be found at:https://littlereapling.wixsite.com/fa....
It has been twenty years since the accident.
Twenty years since Greta somehow survived the car accident that took her parents. Took the sizable inheritance left behind for her and has since danced with death... trying to find something that will fulfill her needs for a dopamine rush....
Until the night she nearly suffers the same fate as her parents, sliding a vintage Mercedes off the road while driving under the influence... narrowly sliding between the trees instead of slamming into them.
Shortly after... she receives a mysterious card slid under her door. It appears blank.... unassuming.
An invite to a secretive, elite society known as the Found Object Society... a subterranean playground filled with many objects collected over time... allowing the rich to "experience" a "voyage" ... or in other words... to experience someone's final moments...
Greta becomes more addicted and reliant on these so-called voyages... and with that comes more questions of who is exactly behind the Society...
What she discovers may change her entire life.
Perfect for fans of The Midnight Library... Michelle Maryk has come out with a beautifully suspenseful and addictive novel that will captivate you... that will give you a look into the depravities and desires of the ultrarich... a glimpse into what cravings may be if you have all the wealth in the world..but also brings heavy emotional topics such as trauma and grief, giving us an avenue to explore how trauma and grief affect us and the choices that we may make after these events.
Mindwrecking and intoxicatingly complex... prepare to be swept away into the sands of time by Michelle Maryk and The Found Object Society.
Thank you to Hyperion Avenue and Netgalley for this copy in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own, and the rest of my reviews can be found at:https://littlereapling.wixsite.com/fa....
September 15, 2025
The Found Object Society
by Michelle Maryk
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Huge thanks to Hyperion for the ARC! 🖤⏳💀
Vibe Check: secret society aesthetics 🥂🗝️, time-travel via creepy antiques ⏰📦, addiction but make it death-flavored 🚬⚡, rich people behaving badly 💰👠, trauma-drenched main character who makes you wanna scream but also watch 👀🔥.
What I Liked:
• The premise is INSANE in the best way - reliving strangers’ final moments?? Chills. 👻
• The Society itself felt lush, eerie, and cinematic. Like you could smell the velvet curtains and dust. 🕯️
• Episodic “voyages” into other deaths kept the tension high and the concept fresh. ✨
• Loved the ambition: grief, power, addiction, trauma - all tangled into one speculative fever dream. 🌌
• Definitely thought-provoking, even when it got messy. 🖤
What Didn’t Work for Me:
• Greta. Girl, please. Wealthy, detached, addicted to other people’s deaths… not exactly easy to root for. 🙄
• Dialogue sometimes felt clunky - “Merc” for Mercedes pulled me straight out of the vibe. 🚗
• Way too much “I’m rich” energy without enough emotional depth to balance it. 💎
• The ending was rushed and confusing, like the last 20 pages were missing. 📉
Tropes/Elements:
• Secret societies 🕵️♀️
• Addiction-as-metaphor 💉
• Grief and trauma explorations 🖤
• Rich-people morality play 💼
• Speculative suspense 🔮
Final Word: The Found Object Society is ambitious, eerie, and deeply original. While the execution doesn’t always match the brilliance of its premise, the vibes are immaculate and the questions it asks - about grief, addiction, and privilege - will stick with you. A debut that feels like stepping into a fever dream. 🌒
by Michelle Maryk
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Huge thanks to Hyperion for the ARC! 🖤⏳💀
Vibe Check: secret society aesthetics 🥂🗝️, time-travel via creepy antiques ⏰📦, addiction but make it death-flavored 🚬⚡, rich people behaving badly 💰👠, trauma-drenched main character who makes you wanna scream but also watch 👀🔥.
What I Liked:
• The premise is INSANE in the best way - reliving strangers’ final moments?? Chills. 👻
• The Society itself felt lush, eerie, and cinematic. Like you could smell the velvet curtains and dust. 🕯️
• Episodic “voyages” into other deaths kept the tension high and the concept fresh. ✨
• Loved the ambition: grief, power, addiction, trauma - all tangled into one speculative fever dream. 🌌
• Definitely thought-provoking, even when it got messy. 🖤
What Didn’t Work for Me:
• Greta. Girl, please. Wealthy, detached, addicted to other people’s deaths… not exactly easy to root for. 🙄
• Dialogue sometimes felt clunky - “Merc” for Mercedes pulled me straight out of the vibe. 🚗
• Way too much “I’m rich” energy without enough emotional depth to balance it. 💎
• The ending was rushed and confusing, like the last 20 pages were missing. 📉
Tropes/Elements:
• Secret societies 🕵️♀️
• Addiction-as-metaphor 💉
• Grief and trauma explorations 🖤
• Rich-people morality play 💼
• Speculative suspense 🔮
Final Word: The Found Object Society is ambitious, eerie, and deeply original. While the execution doesn’t always match the brilliance of its premise, the vibes are immaculate and the questions it asks - about grief, addiction, and privilege - will stick with you. A debut that feels like stepping into a fever dream. 🌒
August 8, 2025
Greta Davenport has been living with survivors guilt following the car crash that killed her parents 20 years ago. Since then, she has found ways to test her morality, until one night when she discovers the Found Object Society. At the society, members can go on voyages where they experience the death of another person by holding the last object they touched before their untimely death. Greta is hooked, but she has all these unanswered questions about how it all works. She is determined to get answers at all costs, even if that means breaking some rules.
I really enjoyed getting to go into these different time periods & perspectives as we went on the voyages, but also that there was an overall mystery to be solved outside of these experiences. I found myself eagerly waiting for the next voyage wondering where we would go next. Maybe it’s because I found those chapters a bit more captivating compared to the overall plot. The fast pace of the novel kept things moving along & left just enough to leave me wanting more.
Leading up to the climax, there didn’t seem to be any stakes or potential consequences which lead to a lack of tension. So once we got to the climax it didn’t feel like there was much build up aside from the final voyage. As others have said, the ending itself left me more confused than resolved. I think I enjoyed how things played out (from what I understand), but certain details left me confused as a reader & needed a bit more clarification.
3.5★ rounded up
Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for the arc!!
I really enjoyed getting to go into these different time periods & perspectives as we went on the voyages, but also that there was an overall mystery to be solved outside of these experiences. I found myself eagerly waiting for the next voyage wondering where we would go next. Maybe it’s because I found those chapters a bit more captivating compared to the overall plot. The fast pace of the novel kept things moving along & left just enough to leave me wanting more.
Leading up to the climax, there didn’t seem to be any stakes or potential consequences which lead to a lack of tension. So once we got to the climax it didn’t feel like there was much build up aside from the final voyage. As others have said, the ending itself left me more confused than resolved. I think I enjoyed how things played out (from what I understand), but certain details left me confused as a reader & needed a bit more clarification.
3.5★ rounded up
Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for the arc!!
September 6, 2025
The Found Object Society is a good debut novel by Michelle Maryk. It has an interesting and very original plot. The ultra wealthy, many running from their pasts, are invited to join the society for half a million dollars. There is a repository where The Collector has gathered items which were last touched by the deceased. Members can select a time period and an object. They are then transported to observe the death of that person. There are rules. Society members may not tell others about the Society. They may not alter the outcomes. But….what if a member breaks the rules? What happens? Can they change a death or outcome that is consuming them with grief? Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC for The Found Object Society.
July 23, 2025
Michelle Maryk’s debut novel is an atmospheric, genre-defying journey through grief, addiction, and the seductive wounds of death. Although the theme has a darker vibe than I would typically select, I enjoyed the addictive dance between grief and the promise of transcendence. It is one of the best speculative fiction books I have read, and I would definitely recommend it to readers drawn to psychologically complex worlds, ethically grey spectral thrills, and emotional ambiguity.
September 30, 2025
Celebrating another person’s death??? Not for me. The characters were not likeable or relatable. The whole premise of the book I did not like. The end was good but still left you wondering. You’ll either love it or hate it. Only 2 stars for me.
August 19, 2025
ARC Full Review: www.NerdyNerdyBookBook.com
August 20, 2025
Credit where it's due: There was a point at which i was absolutely certain she'd written herself into a corner, but she got out of it not only successfully but with some aplomb.
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