It’s hard to pinpoint the most outrageous revelation in investigative journalist Max Marshall’s Among the Bros: A Fraternity Crime Story. Is it that some frats spike their “jungle juice” with alprazolam or that the guys drink the roofies themselves while serving them to college girls? Is it that a college boy was murdered or that the alleged murderer’s conviction was based on circumstantial evidence? Is it that two Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) bros recorded themselves singing a lynching ditty? Or is it that, after the black performer canceled his private concert for the SAEs upon watching the video, the morning show anchor who said the performer should be disgusted with himself is still employed by MSNBC’s Morning Joe?
No matter which unveiled injustice eats at you the most, Among the Bros will have you shouting in indignation.
As disturbing as these examples are, they are part of a larger pattern that Max Marshall ties together neatly. Marshall focuses particularly on former Kappa Alpha (KA) Mikey Schmidt, the KAs of the College of Charleston, and the fraternity crime network between South Carolina and Georgia, but he does not hesitate to zoom out and expose the greater forces at play or provide his own reflection on the case as a man who was a member of a college frat himself.
Among the Bros is a compelling, if not infuriating, read that digs up the toxic roots underlying fraternity culture that invites the reader to question whether “boys will be boys,” if fraternities should be abolished altogether, or if a middle ground exists.
Genre: nonfiction, investigative journalism
Key themes: alcohol, benzodiazepines, college, College of Charleston, cocaine, crime, fraternities, Greek life, Kappa Alpha, pharmaceuticals, prison, racism, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Xanax, underage drinking
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Mikey Schmidt was a Kappa Alpha who dropped out of the College of Charleston and a major source interviewed for this book.
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