Reviewed by Nicki Laskowski

The cover of this book says it all. Three women photographed from nose to navel wear identical sheer-white camisoles. Their hair is virtually the same color, length and style. There are no identifiable birthmarks, no pimples or dimples or freckles or nose rings. They are virtually identical; they are sorority sisters.

In the book Pledged: The Secret Lives of Sororities, Alexandra Robbins goes undercover for a full academic year as a sorority sister hoping that as an outsider on the inside she may be able to answer this question: Why are twenty-first century women still so eager to participate in such seemingly outdated, ritualistic groups and activities?

Robbins introduces her readers to four women, guides into this foreign world who have various attitudes and viewpoints about their lives as sorority sisters, guides who know Robbins’ true identity and reveal candidly their feelings and their secrets.

And yet, the most surprising thing about this book is that what Robbins finds behind closed doors, in secret meetings, through the pledge process, during initiation, and at parties, is not all that surprising. It’s all here, all what you expected: the drinking, sex, conformity, low self-esteem, drugs, racism, partying, peer pressure, eating disorders.

But Robbins creates a richer book by intermixing the experiences of the four main characters with her own reports from conventions, from interviews with former sorority sisters and parents, from accounts of functions at minority sororities and from background on the history, rules and rituals of these secret societies.

Pledged is an entrance into another world. And Robbins’ ability to balance narrative with news, her ability to gain the trust of her characters, allows any reader to enter into this world, to witness the process, to discover the secrets without the pains of pledging and the struggles of initiation.