If We Were Villains: The Sensational TikTok Book Club pick: M.L. Rio

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Alexander - The funny friend. He's gay and latinx. Known for partying/drinking/drugs. He was one of my favouries because he was so funny. Usually gets the funny side character parts. Wren - Richard’s cousin, relaxed and moderate, usually trying to be the balance between Richard and the rest of the group. She is pretty close with James. If We Were Villains lured me in, like a fish to a hook, by appealing to my dark academia loving heart. Shakespearian aesthetics, academic setting, homoeroticism, a secret society whose members communicate (pretentiously) through literary quotes, characters doing morally dubious things at odd hours, a devastating murder, and M.L. Rio has set the scene for an exhilarating, unsettling, and devastating thriller. In short, I was never going to surface from this story with my emotions intact. James - Oliver's roommate and best friend. He's popular, a great actor, and usually gets the great, tragic hero roles.

If We Were Villains: Full Book Summary | SparkNotes

From the moment six of them discover the body of the seventh, an unforgiving road leading to self-depreciation opens up before all of them. They slowly start to degrade, both morally and physically. They become unsettled and cold. They have to make decisions that might alter their lives forever. They start making decisions no one has to make in life. Alexander Vass, a gay former foster-care student of half-Latino descent and drug addict. Plays The Villain. There was much more of a mystery aspect than I was expecting. I would not go so far as to call it a thriller, but there was a definite eerie, who-done-it vibe. I was thoroughly invested in the story and all of the characters the entire time. And the ending.It broke my heart but in a good way and it probably boosted this book another star for me Surprising. After all, Shakespeare is poetry—most of it, anyway— and there’s a certain mathematical pattern to poetry, isn’t there?" Meredith Dardenne, an incredibly beautiful redhead who comes from a wealthy family of watch-makers; Richard's girlfriend. Plays The Femme Fatale.Oliver and James return to Lear, only to see Colborne waiting in the wings. Realizing their time is up, James kisses Oliver onstage. Before Colborne can make an arrest, Oliver confesses to Richard's murder, using a slightly tweaked version of James' story. As his fingerprints are on both the shirt scrap and the boat hook, he is arrested and put on trial, though Colborne does not believe him to be the real killer.

If We Were Villains: The sensational TikTok Book Club pick If We Were Villains: The sensational TikTok Book Club pick

In conclusion, I am once again appalled that I'm not part of a tight-knit group of morally bankrupt Shakespeare devotees who sport an unhealthy obsession with aesthetics and together try to cover up a murder one of them committed. Where’s MY dark-academia main-character moment? The detective assigned to the murder investigation. Colborne visits Oliver regularly in prison because he does not believe he is responsible for Richard’s death. He quits the police force before the start of the novel and uses this information to convince Oliver to tell him the truth about what happened. This book talks about love, either desperate, hopeless, mad or even platonic love. Impossible love. It talks about sacrifice and whatever it is that leads one to do it. It talks about the fine line that stands between real and not real in the life of troubled, artistic and wild souls. go into this knowing that it will take some brainpower — it is not a light, fast-paced read. this book is difficult in many ways (including the writing style and the content.)the author did an incredibly amazing job to write multi-layered characters. their development and depth was so mesmerizing and i couldn’t help but be amazed by the foreshadowing of each characters fate. The title of M. L. Rio’s debut novel, If We Were Villains (2017), is borrowed from William Shakespeare’s King Lear, the final play the fourth-year acting students perform before Oliver Marks confesses to a crime he did not commit. In King Lear, the full line suggests that excess (“surfeits of our own behavior”) leads to disasters that people will try to blame on others. In Shakespeare, the Sun, Moon, and stars are “made guilty” as a result. The novel approaches the problem of excess and potential (‘if’) villainy differently, denying even the possibility of guilt. When the group agrees to not save their grievously injured classmate, they never ask whether this decision will make them guilty of murder, focusing instead on how it would benefit them if this abusive bully were not to be alive, and in the novel the attempt to escape responsibility wreaks havoc. Over the course of the novel’s five “acts,” the group will grapple with this conditional phrase, wondering what it means to understand themselves as villains in the drama they together enact. I think what makes me angry more than anything is that this book has been praised in this community by so many who have seemed to turn a blind eye to the blatant slut-shaming and sexism that seems to pop up relentlessly. The moral outrage we should have suffered was quietly put down, surpassed like an unpleasant rumor before it had a chance to be heard. Whatever we did—or, more crucially, did not do— it seemed that so no so long as we did it together, our individual sins might be abated. There is no comfort like complicity." This was literally: The Secret History VS If We Were Villains, and obviously for me, the former wins with a BIG SLAP across the face against IWWV. I think on its bare bones, there wasn't much substance following the fact after we learn who was killed...which was pretty predictable in every sense. And murderer(s)? Equally pinned down. Call me a wizardry thriller enthusiast, I don't know but the fact that this was basically a lighter thriller and even more less mysterious counterpart than that of its successor before it- The Secret History....kind of ruined it for me I suppose.

If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio | Waterstones

We felt all the passions of the characters we played as if they were our own. But a character’s emotions don’t cancel out the actor’s – instead you feel both at once.” Echoing such college-set novels as Donna Tartt's The Secret History and mixing in enough Shakespearean theater to qualify readers for the stage, Rio's debut mystery is an engrossing ride...Rio crafts an intricate story about friendship, love, and betrayal. Recommended for readers who enjoy literary fiction by authors such as Tartt or Emily St. John Mandel."

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Oliver is for sure the main character, and this book starts out with him getting out of prison ten years after the events of that frightful night. And he is finally telling the story of what actually happened. This book is also broken up in five acts, but we get to see the events of what really happened that night, a decade ago, and we get to see the ramifications of how that altered everyone’s lives in present day. the story is split between oliver ‘now,’ returning to the scene of the crime with colborne, and the story of everything that went on in this cult-like group ten years ago; of a group of people obsessed with shakespeare whose relationships with each other were as complicated as any tragedy - resentments and rivalries, sexual dalliances, unrequited longing, blood relatives and lovers, straight and gay, addictions and insecurities and the fine line between acting and lying, onstage combat and real-life consequences. This book is so haunting, so atmospheric, so gripping, and so perfect. And If you, too, love The Secret History by Donna Tartt then I recommend this book with every single bone in my body. Also, this is such a love letter to Shakespeare and all his work, so if you appreciate that I think you’ll also fall so head over heels for this story. I’m honestly not sure what I expected going into If We Were Villains, but it is now one of my favorite books of all time. Oliver - Our main protagonist, who is nice, and who is sweet, and who just wants to keep the peace between his group of friends. Also, Oliver is totally pansexual and no one can change my mind on this. set the mood with candles, coffee/tea, blankets, and take advantage of the gloomy/cold fall weather. this book will demand all of your attention, so get comfy and focused. (it helps that this book is set in autumn & winter)