I have owned this book for probably three years. It has been sitting on my shelf taunting me everyday since I purchased it. My best friend has been suggesting I pick it up for even longer than that it seems, so it was about time that I finally pulled this book down and flipped through its pages.
“For someone who loved words as much as I did, it was amazing how often they failed me.”
M.L. Rio, If We Were Villains
About The Book
Author: M.L. Rio
Publisher: FlatIron Books
Published Date: April 11th, 2017
Page Count: 354 Pages
Main Genre: Dark Academia
GoodReads Rating: 4.09
Format: Audio/Physical
“You can justify anything if you do it poetically enough.”
M.L. Rio, If We Were Villains
Synopsis
Oliver Marks has just served ten years in jail – for a murder he may or may not have committed. On the day he’s released, he’s greeted by the man who put him in prison. Detective Colborne is retiring, but before he does, he wants to know what really happened a decade ago.
As one of seven young actors studying Shakespeare at an elite arts college, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingenue, extra. But when the casting changes, and the secondary characters usurp the stars, the plays spill dangerously over into life, and one of them is found dead. The rest face their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, and themselves, that they are blameless.
Synopsis From GoodReads
Rating
Review
I desperately wanted to rate this book higher than I did, however, I feel as if this was the rating the book was going to receive no matter what.
The main reason I had put this book off for so long was because I knew it was going to have a lot of Shakespeare texts and underlying meanings that would frankly, go right over my head. This, I was not wrong about. But with context clues I could gather little snippets here and there which I was honestly proud about.
If I were to be completely honest with you I didn’t really love any of our characters. I feel as if they were all very flawed. I can see why the author wrote them this way for the plot but I needed someone to want to cheer for to keep my interest piqued. This is honestly more of a poor reflection on me rather than the text though.
While I may have not loved the characters I did find James at least partly interesting, especially as we neared the end of the book. I feel as if his character had the most growth or shall I say decent into madness? He didn’t feel as one note as most of the other characters and knowing the ending of the book I can see why his character interested me so much.
I felt as if the beginning and end of the book moved quickly but the middle drug out for me. I can understand the importance of the plot line here but It made me struggle to want to pick the book up other than the fact that I wanted to know the truth much like Colborne. If the pacing had picked up a bit in the middle I could have seen this book getting a bit of a higher rating from me.
I hope to re read this book one day in the future, maybe with a bit more of an appreciation for Shakespearean texts as I think this book could mean so much more to me with just an inkling of an understanding of his work. The book has the potential to only grow in ratings with the more I read it.
“But that is how a tragedy like ours or King Lear breaks your heart—by making you believe that the ending might still be happy, until the very last minute.”
M.L. Rio, If We Were Villains
QOTD: Do you have a love for Shakespeare? If so where would you point someone new to the topic to start?
World of Bai 