Name: If We Were Villains
ISBN: 9781250095282

M. L. Rio

Entreated to tell his side of the story to a detective who put him in prison a decade earlier for a murder he may not have committed, Oliver Marks describes his past as a Shakespearean actor in college whose rivalry with a castmate escalated in dangerous ways.

A Novel

If We Were Villains

Florence

How tremendous the agony of unmade decisions. 

giuli

erin alise 

María | @AltroReader

Ashlyn Barrett

Lexi D

For someone who loved words as much as I did, it was amazing how often they failed me. 

Aimee :)

Victoria

You can justify anything if you do it poetically enough. 

Julia Acd

Bianca Miller 

Emma Hak-Kovacs

Lili V Guba

"You can justify anything if you do it poetically enough."

rini

Emily McMeans

Tija

zee ✨️

︎ ︎ ︎

Victoria Justice

Stephanie 

Heather

Luna 🌙

Amanda Autumn Berrey

“You can justify anything if you do it poetically enough.”

darby

Larissa Campos

Clara Gauthier

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.

kemi

Abby Lane

Finja Papendorf

Emerson Clute

"I think you understand it perfectly. Nothing makes sense to him either. His whole world is falling apart, and once he realizes he can't stop it or fix it or change it, there's only one thing left to do." My eyes adjusted slowly, maddeningly.

 “What's that?" His shadow shrugged in the gloom. "

hana

Our last isolated, innocent moment; the stillness that precedes the blows and billows of a storm.

"I never wanted you to look at me the way you're looking at me right now."

Zwetschge

 You can't do good work if you're hiding, so we're going to get all of the ugliness out in the open.

i'm a sucker for found family, so pairing it with dark academia makes for a good cup of tea. unfortunately, i am nowhere near the level of conversance our cast has on shakespeare, but i can appreciate how much he permeates the narrative; nice glimpse into the works of literature's greatest.

i read The Secret History right before this so, perhaps as a residual sentiment, i didn't quite expect to like the characters as much as i did—oliver was the biggest surprise. they're all fucked up in a way but as theater folk even that just made me nostalgic (of course, not to the degree of you-know-what).

if i were to nitpick one thing, however, there's some dissatisfaction in terms of character exploration. i had an early vested interest in meredith, alexander, and filippa (sorry wren) but i feel like i barely got to scratch the surface of their psyches.

real ✰: 4.25

i'm a sucker for found family, so pairing it with dark academia makes for a good cup of tea. unfortunately, i am nowhere near the level of conversance our cast has on shakespeare, but i can appreciate how much he permeates the narrative; nice glimpse into the works of literature's greatest.

i read The Secret History right before this so, perhaps as a residual sentiment, i didn't quite expect to like the characters as much as i did—oliver was the biggest surprise. they're all fucked up in a way but as theater folk even that just made me nostalgic (of course, not to the degree of you-know-what).

if i were to nitpick one thing, however, there's some dissatisfaction in terms of character exploration. i had an early vested interest in meredith, alexander, and filippa (sorry wren) but i feel like i barely got to scratch the surface of their psyches.

De todos os livros que li e um dia acabei esquecendo os acontecimentos, esse nunca será o caso. Cada página está gravada no fundo da minha alma e eu poderia falar sobre por horas e horas, sem parar. Estou em um estado de desespero andando de um lado para o outro com o final e sinceramente só tem uma pessoa que eu queria falar sobre, mesmo sabendo que não é uma possibilidade. É de quebrar o coração, e eu sigo escolhendo esses livros como se meu coração aguentasse muita coisa ainda.

As my entry to dark academia (late, je sais) this was a feast 

Annabella

i loved the shakespeare atmosphere throughout the book and the main vibe of everything. i would say the lack of depth in some relationships between characters felt amiss in the book. some dynamics were awkward, i dare say for example between richard and wren who are cousins but we see nothing of their relationships so we do not understand some of their reaction towards each other’s. i would have loved more description of every characters and their relation to each others but alas! the book was good nonetheless and i loved the dramatics of all the plays and how mysterious the teachers were being.

mari

Oliver Marks has just served ten years for the murder of one of his closest friends - a murder he may or may not have committed. On the day he's released, he's greeted by the detective who put him in prison. Detective Colborne is retiring, but before he does, he wants to know what really happened ten years ago. As a young actor studying Shakespeare at an elite arts conservatory, Oliver noticed that his talented classmates seem to play the same roles onstage and off - villain, hero, tyrant, temptress - though Oliver felt doomed to always be a secondary character in someone else's story. But when the teachers change up the casting, a good-natured rivalry turns ugly, and the plays spill dangerously over into life. When tragedy strikes, one of the seven friends is found dead. The rest face their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, and themselves, that they are blameless.

gay people be doing anything but saying I love you 

Claire Maguet

initially had a hard time getting into the book bc i was so self aware of how pretentious it was but once i could fully get into it i was so into it. 

yet another shakespeare-inspired novel that has left me audibly sobbing when i finished it. i loved it so much. oliver was my perfect narrator, my perfect main character, even more so because he always saw himself as secondary (real!). 

the reality of dellecher was wonderfully separated from the real world in an almost fantastical sense and yet also felt so real and physical. 

also the queerness in this novel is so special to me—it’s not pretty, and it probably isn’t healthy, but what’s a dark academia novel without some unhealthy codependency? 

anyway, i’m so glad i finally got around to reading this book after being recommended it like 3 years ago. 

initially had a hard time getting into the book bc i was so self aware of how pretentious it was but once i could fully get into it i was so into it. 

yet another shakespeare-inspired novel that has left me audibly sobbing when i finished it. i loved it so much. oliver was my perfect narrator, my perfect main character, even more so because he always saw himself as secondary (real!). 

the reality of dellecher was wonderfully separated from the real world in an almost fantastical sense and yet also felt so real and physical. 

also the queerness in this novel is so special to me—it’s not pretty, and it probably isn’t healthy, but what’s a dark academia novel without some unhealthy codependency? 

anyway, i’m so glad i finally got around to reading this book after being recommended it like 3 years ago. 

'Enter the players. There were seven of us then, seven bright young things with wide precious futures ahead of us. Until that year, we saw no further than the books in front of our faces.'On the day Oliver Marks is released from jail, the man who put him there is waiting at the door. Detective Colborne wants to know the truth, and after ten years, Oliver is finally ready to tell it.Ten years before: Oliver is one of seven young Shakespearean actors at Dellecher Classical Conservatory, a place of keen ambition and fierce competition. In this secluded world of firelight and leather-bound books, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingenue, extra. But in their fourth and final year, the balance of power begins to shift, good-natured rivalries turned ugly, and on opening night real violence invades the students' world of make believe. In the morning, the fourth-years find themselves facing their very own tragedy, and their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, each other, and themselves that they are innocent.Part coming-of-age story, part confession, If We Were Villains explores the magical and dangerous boundary between art and life. In this tale of loyalty and betrayal, madness and ecstasy, the players must choose what roles to play before the curtain falls.

it's really hard to put into words how i feel about the ending of this book but i just wish since we know james is alive that he and oliver are reunited and happy together. at first i thought it was oliver who killed richard, that he was drunk and didn't remember, but over time i thought that maybe someone else killed him and oliver took the blame, and then of course i thought of james. i had tears in my eyes when pip said james was gone and that rarely happens to me. i loved how they spoke in shakespeare quotes even though i barely understood them. this is a book i will definitely miss reading. i will miss oliver and james.

victor

Ally Perkins

This is one of my favourite books of all time. Is it almost exactly a copy of The Secret History? Yes, sort of, but I enjoyed it about 100 times more. It’s relatively simple, in some cases even predictable, but it really captured me and I’ll always come back to it when I don’t know what to read. What can I say? It’s Shakespeare and gay people, and I’m easily pleased.

Grace Stanger

fiquei devastadoramente miserável e completamente viciado

Pedro Rodarte

khush

a very enjoyable read to savour during the quiet days of autumn! i liked the setting and how the twisted mystery developed till the very end, but it's also not quite the masterpiece i expected from the reviews. the characters felt at times a bit one-dimensional, and the way everybody was quoting shakespeare all the time was a bit annoying (look, i know how unhinged theatre kids can be, but really, making them speak in quotes right after they indirectly killed their classmate...). other than that, i really appreciate the creativity that went into other aspects of the book, like how both structure and writing style are clearly inspired by plays (that exeunt omnes on the very last page made me smile from ear to ear), plus it's not overly heavy and flows very well. it's one of those i could easily reread!

Selle raamatu esteetika ja dark academia vibe oli lihtsalt IMMACULATE. Väga thought daughter raamat, pani mind mõtlema väga sügavate teemade peale. Ülesehitus ja karakterid olid nii hästi läbimõeldud, selle ülesehitus sarnanes väga Shakespearile, kellest raamatus VÄGA palju juttu on. Lõpp pani mind hämmingus lage vaatama (heartbraking). ALSO plot oli AAAMAZING.

“Per aspera, ad astra” (thorugh the horns, to the stars)

“I look at you and suddenly the sonnets make sense, the good ones anyway”

“You can justify anything if you do it poetically enough”

“Do you blame shakespeare for any of it? I blame him for all of it”

Mia Lisandra 

Selle raamatu esteetika ja dark academia vibe oli lihtsalt IMMACULATE. Väga thought daughter raamat, pani mind mõtlema väga sügavate teemade peale. Ülesehitus ja karakterid olid nii hästi läbimõeldud, selle ülesehitus sarnanes väga Shakespearile, kellest raamatus VÄGA palju juttu on. Lõpp pani mind hämmingus lage vaatama (heartbraking). ALSO plot oli AAAMAZING.

Mõned quoted:

“Per aspera, ad astra” (thorugh the horns, to the stars)

“I look at you and suddenly the sonnets make sense, the good ones anyway”

“You can justify anything if you do it poetically enough”

“Do you blame shakespeare for any of it? I blame him for all of it”



rating 4 dulu. ⚠️⚠️⚠️ insya Allah ini spoiler free review (not really a review karena ini bakalan kayak gw yapping experience gw baca buku ini).

first two act, gw sangat suka world buildingnya. ditambah di akhir act selalu ada tension yg bikin gw mau baca part setelahnya!!! awalnya gw pikir bakalan dnf ini buku karena banyak bgt shakespeare references dan gw kagak ngerti apa apa (ditambah bahasanya susah bgt brengsek), tapi lama lama ngerti ngerti aja karena quote yang dipake kadang berhubungan sm apa yg mereka lakuin/obrolin saat itu. TP TETEP AJA YA NAMANYA JG PEMALAS ada kalanya kayak mereka quote shakespeare/reenact shakespear play trs gw baca (obviously not understanding a single shit and wtv was going on) trs kayak YAUDAH gt ok cukup tau aj. tp kalo kayak gt apa YANG GW PAHAM!!! cerita mereka seputar itu, ended up ke chatgpt trs baca rangkuman acts dan tiap scenenya (sedikit membantu walaupun nggak paham sepenuhnya)

lanjut ke act III dmn gw udh mulai bisa adaptasi sm penulisan dan segala shakespeare references tsb. di act III banyak bgt yg terjadi (babak paling panjang jg) tp kagak ada yg resep gt adegannya di gw 😭😭😭 ini jadi babak yg paling membosankan (hufttt). act IV super forgettable (pendek dan flat bgt) dan act V lumayan shocking DAN SGT SEDIH (gak nangis tp tetep SEDIH). 

walaupun sinopsis ini novel nunjukin hint adanya murder mystery (jg yg bikin gw baca ni buku) tp main pointnya bukan itu, malah ini cuma jd kayak latarnya aja. main point di buku ini mostly ttg keadaan karakter-karakter ini setelah kematian salah satu temen deket mereka (bukan spoiler) (ada di sinopsis), their inner conflict and how their friendship (and them) is slowly falling apart. yang gw sayangkan, gw nggak begitu bisa merasakan jalinan persahabatan mereka (BAHASA GW). tp gw apresiasi, ini kayaknya jadi satu satunya buku yg gw baca di tahun ini dmn gw grow fond of the characters (nggak semuanya, tp biasanya di buku buku lain gw ke karakternya YAUDAH AJA) mungkin karena pacenya slow dan ceritanya lebih fokus ke karakter dibandingkan alur. 

i left so many tabs and highlights karena gw kayaknya bakal baca lagi to understand it better. sementara masih gw rating 4 dan mungkin berpontensi jadi 5 kl gw baca lagi dan lebih ngerti banyak, karena jujur baca ini SGT FUN walaupun susah, gw jd banyak belajar jg ttg englit. yah udh gt aja bingung jg gw mau nulis apa lg

rating 4 dulu. ⚠️⚠️⚠️ insya Allah ini spoiler free review (not really a review karena ini bakalan kayak gw yapping experience gw baca buku ini).

first two act, gw sangat suka world buildingnya. ditambah di akhir act selalu ada tension yg bikin gw mau baca part setelahnya!!! awalnya gw pikir bakalan dnf ini buku karena banyak bgt shakespeare references dan gw kagak ngerti apa apa (ditambah bahasanya susah bgt brengsek), tapi lama lama ngerti ngerti aja karena quote yang dipake kadang berhubungan sm apa yg mereka lakuin/obrolin saat itu. TP TETEP AJA YA NAMANYA JG PEMALAS ada kalanya kayak mereka quote shakespeare/reenact shakespear play trs gw baca (obviously not understanding a single shit and wtv was going on) trs kayak YAUDAH gt ok cukup tau aj. tp kalo kayak gt apa YANG GW PAHAM!!! cerita mereka seputar itu, ended up ke chatgpt trs baca rangkuman acts dan tiap scenenya (sedikit membantu walaupun nggak paham sepenuhnya)

lanjut ke act III dmn gw udh mulai bisa adaptasi sm penulisan dan segala shakespeare references tsb. di act III banyak bgt yg terjadi (babak paling panjang jg) tp kagak ada yg resep gt adegannya di gw 😭😭😭 ini jadi babak yg paling membosankan (hufttt). act IV super forgettable (pendek dan flat bgt) dan act V lumayan shocking DAN SGT SEDIH (gak nangis tp tetep SEDIH). 

walaupun sinopsis ini novel nunjukin hint adanya murder mystery (jg yg bikin gw baca ni buku) tp main pointnya bukan itu, malah ini cuma jd kayak latarnya aja. main point di buku ini mostly ttg keadaan karakter-karakter ini setelah kematian salah satu temen deket mereka (bukan spoiler) (ada di sinopsis), their inner conflict and how their friendship (and them) is slowly falling apart. yang gw sayangkan, gw nggak begitu bisa merasakan jalinan persahabatan mereka (BAHASA GW). tp gw apresiasi, ini kayaknya jadi satu satunya buku yg gw baca di tahun ini dmn gw grow fond of the characters (nggak semuanya, tp biasanya di buku buku lain gw ke karakternya YAUDAH AJA) mungkin karena pacenya slow dan ceritanya lebih fokus ke karakter dibandingkan alur. 

i left so many tabs and highlights karena gw kayaknya bakal baca lagi to understand it better. sementara masih gw rating 4 dan mungkin berpontensi jadi 5 kl gw baca lagi dan lebih ngerti banyak, karena jujur baca ini SGT FUN walaupun susah, gw jd banyak belajar jg ttg englit. yah udh gt aja bingung jg gw mau nulis apa lg

Welcome to October and Welcome to the month of trying to read the books that fit the season a little better than the summer romance and what a book to kick start October then with a book that pulled me in and kept me guessing throughout! This is a book that has bene on my TBR for several years and I always get close to picking this one up but never got there but I finally decided that 2024 was the year to do it. 

A small elite school, a theatre program that is only about Shakespeare, seven friends, seniors, together from the beginning, strong, intense friendships formed. Oliver, our narrator, one of the seven, just released from spending tempers in prison. How did something so special, so promising, go so wrong?

Despite not being the biggest fan of Shakespeare as I always struggle with the language it was lovely to enjoy this one alongside the Shakespeare and truly this is a novel about love, obsession, friendship passion and betrayal. This group of people becomes more important to each other than their real families, than the real world. Shakespeare takes over their lives, the plays they perform, always having to be on, the intense study, rehearsals, they even speak to each other in Shakespearean quotes.

The Author does an awesome job at weaving al the quote into the book and often provided clues and foreshadowing into what has happened and I despite not getting each of the clues I was still able to enjoy the book and just get lost in this Dark Academia book.

Ian Brakspear

Welcome to October and Welcome to the month of trying to read the books that fit the season a little better than the summer romance and what a book to kick start October then with a book that pulled me in and kept me guessing throughout! This is a book that has bene on my TBR for several years and I always get close to picking this one up but never got there but I finally decided that 2024 was the year to do it. 

A small elite school, a theatre program that is only about Shakespeare, seven friends, seniors, together from the beginning, strong, intense friendships formed. Oliver, our narrator, one of the seven, just released from spending tempers in prison. How did something so special, so promising, go so wrong?

Despite not being the biggest fan of Shakespeare as I always struggle with the language it was lovely to enjoy this one alongside the Shakespeare and truly this is a novel about love, obsession, friendship passion and betrayal. This group of people becomes more important to each other than their real families, than the real world. Shakespeare takes over their lives, the plays they perform, always having to be on, the intense study, rehearsals, they even speak to each other in Shakespearean quotes.

 

The Author does an awesome job at weaving al the quote into the book and often provided clues and foreshadowing into what has happened and I despite not getting each of the clues I was still able to enjoy the book and just get lost in this Dark Academia book.

River 

I just felt so empty as Oliver as he found out about James "passing", after finishing If We Were Villains. 

The characters were so well written and i just fell in love with every single one of them. (Tho James my boy owned my heart the most xD) 

Nate Mason

I just felt so empty as Oliver as he found out about James "passing", after finishing If We Were Villains. 

The characters were so well written and i just fell in love with every single one of them. (Tho James my boy owned my heart the most xD) 

These mad, mad method actors. Thoroughly enjoyed this one,

Note to self: you found Alexander and James basically interchangeable until maybe the 300-pagd mark.

These mad, mad method actors. Thoroughly enjoyed this one,

Note to self: you found Alexander and James basically interchangeable until maybe the 300-pagd mark.

 

** spoiler alert **
           *enter the players

As a stage manager in my school i fell in love on how the character narrates the story and the use of "scenes" as a chapter of the book. 

As I was reading it, i knew that each characters has their own dark secrets. I was building my own theory, who is the killer among the 6 characters. I was getting scared as the story goes. Since Richard died, the 4th years ecperienced a lot of things, you can really sense their secrets and that they're scared that somebody may find out. And my theory was right that James killed Richard that night but I was shocked that Filippa knew what happened. 

Love, lies and regrets. The ending is so heart breaking, that i felt sorry and sad for Oliver... it's a tragic story 33

*exeunt omnes

I have not had a book keep me on the edge of my seat in an anxious, yet desperate to know what happens next, way ever before. The way the narrative grips you from moment one of introductions to the ensemble cast, to you slowly discovering something deeply personal to the perspective character along side him, is so uniquely genius. I will immediately devour any thing else this author publishes in the future. LOVED IT

Ghofran Mustafa 

I always expect more and end up being disappointed..

prawnie

I don’t think they were awards to even justify how I feel about this book. A masterpiece.

On the day Oliver Marks is released from jail, the man who put him there is waiting at the door. Detective Colborne wants to know the thruth, and after ten years, Olver is finally ready to tell it. 
A decade ago: Oliver is one of seven young Shakespearean actors at Dellecher Classical Conservatory, a place of keen ambition and fierce competition. In this secluded world of firelight and leather-bound books, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingénue, extra.
But in their fourth and final year, good-natured rivalries turn ugly, and on opening night real violence invades the students' world of make-believe. In the morning, the fourth-years find themselves facing their very own tragedy, and their greatest acting challenge yet: convince the police, each other, and themselves that they are innocent.

Andrea Morales

okay it's been a few days here are my thoughts (spoilers ahead though they're kinda vague)

as a 'the secret history' stan, I was very excited to read this book since I'd heard it's similar to donna tartt's novel and had amazing reviews.
but, sadly, as doja cat infamously proclaimed: 
"it was supposed to give, but it did not give what needed to be gave to the highest of giving."

maybe it was a mistake to compare it to tsh, maybe it's just not as good. 
i did like some of the characters (shout out to Wren and James), but the rest of the cast (including them, to some extent) felt stereotypical and shallow, they really were just as deep as an archetype can be. 
the constant shakespeare quoting was fun at first but got old real quick, and unless you have an extensive knowledge of shakespearean plays and texts, you'll miss quite a lot of stuff that could make the book interesting. 

also SLIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD but if the endgame relationship was going to be James and Oliver, I think they did Meredith specially dirty since they didn't really give her any substantial development beyond being someone's romantic interest. also the CONSTANT remarks of her body made me super uncomfortable, poor girl. 
the biggest thing that really put me off was the lack of regret or real consequences after the murder. yes, they did spiral into some kind of chaos in the aftermath, but the lack of remorse made the whole murder feel pointless?? like yes they died and that was it, no one felt particularly bad about killing them and it really annoyed me.

I do want to talk about what I did enjoy, the scenes where they were acting on stage were some of the best moments in the book (the romeo and juliet scene... if yk yk). some of the interactions between the main characters were really heart warming, and the 'two best friends in a room they might kiss' between J and O was chef's kiss. 

in a nutshell, this book is like the less cooler and slighly annoying younger sibling of 'the secret history', and though it had some truly great moments, I'd have to read it again and see if I like it better after I become a shakespeare stan.

If We Were Villains A Novel

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