Reviews tagging 'Schizophrenia/Psychosis '

If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

8 reviews

charliewarliee's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book- This book is honestly one of the best pieces of literature I have consumed in my life. I adored this book, the tension it built so magnificently, the descriptions, the plays. I love how it builds everything up, but everything still goes so fast and smoothly. The layout of ‘Acts’ and ‘Scenes’ made my theatre loving heart cry out! This book needs so much more attention than it already has.

also i’m sorry but James and Oliver’s relationship was SO HEARTWARMING AND CUTE AHHHHHH!


the twist at the end actually made my jaw drop to the floor.

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aklovekorn's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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clarathromycin's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75


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jamie_reads_stuff's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Honestly it was….okay??? It was well written but I couldn’t get myself to feel invested enough in the characters to really care. I did guess the twist about halfway through the book. I did like the play format, the back and forth between acts and scenes, and how it definitely felt like a Shakespearean tragedy. But I think I didn’t feel invested enough to really love it

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sauvageloup's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

an absolutely compelling and disturbing ride of a book

(spoilers throughout this review)
Pros:
- the whole book is written like a tragedy, unfolding in a meta way that isn't obvious at first but becomes slowly clearer. the more we learn about the characters - Oliver's obsession with James, Richard's anger, Alexander's substance use, Filippa's unflappability and desperation for a family, James' steady collapse and Wren's fragility - the more inescapable the ending is. i sensed from the first time it's stated that James and Oliver meet in the bathroom that it might've been James but that didn't make it any less gripping. it doesn't end as tragically as a tragedy could have but it kept me wrapped up and guessing throughout, utterly hooked into the early hours. the sense of being totally immersed in the poetry and the cultish world the characters inhabit is as obsessively compelling as the characters themselves find it and the book was impossible to put down.
- the writing is direct and simple, in-between beautiful figurative turns of phrase and the quotes and verse. the dialogue is very convincing as Shakespeare-obsessed thespians and i'm not surprised to find out that the author is a Shakespeare scholar. the poetry was woven into the prose and James being unable to escape the words of Edmund, the villain, at the end was so well-written and perfect for the story. like the characters, I was drawn into the quotations, with all their layers, and then eventually trapped within them. the plays and the story become one and the same as the characters can't escape their roles, just as the title quotes says in the later pages - that the characters become as they were cast.
- at the start, i wasn't impressed with the type casting - the dull sidekick, the angelic hero, the angry drunkard boyfriend, the seductress, etc. - but that's the point. the whole story is a meta reflection on how Shakespearean, extreme emotions might play out in a dark academia scenario. the premise or even the plot isn't that complicated or original, but the writing and how it unfolds really makes it something special.
- bits i also enjoyed was the queer aspect, in that it wasn't strictly put into a box for James or Oliver but wasn't brushed under the rug either. it signals to the homoerotic tension that's never realised in classical lit that you can do a tragedy with the queerness out there in the open. 
- the trauma was also dealt with, through all of their breaking-aparts, though perhaps Oliver is the most composed of them really, or maybe Filippa. whilst it's partly the guilt that makes them breakdown like Macbeth, there's also the PTSD from the death itself that's addressed and explored in the different ways it comes up in each of the characters.

Cons:
- the ending confused me. i suppose its supposed to be a glimpse of hope - that real life doesn't have to be a tragedy if only James asks for help, like any of them could've earlier on (Meredith and James after Richard's abuse, Alexander with his substance abuse, Wren with her nerves, etc.) But i felt it was also kind of circular and tragic in a different way - just as we see the possibility of Oliver living a new life with Meredith in NYC, there's this new shock. Will Oliver ever escape James' influence as long as James is alive?
- i did read it quickly and struggled not to skip bits, but i did find the number of characters confusing. I'm still not sure who Camilo was exactly, and i didn't get a good feeling of who Filippa and Wren were really, except as fairly vague side characters - i had more of a sense of Frederick and Gwendolyn than the other two members of the seven.
- whilst Oliver got better, I still felt like he was the dullest of the characters. I suppose that's part of his role - Nick to James' Gatsby - always the sidekick to the hero, but i did think it might've been better if there'd been switching POVs, or if Oliver had been more active from earlier on.
- Oliver is very disrespectful towards eating disorders, which makes him really dislikable. i assume the author doesn't really condone such behaviour, but it felt unnecessary, and the book didn't really show any consequences for his callousness towards his seriously ill sister. There were other bits of insensitivity too and whilst maybe they were supposed to have a narrative purpose, some bits just felt carelessly cruel and unneeded.
- i wasn't convinced that 10 years of prison really had such little impact on Oliver, he seems unchanged between the before and after and that seemed odd. that he and Meredith fall right back into it was strange too, but i guess the idea is that time has been suspended for them (?).
(- personally, i'm still not a fan of the first person, i find it difficult to get a real idea of the main character when 'I' is being used all the time, but that's my preference, not a fault with the story.)

overall its a hugely unnerving and fascinating book that made me want to reread Shakespeare, to save the book to read again sometime, and to read anything else Rio has written. it wasn't perfect but it was definitely addictive and there were some absolutely beautiful lines in there.

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inkslate's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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rachtabitha's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25


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davidrb's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Everything I wanted the Secret History to be. Chef's kiss.

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