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annerbtw's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
star_oats's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Moderate: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Cursing, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexism, Suicide attempt, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment
ina_pages's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I learned from school that Shakespeare was at the forefront of the English Renaissance. His command and understanding of human emotions and behavior is, in my opinion, one of his greatest assets and what made his works so enticing to watch/read. M.L. Rio clearly carried this over into her work as Oliver’s thoughts and emotions are so clear and easy to follow (at least, it was for me).
I think everyone should read this book at least once in their life. It’s a beautiful exploration of love and tragedy that would have even Shakespeare fighting back tears.
Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Physical abuse, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Alcohol
Minor: Eating disorder and Suicide
torturedreadersdept's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Cursing, Vomit, and Abandonment
Minor: Confinement, Eating disorder, and Homophobia
lefty31's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
kaynic22's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Alcohol
scifipunk's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Interestingly, now at the end, my opinion changed completely.
It is remarkable that a lot of things that annoyed me at the beginning, regarding plot, characters, and some choices the author made, almost all of them improved or at least became ignoreable by the later chapters.
Especially in the beginning, I had the impression that a lot of the characters were extremely flat and one-dimensional — I feel like in many, many scenes, the reader is told about all these different, vibrant personalities, and yet I still had the impression that Filippa and Wren could be fused into one character without any relevant change to the plot or group dynamic.
I still think so, but it somewhat justified by the characters’ in-universe theater obsession making them think in tropes rather than individuals, and in the end, the plot managed to immerse me and I found myself not as bothered by the characters as I thought I would be.
The author is amazing at describing atmosphere and creating tension in her writing — once the pace picks up, it works well, and this book does have a couple of paragraphs and scenes that stand out for simply how elegant and beautifully phrased they are.
The protagonists, as theater students at an elite university, also have the habit of speaking in shakespearean verse in otherwise casual conversation.
This comes off extremely pretentious at first, but seems to be by design — in at least one scene, a character shows awareness of how he and his friends must sound to regular people, and critically reflects about it for a bit. It flowed into the narrative well and seemed natural, and honestly, I would have liked more introspective like this throughout the novel.
I am absolutely torn on the amounts of verse in this book as a whole, however. There are many great scenes, where as a reader, you can see even with minimal knowledge of the original text, that the author means to highlight a certain dynamic or subtext, foreshadow, or give some characterisation. And if it works, it works well.
But on the other hand, there are just as many scenes where it feels excessive or much longer than necessary.
I did. enjoy the book as a whole, and the main plot definitely felt cohesive and satisfying in the end. About the subplots, I’m not so sure. Some major plot twists and entire characters, especially some that are relatively important later on for example
I thought that was really a tragedy, since so many plot threads actually seemed interesting and worth exploring. The author, in my opinion, clearly has talent and put a lot of thought and effort into her work, so I really would have liked to see where all these subplots go… but well.
I enjoyed reading “If We Were Villains” a lot, but it did not quite leave me satisfied in the end.
If you are looking for a captivating, well-executed mystery with a great, immersive atmosphere, then this is for you. The book clearly deserves the “dark academia” hype it got. If you are, however, the type of person who is very annoyed by excess drama, pretentious characters, handwaved details and so on, then you should probably give this one a pass.
Graphic: Drug abuse, Sexism, Violence, Grief, and Alcohol
Moderate: Addiction, Cursing, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Blood
Minor: Eating disorder, Mental illness, Misogyny, and Outing
bookishtea's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Will I cry like a baby now that it’s over and I’ve gotten attached? Yes, yes I will.
I will be the first to admit that I did shy away from the book at first with the Shakespeare references. I’m not a huge Shakespeare nerd so I had a fear that I wouldn’t understand what was going on but my fear was proven wrong. The more I read the more immersed I was and the more important it was to see how the characters interacted using Shakespeare references. As a theater kid you know that the more you study for plays and act them out the more connected you are to it and the more pieces of yourself you leave in it. And the people you act out that play with are people you get close to so lines from a play can become an inside joke and that’s how it was here in the book. So it all made sense to see with character development and building and it made me further enjoy the book. So yes I highly recommend giving it a try!
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Physical abuse, Suicide, Grief, Murder, and Alcohol
quinn24's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, and Medical content
Minor: Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, and Vomit
nenya's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
It is structured like a Shakespeare play and incorporates a lot of his plays into the plot as well as the characters dialogue, which makes it even more intriguing. The characters themselves are at once love- and hateable and you end up not really knowing if you should be rooting for them or not since they‘re doing a lot of morally very wrong stuff (you end up rooting for them anyways). The ending also really packed a punch with some predictable elements but some totally „I did not see that coming“ kind of twists - it also had me sobbing in the middle of the night.
At first I thought this would be too similar to „The Secret History“, which in some cases it was, however it was unique enough to be appreciated on its own. (However the inspiration is quite obvious)
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol
Moderate: Eating disorder, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicide, and Vomit