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raisinflakies's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Murder
Moderate: Gore and Drug abuse
Minor: Transphobia, Homophobia, and Misogyny
sarahmreads's review against another edition
dark
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? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I seem to have a thing this week for dark stories. But holy crap, this might be one of my favorite reads this year.
Oliver is attending his last year at the Dellecher school as a theater major with extreme interest in Shakespeare. The story follows Oliver and six of his fellow fourth-years in the department and the tragedy and aftermath that follows it. Now, it's a decade later as Oliver retells the story he knows to the officer that arrested him.
Oh boy where do I even start with this story? The style of story is kind of like script mixed with real life, where some dialogues are primarily Shakespearean lines and text, while the rest are scenes but dialogue is sometimes framed like it would in a script. It's quite unique and takes you into not only the mind of Oliver, a Shakespeare aficionado, but into that of the world he finds himself in. There are also a LOT of Shakespeare plays and scenes performed within the book itself. I myself am not the biggest fan of Shakespeare, but in here I absolutely loved it and how sometimes the text became messages for something bigger.
Now the characters were probably some of my favorites that I have seen in a novel as of recent. Oliver was clever but also a bit absent, and I think his role as the "average" guy helped him see a lot of things that the rest of the cast did not. On top of that, each character in a way mirrored one of Shakespeare's character tropes in his plays. Each had their own complications and strengths, but would either be consumed by them or grow from them. At times you hate the characters. At other times, you love them. It's such an interesting duality and I was here for it.
I was pleasantly surprised with the pacing of the story. It has a very good mix of post fourth year and during the fourth year (technically a flashback) and chapters are told as "scenes" and the sections broken up as "acts." It took a bit to get to the murder part, and then quite a while for the mystery to actually be solved. For me, the killer was kind of already in the back of my mind and got approved when the final piece got found, but it was still impactful. Also the ending had me sobbing on the back of a bus.
Right now, I'm still a bit torn on the whole relationship between James and Oliver. I got the whole vibes between them, if you know what I mean, but sometimes it felt a bit too "in your face" to the point that everyone saying "oh you're gay for each other" was what made it real in my mind. But they also had some pretty obvious chemistry that made me realize it before everyone else started saying it. I don't think that Oliver is 100% straight though, because he also clearly has chemistry with Meredith, even though Book Trigger Warnings has Oliver listed as a gay main character.
If We Were Villains is the perfect dark academia novel to read this October with questionable characters and a story of how far people will go for love.
Oliver is attending his last year at the Dellecher school as a theater major with extreme interest in Shakespeare. The story follows Oliver and six of his fellow fourth-years in the department and the tragedy and aftermath that follows it. Now, it's a decade later as Oliver retells the story he knows to the officer that arrested him.
Oh boy where do I even start with this story? The style of story is kind of like script mixed with real life, where some dialogues are primarily Shakespearean lines and text, while the rest are scenes but dialogue is sometimes framed like it would in a script. It's quite unique and takes you into not only the mind of Oliver, a Shakespeare aficionado, but into that of the world he finds himself in. There are also a LOT of Shakespeare plays and scenes performed within the book itself. I myself am not the biggest fan of Shakespeare, but in here I absolutely loved it and how sometimes the text became messages for something bigger.
Now the characters were probably some of my favorites that I have seen in a novel as of recent. Oliver was clever but also a bit absent, and I think his role as the "average" guy helped him see a lot of things that the rest of the cast did not. On top of that, each character in a way mirrored one of Shakespeare's character tropes in his plays. Each had their own complications and strengths, but would either be consumed by them or grow from them. At times you hate the characters. At other times, you love them. It's such an interesting duality and I was here for it.
I was pleasantly surprised with the pacing of the story. It has a very good mix of post fourth year and during the fourth year (technically a flashback) and chapters are told as "scenes" and the sections broken up as "acts." It took a bit to get to the murder part, and then quite a while for the mystery to actually be solved. For me, the killer was kind of already in the back of my mind and got approved when the final piece got found, but it was still impactful. Also the ending had me sobbing on the back of a bus.
Right now, I'm still a bit torn on the whole relationship between James and Oliver. I got the whole vibes between them, if you know what I mean, but sometimes it felt a bit too "in your face" to the point that everyone saying "oh you're gay for each other" was what made it real in my mind. But they also had some pretty obvious chemistry that made me realize it before everyone else started saying it. I don't think that Oliver is 100% straight though, because he also clearly has chemistry with Meredith, even though Book Trigger Warnings has Oliver listed as a gay main character.
If We Were Villains is the perfect dark academia novel to read this October with questionable characters and a story of how far people will go for love.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Grief, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Violence and Homophobia
Minor: Self harm, Suicide, and Transphobia
PTSD, slut shaming,millie's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
not a bad book, just a very frustrating book.
it's also a very hard book to read due to its shakespearean nature, the author spend a lot of times quoting shakespear's play (entire paragraph), so if you're not familiar with old english, shakespeare, tragedy as genre or all of the above, it become very tedious to get through. it also mean a lot of subtilities goes over your head.
(the ending especially but also the ending doesn't make much so you don't lose much, i guess?)
i was unaware book had a lgbtq+ tag attached with it when i first started it and upon learning it had one? yeah, it doesn't deserve it one bit. no book where the author spend a weirdly long amount of time spewing vague transphobia, biphobia and homophobia deserve to have this label or at the very least not without some sort of warning. (also, your book is set in an art school in the 90's and 80% of your protagonists are straight and vaguely homophobic? girl, that's sus.)
objectively, i think this book lack many things but if personally you were satisfied with that this book had to offer, good for you. it probably suit people who like shakespeare better.
it's also a very hard book to read due to its shakespearean nature, the author spend a lot of times quoting shakespear's play (entire paragraph), so if you're not familiar with old english, shakespeare, tragedy as genre or all of the above, it become very tedious to get through. it also mean a lot of subtilities goes over your head.
(the ending especially but also the ending doesn't make much so you don't lose much, i guess?)
i was unaware book had a lgbtq+ tag attached with it when i first started it and upon learning it had one? yeah, it doesn't deserve it one bit. no book where the author spend a weirdly long amount of time spewing vague transphobia, biphobia and homophobia deserve to have this label or at the very least not without some sort of warning. (also, your book is set in an art school in the 90's and 80% of your protagonists are straight and vaguely homophobic? girl, that's sus.)
objectively, i think this book lack many things but if personally you were satisfied with that this book had to offer, good for you. it probably suit people who like shakespeare better.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Death, Drug abuse, Murder, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Biphobia and Homophobia
Minor: Misogyny, Transphobia, and Eating disorder
parasolcrafter's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
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
2.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcohol, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Grief, and Murder
Minor: Blood, Eating disorder, Suicide, Transphobia, and Homophobia
roseamongstories's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- 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
3.0
I'm no fan of Shakespeare so maybe that's why I didn't vibe with this book. One thing I liked about this book though is the gorgeous writing!!! So vividly descriptive. Easy-to-get into, engaging purple prose. Tell me should M.L. Rio write another book that is hopefully not centered on pompous thespians, and I'll be there for it!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Transphobia, Alcoholism, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Death
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