A review by ceallaighsbooks
If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-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

“This… This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune—often the surfeit of our own behavior—we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars… as if we were villains on necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and treachers by spherical predominance; drunkards, liars, and adulterers by an enforc’d obedience of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting-on!” He looked heavenward, made a fist, and shook it at the stars. A laugh blossomed from his lips and rang in my ears, bold and unabashed. “An admirable evasion of whore-master man, to lay his goatish disposition to the charge of a star!” — James speaking lines from King Lear 
 
TITLE—If We Were Villains 
AUTHOR—M. L. Rio 
PUBLISHED—2017 
 
GENRE—dark academia 
SETTING—a conservatory college in northern Illinois in 1997 
MAIN THEMES/SUBJECTS—Murder! (maybe 😅), obsession, dark academia, private conservatory college, Shakespeare & Bardolatry, art school, love & friendship, actors & acting 
 
WRITING STYLE—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 
CHARACTERS—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 
STORY/PLOT—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 
BONUS ELEMENT/S—I was personally OBSESSED with the excessive amount of Shakespeare quotes and references so this was actually probably my favorite part of the book 🥰 
PHILOSOPHY—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️—The philosophy was actually heavily related to a very deep reading and understanding of Shakespeare, likely even deeper than I’ve ever done (even though I am still quite familiar with his work, but this is *next level* Bardolatry) so…. I would love to continually reread this book as I continue to explore Shakespeare’s work as well. 
 
“The thing about Shakespeare is, he’s so eloquent… He speaks the unspeakable. He turns grief and triumph and rapture and rage into words, into something we can understand. He renders the whole mystery of humanity comprehensible.” 
 
Whew! This book kind of blew my mind. One of my best friends in college was a Shakespeare scholar so I absorbed a lot of material through her and even took two classes with her and spent a lot of time at the Folger Shakespeare Library and Theater with her as well so my knowledge of Shakespeare—while not even close to that of Rio’s 😅—is on the above-average level of amateur I’d say. 😂 I’d be curious to know if readers with little to no knowledge of Shakespeare would enjoy this book as much as I did because my favorite thing about this book was the *intense* study of Shakespeare that was necessary to write it. The use of Shakespeare quotes as a sort of second language that the students would speak with each other was incredibly fascinating and made me pull down my Norton anthology of Shakespeare’s works to browse and explore the context for each line. It definitely reignited an old interest in the Bard and his works. 
 
As a story, however, I still think this book is phenomenal. The characters are all incredibly well developed, complex, and even very sympathetic all in their own way. The plot keeps you on the EDGE of your seat the whole time and I didn’t know how it was going to end until it did end and I also thought the ending was extremely, idk if “satisfying” is the right word but, believable? Let’s say the ending “suited” the story as a whole. The writing style is also excellent, using a lot of tropes from drama and Shakespeare even in the structure of the writing. The sexual tension (half of them queer!) between some of the characters was *chefs kiss* and the atmosphere of the school was one of my favorites yet in a dark academia novel. This is an easy pure five-star rating for me. Definitely will be rereading. 📖👩🏻‍🎓💀💕 
 
“The sky was clear and quiet, stars peering curiously down at us from a wide dome of indigo. The water, too, was still, and I thought, what liars they are, the sky and the water. Still and calm and clear, like everything was fine. It wasn’t fine, and really, it never would be again.” 
 
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 
 
TW // eating disorder, violence, bullying, sexual violence, prison, drug (including an overdose) & alcohol use (Please feel free to DM me for more specifics!) 
 
Further Reading— 
  • The Secret History, by Donna Tartt—these two books are remarkably similar to the point where if you like one you’ll probably enjoy the other, but also *entirely* different to the point where you couldn’t even begin to really compare them… isn’t that fun??? 😂😂
  • Oligarchy, by Scarlett Thomas
  • The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova
  • Ninth House, by Leigh Bardugo
  • The Bookman’s Tale, by Charlie Lovett
  • The Rehearsal, by Eleanor Catton

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