Scan barcode
A review by kengore
If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
I'm glad I finished this book at last because wowie is it challenging (and not in the good sense)
I feel like this book is held in great esteem by a specific group of people and no review will change their mind, but if you've read stuff like The Secret History, you'll realize how much of this book is derivative and unoriginal.
One thing is to know that all art is derivative, something else is putting so much from someone else's work in your book that if you removed those quotes, your book would have nothing going on for itself. M.L. Rio should be thankful this is all copyright free (or maybe it was done on purpose, I have no way of knowing).
See, the problem is not the quotes themselves (many readers might find it annoying or pedantic, it wasn't my own experience), but the fact that if you remove the quotes, the narrative left is so tired and unimaginative. The bully dates the vixen, who happens to be a redhead. We also have the maiden. The dichotomy between the Good Gay (the one who does not "act gay"and dies tragically at the end, by his own hand, in a pseudo romantic manner ) and the Bad Gay (portrayed as a sexual deviant and a drug addict ). The main protagonist who's some Gary Stu to whom Things Just Happen To. Don't get me started on "my family does not get why this school is soooo important to me, nevermind that living there has been constant torture for me, because it's like a symbol of how an artist must suffer for their art". I think the intention is to portray their situation as "our isolation and obsession with academia, I mean Shakespeare, has caused us to go off the rails", but it's all so clumsily put together that Richard's aggression comes out of left field and by the time we're recovered from it, and we're asked to be invested emotionally on their drama, we realize we don't care about this people enough. Why don't we? Because the narrative starts in year four, we're told that everything was right until then but we're not shown it. We start at the point of no return for them and we haven't got anything to compare with. We're not shown the Good Old Days. From the very beginning we're shown people who are not consolidated as a group, so don't try to convince me that they were a happy family. It does not come across.
Also, seriously? All this drama for a school play? Be serious for once.
I feel like this book is held in great esteem by a specific group of people and no review will change their mind, but if you've read stuff like The Secret History, you'll realize how much of this book is derivative and unoriginal.
One thing is to know that all art is derivative, something else is putting so much from someone else's work in your book that if you removed those quotes, your book would have nothing going on for itself. M.L. Rio should be thankful this is all copyright free (or maybe it was done on purpose, I have no way of knowing).
See, the problem is not the quotes themselves (many readers might find it annoying or pedantic, it wasn't my own experience), but the fact that if you remove the quotes, the narrative left is so tired and unimaginative. The bully dates the vixen, who happens to be a redhead. We also have the maiden. The dichotomy between the Good Gay (the one who does not "act gay"
Also, seriously? All this drama for a school play? Be serious for once.