Review by emilywemily6 - If We Were Villains

emilywemily6 's review for:

If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

4.25

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Even with my limited Shakespeare knowledge, I still really enjoyed this book. Though I feel like a true thespian would get a lot more out of this book and recognize many intentional parallels the author drew to Shakespeare’s work. I hope to revisit this book in the future when I am more acquainted with his body of work. This novel felt theatrical and dramatic but in a way that is realistic to collegiate theater students. I found the overall descent into madness fascinating and I was intrigued by the characterization of the entire cast. I wish there was more depth/backstory to some characters though, like Richard especially. I also loved the idea of Macbeth by the lake and Romeo and Juliet in the middle of a ball! I didn’t particularly like the ambiguous ending because of how I feel the characters would have likely acted; I’m not convinced the ending honors how I feel the characters would have acted, but overall I could see the character progression and understand if not agree with their choices. The course of the mystery was pretty predictable but that made it satisfying.

Content Warnings