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

dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I may not know a single thing about Shakespeare (barely know how to spell the name sjsjsj 💀💀), and also have little to no theatre-knowledge, but my god

This was not an easy read, neither with all the Shakespeare-an lingo nor emotional turmoil, and I think I can count the pages I felt ~calm~ reading one (1) hand.

I also set a new record with how many journal entries I made on Storygraph while reading this. A whole 96 of them, filled with all-caps screaming "WHERE THE HELL IS [REDACTED]" and/or awe at the way M.L. Rio used words to convey certain feelings or moments ✨️BEAUTIFULLY✨️. The way this was written and formatted made me have to put the book down at multiple times to just breathe (looking at you, pages 172-173), and the parallels to the plays put on by the characters in the story made me absolutely lose my mind. This was also my first thriller in a while (if I've ever even read a proper thriller like this before ???) and I was on edge the entire time up until the very last word on the very last page (not an exaggeration). 

I bet this book hits even harder for Shakespearians and theatre people. I feel like I'm 🤏 this close to diving into it myself, but, considering how this story goes, maybe I shouldn't. Lol. 💀
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