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A review by marianneiriss
If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
If We Were Villains had been recommended to me by approximately every other person I've met over the past year, so I finally succumbed to peer pressure and read it. I will be honest and say that I didn't have high hopes for it - I've read several other "read this if you enjoyed The Secret History" recommendations and been disappointed (the expectation of another underwhelming read was partially why it took me so long to get around to reading IWWV when everyone was raving about it last year!)
Having read it in two days, I can now say I was wrong to expect so little (as shown by my 5 star rating), and although I will stand by my original opinion that IWWV is not The Secret History version 2.0, M. L. Rio never claimed it was! It's not really fair to use a cult classic as a yardstick to measure all other books set in a similar world against: IWWV is a clever and well-written book in its own right.
Looking back a decade to his time as a student of the drama college of a prestigious liberal arts school, the narrator recalls his memories and the differing versions of events which his friends told at the time of a traumatic - and eventually criminal- event. Drawing from a range of plays and sonnets, M.L. Rio has stitched together a drama within a drama, with the characters of Shakespeare merging into the lives of the play's actors. As might be expected given that the play being performed at the time is Julius Caesar, a tragedy results. With unreliable alibis, lots of drink, drugs, and fuzzy memories, the threat of a prison sentence hanging over them, the narrator portrays his friendship group at the time they were about to unravel with devastating results.
Having read it in two days, I can now say I was wrong to expect so little (as shown by my 5 star rating), and although I will stand by my original opinion that IWWV is not The Secret History version 2.0, M. L. Rio never claimed it was! It's not really fair to use a cult classic as a yardstick to measure all other books set in a similar world against: IWWV is a clever and well-written book in its own right.
Looking back a decade to his time as a student of the drama college of a prestigious liberal arts school, the narrator recalls his memories and the differing versions of events which his friends told at the time of a traumatic - and eventually criminal- event. Drawing from a range of plays and sonnets, M.L. Rio has stitched together a drama within a drama, with the characters of Shakespeare merging into the lives of the play's actors. As might be expected given that the play being performed at the time is Julius Caesar, a tragedy results. With unreliable alibis, lots of drink, drugs, and fuzzy memories, the threat of a prison sentence hanging over them, the narrator portrays his friendship group at the time they were about to unravel with devastating results.