If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio (2017)

If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio (2017)

A dark academia style novel about friends caught up in a Shakespearean tragedy. 

Laura’s Rating: 4/5 Stars

Plot: Oliver Marks has just gotten out of prison and is telling the detective from his case what really happened ten years earlier. At the time, seven students were studying Shakespeare at an exclusive arts college. After years of acting together, their personalities began to reflect the characters they played onstage- the hero, the villain, the temptress, the sidekick. The Shakespearean drama of their performances spilled into real life, leaving one of them dead, a character described as “larger than life and larger than death”. Was Oliver to blame?

Opinion: This book is just like The Secret History, but maybe slightly less dense. It’s a solid addition to the dark academia sub-genre and features many of those elements: an exclusive campus, a competitive arts-focused program, a layered group of friends with complex relationships. “There is no comfort like complicity.”

I think that the characters in the book could certainly come off as pretentious, especially in real life, but in the context of the book, it works for me. Within the setting, rather than being pedantic, the characters are simply sharing their passion and love for theater and Shakepeare’s work. This is seen in Oliver’s insistence on telling his story in poetic language. It demonstrates the continued importance of words to him—the only way that he can make sense of his story is by telling it through an artistic lens.

Readers familiar with Shakespeare would certainly appreciate the references in the book, but a deep understanding of his works is certainly not necessary to understand the plot or enjoy the novel. I really enjoyed this dark thriller and I’d recommend it to fans of the genre.