If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

Rating: 4/5

01/23/2020 - 01/24/2020

“Fourth year. The year of the tragedy,”

I would like to preface this by acknowledging that my favorite selection of plots is a murder mystery, I have been a huge theatre geek since I began attending plays since I was ten, I am a Shakespearean, I am gay, and I have a deep fueled love for dark academia. I AM the target audience for this novel, and I love it so much.

I thought this was gripping and extremely enjoyable. Their constant monologuing and insertions of Shakespeare as casual dialogue was something I absolutely felt. I have two Shakespeare plays memorized, but this book has inspired me to continue memorizing more.

If you’re a fan of the bard and murder (so Macbeth), I really think you’ll love this.

Drinking tea from mugs, we were often reminded, was like drinking fine wine from a Solo cup
For some reason, I couldn't stop thinking about this quote. I also will not be drinking tea out of mugs anymore. I need some self-respect.

Make art, make mistakes, and have no regrets... Seize on every opportunity that comes your way and cling to it, lest it be washed back out to sea.

This was what made me think of Dead Poets Society.

What I’m saying is that the tragic structure is staring you in the face in Macbeth; it makes Caesar look like a telenovela

See, my two favorite Shakes plays are Macbeth and Julius Caesar.

But they’re not villains, are they?” Wren asked. “Cassius maybe, but Brutus does what he does for the greater good of Rome.

Is it hot in here? Or is it just the theatre debate?

He was too spotless to talk of blood and murder like Macbeth, but in the red glare of the fire he no longer looked so angelic. Instead he was handsome the way you think of the devil as handsome—forbiddingly so.

I love this description a lot because it was heavy foreshadowing but also a perfect depiction of his true character. Plus one point for the Macbeth reference for someone who would play Caesar later.

The night has been unruly,” Alexander said, significantly more sober than he’d been half an hour before.

I just –– I love this dialogue so much. I'm literally ahhhhhhh!

Only three of us left. James, Richard, me. Gunpowder, fire, fuse.

I enjoyed the rhythm of this.

Meredith was such an interesting character for someone who became what people labeled her as.
“It was maddening how beautiful she was—but did that make the rest of her any less real?”

“Hell,” I said, quietly. It was all I could manage.”

“Meredith reached for my hand. “My room,” she said. I would have followed her anywhere, and I didn’t care who knew”

“She could tempt anyone, but Fate didn’t seem like a good target”

Whatever we did—or, more crucially, did not do—it seemed that so long as we did it together, our individual sins might be abated. There is no comfort like complicity.

Is this found family? I'm gonna call it found family.

Revenge tragedy, I wanted to say. Shakespeare himself couldn’t have done it better.

Hobo Johnson lyric.

So what do you do? Ignore your grief, or indulge it?

I've overquoted, and there's so many more lines I loved, but for my sanity, I'll end with this one because I thought it was powerful.


Synopsis

Oliver Marks has just served ten years in jail - for a murder he may or may not have committed. On the day he's released, he's greeted by the man who put him in prison. Detective Colborne is retiring, but before he does, he wants to know what really happened a decade ago.

As one of seven young actors studying Shakespeare at an elite arts college, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingenue, extra. But when the casting changes, and the secondary characters usurp the stars, the plays spill dangerously over into life, and one of them is found dead. The rest face their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, and themselves, that they are blameless.