The first post of 2024 is finally here! This year I’m spending my time reading and writing more frequently. I spent majority of last year being heavily unmotivated and I don’t want to spend any more time like that. I’m heavily focusing on reinvesting in reading and watching TV/Films and bringing my creative spark back. One way I’m going to be doing that is writing more reviews on different materials. I have the Arrowverse reviews I started last year that I will be getting back to as well as new books I read this year. 2024 is going to be a good year for me content wise for sure, I can’t wait to share that all with you guys!
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If We Were Villains is the debut novel from author M. L. Rio published April 17th, 2017, by Flatiron Books. It is categorized as a theatre-fiction novel. M. L. Rio holds a MA in Shakespeare Studies from King’s College London and Shakespeare’s Globe as well as a PhD in English Literature from University of Maryland, College Park. (Fun fact: I was doing my background research and I found out that this book is being turned into a show, there aren’t many details on that yet, but I am HERE FOR IT!)
This book has been on my bookshelf for a minute now and I’m so glad that I finally got a chance to dive into it. Going in, I knew this book was going to be a murder mystery type story, but I didn’t know just how much Shakespeare would play a role in telling this story. Yes, it does take place in a drama school where they study Shakespeare but I didn’t expect it to be the story, it’s hard trying to put that into words. The characters in this novel are very clearly Shakespearean written characters placed into modern society. When I started reading, I got to a point where I thought “these people do not belong in this time period but at the same time it works perfectly” and I think that’s what made me love them and relate to them more. After a certain point I thought I knew who was gonna die and who did it, like it was so clear to me only for me to be slightly wrong. I got the two people involved correct but I was wrong about who was murdered and who did it. And I liked that, when watching a show or reading a book it’s not always fun correctly predicting what is gonna happen, as people divulging in this content for entertainment we want to be entertained. And I can definitely say I was entertained reading this in the best way. Before we get anymore into my thoughts, I’m going to summarize the entire book and yes there are some spoilers so if you want to read this book I recommend reading this review AFTERWARDS.
FINAL WARNING FOR SPOILERS!!
The novel focuses on the murder of a student at the prestigious Dellecher Classical Conservatory. The novel takes place in two different times, in 1997 at the time of the murder and ten years later in 2008 when the narrator Oliver Marks is being released on parole after serving his time for the crime. The evening before Oliver is released, he is approached by the lead investigator on his case, Detective Colborne who is retiring soon. With his retirement imminent he is still suspicious of the official story of the case and asks Oliver to finally tell him the truth. Oliver agrees under one condition: Colbourne does not act on anything that Oliver says to him. From there readers are thrust back into 1997 as Oliver and his friends begin their fourth year and final year at school. They are the “Dellecher Seven” – the remaining fourth year acting students as over the years underperforming students are pushed out. Over the course of the four years, the group dynamic has already been established by them and their professors when it comes to real life and casting. The Hero (James), The Tyrant (Richard), The Villain (Alexander), The Femme Fatale (Meredith), The Ingenue (Wren), The Chameleon (Flippa) and The Loyal Sidekick (Oliver)
This has been the way since the group came together but that all changes for the annual Halloween performance where we see James as Macbeth instead of Richard which starts a series of unfortunate events. After the show Richard attacks James in a fit of jealousy almost killing him but the group stops him. In their attempt to move on and put the assault past them, Richard and his explosive temper only grow more violent as the weeks go by as he starts to attack his girlfriend Meredith, James, and Oliver during their production of Caesar. They decide to take a stand against him which quickly spirals out of control on stage. Afterwards at the cast party, Richard attacks a student who he assumes is flirting with Meredith and gets into it with the entire friend group before disappearing into the woods for the night. Oliver being the thoughtful person he is, goes to Meredith to comfort her and the two of them end up having sex.
The next morning the group is awakened by Flippa who leads them all down to the lake where Richard is barely alive with a smashed skull. James instantly wants to help him, but he is held back by Alexander who suggests that they should let him die and they will no longer have to live in fear of Richard and his outbursts. They agree and watch him die before calling the police declaring he was dead by the time they found him. The students are questioned by the police led by Detective Colbourne and soon Richard’s death is ruled a drunken accident. Thanksgiving break starts shortly afterwards, and Oliver returns home only to discover that his parents can no longer afford to pay for his school, so he makes a deal to work part time at school as a custodian to help pay his balance. The students return from break and take part in the annual Christmas show, this year they are performing Romeo & Juliet where Oliver discovers during the performance that James is in love with Wren which sparks unexpected jealousy from him. Meredith and Oliver continue spending more time together and eventually become a couple. Oliver is cleaning in the castle one day when he overhears a conversation between Detective Colbourne and his partner where he states he doesn’t believe that Richard’s death was an accident despite the official ruling. Afterwards Oliver finds a piece of bloody cloth in the fireplace and decides to hide it out of sheer panic.
King Lear is assigned as their spring performance and as the semester progresses the group begins to fall apart due to Richard’s death. Wren begins to suffer from exhaustion and fainting spells, James breaks Oliver’s nose during combat rehearsals, and Alexander suffers an almost near fatal overdose. On the night of the King Lear cast party James gets drunk and starts acting erratically only speaking in character as Edmund which concerns Oliver greatly. The next morning Oliver begins to clean their dorm room when he finds a bloodstained boat hook under James’ bed, and he begins to put the pieces together finally. Oliver confronts James during the intermission of King Lear and James reluctantly confesses to the murder. When Richard was leaving the cast party, he assaulted Wren who then begged James to go after him and make sure he didn’t do anything stupid. James goes into the woods after him and finds a drunk Richard who begins to taunt him viciously. He then makes homophobic comments accusing James and Oliver of being in love with each other and threatens to kill James prompting him to grab the nearest item – the boat hook- to defend himself. He also confesses that Flippa knew the truth and it was her who tried to burn James’ bloody shirt in the fireplace. They return to the show only to find Detective Colbourne waiting for them, James notices first and realizes he and Oliver are now out of time so he kisses him on stage before he plans to confess but Oliver beats him to it. Oliver falsely confesses to murdering Richard and he is soon taken to jail to serve his time.
On the day Oliver is released, Flippa is there to pick him as she is the only one who kept in constant contact with Oliver after his arrest. Oliver is eager to finally reunite with James only to learn that James drowned himself four years earlier due to his overwhelming guilt. Oliver reconnects with Meredith who is now an actress. She confesses to Oliver that it was her who told Colbourne to arrest James for he had confessed to her one day after a rehearsal of King Lear. Oliver admits to her that while the two of them were together he was also in love with James, but he also loved her. Oliver and Meredith continue their relationship. Flippa sends Oliver James’ suicide note that is addressed solely to him. Oliver immediately recognizes it as a monologue from Pericles, Prince of Tyre where Pericles mourns the apparent death of his wife, Thaisa, in the middle of a storm at sea. Her body is lost, but unbeknownst to Pericles she washes up near the home of a physician who is able to revive her. For years, Thaisa lived hidden away from the world as a priestess, believing that her husband was dead. Until one day when the goddess Diana helps them reunite. The book ends with Oliver researching everything there is about James’ death only to discover that his body was never found.
Immediately after reading and I mean as soon as I finished the last sentence on the last page, I felt chills all over my body. I LOVE that ending, one of the best endings to a book I’ve ever read. The relationship between James and Oliver is something so touching yet heartbreaking that it completely pulls you in. With every page turn I found myself wondering if this is the moment where they address their feelings for each other, and we get NOTHING until the end when it’s too late for them. That’s just gut wrenching and I felt every ounce of that. Oliver and James fall into this unrequited love trope which is something Shakespeare put into almost all of his work and the fact that these young adults have dedicated their whole lives to studying and embodying his work just speaks volumes. The story of these seven young adults is quite frankly a tragedy and the irony of that is just great storytelling and I applaud M. L. Rio for that. This novel is so captivating with the Shakespearean element weaved into it. I briefly mentioned this earlier, but I tried to predict who was murdered and who was the murderer. Initially I thought James was killed by Richard and Oliver took the fall. But I was SO wrong. I was not expecting James to be the murderer at all, I read that, and I had to take a break. But the more that I thought about it, it made PERFECT sense, and all the clues were there if you paid enough attention. And something that I found interesting was the persona switch with the characters. I think even after everything James is one of my favorite characters and I wish that we got to see inside his head the same way we did with Oliver. James started the book as the hero typecast and by the end of the book, he becomes the fallen “villain” even though I don’t consider him the villain despite what he did. Richard was a bully and made it very clear TWICE that he had no regard for James’ life and in the end James did what he had to do to survive. Some people will have a different opinion, yes Richard was cruel to everyone around him but did his actions warrant death upon him? Another question may be asked, Are these students the villains for so easily letting someone die? It’s shocking how easy it was for them to not only come to agreement in letting Richard die but to actually stand there and wait for him to succumb to his injuries.
This is a story about guilt and responsibility at its core, these young college students spend their time exploring the delicate and fragile inside of the human psyche every day, it has to leave lasting effects on them in their personal lives. They devoted their lives to studying Shakespeare and it’s no secret that all of Shakespeare’s work flirts with danger and tragedy, it was only a matter of time before that would be reflected into their lives off the stage. His work and ideologies are embedded in their DNA, where some people think rationally – these students do not. They think big scale, high risks, living life tangled in dark passions and these students haven’t reached full maturity, nothing good can come from that.
The relationship between Meredith and Oliver is interesting to me. I definitely see it as a relationship of convenience truthfully. The friend group only interacts with each other so of course all romantic interests are within the group i.e. (Meredith/Richard), (Wren/James), (Meredith/Oliver), (Oliver/James). Not to say that they don’t have genuine feelings but they aren’t branching out to find people who bring something new and fresh to their lives. It’s interesting because a lot of people fall into that habit when surrounding themselves in a large friend group. There’s security and comfort in a close knit group regardless of likeability. Meredith’s character is very cut and clear to me, she doesn’t seem complex at all. She knows that she’s desirable in every way, she clearly uses that to her advantage to advance as an actress. She of course has her insecurities and worries that come with having that type of vibe but she fully stays in that femme fatale mindset and doesn’t try to be more than that. My interpretation of her relationship with Oliver is simply convenience and not wanting to be alone. Richard treated her awful yet she stayed involved with him and maneuvered towards Oliver because he gave her attention, I don’t think Oliver deserves someone like that but at the same time who else is Oliver going to be with? James is gone and Oliver isn’t the type to branch out and find new people and hobbies so here he is spending his time with Meredith because it’s familiar to him and he has no other options.
I would say the only issue I had with the novel as a whole is as a reader I didn’t really get to know all the characters thoroughly and equally. The characters that received all the focus were James and Oliver. I understand that decision but I would’ve loved the ability to get to know the other characters a little more as people rather than just as parts of the friend group. There’s more inside of each character than the role they play in the group yet we don’t really get a chance to see that at all and I think that hurts the story a little. When there is a large friend group or a long list of characters it is hard to give the same amount of time to each and I understand that as a writer myself. However I do think, if the focus is on a group of people there needs to be at least some time dedicated to everyone in a meaningful way that helps the story and helps create relatability for a larger audience. There are some readers who may relate to Alexander for example but his arc and dialogue is very limited to his role he’s given which does a disservice. Again, as a reader I love when characters feel like real people rather than cogs in a machine only in use to keep the story going.
But overall, I think this is a really great novel that I highly recommend. It’s entertaining, compelling, and it’s a beautifully tragic story. This book is a great lesson in learning to separate your passions from your real life. Oliver sacrificed a decade of his life to be the hero for once in what he saw as a Shakespearean tragedy to save someone he loved. He spent his whole life idolizing and being imprinted on by a literary genius who only wrote in dramatics. Oliver knew no other way to handle the situation. This book also sparks a debate about the fragility of life and what it means to take responsibility for your actions. Was Richard’s death a cruel murder or was it self-defense for James? Let me know what you guys think!
RealisticDreamer 