M.L. Rio

If We Were Villains: A Novel

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A vivid and immersive story of obsession perfect for fans of dark academia and Donna Tartt's The Secret History
Oliver Marks has just served ten years for the murder of one of his closest friends — a murder he may or may not have committed. On the day he's released, he's greeted by the detective who put him in prison. Detective Colborne is retiring, but before he does, he wants to know what really happened ten years ago.
As a young actor studying Shakespeare at an elite arts conservatory, Oliver noticed that his talented classmates seem to play the same roles onstage and off — villain, hero, tyrant, temptress — though Oliver felt doomed to always be a secondary character in someone else's story. But when the teachers change up the casting, a good-natured rivalry turns ugly, and the plays spill dangerously over into life.
When tragedy strikes, one of the seven friends is found dead. The rest face their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, and themselves, that they are blameless.
This book is currently unavailable
380 printed pages
Copyright owner
Bookwire
Original publication
2017
Publication year
2017
Publisher
Titan Books
Have you already read it? How did you like it?
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Impressions

  • b7542895635shared an impression3 years ago

    149 strana
    ŠTA SE IVDE DEŠAVA

  • Mariashared an impressionyesterday
    👎Give This a Miss
    🙈Lost On Me

    This book could've been an easy and fun-in-a-mindless-way read if it weren't for the constant objectification of the female character. The way Meredith was described was so needlessly obscene that I thought a man wrote this book at first. Everytime she appears we need to get reminded that men get boners when she enters the room. Her character is distasteful and not developed in any meaningful way at all so this approach of writing a female character to be "the whore" archetype has no excuse, the excuse would've been development but that's nowhere to be seen.

    Characters lack personality and I can't feel anything for them, all their interactions fall flat, their relationships are superficial and yet I am to believe they're all best friends. Richard is made to be the bad guy in the most cliché way possible. Oliver is obnoxious and not even his gay situationship could've saved his character, nor does it help that he's a lustful "nice guy" who constantly objectifies a woman. His and James's friendship needed way more time to develop for me to believe any of it.

    The only thing I could say I appreciated is the way their personal drama clashed and paralleled with dramas they were acting out on the stage, but even their personal stuff had to be overshadowed by needless sex endeavours between the two of the most boring characters ever.

    It's a shame, because the concept of theatre kids acting out their way of a supposed collective murder would've been so much interesting if all of their relationships were more developed and we got rid of needless descriptions of a female character.

  • juanmanuellieshared an impressionlast month

    Too long only for that ending. I don't know what to feel 😩😩😩❤️

Quotes

  • 📕🖋⚜🐍has quoted4 years ago
    You can justify anything if you do it poetically enough.”
  • b6864736573has quoted5 years ago
    Richard: “Hatred is the sincerest form of flattery.”
    Alexander: “That’s imitation, dickhead.”
  • b6864736573has quoted5 years ago
    Murder’s as near to lust as flame to smoke.

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