If We Were Villains: A Novel

If We Were Villains was read full of twists and tension. For the last 100 pages, I felt as though I was constantly holding my breath. It was an absolute page-turner and a thrill to read. This novel was full of shock upon shock. I didn't know what was going to happen the entire time, but I was completely there for the ride. Everything I expected to happen somehow took a darker turn, an I was fully immersed. This has been my favourite read of the year so far. Which surprised me after I bought this book on a whim. This is not my usual genre. What I loved: The Characters - The characters in this book felt like real, fully formed humans. Oliver, my beautiful Oblivious Oliver, had sat across the room from me as he recounted the nights leading up to and post tragedy. I was connected to these characters like they were old friends. Though pretentious and definitely not my kind of people, they were incredible. I loved their dedication to each other; it reminded me of my own friendships in University. The Writing Style - Rio’s style is really where this book shines. Mixing traditional style with that of script writing was absolutely perfect for this book. Reading this, I felt as though I was watching a mini series, with each act it’s own episode. It was brilliant. The Pacing - Splitting this book over 4 acts allowed for the tension to build at the perfect pace. There were no parts where I was bored or skim reading. The Ending - Wow. That ending was heartbreakingly tragic. “But that is how a tragedy like ours or King Lear breaks your heart—by making you believe that the ending might still be happy, until the very last minute.” What I didn’t love: This is not the books fault, nor the Author. I wish that I had a greater knowledge of Shakespeare before reading this book. I knew some of the main plot beats from Macbeth, King Lear and Caesar, but I know that having more knowledge of Shakespeare’s plays would’ve positively impacted on my experience with this book. That said, I was still able to figure out the foreshadowing and the ultimate ‘twist’/revelation in the end.

While its' been said (multiple times) that this has a 'Secret History' feel to it, it can't be denied, and the publishers are clearly looking to make the most of such comparisons. The book is well written (if not to the standard of Tartt), but the characters felt somewhat flat- while a character doesn't need to be likable to be rounded, the cast here are neither, but do seem to change personality on a regular basis with prima donna mood shifts which go beyond even the drama students I know. The author is obviously a Shakespeare expert- as can be seen in her writing, even if it wasn't clear from her bio, but the motif became a bit too intrusive for me: characters constantly answering each other with Shakespeare lines, and at times whole pages of quotations- I would estimate if you removed the extended passages made up of Shakespeare dialogue, you would reduce the book by 15%. The framing device felt forced and unnatural as a means of telling the story, and the 'one final, astonishing twist' (Booklist) is anything but: it was clear where the novel was heading throughout. It will be interesting to see what the author does as a follow up, and whether the endeavor will move away from such a Shakespearean focus

I will preface this with saying there are likely to be a few (probably more) grammatical errors in this review. I apologize in advance. This debut novel by M.L. Rio is not bad overall, but it isn't what I would consider great or compelling. By now it has been compared to that stunning novel "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt too many times, and while the comparison is fair on the points of pretentious students dedicated to a literary subject to the point of obsession who also commit murderous crimes, this book falls flat in many ways where "The Secret History" shines. "If We Were Villains" often felt murky at times. The murder still seems a bit excessive, and that plot point was not well developed. I understand that the person murdered became a violent hassle to deal with, but the reasoning behind why he became a violent hassle did not seem believable, making the whole novel feel lacking of a significant motive. Nor did it seem like the group was ever one "big family" with him included. It was a lot more telling than showing when it came to the characters' involvement with each other. This, to me, is where I simply could not get into the grove of the book. It is readable, for the most part (I will get to my love and contentions with the use of Shakespeare later), but even with its readability, the feelings of annoyance would settle in, and I began reading just to finish it. As someone who believes the best part of of any literary work is the journey, not the end, I was not happy that this book started to feel like a chore. The chore aspect of the novel was not that it is a challenging read, because I wouldn't classify it as such, but that the characters and the story began to be a bore given that the end is a bit predictable and the characters are extremely unlikable. The use of Shakespeare, that began to feel dominating, throughout the book could be exhausting for some. I actually enjoyed it, mostly, seeing that Shakespeare wrote about seemingly every aspect of humanity and his words are always poignant. The quotes were always fitting, but my enjoyment was more admiration for The Bard than the actual plot device. I must say that Rio is clearly versed in Shakespeare, and that is an exceptional thing in and of itself, but the constant use of Shakespeare did begin to feel gimmicky after a while. It is a very esoteric group of literati who go around quoting Shakespeare in everyday conversation, and while the idea of humans that pretentious does delight me, having to read interjections of Shakespeare in what felt like every other paragraph got to be a little grating. "Brevity is the soul of wit." Overall, the book does a fine job of story-telling, though it is not always enjoyable or interesting. I give it three stars because it isn't so awful that I have to throw it across the room, and Rio can write (much better than t...