REVIEW: If We Were Villains (M.L. Rio)

Book: If We Were Villains

Author: M.L. Rio

Premise: As one of seven young actors studying Shakespeare at college, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off. 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.

Dark academia at its finest. I really enjoyed this book.

The main characters are all actors who live and breathe the works of Shakespeare. I loved the fact they would randomly quote his works in normal conversation. I think this helped show how blurred the line between their studies and their private lives was.

But the plot itself also felt reminiscent of a Shakespearean tragedy, specifically Macbeth as the remaining six gradually unravel. You could really feel things spiral out of control as the dynamic of the group changed.