If We Were Villains: The Sensational TikTok Book Club pick: M.L. Rio

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When you read the synopsis for this book, you will likely hear a voice saying, “Oh, this sounds interesting! Let's give it a shot.” And I’m here to tell you right now—that’s the devil talking. Echoing such college-set novels as Donna Tartt's The Secret History and mixing in enough Shakespearean theater to qualify readers for the stage, Rio's debut mystery is an engrossing ride...Rio crafts an intricate story about friendship, love, and betrayal. Recommended for readers who enjoy literary fiction by authors such as Tartt or Emily St. John Mandel." Basically, Pericles has both a wife and a daughter he thinks are dead for the majority of the play. He sails into the ocean to die because he thinks everyone he loves is gone, but he then finds out that his wife and daughter, are actually alive, and the final part of the play is Pericles being reunited with them both. Pericles is an interesting play because it is set up like a tragedy but ends up like a comedy - aka, in the Shakespearean comedies, the drama is resolved when the characters who are presumed to be dead turn out to be alive, or when two characters kept apart by circumstances end up getting married. Cleverly written and beautifully plotted... anyone who likes Donna Tartt s books will love If We Were Villains too.

If We Were Villains: The sensational TikTok Book Club pick If We Were Villains: The sensational TikTok Book Club pick

Richard Stirling, a talented actor who also hides an abusive dark side. He is a second generation actor. Plays The Tyrant. A talented third-year drama student at Dellecher and Alexander’s love interest. Colin is one of the only younger students to be named in the novel and frequently interacts with the fourth-year cohort. the author did an incredibly amazing job to write multi-layered characters. their development and depth was so mesmerizing and i couldn’t help but be amazed by the foreshadowing of each characters fate. I think what makes me angry more than anything is that this book has been praised in this community by so many who have seemed to turn a blind eye to the blatant slut-shaming and sexism that seems to pop up relentlessly. Oliver’s amicable youngest sister. Leah and Oliver get along well. Leah stays in touch with Oliver throughout his incarceration.

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drama students at an Elite Arts University are in their final year. They are as close as 7 people can be, they fight, they love and above it all they are obsessed with the works of Shakespeare (bear this in mind if you don't like Shakespeare as there are loads of quotes and sections in here). This book is so haunting, so atmospheric, so gripping, and so perfect. And If you, too, love The Secret History by Donna Tartt then I recommend this book with every single bone in my body. Also, this is such a love letter to Shakespeare and all his work, so if you appreciate that I think you’ll also fall so head over heels for this story. I’m honestly not sure what I expected going into If We Were Villains, but it is now one of my favorite books of all time. The thing about Shakespeare is, he’s so eloquent… He speaks the unspeakable. He turns grief and triumph and rapture and rage into words, into something we can understand. He renders the whole mystery of humanity comprehensible." I stop. Shrug. "You can justify anything if you do it poetically enough." However, as the story went on I found it to become quite predictable, and many of the elements from the beginning started to wear on me as a reader. The characters stayed pretty one note throughout. Everything was a bit redundant including the decision by the author to include so much of Shakespeare's text (literally whole passages were copied from his work and it became a drag to read, even when the texts were reflective of the characters' internal monologues—clever at first but the effect wears off). And by 50% of the way through the story I figured out the 'plot twist' which made reading the last half less exciting.

If We Were Villains: The sensational TikTok Book Club pick

I would have to agree that this was waaayyy more accessible to the wider audience and less of pretentious of a read, which ironically, had more self awareness of its vast pretentiousness. Many readers including Cynthia d'Aprix Sweeney, the writer of The Nest, compared this novel to Donna Tartt's The Secret History.

Oliver - Our main protagonist, who is nice, and who is sweet, and who just wants to keep the peace between his group of friends. Also, Oliver is totally pansexual and no one can change my mind on this. Wren - Richard’s cousin, relaxed and moderate, usually trying to be the balance between Richard and the rest of the group. She is pretty close with James. All in all, we follow main characters. At first, I do think they're a bit stereotypical and cliche, but I thought Rio did a good job at exploring these cliches, and analysing why and how people categorise characters and people.