If We Were Villains: A Novel

"First the reckoning, then the fall." A dark academia tale set against the backdrop of theatre school, the lines between art and life become murky for a group of students. Friendship, love, passion, and jealousy give way to betrayal and ultimately death. The prose, mixed with snippets from various works of William Shakespeare, deftly sets the stage. The characters are easy to imagine -- not likeable, but easy to imagine -- with the appropriate amount of depth or shallowness necessary. The question of whodunit lurks in the background, a minor character in the drama of the lives of this group of friends, periodically reminding us that this is in fact a murder mystery. As the story processes, it becomes evident that the point is not so much about the murder as it is about the tragedy. This is very clearly an homage to the genius of Shakespeare. I know I'm not the first to say it, but whispers of The Secret History by Donna Tartt echo here. And, strangely, a bit of Bunny by Mona Awad. Parallels to the former are fairly obvious (I won't spoil it for you) while those to the latter are much more subtle -- a similar urgent and intense tone fueled by the characters' passion for the crafts they are developing. Mystery lovers may not get into it for it's predictability. Lovers of drama, angst, suspense, and tension will probably get something out of this. Thesbians,theatre geeks, and Shakespeare fans alike will most likely love it. “Actors are by nature volatile—alchemic creatures composed of incendiary elements, emotion and ego and envy. Heat them up, stir them together, and sometimes you get gold. Sometimes disaster.”

Absolutely loved it. It broke my heart ❤️

not really 5 stars but i was so addicted to the ending that i had to give it 5 stars bc i was screaming so much

DNF @ 38%

Me: By the pricking of my thumbs, a dnf this way comes!

I just wasn't pretentious enough for this. I thought all the characters were bland stereotypes, I didn't care for the victim of the murder and I'm fairly certain I know who did it. It was James wasn't it? Also, if I had gone to uni with people who quoted Shakespeare verbatim in casual conversation I would have killed myself.

i couldn’t stop thinking about how incredibly similar this book is to the secret history but nonetheless good in its own unique way, i would recommend reading this first then tsh because you’ll probably end up comparing everything to tsh and won’t fully appreciate the story.