If We Were Villains: A Novel

If you liked Donna Tart's Secret History, you'll love this dark academia novel. An elite East coast college, seven characters, a heinous crime, and the niche world of Shakespearean theater. I loved the setting and was immersed in the world. I found the plot engaging and it kept me enthralled until the very end. The author liberally sprinkles quotes from various Shakespeare play throughout the story, the characters sometimes speak to each through dialogues and monologues from the bard's works. This conceit adds another layer to the drama.
My biggest complaint is that the characters are superficially drawn - the frail ingenue, the overbearing villain, a siren, the naive, kind friend, the fool, the hero, and the cypher. Beyond these descriptions it is hard to understand motivations for some of their actions. I would remove three quarters of the Shakespeare quotes and add more insight into the characters. I am a theater person, so I appreciated the milieu, I remember students who had gone to conservatory schools like the one in the novel and were cut after their freshman year for being too fat. So I recognized this world. It was a bit of wish fulfillment for me to read the experience of these seven elite theater students, well except for the part where it all collapsed. I enjoyed reading this book and will definitely reread in the future.

MY SHAYLAAAAAAA

A book that captivated me and had me grinning, jaw-dropped, and near tears. The story is a celebration of Shakespeare that truly embodies the nature of a “tragedy. Only wish that I could see more depth of its core characters.

"First the reckoning, then the fall." In 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 progresses, 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 ❤️