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

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Next, in five acts that are reminiscent of Shakespeare, we learn what really happened in 1997 at the Dellecher Classical Conservatory in Broadwater, Illinois, where seven theater students known as “the players,” were studying and performing Shakespeare during their fourth and final year at the school. When their activities get out of hand, one of their friends, Bunny, ends up dead. Soon, the group begin to turn on one another and their lives start to fall apart. Learn more with this helpful guide to the If We Were Villains characters with a summary and review to improve your reading experience of this popular novel. Anyways, I just really loved this book so much. A true treat and delight for those of us who love Shakespeare and art and love to Feel Emotions but like, can't handle it. Also, I was living for the m/m romance-ish kinda thing happening, and I would literally die for Oliver and his happiness. Anyways, if you like atmospheric books, angst, the secret history, shakespeare, shaky friendships, and drama, you should read this book. 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.

But there is something intensely compelling about ‘dark academia’, a phrase which I’ve seen coined for this unique ‘pretentious-students-killing-their-classmates’ genre. It’s something which feels particularly pertinent at Oxford, a university which carries that same feeling of competition and claustrophobia. You can almost feel the suspense when a tute partner doesn’t turn up, even if in real life they’re more likely to have overslept than died or been hospitalised through drug overdose, which seems to be the norm in these books. As a world which seems one wrong step away from our own, it’s intensely compelling. You can accept the similarities: the problem is in the execution. As their fourth year progresses and famous Shakespearean tragedies like Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and King Lear are performed, they are engulfed by the traumatic fallout of the death, as well as their all-consuming obsession with Shakespeare and the extreme emotions his works cause them to feel: Then, almost inevitably: a murder. Now, ten years later, detective Colborne feels every choice he’d made, every action he took that fatal night, as a weight he carries with him. There are so many versions of the story, so many neat distillations of what had happened. Only one person can say which one was true. The book is an emotional and poignant retelling of the story of the Greek hero, Achilles, from the point of view of his best friend, Patroclus.Half the beauty of the book is the way it's written. The way it was all put together was pure genius. If you like one-on-one battles involving magic and the supernatural as well as murderous revenge plots, Vicious is the perfect book like If We Were Villains for you! First, there is Devon, a talented musician who hides in rehearsals but everyone’s eyes are on him when private photos are leaked. If you have already finished If We Were Villains and are looking for your next good read, I hope you have found something you like in this list above. Filled with all the dark academia and tense mystery thrillers, these books are a great replacement!

I’ve seen few female characters written more poorly than Meredith. In the beginning of the story, all of the classmates are asked to share their biggest insecurities. Merediths is that she doesn’t want to just be seen as beautiful, sexy- she doesn’t want her body to cause people to overlook her personality and intelligence. A mysterious figure rules over the manor and Olivia has a choice: to protect the world from his rule or take a place beside him. A few hours later, Filippa summons Meredith and Oliver to the lake. There Oliver and Meredith discover a battered, broken and seemingly deceased Richard floating in the water. Richard emits a gurgling sound indicating he’s still alive. Frightened and exhausted of Richard’s abuse, the six collectively decide to let him die in the water, assuming that he injured himself while intoxicated. They craft a narrative of likely events for school administration and the police and feel relief when everyone seems to accept their version of events. But guilt erodes their relations with each other and impacts their behavior. Meredith and Oliver continue dating but struggle to be comfortable together under the watchful eye of Richard’s specter. Alexander indulges even more freely in drugs and alcohol. Wren withdraws into herself while James’s behavior becomes erratic. The only character who seems able to hold things together is Filippa. The Thanksgiving holiday offers little respite from their stress. When Oliver’s holiday plans to visit Meredith in New York are derailed by an unexpected visit from James, Meredith is upset that Oliver chooses James over her, a frequent point of contention.Okay, so this is a drama set at a Shakespeare theater, in which a group of theater actors accidentally kill a man and deal with the fallout. Yay! Fun happy stuff. As the plays continue, their roles within this drama shift and switch, ironically mirroring their respective development, and they accidentally get way too involved in several plays as they are occuring. This book is beautiful. Like, truly beautiful. And if you got a chance to read it, then read it with your mind and heart open, not only with your eyes. Because there is so much more to it than simply words. Meredith Dardenne, an incredibly beautiful redhead who comes from a wealthy family of watch-makers; Richard's girlfriend. Plays The Femme Fatale.

For a clique of aspiring Shakespearean actors at an elite arts academy, the line between performance and reality dissolves, with disastrous results. Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. This book is terribly deep if you really pay attention to everything that’s happening. It warns you about abuse, about obsession, about death and about the decisions we can make avoid certain situations; it is about what love looks like – it might be a friend, it might be a sister, it might be loyalty, in the end. James is another favourite of mine; he’s always the good guy, the hero, the one with a noble heart; he’s definitely a Prince Charming and honestly, my heart just melts for him; but even the best of people have their demons talking in their ears and James is honestly fighting his demons – desperately; Another book similar to If We Were Villains full of dark academia themes is Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo, author of the Shadow and Bone trilogy.

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As for the pros, I found If We Were Villains to be well-plotted and well-executed with poignant references to Shakespeare, as well as a compulsively readable mystery with so much suspense and intrigue that you can’t put it down.