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"But that is how a tragedy like ours or King Lear breaks your heart - by making you believe that the ending might still be happy, until the very last minute."
Release Date: April 11, 2017
Genre: Thriller, mystery, literary fiction
Rating:
Summary:
ENTER THE PLAYERS. There were seven of us then, seven bright young things with wide precious futures ahead of us. Until that year, we saw no farther than the books in front of our faces.
On the day Oliver Marks is released from jail, the man who put him there is waiting at the door. Detective Colborne wants to know the truth, and after ten years, Oliver is finally ready to tell it.
A decade ago: Oliver is one of seven young Shakespearean actors at Dellecher Classical Conservatory; a place of keen ambition and fierce competition. In this secluded world of firelight and leather-bound books, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingenue, extra.
But in their fourth and final year, good-natured rivalries turn ugly, and on opening night real violence invades the students' world of make-believe. In the morning, the fourth-years find themselves facing their very own tragedy, and their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, each other, and themselves that they are innocent.
Review:
This book is sublime for a moody, dark academia, autumnal read. I highly recommend dim-lighting (candlelight would be even better), rainy ambience, and a warm beverage to really offer the most immaculate vibes.
This book was absolutely riveting and impossible to put down. The dual timeline was exceptional. I love the duality between his past and his present as well as how they intersect. The concept was so unique and the writing was fantastic. I love the way M.L. Rio pieced together this book, set up similarly to a Shakespearean drama. The book is split into five acts and there are scenes within the acts. There are Shakespeare references and quotes throughout the book. I have a very base level, minimal knowledge of Shakespeare and theater but found this very easy to read. Do not think you need to be a devout thespian or Shakespearean to enjoy this.
I personally didn't connect with any of the characters and, shockingly, I was content with that. When I am reading a book, I try to connect with a character and find parallels between our personalities or shared experiences. However, while reading If We Were Villains, I truly read this story as if I was watching a play in the comfort of my cushioned seat in a theater. I was safely detached from the characters and their self-destruction but completely in awe of the raw emotion. Without any spoilers, the ending completely wrecked me but then sprinkled potentially a dash of hope.
This book was everything I expected but also, nothing I had anticipated all at the same time.
A moment of perfection: when I closed this book after reading the final words, I was left in a moment of contemplative silence and deep reverence. THAT is an extraordinary book for me. A book to render me speechless but completely thoughtful.
Quotes:
"When we first walked through those doors, we did so without knowing that we were now part of some strange fanatic religion where anything could be excused so long as it was offered to the altar of the Muses. Ritual madness, ecstasy, human sacrifice."
"For someone who loved words as much as I did, it was amazing how often they failed me."
"You can justify anything if you do it poetically enough."
"But that is how a tragedy like ours or King Lear breaks your heart - by making you believe that the ending might still be happy, until the very last minute."
"How tremendous the agony of unmade decisions."
"Through the thorns, to the stars."
"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."
"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."
"The future is wide and wild and full of promise, but it is precarious, too. Seize on every opportunity that comes your way and cling to it, lest it be washed back out to sea."
"Hatred is the sincerest form of flattery."
"Nothing unites men like a common enemy."
"I don't know, it's like I look at you and suddenly the sonnets make sense. The good ones, anyway."
"When did we become such terrible people?" "Maybe we've always been terrible."
"How could we explain that standing on a stage and speaking someone else's words as if they are your own is less an act of bravery than a desperate lunge at mutual understanding?"
"Make art, make mistakes, and have no regrets."
"You can't quantify humanity. You can't measure it - not the way you mean to. People are passionate and flawed and fallible. They make mistakes. Their memories fade. Their eyes deceive them."
"The water, too, was still and I thought, what liars they are, the sky and the water. Still and calm and clear, like everything was fine. It wasn't fine, and really, it never would be again."
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