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If We Were Villains

A Novel

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If We Were Villains

De : M. L. Rio
Lu par : Robert Petkoff
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“Much like Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, M. L. Rio’s sparkling debut is a richly layered story of love, friendship, and obsession...If We Were Villains will keep you riveted through its final, electrifying moments.”
--Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, New York Times bestselling author of The Nest

Oliver Marks has just served ten years in jail – for a murder he may or may not have committed. On the day he's released, he's greeted by the man who put him in prison. Detective Colborne is retiring, but before he does, he wants to know what really happened a decade ago.

As one of seven young actors studying Shakespeare at an elite arts college, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress. But when the casting changes, and the secondary characters usurp the stars, the plays spill dangerously over into life, and one of them is found dead. The rest face their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, and themselves, that they are blameless.

Intelligent, thrilling, and richly detailed, If We Were Villains is a captivating story of the enduring power and passion of words.

 Fiction Passage à l'âge adulte Policier Suspense Thrillers et romans à suspense
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ML Rio did a splendid job with this book - the writing was evocative, raw, visceral. The characters felt strongly, which made them feel real to me. Unlike my expectations, the parts I was most impressed with were the performances. I can't fathom how difficult it must be to write a Shakespearean play in such a way that both the characters in the book and the characters they were playing came to life. Additionally, I really loved that we got to see them be in school: attending classes, practising their lines or even listening to the speech at the start of the academic year - it's really fun and not done often enough imo. My only complaint is the problematic language; I'm chalking it up to the time period the book is set in, in the hope that this isn't a common phenomenon in ML Rio's work.

the narrator enhanced the reading experience. you could hear the emotion in his voice

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I love this book so much, and the reading was perfect. I highly recommend it.

Loved it!

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I loved the characters, the setting and the story from chapter one. Yes, you can guess one thing that happens from the name of one of the characters (I know nothing of Shakespeare apart from what I failed to read in college, so it's really incredible that I knew this particular play), but the story is so much more than that! The end wrecked me, and all I can think is buying the physical copy of this to be able to go back on all the details that escaped me.

A credit well spent

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Was instantly hooked into the story!! The characters and plot are well built and the reading is just perfect!!

100% recommend

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If We Were Villains started strong and was genuinely compelling up until the death. The dark academia atmosphere and Shakespearean influence were well done, and I was invested in the characters and the mystery from the start. However, after that turning point, the story began to drag. The pacing felt too slow, and the plot dragged on longer than necessary, making parts of the book feel boring.
It also became fairly obvious who the murderer was, taking away much of the tension and suspense. While the writing remained solid, the lack of surprise made the latter half less engaging. The final line, in particular, was frustrating, it felt unnecessary and would have been more impactful if the story had simply ended as it was. Overall, an interesting read with a strong start, but it lost momentum by the end.

On the contrary, the voice I felt wasn’t “it” until 1/2 of the book, when it started to connect with the characters.

The beginning was nice

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