BOOK REVIEW | IF WE WERE VILLAINS BY M.L. RIO

If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio - Published June 2017 by Titan Books - ⋆⋆⋆⋆

"Actors are by nature volatile - alchemic creatures composed of incendiary elements, emotion and ego and envy."

I want to start by saying that I rarely like crime/thrillers. I tend to find them formulaic, and I rarely get invested in characters who always feel secondary to plot. I don't think the crime genre is bad, I just don't think it's for me. With that being said, I adored If We Were Villains.

Although it is ultimately a murder mystery, M.L Rio's debut is more about friendship, obsession, and the ways in which we perform to one another. The plot follows a group of seven theatre students, a close knit group of friends, in their final year at an exclusive performing arts university. The group speak Shakespearean lines to each other like a secret sibling language and live in a hazy, idyllic world of academia, surrounded by velvet costumes, dusty books, and stage lights. As their fourth year forces the students to push themselves beyond their usual limits, tensions mount and bonds are tested - and then one of the friends is found dead. 

There are a few things I wasn't overjoyed with, which is why this is a four star read instead of five. One of the female characters struggles to exist beyond her relationships with the men in the group, and a few of the characters felt less fleshed out than others. I also felt that the plot builds up the tension and climbs to these heady heights - and then the crescendo is just a little rushed and isn't executed quite as well as it could have been.

Overall though, I adored this. I can't really say whether a knowledge of Shakespeare's work is necessary to enjoy the novel, but for me I could see how much Rio appreciates his work, and the way that the extremes and melodrama of a Shakespeare play are simply exaggerated mirrors of the conflicts we all deal with in real life. Rio's debut is full of bloody, haunting visions, restless spirits, splintering psyches and creepy doubled identities - all hallmarks of Shakespeare that felt so sumptuous and raw reincarnated into a modern day story. 

I would definitely recommend If We Were Villains. It's a rich, compelling novel, and I found M. L. Rio's writing style to be so enjoyable - full of sparkling imagery and beautiful turns of phrase. I also didn't see the big reveal coming at all, which is surely the mark of a great work of crime fiction.

I would be really interested to know what others think of this, especially people who didn't spend two years with their head full of Shakespeare, so please do let me know if that's you!

Thank you for reading!

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