If We Were Villains
Ratings445
Average rating4
If you love Shakespeare you'll probably like this.
I couldn't deal with the pretentious kids and predictablness of it anymore
I couldn't finish the book, I loved the plot, the feel, the character building. But it was way too predictable for me unfortunately and about halfway through I had to see if I was right. Spoiler I was very right. I'm still giving it a two stars, as it's an atmosphere I love, but maybe I've just read too many books like this lol
I couldn't get into story or any of the characters. Everything and everyone felt pretentious, type casted, and annoying. And I was incredibly bored in one of the pivotal scenes, I just couldn't keep reading.
Incredibly sad and loved how the character development went in this one. I wish I had picked this up sooner.
this book is so insane (except i'm not literate enough to understand shakespeare)
This book was utterly amazing. So well written with a cast of complex characters full of secrets, jealousies, passion, lust and unrequited love.
The inclusion of Shakespeare's work in this story enrich the tale as we see art imitating life as the friend group begins to reenact the drama and tragedies that are well known in his works.
I'm blown away by this novel and enjoyed it immensely.
Oh, If We Were Villains, thou hadst such boundless promise, yet alas, hast faltered, and now I cannot deem thee more than a tome bound in the chains of mediocrity's curse.
While I've always been quite critical of The Secret History regardless of how much I adore it, the genre it spawned is very much something I enjoy. I've known about If We Were Villains for a long time but held off until now. The reason being a class on Shakespeare that I've decided to undertake this semester. I thought it'd be fun to read this while weekly dissecting Shakespeare's plays. I was wrong.
If We Were Villains lacks character beyond the utter preposterousness of the principal characters. Shakespeare indeed is very cool but you don't need to quote him on every page during normal conversation.
The issue that I fear absolutely ruined the book for me was the lack of character for the Dellecher Shakespeare conservatory. It never felt like a real place with real people. The Secret History pushed my suspension of disbelief far with a class of students who study Greek and nothing else but to dedicate an entire course to Shakespeare and by the fourth year you're still on Julius Caesar is hilarious. Where are the lesser known plays? Do they really never do anything but study their lines and act? Why are all the plays portrayed as the most boring productions possible with nothing original? Less than a week ago I went to see a beautiful production of The Merchant of Venice that portrayed Antonio and many of the Christian characters as members of the Italian mob. That's what I'd expect them to be doing in their fourth year.
As many others pointed out the twist is predictable and taken right out of The Secret History but stripped of any semblance of making sense. The ending was poor.
Bashed this out in one day sat by the pool with a jug of sangria. It was good but obviously not as good as the secret history and very American
I need language to live, like food - lexemes and morphemes and morsels of meaning nourish me with the knowledge that yes, there is a word for this. Someone else has felt this before.
Slow, winded mysteries aren't really my thing, and in my opinion the actual mystery in this book wasn't the best I've read. The atmosphere of this book however....
It's so brilliantly delivered. Set in a theatre school with a found family group of Shakespearean scholars, the dark academia air was so amazingly RICH. The writing is beautiful.
Now I'm not someone who has an extensive knowledge about Shakespeare's works, and I feel like if I had read the works that are explored within this book it would've been an even more amazing experience for me, but nevertheless I still loved reading how the author brought those scenes alive and weaved then into her narrative. The characters were complex and very well built. I loved how they always had a quote ready for all occasions.
I enjoyed this for the experience it was!
The first half was sooooo good, but the ending didn't really deliver on the suspense. Not sure why the mc made the decision he made at the end.
The good: This book does a lot of really interesting things. I loved the sections where the characters are acting out a role and you get this mashup of emotions from the characters and the role they're playing. It was my favourite part of this whole book and something that will definitely stick with me. The use of Shakespeare throughout was so much fun and handled in a way that made it feel accessible and unpretentious as a reader.
The not-as-good: The plot fell a bit short for me, largely because I was expecting more of a traditional whodunnit mystery, and this isn't really that. It spends a lot of time on the central characters as you watch guilt erode them all in different ways, which is handled well for the most part but wasn't what I thought I was signing up for. I also had a hard time buying into the love triangle that serves as a central motivation for the main character's actions... it felt more like a narrative device than something that was really character driven and I couldn't get past that feeling. Overall, I really enjoyed the style, the themes, and the way the characters were drawn but wasn't super compelled by core mystery.
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.
As a dumb teenager, I didn't pay much attention to Shakespeare so I probably didn't get the full experience of this book.
However, it is wonderfully written and kinda of does make me want to see more of Shakespeares' stuff. Probably won't though, I ain't got the time.