If We Were Villains

Here's the thing, if you have a master's degree in Shakespeare, and your authors note tells your readers that you had to use a whole extra book to navigate “the textual maze that is king Lear” maybe that's a hint that you're doing too much. Maybe if I enjoyed Shakespeare more this would've been better, who knows (this coming from a former theater kid who knows more than the average reader about Shakespeare).

The final “act” of this book really saved it for me but if you took out the Shakespeare quotes and such, we probably could've had a nice (and possibly more readable) novella on our hands instead of this. For those niche dark academia readers who love Shakespeare I'm happy this exists for you, but personally, not my cup of tea.

This was so beautifully written. I actually really loved the ending, as tragic as it was. It's just so very Shakespearean. I do like how it's left, open to interpretation. It makes much more sense that he did indeed kill himself, but I like to pretend it was a happy ending. I normally don't like endings that don't truly wrap things up, but in this case it felt fitting.

My only critique is that the mystery element wasn't so mysterious. That may be more because I read a ton of thrillers, so a twist has to be HUGE for me to not see it coming, but this book was more about the journey than the destination.

-May Swifite Book Club Book

This was so beautifully written. I actually really loved the ending, as tragic as it was. It's just so very Shakespearean. I do like how it's left, open to interpretation. It makes much more sense that he did indeed kill himself, but I like to pretend it was a happy ending. I normally don't like endings that don't truly wrap things up, but in this case it felt fitting.

My only critique is that the mystery element wasn't so mysterious. That may be more because I read a ton of thrillers, so a twist has to be HUGE for me to not see it coming, but this book was more about the journey than the destination.

-May Swifite Book Club Book

4.5

После громкого скандала я отложила книгу на полку “когда-нибудь, после переиздания” и радостно забыла о ней, но издательство неожиданно (кто-то им еще верит?) сдержало свои обещания и пришлось возвращаться. Правда, я все еще с подозрением относилась к воспеванию Шекспира, поэтому сразу положила глаз на вышедшую аудиокнигу, которая, кстати, удалась. Ощущения аудио-спектакля наилучшим образом подходит книге. Увы, все это не помогло ей стать хорошей.

“Словно мы злодеи” встречает читателя двумя временными линиями - Оливер учится в академии со своими друзьями и после 10 лет Оливер выходит из тюрьмы. Детектив, который вел его дело, предлагает рассказать как же было на самом деле. Семь главных героев. Сцена. Репетиции. Тайные взгляды. И всех их объединяет любовь к Шекспиру, пока одно событие не изменило их жизнь на до и после...

Перестаю пересказывать аннотацию загадочным голосом и громко заявляю, что ничего из этого не работает так, как надо.
Временная линия с детективом необходима лишь для концовки и чтобы главный герой мог кому-то пересказать линию своей юности. Встает хороший вопрос - а зачем все это? Почему нам не могли показать от и до учебу в академии, а в конце сделать эпилог?
Ради закоса под триллер? Так страх совсем не чувствуется - умер герой, которого все не любили. Кажется никто даже не боялся, что среди них может быть убийца. Как "детектив" история также не работает - мы понимаем, что Оливер не совершал убийства. Но и на других персонажей не получается его повесить логически. Расследования не происходит, а улики сыпятся Оливеру прямо в руки только в последней трети книги. Поэтому, подумав на ком клеймо убийцы будет самым драматическим - вы угадаете со 100% вероятность верно. А причина, зачем в сюжете нужен детектив, проста - нужен был сторонний наблюдатель, не связанный с атмосферой академии, но который будет жалеть Оливера. Автору и правда нужно постараться, чтобы жертвенность Оливера считали значимой. Надеюсь, заметно как я ненавижу этот троп. Еще хуже, когда этим страдают пай-мальчики, который больше ничего не могут сделать... Oh wait...Оливер очень скучный персонаж с типажом "друг главного героя". И внезапно он начинает метаться между двумя любовными интересами. Я ничего не почувствовала между ними, потому что автор через героя показывала минимальные чувства. Мередит просто красивая и, конечно же, одинокая. Джеймс же ничем не интересен и не выделяется )именно такими и чувствуются многие главные герои, о да). Все это переходит в пресный любовный треугольник, во многом потому, что главным связующим звеном является Оливер, который... просто милый? И с такой характеристикой он мгновенно получает самую красивую девушку академии. Не подумайте, я очень люблю типаж, представленный Мередит, но автор раскрыла его так плохо, что это испортило мне всю книгу. Отношения с Мередит оба раза начинаются без толики искренности, которую она так хотела - с Оливером они спят по пьяни и назло Ричарду, с Джеймсом она целуется только благодаря подначиваниям учителя. К большому сожалению, даже фан-арты не заставят вас заинтересоваться этими героями больше. Ну а "жертва" этой книги заслужила чуть больше внимания, иначе вся его линия не имеет смысл.

И после этой критики я наконец-то скажу, что же мне понравилось. Сцена из “Макбета” с ведьмами неожиданно пробрала меня и вот тогда мне показалось, что все будет хорошо. Все эти маленькие детали, пронизывающие каждое выступление, били точно в цель. Не зря автор работала в этой сфере. Очень надеюсь, что в экранизации это покажут как надо.
Также я вижу как автор пыталась придать персонажам трагичность, пыталась развить героев, заставив их выйти из своих стереотипов-ролей (понравилась идея типажей, переходящих со сцены в жизнь) или же показать, что за любым типажом кроются темные тайны и страхи, и задача академии не просто слепить актера, но и проработать все проблемы, физические и психологические, которые могут стать на их пути дальше. К этому же моменту мне понравилось, что уделили время учителям, хоть и не могу сказать, что они во всем были правы.

Мне очень хотелось хвалить книгу, первая треть захватила мое внимание так, что самой захотелось почитать Шекспира. Но главная проблема книги в том, что после убийства ей нечего предложить. Намеки-не намеки на ЛГБТ, “загадочная” тайна убийства, семейные отношения в конце концов - все это остается очень далеко. Если бы не тема шекспира, у меня осталось бы четкое ощущение, что я прочитала фанфик. Потому что все здесь сделано для того, чтобы читатель после последней главы открыл комментарии и написал “автор, спасибо за стекло”. Не могу сказать того же.

Look, i'm sure there's some grand deeper meaning when it comes to the plays they perform and reference but i'm just really not into Shakespeare so that fell flat for me. And i know the characters are actors but they are SO dramatic for no reason and pretentious. Also Oliver is just a simp and no real person would've done what he did in the end. This book really just dragged on and it felt like they kept building up to nothing.

A captivating mystery story. Yes the characters are pretentious. And the world is unrealistic. The story does drag in places. But overall well done and one of the few dark academia books I was able to get through.

Jeju, ostatnie strony to sztos. Kocham zakończenia otwarte, ale jednocześnie chcę wiedzieć co było dalej. Send help.

This book is gorgeous, but it has broken my soul.

[3.25, but give the audio 5+++ stars because of the narrator. what a stud] full disclosure: i've never read the secret history and went into this as blind as possible (as in i didn't even anticipate the book would contain this much Shakespeare - my brain was not ready lol). there's no way for me to delve into my ponderings without going straight to major spoilers so uhhh if you haven't read the book and plan to, this is my warning for you to click on the back arrow while you can and enjoy the rest of your day!
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if you're still here, welcome to a short session of Alyssa's theories, likes, and niggles!

- i'd be remiss not to mention that some of the language used in this was... a choice. that beginning slave trader remark

This book made me want to retake the course in Shakespeare i took in my third year of uni; also “Be gay, do crime” is a great plot motive

I have so many mixed feelings about this one. It has left me with this unsettling sensation of loss after a grand journey of highs and lows. And yet, I think this will be one of those books that I will return to hoping to find comfort. Not gonna delve much further into it because I don't wanna spoil it for anyone. As polarising as it was, I recommend it wholeheartedly.

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK
depression

anne carson once said:

“why are you full of rage? because you are full of grief.”

and i think of james when i read that quote

I was skeptical to read this at first because of all the references to different plays. I'm a STEM kid and never really understood the old English writing when we read Shakespeare in high school. But the way M.L. Rio uses scenes from plays and the context she adds for the characters actually made me understand the scenes better. I loved the Act - Scene structure of the book and the twist at the end with James had me devastated and then left staring into space at the hint that he might still be out there. I loved this book and I'm glad I read it. It definitely is a foundation of the dark academia category.

I tend to really like well written ensembles and I think this book qualifies. I was expecting more from it though, all these ideas of what the twist could be, but it's actually a fairly simple answer. But now that I think about what kind of story the author intended to write, it makes sense. It's a modern day tragedy, so kinda cool actually.

A mystery thriller that has links to Shakespeare and acting? This immediately had me hooked.

This is actually the first dark academia that I've read and it's sold me on it. The characters are all so intriguing. They each brought something so unique to the story and I found myself struggling to put this book down for even a short period of time.

What I loved most is the feeling of not knowing who to trust, including the characters I grew to love and enjoy whilst reading. It follows Oliver's point of view throughout the story and I couldn't help but not be able to find him a reliable narrator.

It was filled with twists that I never saw coming and constantly left me waiting for the next show to drop. I absolutely love this book.

I don't think I'm going to be able to stop thinking about this book. It's so beautifully tragic. This is definitely a comfort read and I will probably reread again very soon.

Secret History 2.0.

Short review:
I didn't know that something was missing until I read it. Now, my existence has meaning. ❤️

Large review:
Maravilloso

This is a bit of a hard book to rate. Technically, it had some flaws that I couldn't ignore with its pacing, structure, etc. and the characters were generally not likeable, but... despite these I enjoyed it, and certainly more than I expected to at the beginning. If you go into this one throwing realism out of the window and expecting almost a sort of modern Shakespearean drama with all its attendant wild and crazy happenings, you might end up enjoying this one.

Our narrator and protagonist, Oliver Marks, has just been released from prison where he had served 10 years for murder. As he walks out of prison, the sympathetic detective who had arrested him in the first place asks him to tell him the real story of what happened. Oliver reminisces about his time in the Dellecher School a decade ago, and the group of 7 theatre students that he had been intimately part of. Filippa, Wren, Alexander, Richard, James, Meredith, and himself, and how their group, once so close together, slowly came to a climax of tragedy and heartbreak before falling apart.

When I first started this book, I was a little annoyed by how stupid pretentious these students were. They ate, lived, and breathed Shakespeare, to the point of inserting random quotations into their everyday speech when it fit the occasion. It felt like a lite version of The Secret History, a book which I DNFed about a third through and didn't enjoy very much, so I was pretty nervous and apprehensive at the beginning of this one when it gave me a lot of TSH vibes. Luckily though, this eased as the book went on. I'm not sure if I just got used to it or because the drama between the students were a bit more compelling and engaging, or the characters were more interesting to read about. Whatever the case, there was certainly a compulsion for me to keep reading and I finished probably the last 75% of the book at one shot, unable to put it down because I wanted to know what happened.

There are two things to keep in mind here that might make the book go down easier. Firstly, like what present-day Oliver mentions in one of the prologues, on hindsight Dellecher felt more like a cult than a school. It's not obvious when you're reading about it from the perspective of fourth-year-student Oliver, but then again cults never are that obvious when you're in the thick of it. It does also explain some of the more over-the-top moments where it almost felt like Oliver would rather die than leave Dellecher, and would certainly sacrifice any number of his family members to stay. It explains why these ostensibly well-educated, intelligent, and sensitive young adults are willing to put up with so much crap in their time at Dellecher, apparently to become better at their craft of acting.

Secondly, this book is a homage and a love letter to Shakespearean plays, particularly tragic dramas. It's not aiming for realism here. A lot of events that happen, especially in the last 25% are so incredibly unrealistic that I find it pretty clear that the author was deliberately steering away from realism and really indulging in that wild, fantastic endings that Shakespeare is famous for. It's basically a modern-day Shakespearean soap opera. This book demands suspension of disbelief In the same way that one would do so when watching soap operas. If you can get past that, you might actually enjoy it.

Thoughts on the ending: I had actually wondered that perhaps Oliver had been convicted for the the murder of someone else and not Richard, and that we're going to see him murder James at the end, but I was wrong. Some people thought the ending was a little shoehorned in with Oliver and James being gay, but I would disagree with that. There have always been little hints and stuff through the book where you might wonder if you were imagining things and thinking too much, or if you were meant to think that there was something between the two. I did really enjoy the fact that this was building up in the background all along and it finally emerged at the end. I do kinda think that James's possibly faking his own death at the end was a bit unnecessary, but it's just about as unnecessary as, say, a faked-death in Romeo & Juliet. I think the just-missed opportunity at a HEA and the OTT sacrifice from Oliver was Rio paying homage to all these tragic plays where everyone winds up accidentally dead or maligned some way or other.

It was slow to start, really took awhile to get into it, but once it picked up it picked up and I speed through the last ~60%. The ending was a little predictable but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the journey to get there. Like I sensed how the train was going to crash, but I couldn't tear my eyes away from it as it did. The one thing that did shock me was the note in the final pages when it is hinted that James might have faked his death and then the book just ENDED??? I did not see that coming and I thought about that for awhile after . The female characters were a little underdeveloped and mostly just served as archetypes to aid the main character, which was not great. I felt like there was untapped potential with all 3 of them that just fell a bit flat. I wanted to know more about Wren's emotions following Richard's death, Meredith's true feelings towards the men in her life and how she is treated, and where Filippa's loyalty to the group comes from (what made her out of all of them continue to visit Oliver?). These things are all hinted at, but never focused on for longer than a paragraph and I wanted more.
But the story had beautiful writing and was enjoyable to read - the dark academia vibes, the queer tension, the immoral character choices, the dramatic final act, it was great. There are so many beautiful quotes that can be pulled out of it. I do think I would've enjoyed it more if I was more familiar with Shakespeare, but I still had a good time reading about these Shakespeare-obsessed students.

“...violence has to come from a place of violent feeling or the audience won't believe it.”

For a genre I rarely read about plays I've never watched/read, this was incredibly engaging. Oliver is part of a group of fourth year drama students who were very good friends, up until they very much weren't. We're taken along with this group as they navigate their final year at Dellecher Classical Conservatory and get to know them as they work on studying for various roles. One of them turns up dead, however, and the group starts to fall apart in dramatic fashion.

I liked the dual viewpoints of this book especially. It's from the point of view of Oliver looking back on events with a detective who worked the case, so we get present day scenes with Oliver and Detective Colbourne and past events with Oliver and his friend group. Oliver was imprisoned for the murder and was just released as the book opens, but did he do it?

The book is a bit of a slow burn, but I appreciated getting to know these students and having them matter to me before the murder occurs. The inclusion of lines from plays and dramas was fitting for the setting, and I thought were really well done and chosen. The ending was almost a miss for me, but the rest of the book was such a trip that anything else was just an incredibly minor point.

I've never been a drama student and don't derive pleasure from Shakespeare, but that didn't stop me from really enjoying this book. Highly recommend if you're looking for a well written character drama/thriller.

After the first few chapters I nearly dropped the book because it seemed to be a cheap copy of ???Secret History???, but somehow I was also curious and I am - at least a little - positively surprised.

Personally (as someone who studied literature) I find it a little obnoxious and elitist that the author relies so much on Shakespeare as code: either you know the references or you are deemed less worthy. Literary references can be very helpful and give a lot more depth to a text. On the other hand you can retell/reinterpret another author???s work - as has been done a lot with Shakespeare in varying degrees of success.

But to expect your reader to actually comb through all the references that are not even culturally relevant today (because we don???t use English in the same way as 17th century theatre goers) and refer to different plays with different backgrounds and character sets seems just lazy - it shows to me that you cannot successfully find your own words to weave a story and thus rely on someone else. Or you expect people to just skim over the passages and give you the benefit of the doubt that they were important.

That being said, I would still recommend this book to people who are interested in Dark Academia & Shakespeare but have not read ???Secret History??? yet

I am trying to put my thoughts together in regards to this book and all I can think of is that, like the characters, the grief is far too much to bear. I had an enjoyable time with this novel. Easily in the top 5 of what I've read all year but it is an emotional journey I was not ready for.

It took me at least a few days to pick it back up to read part 5 and finish and half was that so much was happening at once and that I just did not want to leave the world given to me. M. L. Rio wrote a transcendent novel and I look forward to the next book she releases in the future.

This book felt very familiar as it has almost the same vibe as The Secret History and the setting of the ‘play' felt vaguely similar to Hogwarts. While I greatly enjoyed the premise, the setting, tolerable characters, and the dramatic structure, I can't say the same about the plot. The build-up was palpable leading to a fairly conclusive ending, but it wasn't quite comparable to what my expectations for it had been. The ending felt somewhat rushed to me as I felt the need for some closure, although it does end with a questionable silver lining. I still loved it, the vibes, the writing... it was intriguingly immersive, compelling me to walk in the shoes of the protagonist, experiencing the tale as I read on.