Reviews with content warning for Drug abuse - If We Were Villains. Wenn aus Freunden Feinde werden

Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

If We Were Villains. Wenn aus Freunden Feinde werden by M.L. Rio

681 reviews

kbeefive's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Pacing was good. Characters were deep I found myself wanting to come back to them. There was a “twist” that you really suspect but it doesn’t make it less satisfying. The main character is considered naive or cannot see what is in front of him and while the character grows out of this, plot ensues.

Content Warnings

bookish_5280's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Absolutely amazing read! I am Secret History obsessed, and so this was the perfect book. The aesthetic was immaculate, the imagery was incredibly detailed and beautiful (although awful and obsessive and violent). I loved the writing style, and the incorporation of Shakespeare quotes was fantastic--and this is coming from someone who is certainly NOT a big fan of Shakespeare. Every play fit perfectly into the narrative, from Lear to Romeo and Juliet to, of course, Caesar. There were so many scenes that broke me, so many that made me reflect--and THAT ENDING. OH MY GOD. I don't think I will heal from that for a long time.

James+Oliver forever <3

Content Warnings

em_gauts's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

mollydorward's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

danielleboldry's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

beautiful story of friendship enthralled with intense drama (but not in a petty way, in an extravagant art student way).

also probably lots of very clever shakespearean references/symbolism that went straight over my head :)

Content Warnings

skillyillian's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

this isn't my usual bag but i really enjoyed it. perfect dark academia, rainy autumn, murder at a fancy, secluded college book. i think i would have enjoyed it more if i knew literally anything beyond the very very basics of shakespeare, as the characters spend probably a quarter of their dialogue speaking exclusively in shakespeare quotes or references i didn't understand. that being said, it doesn't ruin the book by any means if you don't fully get every easter egg. the author had some kind of degree involving shakespeare iirc? and you can tell she is extremely knowledgeable about all of his works, it's incredibly well done.

the plot felt a little predictable at times? but i was reading for the spooky dark academia vibes and not the most complicated murder mystery plot in the whole world. i've heard people say they didn't really love the ending or how open it was, but i liked it and thought it was pretty clear what happened.

Spoiler

i wish they had just admitted to being in love sooner. i hate that it took until richard said his garbage homophobic shit for oliver to be like "ah, yes, well. maybe we are in love" like please, be so fuckin for real right now. the lack of communication right there would have saved so much trouble.

anyway what a good spooky read. the vibes were immaculate, the mystery was fun, the characters felt like they had their own personalities and goals. the writing style was really unique, especially in that the dialogue between characters speaking back and forth didn't use dialogue tags but sometimes was just written like a script would be. my favorite line was probably "Me: [sneezes]" lmfao.

Content Warnings

archiveofrasa's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

this is the first book I properly started to tab and analyse and boy it was so fun. I did read this right after The Secret History, but compared to others, I don't think I compared the two beyond the basic skeleton of the premise. they're both pretty different books, one more focused on critique and the other, this one, a much more personal tragedy.

I have to say, the last act, especially the last 50 pages, are definitely what made this book good. It was stuck at a 3.5 or something for me until everything started coming together and the tension got higher. I knew I had to reread it to gather all the foreshadowing and now I have a perfectly annotated copy of If We Were Villains that I'm obsessed with.

I know most people probably didn't do this, but I searched up most of the Shakespeare quotes. while I enjoyed analysing him when I did English Lit, it was very annoying reading these characters go back and forth in Shakespeare and having to google the lines, but there was so much foreshadowing in what they were saying! it's how I was able to guess the murderer pretty early on, but that made me enjoy the story more. this book is so well crafted, the English Lit lover inside me has ever right to be feral at the moment.

it's not a 5 star book because I do have minor critiques; everyone aside Oliver and James weren't fleshed out very well and I find the descriptions of Alexander mildly questionable. I'll get into a

Spoiler

Meredith was properly the most developed out of all the women, but even then I still don't get why people see something in Oliver and her over Oliver and James. it just feels like some people, even though the queer relationship was much more developed, preferred the m/f couple simply because they were m/f. the amount of times Oliver just referred to Meredith by her body, I don't think he'd be able to even tell me what else he liked about her 💀 I wanted more from everyone, including Richard because as soon as he died, we got nothing more from him.

for the characters, but Alexander, the only POC (he's half Latine), was often compared to animals and I just found that weird. just keep this in mind when reading.

I really don't know how to describe this book outside of the story itself. I can't say that this is a story about love or friendship or passion for Shakespeare, acting, school pressure, because it's all of that intertwined in ways I can't word. it feels like a disservice to describe it as any of those without the nuances, but that leads to spoilers 😭

also, if you're like me and are left restless after that ending, I read this fanfic immediately after and it cured me <3 I consider it canon now 🤷🏻‍♀️ https://archiveofourown.org/works/15406506

Content Warnings