Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

876 reviews

dlrosebyh's review against another edition

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

5.0

3 words: Shakespeare, Gay, Sad

This book went straight to the most me-coded books ever. For years, my friends have begged me to read this book because it's very me-coded and I would LOVE it. It's actually astounding—the amount of friends that recommended me this book. But all of them were right.

I have always loved theatre growing up, and I don't think that's a secret. I love Shakespeare (sometimes). I love found family. I love sad, misunderstood gay characters. All the stars were aligned. It was impossible for me to like this book. Not even my hater self can hate this book.

If there's one thing Rio did amazingly was to write the characters!! I probably shouldn't root for them, but Rio got me rooting for them. Like no, your honor, they didn't do anything wrong!! WHATTTT!!! I have always loved morally grey characters because they add so much dynamic to the story. Each character served its own purpose, and it's so interesting and entertaining see how they are fleshed out. James, Oliver, Meredith, and Flippa are all so me. It's insane. If you count how much times I have annotated the book with "He/She's so me", I would have hundreds of dollars.

When Rio said you can justify anything if you do it poetically enough, she was TALKING ABOUT THIS BOOK. It was so poetic and beautiful. You could tell she poured her whole heart into it, and you know, she has EXPERIENCE being an actress. It's always so fun looking at the backstage of theatre works.

After this book, I want to throw myself because what the fuck was that ending??? This the type of book that will result to you opening a yet another new AO3 tab. Now, I stop here because I might accidentally spoil the whole book. But PLEASE, if you're looking for a next read, make it this one.

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voxnts's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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alexeysidoruk's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75


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ruby_mae_read's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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

3.75


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abernathy_33's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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chinomi's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5


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sas_lk's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Wait For Me, a piano piece by Luca D'Alberto. While I was reading this piece started playing, and it truly encompasses the emotion and the tragedy and the love in this book. Even the title relates to the story, if you've read it, you'll understand.
This book was like this piano piece, about so much love between a group of people, about love that doesn't need to be defined or restricted. About a love that has no boundaries. The friendship between these characters felt so real to me, and I just fell in love with all of them myself. At times, I felt like a member of their group. I just wanted to hug, kiss, and embrace all of them. And even though they went through a lot of terrible things, they made me want to escape into their world, a world where when everything went crashing down, they still had each other as safe spaces.
If I could give this 6 stars, I would.


Only complaint is that I felt that Meredith was not fleshed out enough. Because she was only ever described superficially, she felt a bit superficial, but then again, I also get why she was described the way she was.

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goldaerin's review against another edition

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medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Terminabile ma manca l'anima dei personaggi. Molto (troppo) derivativo 

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alliott's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Dark academia book that made me think I knew what was coming next, only to be fooled. Slow paced and I will say some things felt like they had too many details where other things felt underdeveloped. Utterly hooked by the end. I listened to the audiobook which I think helped with some of the Shakespeare dialogue, but I do wonder how it would have been reading. 

More plot holes through book club analysis.

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nukie19's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

3.75


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