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ashcook's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Outing
masonwe's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Violence and Murder
Moderate: Eating disorder, Suicide, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Outing, and Alcohol
kend7aaa's review against another edition
- 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
4.75
Minor: Death, Homophobia, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Outing, and Toxic friendship
geerbeer's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Ik houd wel echt van de meta dingetjes, dat de hoofdstukken geschreven zijn als aktes e.d. en ook hoe Shakespear-drama het allemaal is. Super goede en mooie world building en de karakters ook allemaal voldoende uniek om goed te kunnen volgen 😊
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol
Moderate: Body horror, Cursing, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, Outing, and Injury/Injury detail
bootsmom3's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Addiction, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Bullying, Eating disorder, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, and Outing
Minor: Biphobia
carajewels's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
personally, i couldn’t stand the tension between james and oliver. these bitches are so obviously in love!! and we have to wait the WHOLE BOOK for them to admit it??? and see them pretend to be straight in the meantime? why? i don’t get it it’s not like they’re homophobic, they’re clearly accepting of alexander. additionally, gwendolyn is supposedly this all-seeing figure that can psychologically rip them apart in her classes, yet she is painfully oblivious to the romance b/w james and oliver, which everyone else seems to have picked up on. it’s just very convenient that she never brought it up in front of them.
i loved the constant, almost overbearing use of shakespeare! at first i didn’t want to read this book until i was more well-read on his works (i’ve only read R+J, hamlet, and macbeth) but the book was perfectly readable without that knowledge. however, i’d love to reread it after reading more of his works to understand more. i love that ML Rio has a masters in shakespeare studies, there were definitely references that she put it in that i didn’t understand.
i’m conflicted about the characters. james and oliver were the ones i was paying keen attention to the entire time because i could tell from the first chapter they were in love. i couldn’t stand seeing oliver and meredith together, and meredith’s character i liked as she made me sad. i could see she is very lonely and felt the need to be with oliver because of that, but their romance were the worst pages of the books. wren i don’t really know that much about, she’s blonde and the best actress and in love with james? aside from her fainting i don’t think her character served many purposes. alexander and colborne were probably my favorites as they provided much needed comedic relief numerous times (idc that colborne was the cop investigating the crime that’s my king), and filippa was also a favorite of mine as she was so no-bullshit. i loved how in the end she finally spoke of her family, information she had always withheld until oliver was incarcerated.
Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Murder
Moderate: Homophobia, Sexual content, Outing, and Sexual harassment
scifipunk's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Interestingly, now at the end, my opinion changed completely.
It is remarkable that a lot of things that annoyed me at the beginning, regarding plot, characters, and some choices the author made, almost all of them improved or at least became ignoreable by the later chapters.
Especially in the beginning, I had the impression that a lot of the characters were extremely flat and one-dimensional — I feel like in many, many scenes, the reader is told about all these different, vibrant personalities, and yet I still had the impression that Filippa and Wren could be fused into one character without any relevant change to the plot or group dynamic.
I still think so, but it somewhat justified by the characters’ in-universe theater obsession making them think in tropes rather than individuals, and in the end, the plot managed to immerse me and I found myself not as bothered by the characters as I thought I would be.
The author is amazing at describing atmosphere and creating tension in her writing — once the pace picks up, it works well, and this book does have a couple of paragraphs and scenes that stand out for simply how elegant and beautifully phrased they are.
The protagonists, as theater students at an elite university, also have the habit of speaking in shakespearean verse in otherwise casual conversation.
This comes off extremely pretentious at first, but seems to be by design — in at least one scene, a character shows awareness of how he and his friends must sound to regular people, and critically reflects about it for a bit. It flowed into the narrative well and seemed natural, and honestly, I would have liked more introspective like this throughout the novel.
I am absolutely torn on the amounts of verse in this book as a whole, however. There are many great scenes, where as a reader, you can see even with minimal knowledge of the original text, that the author means to highlight a certain dynamic or subtext, foreshadow, or give some characterisation. And if it works, it works well.
But on the other hand, there are just as many scenes where it feels excessive or much longer than necessary.
I did. enjoy the book as a whole, and the main plot definitely felt cohesive and satisfying in the end. About the subplots, I’m not so sure. Some major plot twists and entire characters, especially some that are relatively important later on for example
I thought that was really a tragedy, since so many plot threads actually seemed interesting and worth exploring. The author, in my opinion, clearly has talent and put a lot of thought and effort into her work, so I really would have liked to see where all these subplots go… but well.
I enjoyed reading “If We Were Villains” a lot, but it did not quite leave me satisfied in the end.
If you are looking for a captivating, well-executed mystery with a great, immersive atmosphere, then this is for you. The book clearly deserves the “dark academia” hype it got. If you are, however, the type of person who is very annoyed by excess drama, pretentious characters, handwaved details and so on, then you should probably give this one a pass.
Graphic: Drug abuse, Sexism, Violence, Grief, and Alcohol
Moderate: Addiction, Cursing, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Blood
Minor: Eating disorder, Mental illness, Misogyny, and Outing
shelfofunread's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Violence, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol
Minor: Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Grief, Murder, and Outing
cdt96's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Addiction, Biphobia, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Addiction, Biphobia, Bullying, Cursing, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Outing, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
_piercingwords_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The story feels very real, on an emotional rather than logical level. The structure is a nice touch and fitting for the Shakespeare centered story. There's a lot to be analysed, a lot of foreshadowing and parallels to the plays alluded to in the book;
definitely a book you need to read in depth to really be able to appreciate the thought put into it, I will have to read it again, more thoroughly and with the knowledge of everything happening.
In the end, it is a love story, in a twisted, untraditional way.
It left me with a few questions unanswered but I couldn't put it down, the tension high until the last page and I do recommend it, especially to Shakespeare lovers.
Graphic: Death, Violence, Murder, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Addiction, Body shaming, Bullying, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Outing, and Alcohol