Reviews with content warning for Body shaming - If We Were Villains

Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

49 reviews

kaylamoran's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Loses .25 of a star because I found the beginning a bit slow, and the whole thing slightly too heavy with the Shakespeare. Once the story got going I couldn't put it down.

Content Warnings

persephonefoxx'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

“But that is how a tragedy like ours or King Lear breaks your heart—by making you believe that the ending might still be happy, until the very last minute.”

The dark academia genre has wormed its way into my soul and it can stay there. I read this book in a day. A day! Do you know how long it has been since I consumed a full novel within a mere 24 hour period? A while, I assure you.

I should have read this book sooner and I wish that I could read it again for the first time already. The characters and their relationships were an absolutely highlight, I truly echo Alexander’s statement of not knowing if I wanted to kiss or kill them as I read through their personal brand of tragedy.

Words fail me, and suffice to say I loved this book. The playbook formatting was truly a cherry on top.

And I must say, characters caught at the homo fork in the road contemplating whether or not to veer down the path of cide or sexual has to be one of my favourite genres.

Content Warnings

frogknitting's review against another edition

Go to review page

1.5

I've decided that this book is significantly better if you imagine that everything that happens is caused by black mold in their dorm. They continued to say, "What's wrong with you?" It's the mold!

I really, really wanted to try to give this book a chance, but from the beginning I couldn't stop thinking about The Secret History. This is like the Kidz Bop version of it: a book that takes the basic structure of it but lacks the depth. It was entirely too long and yet it didn't have nearly the amount of time to go into what it needed to to succeed.
Though Richard isn't necessarily a carbon copy of Bunny, he takes his worst elements (as well as Henry's worst traits) and makes that his personality. No redeeming qualities, whereas I think Bunny had some? (I'm going to be honest, it's been a LONG time since I read TSH) At least, he was a lot better fleshed out. All of the characters in this were wholly one-dimensional, just being introduced at the beginning by name (all seven of them, by the way, so you have to fully know these people as well as ~~Richard~~ Oliver knows them). It feels like a draft, a book that could've been decent if it had only been fleshed out significantly more and deviated from its inspiration. As it is, it has characters that are mere caricatures of the TSH characters. Characters do things in this book because they're supposed to, not because it would be in line with anything we've seen of them thus far (and with SEVEN characters, we haven't seen much....)

Oliver and James's personalities radically change throughout the book, from two guys who are just trying to get an education and feel connected to their classmates to a guy who's weirdly obsessed with Meredith and a man who's going absolutely insane with guilt, but not in the way that he would have, if we follow his character arc.

It might also be the black mold.
I genuinely want to write this review without consistently mentioning The Secret History, but I feel it's impossible. The draw of it is that it takes real moral questions and grapples with them, not letting plot rule it, but rather, letting the characters' musings take over. I know that's a personal preference of mine, but this was very much a show not tell book, where you simply were told what was happening and had to go with it.

They're all going insane and upset because they don't rescue their dying friend — his head is caving in, he wouldn't have survived anyway! Yes, James killed him, but that's not the real moral dilemma here. Speaking of which, it was incredibly, unspeakably predictable. I thought maybe James would be killed by Richard, who would then be killed by Oliver, but no. It happened exactly as you'd think it would.

The other characters: I have gripes with them because of how poorly written they are. Yes, it's the memory of a man ten years later, and yes, they're definitely not supposed to be good people, but there was really no need for a lot of it.

A lot of people have mentioned Alexander, the only openly queer character (besides James and Oliver, if you'd count them), consistently makes rape jokes and they're brushed aside. No, the author shouldn't punish their characters for not acting 100% morally, but idk, I just feel like maybe she should have just cut this out. It really doesn't add anything, except for her predatory view of queer men. The women are also very flat — tons of slut shaming, the woman who's there solely to serve everyone else, etc. etc., and the thing is that I wouldn't necessarily have a problem with that through (I keep typing Richard) Oliver's point of view if it was only refuted in reality. She tries to write an unreliable narrator without contradicting or casting doubt on what he says. The sisters were a real issue for me as well. His sister's eating disorder was used as a plot device just for him to have to clean and get tons of clues. It was underdeveloped and thrown in there for convenience. If you really, really wanted it to work better, he could've had that job the entire time (I know that's also a TSH rip off, Richard being poorer than the others and having to work, but we're well past that) and it would've fit in a bit more naturally.

There's just a lot in this book, and none of it is developed particularly well. The consistent Shakespeare quotes were annoying, I agree, although I think near the beginning they were used more sparingly and better. It seemed scrambled together, meaning to meet a deadline, and there were no explanations for many of their actions beyond 1. plot convenience or 2. black mold. 1.5 stars because, as much as I've complained, the prose in the first half wasn't horrible and seemed pretty standard for YA, making it not a complete burden to get through.

Content Warnings

the_annia's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

2.5

Beautifully written, but the story itself is absolutely brutal and very difficult to process. Don’t read if you’re on the emotional/sensitive side.

Content Warnings

recycled_personalities's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

I do recommend it. There’s one outdated term that used near the beginning of the book that stopped it from getting a higher score. But it’s a compelling mystery, with a side of tragic love.

Content Warnings

mar's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
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

jesus christ. fucking theatre kids, man

Content Warnings

_piercingwords_'s review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

A really intense read that got me out of a reading slump.

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.

Content Warnings