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A review by _rutaceae
If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio
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
3.0
The comparisons to The Secret History are impossible not to make; but where that exceeded every expectation I had, this failed to reach a single one of them.
Seven main characters and a murder mystery is a lot to establish and I feel like the fast pace and the number of pages in this book, didn't allow Rio the time she needed to flesh any of it out properly. I still feel like I don't know who half of the main characters are or why they were relevant to the story. As for the plot, I feel like it wasn't built up as well as could have been. Everything felt very predictable from the start, and I think some of the actions of the characters were completely unnecessary.
While I understand the relevance of the all the Shakespeare passages, I feel like the quantity and the length of them, took up space that - like the actions of some of the characters - could have been better used to flesh out more of the story or the characters.
One thing I did love though, was how it was split into acts (rather than parts), and how some chunks of dialogue were written like they were in a script. This formatting felt rather fitting, considering they were theatre students.
This book had SO much potential, but I think it tried too hard to be The Secret History, and it just didn't work the way Rio probably imagined it would.
Seven main characters and a murder mystery is a lot to establish and I feel like the fast pace and the number of pages in this book, didn't allow Rio the time she needed to flesh any of it out properly. I still feel like I don't know who half of the main characters are or why they were relevant to the story. As for the plot, I feel like it wasn't built up as well as could have been. Everything felt very predictable from the start, and I think some of the actions of the characters were completely unnecessary.
While I understand the relevance of the all the Shakespeare passages, I feel like the quantity and the length of them, took up space that - like the actions of some of the characters - could have been better used to flesh out more of the story or the characters.
One thing I did love though, was how it was split into acts (rather than parts), and how some chunks of dialogue were written like they were in a script. This formatting felt rather fitting, considering they were theatre students.
This book had SO much potential, but I think it tried too hard to be The Secret History, and it just didn't work the way Rio probably imagined it would.