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A review by canisand
If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio
5.0
Almost like the Secret History but more relative and less posh. Throughout the book the importance of isolation is stressed. The fourth years are isolated from one another - theatre, language, fashion, art - none of them interact with the others and they are all in their own separate fantasies. This fantastical separation creates a safe place for the students, indulging in their finer pleasures and obsessions with each other. Of course, obsession easily goes too far. The seven theatre students are possessed by their roles and lose everything tying them to their sense of reality and substantiality. They devote their entires lives to tragedy - Macbeth and Banquo, Caesar and Brutus. Imagine that: having no true connection to anything but tragedy. It can be easy to lose oneself if they feel everything twice, or four times, or not at all.
Richard was obsessed with the idea of tragic hero and villain, loved placing himself as the hero, but he truly had no clue whom was who. He thought Caesar to be the hero, casting himself into the role and dooming himself to the same tragic fate. He argues his point, violently stressing his opinion of himself and heroics, and loses himself in playing the character. In the end, it happened to all of them, whether they played the hero or the villain or the romantic or the fool. Isolating themselves doomed them all to tragedy and they had no one to pull them back, not even themselves.
Ritualistics. There isn't much to be said about this, but immersing yourself into a passion simply for enjoyment is not the same as cult-like obsession, and the school board needed to realize that just as much as it's students did.
Richard was obsessed with the idea of tragic hero and villain, loved placing himself as the hero, but he truly had no clue whom was who. He thought Caesar to be the hero, casting himself into the role and dooming himself to the same tragic fate. He argues his point, violently stressing his opinion of himself and heroics, and loses himself in playing the character. In the end, it happened to all of them, whether they played the hero or the villain or the romantic or the fool. Isolating themselves doomed them all to tragedy and they had no one to pull them back, not even themselves.
Ritualistics. There isn't much to be said about this, but immersing yourself into a passion simply for enjoyment is not the same as cult-like obsession, and the school board needed to realize that just as much as it's students did.