Scan barcode
A review by eleanorcd
If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I didn't expect to like this book all that much, and then I devoured it in two days. I am not a huge Shakespeare fan so I was a little apprehensive, but it is a fairly well-done pastiche. It was a quick and easy read and pretty engaging. I do, however, have some complaints.
My main complaint was the character dynamics. Spoiler free complaint: none of the relationships are convincing. No chemistry and bland. Some of it is explained a bit at the end, but even still it was dry and awkward. Now, a spoiler version: james and wren? such an unconvincing couple. no chemistry. same goes for oliver and meredith. .
Another problem I had was the predictability. Perhaps it's that this book is so often marketed as The Secret History for English/theatre students, so I could tell pretty quickly which characters aligned with which from TSH (ie. Richard is obviously Henry, the girls all different aspects of Camilla, Oliver as Richard, Alexander as Francis, etc.). Apart from that, though, the book is a bit painfully predictable. Some of it made sense, like someone getting killed at a certain point mimics the trajectory of a Shakespearean/Greek tragedy, but other aspects were way too predictable and I felt they were poorly done.cough james killing richard, this was too obvious and didn't make sense to me. i get that it was an accident but WHY would james have gone out looking for richard when he knew things would end badly. he's smarter than that, and it all felt out of character .
Overall, this book was fine. It's also worth noting that it's very misleading to recommend it based on someone liking The Secret History. They are very different books and comparing them does IWWV absolutely no favours, lol.
My main complaint was the character dynamics. Spoiler free complaint: none of the relationships are convincing. No chemistry and bland. Some of it is explained a bit at the end, but even still it was dry and awkward. Now, a spoiler version:
Another problem I had was the predictability. Perhaps it's that this book is so often marketed as The Secret History for English/theatre students, so I could tell pretty quickly which characters aligned with which from TSH (ie. Richard is obviously Henry, the girls all different aspects of Camilla, Oliver as Richard, Alexander as Francis, etc.). Apart from that, though, the book is a bit painfully predictable. Some of it made sense, like someone getting killed at a certain point mimics the trajectory of a Shakespearean/Greek tragedy, but other aspects were way too predictable and I felt they were poorly done.
Overall, this book was fine. It's also worth noting that it's very misleading to recommend it based on someone liking The Secret History. They are very different books and comparing them does IWWV absolutely no favours, lol.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Murder, and Alcohol
Moderate: Misogyny