If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio ~ Book Review

Flatiron Books
Mystery
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪

What a perfect fall read. If We Were Villains takes place at an elite boarding school and centers on a group of seniors in the acting program. We know early on that our protagonist, Oliver, ends up in jail for murder, and we learn through flashbacks what led to him being convicted.

As with many academia-centered books, there are a lot of central characters and, as is usual for me, I found it hard to keep track of everyone. There are a lot of changing intra-group dynamics and those were focused on more than the actual background or characteristics of each particular person. I wish I had gotten a chance to really know them all a bit more.

The atmosphere of this book is fantastic. I could practically feel the creaky old boarding school drenched in the legacy of thespians past. The acting program focuses solely on Shakespeare, so there are a lot of passages interspersed throughout the story. This is fun to some extent, but I found myself skimming them toward the end. I do think they were creatively intertwined with the narrative, but it was a little over the top for me.

This one was kind of a mixed bag for me. Overall, I thought the setting was incredibly interesting and well crafted, but I wish the characters had more development and I was not satisfied with the ending.

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