In her debut novel, “If We Were Villains”, M. L. Rio combines her drama background with her love for literature in a gripping dark academia murder mystery. Like herself, her main characters are actors who have devoted themselves to the study of the works of William Shakespeare at a prestigious but highly competitive classical conservatory. More than a murder mystery, the book is a unique kind of allegory in which the characters, as happens in a Shakespearean play, assume the roles of the archetypical hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingénue, sidekick and chameleon, both on stage and in their personal lives.
In addition to the captivating plot, the book has enjoyed seven years of popularity since its original release in 2017, as well as virality on Booktok and BookTube, where it stands out due to its one-of-a-kind format, symbolism and general atmosphere. Beloved by bookworms and thespians alike, this modern masterpiece captivates the reader and takes them on a wild journey from the Shakespearean stage of drama to the grand stage of life, with all its moral and emotional complexities.
So, without further ado, curtain up, players enter stage right.
*Bookworms beware: spoilers ahead!*
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Like a Shakespearean play, the book is divided into acts instead of chapters. The first act opens with our protagonist and narrator, Oliver Marks, in prison, finishing his 10-year-sentence for the murder of his fellow student and friend Richard Stirling. Oliver has finally been granted parole and is speaking with Joseph Colborne, the detective who had been originally assigned to his case. The now retired detective asks Oliver to finally answer the burning question that has been bothering him for years: What really happened back then?
Now that all is said and done, Oliver agrees to grant him his wish and tell him the story of how a group of seven young, innocent thespians turned into a clique plagued by dark secrets and torn apart by the psychological toll their dark history has taken on their souls.
Enter the players:
Oliver’s story features seven drama students in their fourth year of studies at the Dellecher Classical Conservatory. Each member represents a Shakespearean archetype, both on stage and within the group’s dynamic. Richard Stirling, the tyrant, is a handsome and exceptionally talented young actor, an authoritative figure with a dark and at times violent streak. James Farrow, the hero, is Oliver’s closest friend and roommate, often seen by him and his friends as the pure, kind soul, the beautiful prince of the story. Alexander Vass, the villain, is the hedonist whose free spirit is burdened by several afflictions such as alcohol and drugs. He is closer to the Shakespearean fool, an erratic character who tells the truth through jest. The temptress, Meredith Dardenne, is the seductive femme fatale, usually characterized by the magnetic pull her appearance and mannerisms have on others. Her disarming confidence makes everyone bend to her will, but like all power, it comes with a cost. Wren Stirling is Richard’s cousin and the ingénue, the starry-eyed, innocent young character, who is blissfully unaware of the evils of the world. Filippa “Pip” Kosta is the chameleon. She blends into various roles and dynamics in the group, and often has to cross-dress and play male roles due to their gender-blind casting. That leaves our protagonist, Oliver, playing the sidekick. Oliver lacks the confidence—and, according to him, the talent—to stand out and regularly considers himself a background, supportive character. He is loyal and supportive to his friends—especially James—but eventually becomes the wild card, who, against all odds, tragically finds himself at the center of the action.
Their story begins in Act 1, Scene 1. The year is 1997 and our characters are preparing to audition for the fall play, Julius Caesar. They are all gathered at the Castle, an independent building on campus that serves as their dorm, discussing the roles each friend will be cast as. Alexander deems the conversation futile, as each person is type-cast in the same role every year. Nevertheless, they audition and go to the lake, which is one of the most important locations in the book; every time they return to the lake the group dynamics are getting more and more strained until we end up with Richard—a modern-day Julius Caesar—getting murdered there by his own friends. When the casting comes out, Alexander’s suspicions are confirmed and each actor gets their usual role.
Dellecher Classical Conservatory is not an ordinary arts school. Theatre students here devote their studies to Shakespeare’s works and are expected to keep growing as actors, otherwise they get sent home, never having finished their studies. As the only survivors that made it to the fourth year, our seven players are determined to graduate; the stakes are high, so tensions rise. Their teachers, Gwendolyn and Frederick, also each have a unique teaching method. Gwendolyn specifically gets more personal with her students, as she believes it’s not the playwright that makes a play special, but rather the combination of their work with the actor’s emotions. To get to the bottom of their psyche and unlock their talent, she pushes them to extremes in a vulnerability exercise that tests their nerves and makes them lay their insecurities bare for everyone to see.
Halloween is here and, as is tradition at Dellecher, the students are secretly cast to put on a production of Macbeth. This is where the first cracks start to appear in Richard’s facade, who for once hasn’t gotten the main role. Envy plants a seed in his soul and slowly turns him into a villain. Starting from an attempt to drown James at the lake, Richard gets more and more violent towards his friends and his girlfriend, Meredith. His behavior turns from occasional outbursts to bullying, especially at the after-party of Macbeth, where he gets into a fight with Meredith, who later decides to sleep with Oliver, Richard banging on the door and threatening to kill them. Eventually, Richard storms out, fighting with his cousin and disappearing into the night. The group loses his tracks until hours later, they find him floating in the lake, apparently dead. When the shock subsides, they realize they are relieved to be rid of his looming presence. However, Richard is still alive. This puts his friend in a downward spiral of morality contradicting indignation, at the bottom of which they decide they should deliver the final blow to protect the greater good. Like Caesar’s conspirators, they “save Rome” by killing the tyrant, Oliver delivering the final blow.
Nothing will ever be the same after this.
In the chaos of the aftermath, their souls deeply tortured by the crime they committed and their restless minds trying to justify it and minimize their involvement in Richard’s tragic fall, the six remaining friends go home for Thanksgiving. During Thanksgiving break, Oliver’s parents inform him that he cannot continue his studies due to insufficient funds. He watches as his soul crumbles, refusing to see his acting future turning to ashes as well. James suddenly shows up at his doorstep, asking to stay with him as he can’t bear being alone with his thoughts. When he returns, he convinces the Dean to let him work and earn his stay. While cleaning at the Castle, Oliver starts to find evidence that Richard’s death was not quite as accidental as he thought, but he meticulously conceals it all as detective Colborne gets on the case. However, Oliver starts getting the gnawing suspicion that one of his friends attacked Richard before they all found him in the lake. All of them seem suspicious, with Filippa keeping a calm collected appearance that Oliver finds a tad unsettling, Alexander indulging in his addictions and overdosing, and James, the fallen angel who drinks himself to a stupor and turning self-destructive with guilt.
During the Christmas holidays, Oliver decides to go find Meredith in New York. While there, their connection deepens in trauma, but Richard’s specter continues to haunt them relentlessly.
When they return, the students start preparing for a production of King Lear. James and Meredith have to play lovers on stage, which is rather challenging considering their mutual dislike for each other and their strained nerves. To combat this, Gwendolyn makes them kiss in yet another vulnerability exercise, which is torture for Oliver to witness, as he realizes that his feelings for James go deeper than friendship and devotion, but this realization tragically is followed by an unsettling revelation. While cleaning his and James’ room, Oliver is shocked to have his suspicions confirmed, as he finds the hook Richard was attacked with hidden in James’ mattress.
On the day of the premiere, Oliver decides to confront James during intermission. James admits that he was the one who attacked Richard in self-defense of yet another violent outburst. While Oliver understands his motivations, he feels betrayed that James hid this from him. However, they both decide to finish the play before anything else, but doing so, Oliver cannot say his final lines. Detective Colborne is waiting offstage to arrest James on a tip from Meredith, but Oliver sacrifices himself by confessing he killed Richard, leaving James broken-hearted and Meredith bitterly disappointed.
After the eventful premiere, Oliver gets sent to prison. James visits him, overcome by guilt, and keeps pleading with him to let him confess, a proposition Oliver keeps rejecting. Eventually, James stops visiting and Oliver supposes his guilt has finally turned into resentment.
The story brings us back to the present, where Filippa along with Detective Colborne pick up Oliver from prison and take him back to Dellecher. After Oliver finishes his story, finally confessing he loved James but omitting that he still does, he asks about James, to which Filippa answers he couldn’t take the guilt and committed suicide years ago. Shocked and heartbroken, with no place left to go, he goes to visit Meredith, who is now a famous TV actress. While staying with her, they try to rekindle their relationship, sharing the emptiness their mutual trauma has left behind. At the end of the novel, Oliver lives with Meredith, with whom he has managed to rehash a somewhat normal relationship, even though his feelings for James linger in his heart. His tortured soul takes a final unexpected hit when Filippa sends him James’ suicide note, which James has addressed to him. The note is a monologue from Shakespeare’s Pericles, Prince of Tyre that, paired with the fact that James’ body was never found, leads Oliver to believe he is still alive, rehashing his obsession with him.
Shakespeare is the god and the devil of this universe, pulling the strings both on stage and in the characters’ personal lives. The plays they put on mirror the dynamics of the group and the psychological state each character is in, foreshadowing the outcome of their shared story. Richard is cast as Caesar, later to be murdered by his own friends, James drenches Oliver’s Banquo in blood, later to have him take the fall for his crime, even Dean Holinshed quotes Julius Caesar, encouraging his students to live boldly, even to the point of making enemies. References and clues are sprinkled throughout the book, telling the fortune of its characters.
More than that, each character has an archetypical role to play in the plot of the novel. Shakespeare’s work moves the action and provides the plot twists, as well as the moral compass our heroes feel they have to follow. Overall, life imitates art in every turn of “If We Were Villains”, and tragedy bleeds from the script into real life to torment the human soul with the repercussions of blind devotion to the art.
The lake is a key location in the novel as its waters turn from calm and inviting to red with blood and terror. Each time the group visits the lake, tensions rise even higher and revelations are made, all culminating in the horrendous crime that has stigmatized them all and plagued their lives with secrets and deception. Even after Oliver is released from prison, he returns to the lake to tell his story, now a shell of the young, bright actor he once was.
Every time the group breaks off to their respective homes for the holidays, the dynamics shift as they are made to face their trauma alone, along with problems of the outside world. Sometimes they seek each other for support, but other times they drift further apart, wallowing in misery. Each time they return to school, things are different and the chaos in their minds keeps deteriorating.
While training in the art of stage fighting, the students show their real emotions and release the tension building up between them. This is especially interesting in Oliver and James’ relationship, showing the ugly side of love, turning to obsession and resentment under pressure. Specifically when James accidentally grazes Oliver, he insists he is alright but feels he has been hit in earnest, a recurring theme in their relationship.
The novel starts with seven young actors with a heartwarming bond and bright futures ahead of them. This innocence is gradually lost as tragedy strikes. The two characters who best embody this loss of innocence with their arcs are James and Wren. James starts as the innocent, perfect prince both in his roles and in the way Oliver sees him, but turns into the real villain who threw the first stone in the avalanche that crushed them. Wren is the ingénue, the blissfully ignorant young soul who has to endure violence and become complicit in her own cousin’s murder, suffering the consequences, within herself and her family.
The young actors’ ambition pushes them to extremes that take a toll on them and affect their personal relationships. The pressure of this over-achieving environment quickly translates into chaos and misery. The novel also raises the question of power and what one might do with it. In the beginning, power is on Richard’s shoulders. He abuses it and meets a horrible end, but after he’s gone, it disperses in the group, but it quickly proves to be a burden that breaks them apart. When they are not pushing their own distraction, characters deceiving others in an endless cycle of blame, guilt and betrayal.
Putting a fresh Shakespearean twist on Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, If We Were Villains is much more than a mystery novel. It is a love letter to the theatre stage and what it means to fully devote one’s self to the art.
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The main idea of "If We Were Villains" revolves around the intense dynamics of a close-knit group of Shakespearean actors at an elite arts conservatory. The novel explores how their lives become tragically intertwined with the plays they perform, leading to themes of friendship, loyalty, ambition, and the blurring of lines between art and reality. The story is a literary thriller that delves into the consequences of their actions, the weight of guilt and innocence, and the moral complexities that arise from their deep connections and rivalries.
The fourth year at Dellecher is devoted to tragedy, so even though initially the characters are hopefully looking forward to a great year at the end of which they will graduate and start their careers, we as readers know the year will be a lot darker than they expect. The young actors throw themselves into their roles, unsure of where the character ends and the self begins. This turns dangerous for Oliver, who in confessing for James’ crime, he feels he is rewriting the tragedy but in reality can’t escape the power of his fate.
While not explicitly categorized as an LGBT book, If We Were Villains does contain queer characters and relationships. Alexander is a gay man who later has a relationship with Colin, who identified as straight before him, but rediscovers his sexuality as their bond deepens. Oliver is also in love with James. Their love is tragic, like Romeo and Juliet, but when asked by Colborne, he says that he doesn’t want to categorize and put their bond into boxes. To him, it is simply love.
Eirini is a passionate book nerd with a keen penchant for the whimsical and the witty. She holds a degree in English Literature - because what's better than reading books for homework? - and delights in dissecting the subtleties of storytelling. When it comes to fiction analysis, she is determined to turn every stone and go through every theory of the stories that excite her. Known for her playful approach and keen observations, her contribution offers readers a delightful exploration of literary themes that resonate with enthusiasts and casual readers alike.
