If We Were Villains World

“You can justify anything if you do it poetically enough.”

In M.L. Rio's captivating debut novel, "If We Were Villains," the lines between art and reality blur into a tragic tale of lost innocence. As he is released from a ten-year sentence for a murder he may or may not have committed, Oliver Marks recalls the events of a youth marred with dark secrets.

Enter the players. In the halls of an elite conservatory, the seven young actors have devoted their life to Shakespeare, each playing their role—hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingénue, sidekick and chameleon—both onstage and off. In an unexpected twist of events, though, the group’s dynamic shifts ominously after the casting of the Halloween production of Macbeth.

Tensions rise within the group until tragedy strikes, and one of the friends is found dead. The players must now come face to face with the ugly side of their own morality. In the grand stage of life, can the young thespians play innocent well enough to convince their own consciousness?