Recently I picked up a copy of If We Were Villains. I’ve already been quite interested in the Dark Academia sub-genre, despite my conflicted feelings on the sub-genre as a whole. Generally, this issue comes with the romanticization of books that are meant to be critiques of the cutthroat elitism of academia, such as The Secret History and If We Were Villains – something I will touch on later. However, I found If We Were Villains to be incredibly compelling and well written, I even enjoyed it more than The Secret History! (Spoilers ahead for If We Were Villains) The Plot The plot was probably the strongest point of the novel, as it kept me compelled through the whole book, waiting with bated breath to see what would happen next. Throughout the first two acts, I was waiting for the other shoe to drop, and when it did I was only left with more tension. The lead-up to Richard’s murder was probably the best part of the book, as it set up all the pieces so perfectly. The final twist was somewhat predictable, but I felt it worked since it had been set up so well. I prefer twists that are easy to predict if you follow the plot because that means that they’re well thought out in advance and not thrown in just to shock the reader. Despite the plot twist being predictable, (and despite the fact that I spoiled the book for myself by reading the discussion questions – oops), I still found myself in suspense as I waited for how the twist would come about. The book starts off with Oliver (the main character) being released from prison, but we know by the end of the second act that Oliver didn’t actually kill Richard, meaning it was someone else who did. It leaves you wondering who could have killed Richard, and worse, wondering why Oliver took the fall for it. The twist that the killer was James made the most sense, given his fraught relationship with Richard and his closeness to Oliver. That’s what made it a good twist in my mind, though. Something about having the best friend be the killer gets me every time, man. The Characters I found the characters in this novel incredibly complex and intriguing. I thought that they all worked really well together as a cast of characters and that they helped push the plot along. Oliver was the perfect unlikeable protagonist, even though he was an absolutely awful person (the way that he treated women? Horrid. The way he treated his sisters? Nasty). And yet, he was still a compelling and interesting protagonist to read. James was an excellent side character, and he was still likeable enough even though he was a murderer. Still, I really felt for him with the way that he was treated by Richard, and honestly… Richard kind of had it coming. I will say, most of the female characters were forced into archetypes, which is mostly due to the nature of the novel, which is supposed to play into classical archetypes. Still, the women of the book felt far more one-dimensional than the men did, which is true for many Shakespeare plays as well. It may be that M.L. Rio is trying to make a commentary on the way that women are treated within the Shakespearean canon. Still, I felt that the characters were all very cohesive as a friend group, which worked well in pushing the story along and made it all t Ultimately, I feel that If We Were Villains is a classic in the Dark Academia subgenre, and I do believe that it has earned its place as a Dark Academia modern classic. Nate Fahmiis a young writer from Ottawa, Canada. When he isn’t in school, he enjoys reading, writing, crochet, and playing with his two cats. Their favorite genres are horror and fantasy, and they enjoy all things strange. You can find him on Instagram at @nate_fahmi
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