When I was relatively new in the (international) blogosphere, If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio was a book that was tremendously hyped. However, you either loved it or hated it. I was curious nevertheless, but I didn’t trust my language skills enough to read it in English with al the Shakespeare quotes et cetera. I therefore removed it from my TBR. I didn’t look back until the Dutch edition came out, now I was sure I was at least able to understand the words. If I indeed understood the story, was another question. Well, time to find out, wasn’t it?

If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio
Published by Flatiron Books on April 11, 2017
Pages: 354
ISBN: 9781250095282
Genres: Adult, Mystery, Thriller

Oliver Marks has just served ten years in jail – for a murder he may or may not have committed. On the day he’s released, he’s greeted by the man who put him in prison. Detective Colborne is retiring, but before he does, he wants to know what really happened a decade ago.

As one of seven young actors studying Shakespeare at an elite arts college, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingenue, extra. But when the casting changes, and the secondary characters usurp the stars, the plays spill dangerously over into life, and one of them is found dead. The rest face their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, and themselves, that they are blameless.

I’m not a fan of Shakespeare at all, I only know several of his plays by name. I haven’t seen any, let alone know any phrases from them. Since this book has really black and white opinions, I was wondering which side I would be on. Somewhere in the middle doesn’t seem possible with this one. My expectations were therefore pretty non existent, I was already happy if I at least understood the story and its purpose.

In this book, we follow a bunch of fourth year students at a prestigious arts academy who only perform Shakespeare plays. This story is narrated by Oliver, who has just served ten years in prison for a crime he did or did not commit. Slowly, we find out what happened all those years ago, because he tells the full story to the chief of police. One night, one of his classmates was found dead and the question is: what happened and who did it? It seems like everyone really became the character they always play. I found this tough to understand, it was hard to find out who is who and what character they are playing. I think this has to do with my lack of Shakespearean knowledge. I wouldn’t be surprised if all the character names are from his plays as well. Anyway, this made it really hard for me to like them, let alone feel connected to them. They feel very weird and distant to me, it looked like they don’t have any life outside of the academy. This is a letdown for a murder mystery.

The writing was okay, albeit a bit complicated at times. This book is divided into five acts, which is pretty suitable for the type of story and the theatre setting. Each act starts with a prologue in present day, before jumping back to 1997-1998 when all the events took place. This was no issue, the language was. I already suspected this, so I therefore choose to read this book in my native language. The Shakespearean language proved still be difficult. His plays where paraphrased a lot and if you’re not familiar with them you’re actually pretty lost the whole time.

Furthermore, the plot itself wasn’t intriguing either. This is probably a combination of everything: having no feeling with any of these characters and struggling with the language used. This bunch of characters was so strange to me that I wasn’t even curious for what happened. I wanted to be done with this book really fast and I just don’t know what to think of it after I finished it. It’s just not for me I guess, it’s very niche and you need to have a lot of Shakespearean knowledge to understand this fully and see the value of this thriller.

I already suspected this to happen, but I didn’t enjoy If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio in the slightest. I just wanted to know what all the buzz was about. It was confusing, boring and definitely not intriguing for me as someone who has the most basic knowledge of Shakespeare and his work. This book was filled with Shakespeare references and paraphrases of his work and if you’re not familiar with it all you’re completely lost. The characters fell flat to me, the plot didn’t thrill me like a thriller should. It was too literary for me. However, this book has proven to already have found its audience and will continue to do so. But it’s not me.