The characters in If We Were Villains are much more likable, too, for the most part. Despite the fact that these characters have long conversations speaking only in Shakespeare quotes, If We Were Villains is actually a lot less pretentious than The Secret History (I say this with love – I adore The Secret History). If you’ve seen the comparisons to The Secret History, you’ll know to expect plenty of character drama and academic geekery, and a bit of murder, but the comparisons stop there. Oliver Marks is convicted and spends ten years in prison, but it’s only after he’s released that he’s ready to tell the truth about what happened that night. This group of friends has spent years playing the same roles over and over onstage and off, but when their instructors decide to mix up their casting, cracks begin to form in their carefully constructed group dynamic, and in a few short months, one of them ends up dead. If We Were Villains is an intelligent and moving story about friendship, passion, guilt, and the role Shakespeare played in all of the above for a group of seven student actors in their final year at the fictional Dellecher Classical Conservatory. I was really looking forward to reading this (having followed this author on various social media for a while now), and it did not disappoint.
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