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.

Me: You know WHAT? These heartbreaking stories can go f*ck themselves. I’m done. I am SO done with picking up pieces of my shattered soul only to have it broken again every second-week asjhkjhuip
Also me, a day later: let us see this book with hundreds of reviews of people falling apart after the end :D


How? How can I ever be okay again after reading a book like this? How can I walk in this world knowing that there are souls on this planet who never have nor never will hear this story? I am such a pathetic mess after reading this I can’t even stand myself right now. This book. This. Book. This book is like a soft breeze against the skin, it’s like a slap on your face like a dream that feels too good to be real. You don’t see it coming, you can’t, because you weren’t supposed to, and no matter how hard you try, it slowly crawls under your skin from where it can make the most, the sweetest, damage. My words are not enough for this book, but I’ll try because it deserves to be loved.

If We Were Villains is a dark academia suspense novel, but describing it as such does it no justice. It is written in the form of a play, separated in five acts which consist of retrospective scenes and a prologue in the present time each. This kind of framed composition that slowly closes around the main event is one of my favorites, for the exact reason of building the seeping tension and passion in the reader. I didn’t read this book, I lived it, and some part of me really died when I finished it. There is no coming back from this dark, beautiful experience I found there. Through the course of it, I just wanted the answer to questions like what, who and why, but I reading it until the end I realized this book wasn’t about the murder or the dead. No, it was about the living and their lives, about these six wonderful people finding each other and being fucked up together. Reading this book will make you laugh and cry and scream, but trust me, it is all worth it.


So, what is it all about?
Seven friends were the fourth year of Dellecher arts college. Oliver, James, Meredith, Richard, Filippa, Wren and Alexander. Their lives there revolved around Shakespeare, the lines, costumes, and passion. When they act, they need to become one with the character, but sometimes, after the curtain falls, a part of the character becomes one with them. They have become a family, they know each other better than anyone else, but things start to fall apart really quickly when Richard starts being abusive and hurting everyone who cares about him. Families fall apart all the time, but no one knew such a thing would end with a dead body.

Oliver Marks has been in prison for ten years, and now that he’s finally out, all of his friends are gone.

The crucifying tension and intrigue of this book leave the readers with one question from the very beginning: What the hell happened ten years ago?


I loved reading this book so much, author’s storytelling and Shakespearean an atmosphere of this unique setting enveloped in a cocoon of emotion. I was overwhelmed with the intensity of the character’s interactions, their passion, and love for what they do, but also their mistakes and life after the moment that changed everything. The beautiful homoerotic tension that I just knew was there the entire time but couldn’t point at until the very end broke my heart and made it whole again and again.

*spoiler* Now I need my oblivious Oliver to go and find the love of his life HE IS ALIVE I WON’T HAVE IT OTHERWISE