REVIEW: "If We Were Villains" by M. L. Rio

"If We Were Villains" by M. L. Rio

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

(5 Stars)

SYNOPSIS:

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.

REVIEW:

This had the theatre nerd in me screaming at the top of her lungs. So much so that I read it pretty much in one sitting (I had to put it down when working, but quickly picked it up between scenes as soon as I got off stage.) 

The manuscript kind of layout is a genious move for the story it's telling, so beautifully done that I felt like I was watching the scenes as I read them. It's filled to the brim with Shakespeare quotes and as an actress myself it just made me incredibly happy to read about these characters, maybe because I know and love the type of enviroment like the back of my hand (Although my training was a lot less dramatic, thankfully.) 

It also made me realise that I should brush up on my Shakespeare knowledge, as I couldn't always place which play the lines were from. As a theatre lover, I didn't mind not always understanding the complexity of said lines, but I could see that someone who's not a big fan of classics or theatre might find the use of 400-year-old plays anything but entertaining. Having said that, it truly is magnificent and beautifully written and I would encourage most people to read it!