SUMMARY
If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio is a fictional
murder mystery that follows a group of seven
acting students at the prestigious Dellecher
Conservatory. These students not only
exclusively study Shakespeare at the
conservatory, but they also share a deep,
cult-like love for his work, even going so far as to regularly quote him in normal conversation.
The novel begins backwards: Oliver Marks, the protagonist, has been released from prison after serving a ten-year sentence. The first person to talk to him is Detective Colborne, the man who arrested him. Detective Colborne is retiring, which means he is now allowed to speak freely of
his past cases, and even inquire about them with those involved past the limits of law enforcement. The first few pages of the book follow Oliver as he returns to Dellecher with the detective and recounts what happened the decade before.
Let’s return to 1997: Our seven actors–Oliver
Marks, Richard Stirling, James Farrow, Meredith
Dardenne, Alexander Vass, Wren Stirling (Richard’s
cousin), and Flippa Kosta–are lounging around,
preparing for the Julius Caesar auditions coming up.
Alexander makes a joke, betting money on a list he
created, detailing who will get cast as who. This is
where Rio presents the central narrative. These
characters are archetypes of their own, and they are
aware of the “characters” they play. Rio begins the
book by describing exactly who these people are for
the purpose of flipping the narrative on its head.
Richard: The Tyrant. A strong, abrasive character whose abusive dark side is the elephant in every room. Cast as Julius Caesar–this is important.
James: The Hero. Rich kid with rich parents who don’t care about him. Kind-hearted, heroic, and overall the definition of a “good guy”.
Meredith: The Temptress. Very sexualized, has a strong character and isn’t afraid to fight back–especially with Richard.
Alexander: The Villain. Often cast as the loner, dark & brooding characters (think Sirius Black or Severus Snape) but not always the outright villain character. Cast as
Wren: The Ingenue.
Flippa and Oliver: The outcasts and scraps–they get whatever the others leave behind.
When the cast list is revealed, Alexander turns out to be completely right. Here, the narrative plays its role like a character in a play–all the way until Halloween.
Every year at Dellecher, each department hosts an event of sorts. For the theater department, it’s Macbeth on Halloween. Each actor is delivered an envelope containing the scenes they must memorize and the character they will be playing. The catch? You cannot tell anyone who you will be playing and you will not find out until you get up on “stage” and deliver your lines. The “stage” is a small lake behind the woods, just around the school. Oliver, who has been cast as Banquo, is somewhat taken aback by the fact that James was cast as Macbeth, and not Richard. This is the first straw to hit the camel’s back.
As the plot thickens, it is revealed to the reader that the
one of the seven who dies is Richard. After a long,
complicated scene at a party involving an inebriated
Richard, an even more inebriated James, a very high
Alexander, and Oliver & Meredith alone, Richard is
found dead–floating in the river right behind the seven
students’ living quarters. The remainder of the book is
spent in an attempt to untie the web of who killed Richard
and why–and more importantly, why Oliver went to jail
for it.
Spoilers in this next part, so beware, I suppose.
WHY DOES IT MATTER?
Rio begins to deconstruct not only the pre-existing
dynamics that she personally created for this world, but
also the world of Shakespeare. In the actual Tragedy of Macbeth, the titular character dies at the hands of Macduff. By the end of If We Were Villains, it is revealed that James is the one who
delivered the final blow to Richard–the new Macbeth kills the old one; the hero becomes the tyrant whose life he took. James wasn’t doing well, and the last thing Oliver wanted to see was his friend’s life ruined by a drunken mistake he made. So, Oliver took the fall. He pretended to be the one who killed Richard.
There are several points throughout the book in which the characters jokingly refer to themselves as a Shakespearan cult, both in the way that their lives follow the outline of a Shakespearan work and in the way that they almost worship his work. As aforementioned, the students regularly quote plays like King Lear, Macbeth, and Twelfth Night in everyday conversation. At times, they will make fun of the Classics students who whisper to each other in Greek and Latin, unknowing that that is exactly what they sound like to the outside eye. In the interest of worldbuilding, Rio uses the Shakespearean formula for tragedy and comedy to build the baseline of her story, rather than any contemporary strategy, and, on top of that, makes it the central selling point of the story rather than an added asset. As writers and creators of worlds without magic, what can we gain from this? Shakespearean tragedy, as a style of writing, can seem very unrealistic without meaning to. It’s far too melodramatic at times, and can feel too much like a play. In its own way, Shakespearean tragedy is a form of magic in and of itself. It can give us, as readers, an outside look into how ridiculous these incredibly emotional moments can look to outsiders, and, as writers, it can teach us how to create realistic “magic” in these stories. 16th century tragedy can seem overly dramatic or soap-opera-like in modern day stories, but If We Were Villains proves that it can be done right.
When reading a book, one opens it with the expectation that they must suspend at least some of their disbelief. When engaging in a 16th century tragedy, you may have to suspend all of it. The question is, can that be too much to ask of a reader? I personally think not.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Why did Rio use Macbeth specifically, and not some other play? In addition, why should the production in progress be Julius Ceasar and not, say, Romeo and Juliet? 2. What is the meaning or significance of our protagonist not fitting into any particular archetype the way his peers do?
3. If you were the writer of If We Were Villains and you had to kill off one of the seven, who would you take out and why? Do you agree with Rio’s choice of who dies and who takes their life?
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