If We Were Villains: The Sensational TikTok Book Club pick: M.L. Rio

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Oliver describes this to Colborne as what caused the players to lose touch with reality and struggle to sort out their own emotions from those of their characters. A student in a highly selective MFA fiction writing program, Samantha couldn’t feel more of an outsider. As a scholarship winner, she is a stark contrast to the rich and unbearable clique of girls who make up the rest of her course. Meredith’s older brother and the only family member she sees when she visits New York for holidays. Approaching his 30s, Caleb likes to party. Full of corruption and betrayal, this morally grey story will satisfy your cravings for books similar to If We Were Villains. here’s some advice if you are intimidated by this book like i was: (i literally put this book off for years.)✨

Filippa is the only one of the three girls of the group whom I actually love; she’s always seen as the extra – she is too volatile to fit into a category so that gives her the ability to play many roles, on- and offstage; Beware of the ones who seldom speak because they are the ones who held many secrets and truths;However, when she is invited to one of the Bunnies’ ‘Smut Salon’ something against her better judgement convinces her to go – leaving behind her only friend, Ava, at the same time. In the end, it doesn’t matter you enjoy the drama, because everything turns into a careful tragic masterpiece with no chance of changing its ending. The moral outrage we should have suffered was quietly put down, surpassed like an unpleasant rumor before it had a chance to be heard. Whatever we did—or, more crucially, did not do— it seemed that so no so long as we did it together, our individual sins might be abated. There is no comfort like complicity."

It’s a shame, as when the narration steps outside of the early modern period it proves compelling. The novel is exacting in its description of the minutiae of college life – people conspicuous by their absence, and the gradual closing-in of the police investigation. What Rio doesn’t quite capture, however, is the sense of growing guilt, of the slow descent into madness which made Tartt’s book what it was. None of the group regrets the death of their former friend, nor can the audience blame them – rather than subtly psychological, the violence is visceral (broken noses, bruised arms, smashed-in faces), and tied up in a none-too-subtle Julius Caesar metaphor. This means the second half cruises along without much direction, the group feeling vague paranoia without the moral ambiguity needed to give it any substance. The next morning, Oliver and Meredith are awoken by Filippa. She leads the group to the lake, where they find Richard with his skull broken. He is alive, but barely. James tries to help him, but is stopped by Alexander, who suggests they should let him die and thus end his reign of terror. The group agrees to wait for Richard to die, then call the police and pretend he was already dead when they came upon him. i honestly just want to reread the book just so i can find all the easter eggs hidden behind the passages that i didn’t get the first time reading it. i just know that they’re more to be found. Oliver’s younger sister. Caroline and Oliver do not get along. Caroline is sent to an expensive recovery center for treatment for anorexia.it's a good read; if you're a The Secret History readalike addict like me, it's not going to blow your mind, but it's entertaining, and i did really like the little turn at the end. it opens up a lot of questions about what will happen next, but it was a nice little surprise in a story i thought had already ended. A young, Chilean fight choreographer, personal trainer, and movement coach for acting students at Dellecher. Camilo also acts with the fourth years in their final production. After Oliver is released from prison, it is revealed that Camilo and Filippa are in a romantic relationship. I knew by then the way the story went. Our little drama was rapidly hurtling toward its climatic crisis. What next, when we reached the precipice? Actors are by nature volatile— alchemic creatures composed of incendiary elements, emotion and ego and envy. Heat them, up stir them together, and sometimes you get gold. Sometimes disaster." A cellist who flirts with Meredith and is physically beaten by Richard. Allan remains unnamed until the police arrive to investigate Richard’s death, suggesting his relative unimportance to the main characters.

If you like one-on-one battles involving magic and the supernatural as well as murderous revenge plots, Vicious is the perfect book like If We Were Villains for you!A large problem with If We Were Villains, in fact, is that it rests in The Secret History’s long shadow. This could perhaps be excused if the reader’s expectations weren’t set up that way going in: but it’s all there from the start, from the testimonial on the front which begins ‘Like Donna Tartt’s A Secret History…’ to the cover which pays a striking homage to the 1992 classic. i want to be the cool girl who walks around with a worn, annotated copy of this book. i’m taking a pen to the text and doing some research next time i read this. ✍🏻