Book review by Corey
If We Were Villains
If We Were Villains follows a group of Shakespeare students at an elite conservatory where their friendships, rivalries, and relationships start getting way too tangled. After one of them dies, Oliver ends up at the centre of what happened, and the story slowly works backward through the months leading up to it.
I got way more attached to these characters than I planned to, even though most of them are messy in one way or another. The Shakespeare-heavy dialogue and theatre setting give the book a really distinct feel, and I liked how the smaller tensions gradually started connecting into something much darker. It’s definitely dramatic and a little over-the-top at times, but that honestly fits the whole dark-academia vibe.
The Goods
- Great dark-academia atmosphere
- Strong character dynamics
- The theatre setting feels really specific
- Good slow-building tension
- The friendships and rivalries carry the story
The Bads
- Can feel overly dramatic
- The Shakespeare references may be a lot for some readers
- The pacing is slow in places
- Some characters are hard to like
- A few developments feel predictable
My Recommendation
This is a strong choice if you like dark academia, complicated friendships, literary mysteries, and stories where everyone is keeping something from everyone else. I liked how the book made the group feel close enough that the betrayals actually mattered, and the theatre setting gave the whole thing a different energy from a standard campus thriller. If you enjoy morally messy characters, Shakespeare, obsession, and a mystery that builds more through tension than nonstop twists, If We Were Villains is definitely worth reading.
