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

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Filippa Kosta, the only actor in the troupe to remain close to Oliver after he goes to prison. She goes to work for the conservatory after graduation. Plays The Chameleon. I’ve seen few female characters written more poorly than Meredith. In the beginning of the story, all of the classmates are asked to share their biggest insecurities. Merediths is that she doesn’t want to just be seen as beautiful, sexy- she doesn’t want her body to cause people to overlook her personality and intelligence. A talented third-year drama student at Dellecher and Alexander’s love interest. Colin is one of the only younger students to be named in the novel and frequently interacts with the fourth-year cohort.

For a clique of aspiring Shakespearean actors at an elite arts academy, the line between performance and reality dissolves, with disastrous results. Filippa - A bit mysterious. She never reveals her home life, keeps mainly to herself but she is fiercely loyal to the others.

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James Farrow, Oliver's best friend and the son of a literature professor and his much younger student. Plays The Hero. And maybe I'm uncultured or whatever but my god all of those Shakespeare quotes annoyed the hell out of me.

When James is cast as Macbeth in the yearly Halloween play, Richard is reduced to the part of a spirit. This enrages the ambitious Richard, who becomes angry & bitter. Parallel to the Macbeth sessions, the companions are rehearsing Julius Caesar, with Richard in the title role. Richard’s demeanour during Caesar practise becomes progressively obnoxious. Richard almost drowns James after the Macbeth performance, despite his assertions of innocence. The others save James and chide Richard, but they all agree to keep the incident hidden from their professors.In conclusion, I am once again appalled that I'm not part of a tight-knit group of morally bankrupt Shakespeare devotees who sport an unhealthy obsession with aesthetics and together try to cover up a murder one of them committed. Where’s MY dark-academia main-character moment? Oliver is for sure the main character, and this book starts out with him getting out of prison ten years after the events of that frightful night. And he is finally telling the story of what actually happened. This book is also broken up in five acts, but we get to see the events of what really happened that night, a decade ago, and we get to see the ramifications of how that altered everyone’s lives in present day.

According to Guinness World Records, William Shakespeare is the world's best-selling playwright, with in excess of four billion copies of his plays and poetry making it to press over the centuries. He is also history's most filmed author; his works have been adapted into 420 feature film and TV-movie versions ( Hamlet alone has been performed on screen 79 times). While his plays are timeless works of art, some people find them challenging due to the Elizabethan prose. Over the years many attempts have been made to adapt the plays into a format that contemporary audiences might find more accessible (some resulting in a more faithful interpretation than others). Meredith – New theatre department director of Dellecher Classical Conservatory. She is a talented director who has a strained relationship with Oliver and the other students. Okay, so this is a drama set at a Shakespeare theater, in which a group of theater actors accidentally kill a man and deal with the fallout. Yay! Fun happy stuff. As the plays continue, their roles within this drama shift and switch, ironically mirroring their respective development, and they accidentally get way too involved in several plays as they are occuring.

Overall, I thought this was fantastic, and I highly recommend it. Murder mystery mixed in with the drama of the theatre and the passion of Shakespeare. What's not to love?

OLIVER MARKS watches JAMES FARROW, adoring every piece of his being, and showing such a feeling is the least that should be done. Language: English Words: 1,442 Chapters: 1/1 Kudos: 36 Hits: 483 seven friends, bound by the same passion. for years they’ve played the same type of roles. but as the casting changes, so did their lives. The real sky was enormous overhead, making our mirrors and twinkling stage lights seem ridiculous- Man’s futile attempt to imitate God” A decade ago: Oliver is one of seven young Shakespearean actors at Dellecher Classical Conservatory, a place of keen ambition and fierce competition. In this secluded world of firelight and leather-bound books, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingénue, extras. Recommended for readers with refined literary tastes, and those looking for "something like" Donna Tartt.this is going to be one of my favorite books of the year... almost definitely. I’m saying that now on January 26th because I want you all to know. I genuinely cannot remember the last time I found myself so utterly engaged in a book. Oliver’s amicable youngest sister. Leah and Oliver get along well. Leah stays in touch with Oliver throughout his incarceration.