Even though Oliver and James only have a platonic relationship, it's also clear pretty early on that they love each other and are jealous of each other etc. The one aspect I don't usually enjoy is the love triangle/emotional cheating. I loved the writing, I enjoyed the unexpected splashes of humor in the dialogue, I actually believed these characters could be actual real people (again, unlike in it's predecessor). The characters are flawed and pretentious (can you be anything other than pretentious if you live and breathe Shakespeare?) but the writing wasn't, which made a huge difference in comparison to the aforementioned disappointment. I haven't sobbed like that at an ending to a book since Flowers for Algernon - both of them had me invested but not emotionally up until the very end, and then the floodgates opened. If We Were Villains is a book that pretty much realizes what I expected of The Secret History. This book is pushed as perfect for fans of The Secret History, which is a book I had very high hopes for, none of which were fulfilled. I went into this with plenty of apprehension. The rest face their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, and themselves, that they are blameless. When tragedy strikes, one of the seven friends is found dead. But when the teachers change up the casting, a good-natured rivalry turns ugly, and the plays spill dangerously over into life. Detective Colborne is retiring, but before he does, he wants to know what really happened ten years ago.Īs a young actor studying Shakespeare at an elite arts conservatory, Oliver noticed that his talented classmates seem to play the same roles onstage and off – villain, hero, tyrant, temptress – though Oliver felt doomed to always be a secondary character in someone else's story. On the day he's released, he's greeted by the detective who put him in prison. Oliver Marks has just served ten years for the murder of one of his closest friends – a murder he may or may not have committed. A vivid and immersive story of obsession perfect for fans of dark academia and Donna Tartt's The Secret History

We were villains book