On the day Oliver Marks is released from jail, the man who put him there is waiting at the door. Detective Colborne wants to know the truth, and after ten years, Oliver is finally ready to tell it.
Ten years 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, extra. But in their fourth and final year, the balance of power begins to shift, good-natured rivalries turn ugly, and on opening night real violence invades the students’ world of make believe. In the morning, the fourth-years find themselves facing their very own tragedy, and their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, each other, and themselves that they are innocent.
Part coming-of-age story, part confession, If We Were Villains explores the magical and dangerous boundary between art and life. In this tale of loyalty and betrayal, madness and ecstasy, the players must choose what roles to play before the curtain falls.
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Everyone has compared this book to Donna Tartt’s ‘The Secret History’ with its tight knit cast of students taking their academic pursuits to dark places. However, M.L. Rio has succeeded in delivering something a little sharper, more believable but just as debauched. This may be because the students outlined in this story are actors, Shakespearean actors no less. We begin with Oliver Marks release from a ten-year jail sentence, as he reveals all to the detective that put him behind bars. Thrust into the world of the Baird, we all know the far reaches that actors will go to for a part, how their egos are as big as oceans and their morals contained in a drop. Day takes the reader back to the night in question and “the truth will out”.
M.L. Rio
(Author)
