The twist is, they do not know which of their classmates is playing the other characters and must keep their own role a secret. Along with daily classes, monologues to memorize and stage-shows to audition for, all the seniors are instructed to perform in selected scenes from several of Shakespeare’s plays during the holidays. He is never quite good enough to land a lead role in the many Shakespeare plays his school exclusively performs, but never bad enough to be kicked out either.Īt the beginning of his senior year as an acting student at the Conservatory, Oliver quickly discovers that with the final year of school comes competition and ambition like never before. This leaves Oliver somewhere in the middle. Oliver slowly leads Detective Colborne (and the reader) through the shadowy maze of relationships and events that had transpired between him and his six friends - Richard, Meredith, Filippa, Alexander, Wren and his best friend and roommate, James.Įach of Oliver’s classmates easily embodies the stereotypes so often found on stage: tyrant, temptress, jack-of-all-trades, villain, ingénue and hero. Detective Colborne, defeated after years of pursuing a murderer he cannot seem to find, comes to Oliver one last time, begging him to recount the events that took place a decade before, events that took the life of a fellow student and changed the course of Oliver’s life forever. “If We Were Villains” is told from the perspective of Oliver, a quiet, introspective former drama student who has just been released from a 10-year prison sentence after the harrowing events during his final year at the Conservatory. The story follows the lives of seven students trying to give due justice to the timeless works of Shakespeare and earn their place in the spotlight of his best works. Rio’s novel “If We Were Villains” is a thrilling story of love, drama and murder, all of which take place within the mysterious halls of Dellecher Classical Conservatory.

Shakespeare once wrote, “A man can die but once.” But is this always true? M.L.

We were villains book