I’ll say this much for If We Were Villains: I finished it.
Might sound simple but in this moment, that’s not easy to do. I’m not finishing much these days. If it doesn’t grab me off the bat, I’m probably going to sulk with it for a while. And it took me three full tries to get into this one. But it kept me going to the end (an end I hated but hey! I finished it!).
I will give credit where credit is due: M.L. Rio wrote this when she was under-30 and that’s really impressive. It’s tough to write a novel at any age, much less one this competent. She does a good job with pacing, with atmosphere, with suspense. I hope she puts out more stuff.
And stuff that’s better than this. Because I wanted to punch these characters in the face*, especially the lead.
I’m not a Theater Kid. I did do a play in college but there weren’t a lot of Theater Kid-types at our school and the ones that kinda fit that mold were mostly chill. These are the worst kinds of Theater Kids. The ones who sprout Shakespeare when ordering drinks, Shakespeare when in the hallways, Shakespeare when making love, Shakespeare before/during/after committing homicide and covering it up. I think M.L. Rio is/was a Theater Kid? This book was written for folks like her and I respect that. But as an outsider to this world, it made all the characters feel insufferable. And while immersed in the mystery, I couldn’t wait to be away from them.
And the ending…(spoiler)! (Spoiler)! (SpoilerSpoiler!). Yes it was that bad!
Anyway, this book has an audience and it wasn’t me and I enjoyed it for what it was and I hope M.L. Rio writes better stuff in the future. I think she will.
*The male characters literally punch, the women metaphorically.