“You can justify anything if you do it poetically enough.”

So this was one of the best books I’ve read this year. Probably one of the best books I’ve ever read. Though I’ve seen it on every dark academia book list this autumn, I can say with certainty that it is not just a seasonal trend that will fade away with the next novel to go viral on booktok, and that I sincerely believe that this book will stand the test of time.

If We Were Villains follows the lives of seven Shakespearean actors, and the tragedy that follows them. I particularly enjoyed the fact that a good portion of the book revolved around them producing Julius Caesar, which is my personal favorite of Shakespeare’s plays.

The thing that draws you into this book so much is the characters. I am slightly wary of novels with a large cast, because it is very tricky to write a story with too many important characters. (This was a problem that I had with The Atlas Six, which I unfortunately had to DNF.) I think there were two things that helped the large cast to work so well in this novel.

1. It was told from one character’s point of view. This helped to keep the plot coherent for its readers. (I don’t mind a complex plot, or even a confusing one, but it becomes a problem when you start to feel detached from the characters.) Perspective is an important part of any story, and I think that this author chose the right way to go about it in this novel.

2. Every character was unique and had a distinct voice. Each one of them had their own personal goals, weaknesses, and most importantly, secrets. They were each compelling in their own way, even in the moments where you hate them.

From a less analytical standpoint, the book was just beautiful. Imagine Dead Poets Society but with college kids studying Shakespeare. The prose is poetic but not pretentious, and the story is dark, mysterious, and absolutely heart-wrenching. It brings the reader to ponder the different types of love, and the lengths that one might go to protect the ones they care about. No review I write can do justice to the way that this book will take hold of your heart, just to rip it out by the end.

How to recommend this book in internet-friendly terms, I am not sure. This book cannot be quantified in tropes, or defined in a seven second video. The best I can do is say that this is a book that will stay with its reader, whether it be through haunting or warm reminiscence, it is a book that will not allow itself to be forgotten.

“Do you blame Shakespeare for any of it?”

“I blame him for all of it.”