If We Were Villains (Rio)

If We Were Villains 
M.L. Rio, 2017
Flatiron
368 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781250095282


Summary
Oliver Marks has just served ten years in jail — for a murder he may or may not have committed.

On the day he's released, he's greeted by the man who put him in prison. Detective Colborne is retiring, but before he does, he wants to know what really happened a decade ago.

As one of seven young actors studying Shakespeare at an elite arts college, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingenue, extra.

But when the casting changes, and the secondary characters usurp the stars, the plays spill dangerously over into life, and one of them is found dead. The rest face their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, and themselves, that they are blameless.

Intelligent, thrilling, and richly detailed, If We Were Villains is a captivating story of the enduring power and passion of words. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Miami, Florida, USA
• Raised—State of North Carolina
• Education—B.A., University of North Carolina; M.A., Kings College, London
• Currently—no set address


M.L. Rio is an American author of the 2017 If We Were Villains, a suspense-mystery story surrounding a group of college Shakespearean actors obsessed with The Bard.

Rio was born in Miami, Florida, and raised in North Carolina; she's spent time in Middle Earth, Neverland, Wonderland, and Hogwarts, so she tends to move around. In fact, she considers herself a bit of a nomad even today: having finished her Masters at King's College in London, she's in the U.S.enjoying the freedom of settling, well …nowhere.

Along with her childhood love of reading, Rio has been writing as early as six or seven, when she penned her first story about a girl with a pet dragon. By 14 she'd written a novel, the first of several, as she says on her website, which fall under the category of desk drawer novels.

Just as she took to writing, she also took to acting. At 14 (around the time she finished that first "novel"), Rio discovered the joys of Shakespeare, a passion that grew into full-blown Bardolatry. Since then she has played Shakespearean roles as varied as the hunchbacked Richard III and Titania, the fairy queen in Midsummer Night's Dream. Rio's love for the Bard continued unabated and spurred her on to her Master's in Shakespeare Studies.

As of this writing (2017) Rio is planning to go on for her Ph.D. (Adapted from online sources and from the author's website.)

Book Reviews
The premise of Rio’s debut novel is intriguing.… Though the plot twists may not surprise some readers, this is a solid mystery that keeps the pages turning.
Publishers Weekly


(Starred review.) Echoing such college-set novels as Donna Tartt’s The Secret History and mixing in enough Shakespearean theater to qualify readers for the stage, Rio’s debut mystery is an engrossing ride.… Rio crafts an intricate story about friendship, love, and betrayal. Recommended for readers who enjoy literary fiction by authors such as Tartt or Emily St. John Mandel.
Library Journal


A tale worthy of the Bard himself…ending in one final, astonishing twist. Recommended for readers with refined literary tastes, and those looking for "something like" Donna Tartt.
Booklist


(Starred review.) [B]loody, melodramatic, suspenseful…managing to cleverly weave a whole new story from…plots of Macbeth, Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, and King Lear.… This novel about obsession …will thoroughly obsess you.
Kirkus Reviews

Discussion Questions
1. In the very first scene, Oliver says, "We did wicked things, but they were necessary, too—or so it seemed. Looking back, years later, I’m not so sure they were…and now I wonder: Could I explain it all to Colborne?" (page 5). Having finished the story, which of the "wicked" things do you think were necessary or inevitable? Which were not? What, in the last ten years, might have caused Oliver to change his mind?

2. Throughout the story the fourth-years perform four of Shakespeare’s plays and quote the other plays and poems in their everyday conversation. Shakespeare’s works— and especially the tragedies —are saturated with love, loss, jealousy, betrayal, and violence. How do these themes manifest themselves offstage? To what degree is life imitating art? Do you, like Oliver, "blame Shakespeare" for what happens in the story, or is he simply using Shakespeare as a scapegoat?

3. How does Dellecher’s educational model affect the fourth-years’ behavior? Oliver and Colborne both hypothesize that the highly competitive nature of the school contributes to the students’ proclivity for passionate action and sometimes violence. Is this true? To what extent? Oliver remarks that "Actors are by nature volatile — alchemic creatures composed of incendiary elements, emotion and ego and envy. Heat them up, stir them together, and sometimes you get gold. Sometimes disaster" (page 53). Is this innate or learned behavior?

4. How does the usual "typecasting" of the seven fourth-years affect the course of the story? How do the changes in that typecasting affect their interpersonal relationships? To what extent does Gwendolyn’s "psychological puppeteering" (page 49) influence the students’ actions? Does she merely exacerbate existing tensions or does she create conflict where none existed before? Why do you think she does this?

5. Oliver repeatedly identifies himself as a bystander, secondary character, or interloper. How does his role as observer affect his role as storyteller? On page 102 he says, "I was quiet. Motionless. In my own estimation, pointless. A fuse with no fire and nothing to ignite." Is he really just a pawn between James and Richard, or is he more integral to the conflict from the outset?

6. A line from Pericles— "Murder’s as near to lust as flame to smoke" —is quoted twice in the story, and in Act IV Oliver observes that in his subconscious mind, violence and intimacy have become "somehow interchangeable" (page 305). How are love, sex, and violence connected in the story? Does one necessitate or provoke the other? Why might that be true of this particular group of people?

7. Are the fourth-years justified in their decision not to save Richard’s life? Are some more justified than others? What might have happened if they had? In their position, what would you do?

8. Oliver tells Colborne, "People always forget about Filippa. And later they always wish they hadn’t" (page 88). Why do you think this is? Why is she so easily overlooked, and what makes her so indispensable?

9. Oliver claims to love both James and Meredith, at different points throughout the story. Do you think he loves them in the same or different ways? Does he love one more than the other? Is it possible for him to love them equally, or simultaneously?

10. When Oliver ventures into Richard’s room the morning after the King Lear cast party, he struggles with feelings of guilt and old affection but also insists that he "would be a fool to regret for one minute that he was gone" (page 320). Is this true, and if it is, why is he feeling so remorseful now and not earlier in the story?

11. After hearing James’s confession, do you think he was justified in killing Richard? Would you categorize it as self-defense? Do you think he tells Oliver the whole truth or is there more to the story?

12. The ending of the story is deliberately ambiguous. What do you think might happen next?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)

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