Description

📖 Summary of If We Were Villains:

If We Were Villains is a literary mystery/thriller set in the world of elite Shakespearean theater students. It follows a group of seven actors at the prestigious Dellecher Classical Conservatory, where they are completely immersed in the works of Shakespeare—so much so that the lines between performance and reality begin to blur.

The protagonist, Oliver Marks, has just served ten years in prison for a crime he may or may not have committed. Upon his release, he is approached by the detective who originally put him away, hoping Oliver will finally tell the truth about what really happened.

🎭 The Story:

• The group of students are tightly bonded by passion, performance, and competition.
• As they take on darker Shakespearean roles (e.g. Macbeth, Julius Caesar), real-life tensions and rivalries escalate.
• Eventually, one of them ends up dead, and the others must decide how far they’re willing to go to protect each other—or themselves.
• The novel alternates between past events and Oliver’s reflections in the present.

🧠 Themes:

• The fine line between art and life
• Performance vs. authenticity
• Obsession, ambition, and betrayal
• Friendship, guilt, and complicity
• The power and danger of literature

🏷️ Categories / Genres:

• Dark Academia
• Literary Fiction
• Mystery / Thriller
• Psychological Fiction
• Contemporary Fiction
• Shakespearean Influence / Intertextual Fiction

🧵 Why It’s Popular on TikTok (#BookTok):

• Beautiful, dramatic prose
• Intense character dynamics (friendship, rivalry, slow-burn tension)
• Tragic, haunting atmosphere
• Literary and emotional depth
• Strong appeal to fans of The Secret History by Donna Tartt