M. L. Rio - Tumblr Posts
So
I read ‘if we were villains’.
Apparently it meant the stars were aligned bc, (as usual) I hyper fixated on it for the next week and found a signed 5th anniversary edition (now on it’s way) and that there’s a series being made on it.
Whatever we did-or, more crucially, did not do- it seemed that so long as we did it together, our individual sins might be abated. -If We Were Villians
Forgive me, for all the things I did but mostly for the ones that I did not. -The Secret History
Theory for ‘If we were villains’
TW: mentions of suicide and just general If we were villains angst
After Richard (who once again was being an asshole) tried to drown James in the lake and everyone else has left, an interaction between James and Oliver occurs. Now I -like many others- am a firm believer that James is still alive and I believe that this is even more proof than we already have:
“You want me to stay” I asked. I didn’t want to leave him.
“Please,” he said, in a small voice. “I just couldn’t deal with the rest of them, for a while”
This book is littered with foreshadowing throughout and I’m certain that this is a perfect example. This scene is a way of proving that James’ suicide note was in fact a clue for Oliver. Let me explain:
In both scenarios James has been drowned, once by Richard and once in a supposed suicide. Already this links the two scenes but it goes further. In the scene above after James has been submerged he lets the others in the group head back to the castle but asks Oliver to stay, and I believe that he is doing the same thing with his suicide note. The letter he sends is not only addressed for Oliver only, but it includes an extract that is important to his and Oliver’s relationship, that letter and the message hidden within it was something that James knew only Oliver would see. By using the extract of Pericles he sends out a message he knows Oliver would see as a clue.
The parallel between the two scenes is undeniable. Both times James has been submerged (literally or not) and has kept himself and his emotions hidden away from his group all whilst quietly begging Oliver -his lover- to stay and help him.
Dark academia
Here are some dark academia books I read this year:
The picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde.
The secret history Donna tart.
The lake of the dead languages by Carol goodman.
If we were villains by M.L. Rio
Jane eyre by Charlotte bontre.
The Academy Alignment by David Davis and Andra St.
Ninth house by leigh bardugo.
Vicious by V.E scwab
The raven boys by Maggie stiefvatef.
The foxhole Court by Nora sakavic.
S.t.a.g by M.A Bennett
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.
~ August's Books Reviewed ~
The month started out strong with me riding a Sanderson high, then I did a thing that I objectively hate and know will 9 times out of 10 have me reading less, which is started several books at once.... as of the end of August I was reading three books at once, yet none of them were finished so none of them get included in August's round up... look forward to that in September I guess!
The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
(763 pages)
The stress I felt reading this was unreal... which is simply evidence of how good it is. It genuinely was pulling actual visceral reactions from me and I physically could not put it down at points. I know this is a shorter review than usual, but I can think of nothing else to say.
I gave this book 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson
(748 pages)
An amazing conclusion to a really really good trilogy. The twists and turns of this were so well executed and completely shocking in exactly the right way. The ending in particular I never could have seen coming. If this were a spoiler review I'd be able to go on more, but for now, I leave with simply the promise that if you love fantasy novels, Sanderson novels, epic twists and/or social/religious/political commentary then you should definitely give this series a try!
I gave this book 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
(585 pages)
I was gifted this book and admit to being a little wary before committing to reading it, as a general rule books that blow up exclusively on social media tend to be a let down to me after the copious amounts of hype they've received. I'm pleased to say that was not the case with this book. If anything, I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed it. It was extremely uniquely written; it was emotional, clever and beautiful. The characters were all so complex and felt genuinely so real. I would say that was the highlight of this book, the characterisation. Every character you could relate to a real person. You sympathised with their decisions, or at least understood them. Like real life, there was no villains and heroes. Bad people and good people and somewhere in the middle people, sure. But also like real life, the last group was the most prevalent, and the first two groups different to each individual's opinions. I would actually really recommend this book to almost everyone I know who reads, I'm pretty sure everyone could find something in it that keeps their focus, be it the mystery, the love story, the characters....
I gave this book 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The twist of a knife by Anthony Horowitz
(373 pages)
I am like 90% sure that this was not the first book in a series, however it stood well as a stand alone book too! Like the other Horowitz book I read earlier this year, I found this novel a little slow to pick up at first, however I did get into it in the end. I found it clever and quirky and I loved the meta elements. Ultimately, it was exactly what it was advertised as - a light, humorous murder mystery - and actually, I'm not mad about taking a break for something silly every so often!
I gave this book 3 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️
If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio
(422 pages)
After the success of The Seven Husbands, I felt brave enough to try another recent social media favourite book. I'd seen mixed reviews over this one, however my flatmate strongly recommended it and as usual, our tastes in books aligned and it was extremely good. Despite the predictability of the plot, I was fully engaged the entire way through which speaks to how well the characters were depicted that I was willing to look past the predictability of it all just to read more about the people. In fact, I would like to make this a formal call for more people to start writing fanfictions for this novel because I want to read even more about these characters and am being denied that currently based off the limited options on ao3 (if anyone has any good recommendations please let me know!) I think, if I had read this in another month it would have received five stars, however it was let down by the fact that it was read within the same weeks as Sanderson and The Seven Husbands which meant I could not in good conscience give it full marks when the plot was just a little too easy to see coming for me. Therefore....
I gave this book 4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️