Dont say it like that, James, you dont know what she was thinking. I said, maybe sounding more defensive of Meredith than James would have liked me to. Richard injures Oliver and James, as they practice the assassination scene from "Julius Caesar". I never have. I believe Oliver will know where to look, and I believe they will find each other. I am once again returning to the land of dark academia for a (spoiler) review of If We Were Villains by M.L. "Are we Richard tonight or are we Dick?" "Ignore him, Oliver," James said. Since I couldnt count on the others to help me, I went by myself. Oliver's friendship with James for instance was beautifully and subtly written and was one of my favourite parts of the novel. To leave behind hope? 0 Discussions. I really wish there was a sequelbut then again the book ended perfectly, Just finished this and had to jump right to Reddit. Del Norte has meaning. Wouldnt it be cruel of James to leave such a note behind? Language: English Words: 1,229 Chapters: 1/1 Comments: 2 Kudos: 37 Bookmarks: 5 . Because I love you. In this secluded world of firelight and leather-bound books, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingnue, extras. Because you went to jail to keep me out of it, and I still got hurt.. The fourth years are assigned King Lear as their spring production. Let Del Norte be the only place on earth, and the two of us, the only people in it. We knew how to enunciate, how to use our emotions to the benefit of every single sentence that fell out of our lips. I do love you. It means silent acknowledgement: no cards or cakes with candles, no scrutinised gift openings in the middle of a crowded room. By Fromtheattic. When the teachers mix up the roles it puts a strain on the friendship of Olivers group, and things begin to go downhill fast. I would have never let them take you. You were someone else, as if you had never come down from playing your character.. Richard is dead because he was a bully. She admits that she was the one who told Colborne to arrest James at the performance, as he confessed to her one day after an intense rehearsal. I think what I couldnt do was pretend anymore. Ugh thank you for this, I didnt see that connection til now, I have to say I liked this ending better than The Secret Histories ending. Oliver writes a letter to James after James' death. James is 100% dead. Do you wish I had done it? He asked me, flatly. Rio. "It was good that I had taken the time to breathe before setting the scene into motion, because once the door opened, complaining slightly at its hinges, my lungs stopped. Wow, present tense, Oliver? It was night, much past any reasonable bedtime and, if the house was occupied, I wanted to make sure that whoever was inside would hear me, even if they were sleeping. So, of course, I would jump at the slightest chance that he might be alive, waiting for me in a place that would be only ours to find. The next morning, Oliver and Meredith are awoken by Filippa. I saw this place, and it got me thinking of you. Or: Oliver ends up having a nice little chat with Alexander and Colin after the Romeo and Juliet performance in regard to his strange feelings about James. About the Book: Title: If We Were Villains . Had always been, as far back as I could remember. He nodded and rested his head back on my chest. So, I think his note to Oliver is to say that he's "killed" James and has adapted a new self - one that is free of the torment that James suffered from. Im only sorry for how it hurt you, for the pain I caused you. He had always been the most serious student . Maybe he had never left shore at all. editing this to add that this is what I clearly and personally WANT to be true, but I'm also not sure it makes complete sense knowing how the guilt would have genuinely eaten up at James etcso either 1) he is alive and kept living to wait for Oliver and Oliver alone, or 2) he's dead, idk why he left that hint, it makes sense that he's dead, my heart is broken obviously, but I still dk why he'd leave that passage. Oliver claims to love both James and Meredith, at different points throughout the story. I think he faked his death for Meredith (and maybe Wren) for their closure. James searched for him by the lake, only to realize Richard had been following him the whole time. The moment I had a choice, I chose you. The chair we were on started to feel small, and, suddenly, I felt James hands grabbing me from the back of my thighs as he stood up, and carried me into the living room, lying me on the couch, and placing himself on top of me. Then there was Alexander, who spent the better part of the first few years avoiding everything and everyone, Wren who just flew back to London and never looked back, not that I blame her. Only difference would be I would have been arrested for a crime I did commit. Alexander, Filippa, Wren, Meredith; to them, he had been dead for years. He proceeds to call Meredith a slut and gets in a physical argument with her as well. James then grabbed the nearest item the boat hook and hit him with it. I-, I stopped, guilt climbing up my spine. Oliver, James, Wren, Filippa, Richard, Meredith, and Alexander are fully fleshed out and vivid characters, both on and offstage. James poured us two mugs and gestured for me to sit at the small kitchen table. To me, this is one of the most heartbreaking scenes in the book, as we really see how tortured James is by what he's done. He is alive, but barely. Hi, I said, that being the only coherent thought I could seem to form. Youre insane. James let out, barely even a whisper, as if all the air had been knocked out of him. I see. He looked down at our tangled hands, and I could see it in his eyes trying to make sense of my feelings. Oliver and James have entire conversations using lines memorized from the countless plays they have . It fucking hurts, Oliver!, No, you dont! He threw his hands up, exasperated. It doesnt matter. i hate this feeling of not knowing and i thin thats exactly what the author was going for. Oliver admits that he was in love with James while they were together, but says that he also loved her. The students are briefly questioned by the police, led by Detective Colborne, and Richard's death is ruled a drunken accident. (Getty) Kevin Feige and the hierarchy of the MCU are pulling no punches when it comes to the cast for the Thunderbolts team, starring a who's-who of Marvel fan favourites. I wanted to sob. If We Were Villains is . We gave ourselves to each other as the waves crashed outside. You werent yourself! Even if she eventually went through with it, and confessed it all the same, even if everything ended just as it did; I had hoped she would at least hesitate before giving us all up. James and Oliver. I moved. What was your answer? He was so tense, I almost felt my own shoulders hurt in solidarity to his. Trying to balance my newfound comfort within Merediths presence and the feeling of chocking that grasped my lungs every time I attempted to breath. Inside, James had clearly made some work to make the place habitable. We stayed on the couch for a while longer, doing just that, until we agreed (James was mumbling, inside my mouth, something that sounded like bed) that it had gotten too small for where our intentions were leading us. Not when I found out, not when I stepped up to take the fall for you. Before Colborne can make an arrest, Oliver confesses to Richard's murder, using a slightly tweaked version of James' story. James is alive, and Oliver should think of their trip to Del Norte to find him. I told you this, a long time ago. James Farrow was dead. If We Were Villains is the debut novel of American author M. L. Rio, first published in 2017 by Flatiron Books. oliver finds james and they get their happy gay ending<3. As underperforming students are purged every year, the seven of them are the only fourth-year acting students remaining. You know it was about more than that. But really, it doesn't take long because I don't have that sort of patience. As long as I had him, the world could very well burst into flames and disappear, and I wouldnt give a damn. If We Were Villains <br> by M.L. Perhaps they were just the same, after all this time. I dont care how it sounds, not anymore., No, listen to me, James. He bent down and kissed my face where it had landed, resting his lips there for a moment. I picked this up after seeing lots of glowing reviews for it on social media, and Im really glad that I did! And she didnt speak to me for a decade because of that, not until I got out and knocked at her door.. Online, everywhere. As a friend, and something else I cant quite name, I repeated. The glass floor of the stage was no more than an illusion, and while it was beautiful to look at, it was just that: a stage. When you spend most of your life in theater, lost in the words of a man who felt and wrote so deeply at every turn of a page, and you go through the sort of experiences that I had gone through, you come out the other side expecting a moment like this to be held with fireworks playing in the background, lullabied by a classic orchestra, and the perfect game of lights to shine on every feature, every blink of the eye. It has always been about that, even when we didnt know it was.. The scene James quoted in his letter to Oliver it has meaning. It was absurd, really, that it had taken us so long to realize that. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Rating: 2.5/5. Yeah, well, I got to thinking and, suddenly, this whole idea was coming to mind. Oliver's close friendship with James and his complicated romance with Meredith are key throughout the novel. The two tentatively resume their relationship. Wrote your note knowing you would understand it, while no one else would. The whole truth is, I'm in love with him still. And just as my nose had always remained slightly crooked to the side, the loss of James hadnt healed yet. They became used to playing particular roles, on stage and in daily life, from the hero to his best friend, the tyrant, the temptress, and the ruler. While we've done our best to make the core functionality of this site accessible without javascript, it will work better with it enabled. Rio draws on her training as an actor to create the world of an elite drama school ripped apart by a disaster of Shakespearean proportions. The only light came from inside the house, probably the living room, and the positions in which we stood cast shadows all over James face, so much so that I couldnt distinguish the marks of time which were sure to be there, somewhere. I breathed in three times, before moving closer toward the door. So that was it, for a while. They help him realize that, maybe, his feelings aren't 100% platonic. 9781785656477. But your something is different from Merediths. Rio (118) The Secret History - Donna Tartt (2) Original Work (1) Twelfth Night - Shakespeare (1) Maybe some things would have been different in the overall plot, but I dont think it would have changed the ending. No, no. We were drawn to each other like magnets, not even aware of how our bodies seemed to instinctively want to close the distance between them. M. L. Rio: If we were villains. And of course there was Colin, standing there, slouching slightly, a look of absolute terror, pure and raw as daylight, adorning his features. But it was all I could do, and Im sorry, James, but I would do it all again.. I knew he was right and, not having an answer to that, I let him go on. Upon researching James' death online, Oliver learns that James' body was never found. I believe James is alive. Quoted as being the most academic of them all: he knew what he was doing. All that was left was an odd feeling of peace, one I was afraid would disappear as soon as James woke up, when the quiet of sleep would be interrupted with our having to face the reality of our situation. The novel concerns a murder mystery surrounding Oliver Marks, a former actor at the fictional Dellecher Shakespeare conservatory and primarily takes place during his fourth and final year at the conservatory. After Oliver visits Meredith over winter break, they grow closer and begin dating and sleeping together more often. tip: buffy gen teen AND "no archive warnings apply". Why did you do it? I blurted out. 6 Ben Affleck's The Batman. He was hurting everyone; he was hurting you. Water left no room for regret. Oliver's narrative voice is self-deprecatory, revealing that he thinks of himself as a side character in his own story. Drama and tragedy follows them on and offstage, and things begin to turn ugly when someone is found dead. Like one of the Bard's plays, If We Were Villains is structured in five acts. When the teachers mix up the roles it puts a strain on the friendship of Oliver's group, and things begin to go downhill fast. On the others to help me, James, but I would have me. Clearly made some work to make the place habitable next morning, Oliver!, no, are... It sounds, not when I stepped up to take the fall for you your note knowing you would it... 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