Inside, James had clearly made some work to make the place habitable. Oliver, Alexander, and James decide to fight back during Caesar's death scene, which quickly spirals out of control. I almost frowned, not quite understanding his surprise. Rio. Die TikTok-Sensation auf Deutsch als Taschenbuch Jetzt bei Penguin entdecken und bestellen. Oliver's close friendship with James and his complicated romance with Meredith are key throughout the novel. 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. My smile must have faltered at that because James face fell slightly as he apologized. Words: Jonathan Wells. While we've done our best to make the core functionality of this site accessible without javascript, it will work better with it enabled. as well as maybe he was saying to find him in the next life? But dont you dare put it all on me, how everything unfolded. Thank you, this is exactly the answer I was looking for. Rio that read. . He buried his face in the crook of my neck, and my hands made their way up and down his back, soothing him. He didnt dare attempt to find James, worrying what else may befall his troubled mind if his eyes crept their way along James face once again that night. I remembered there was an abandoned cottage near the beach, in Del Norte. About the Book: Title: If We Were Villains . When they receive the cast, Alexander's predictions are revealed to be correct. Maybe he had never left shore at all. I also really liked that the book was divided into Acts as it helped to drive the action and was a lovely nod to the Shakespearean aspects of the novel. I brushed a strand of his hair away from his eyes, placing it behind his ear. One that James had once, jokingly, said hed like to move in, just so he could stay close to the water. Work Search: His inner dialogue was trying to convince himself the kid was trying to start shit just for the sake of starting shit, but after the bitter feeling of pure jealously settles deep within his stomach, he needs to confide in somebody. James I wasnt joking when I said that if you hadnt killed him, I would. "[2] Kirkus Reviews called it a "melodramatic, suspenseful debut novel". 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. Rio. The bathroom scene when Oliver tells James it wasnt a one-night stand with Meredith bc shes not just some girl and . Seven friends - Richard, Oliver, James . Single Sentence Summary: At an elite art college, seven young acting students (performing only Shakespeare) are the best of friends until one is found dead and another is charged with the murder. And it cost us everything. As his fingerprints are on both the shirt scrap and the boat hook, he is arrested and put on trial, though Colborne does not believe him to be the real killer. Dont get me wrong. James was a character I liked straight away, but that throughout I had plenty moments of hating too. I believe James is alive. 6 Ben Affleck's The Batman. James body was never found, and the book ends open-ended with no clear answers. Thank you for reading my rant. Richard was off the rails, James, and it had nothing to do with anyone but himself. I know it is a stretch but that is what came to my mind. I mean, sure, Richard mightve been my fault, but youre blaming me for what she did? Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. After the students return from break, they prepare to perform scenes from Romeo and Juliet, another tradition, at the Christmas masquerade ball. For the first time in forever, Filippa is the first one to look away.". That explains His eyes flashed around the room in despair. Ten years ago, Marks and his six classmates were . Us. aka James pov (mostly) behind the original story since the end of the performance of King Lear. Then gave him a minute to cool down before I went on, keeping my voice low. See a recent post on Tumblr from @ilovehimstill about iwwv. 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. And then, the second I got your note, the second I figured it all out, I came here. Detective Colborne wants to . He sat by himself in the farthest corner, loath to look up from his notebook. I wanted to start small, but maybe it was my dramatic head that wanted to jump right to the most painful parts, setting the angsty bits on fire before they could burn me from the inside. Im not proud of how I acted that last night, and I dont particularly like remembering it. After Oliver visits Meredith over winter break, they grow closer and begin dating and sleeping together more often. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading If We Were Villains: The sensational TikTok Book Club pick. Oliver, James, Wren, Filippa, Richard, Meredith, and Alexander are fully fleshed out and vivid characters, both on and offstage. Oliver Marks has just served ten years in jail - for a murder he may or may not have committed. ", -------------------------OR-----------------------------------, Oliver knocks on the door of an abandoned cottage where he hopes that the man he went to jail to protect is inside waiting for him after faking his own death (seriously, this is another level of be gay do crime, this is where being a dramatic bitch takes you). oliver finds james and they get their happy gay ending<3. Do you remember that? The literature James chose would seem like utter nonsense to anyone else, totally inconspicuous to anyone who wasnt a Shakespeare fanatic like the group (another reason they would switch on & off their Shakespearean characters; it was a way to talk in code). - stream 11 if we were villains playlists including iwwv, Chris Cornell, and Lorde music from your desktop or mobile device. But in their fourth and final year, good-natured rivalries turn ugly, and on opening night real violence invades the students' world of make-believe. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. . In September 2022, it was announced that Sex Education producer Eleven Film was co-developing a series adaptation of If We Were Villains with Canadian production company Blink49 Studios.[5]. No, youll listen to this. The story after enlightening us of the murder took on a very passive and neutral tone and speed and it wasn't sure if the ending was happy or not. But our lips were currently occupied and couldnt be bothered with such mundane things as poetry or love confessions. The notes connotation may also be just to remind Oliver of their time in del Norte, a happy moment. Yeah, I remember that. I smiled, sadly. But no concrete evidence was ever found. Alive, breathing, dry and utterly, painfully breathtaking. If We Were Villains is . Quando gli amici diventano nemici, non c' limite al male che possono farci. My mouth quickly let go of his and found its way onto his neck, and James tipped his head to the side to give me space to work. What I did, James tried correcting me, but I wouldnt have it. Biiiiiiiiii. His hand, which had been holding onto my shoulder, started stroking my skin right there, and he slowly cracked his eyes open, blinking away the sleep and the dried tears in them, and taking my face in. James tries to help him, but is stopped by Alexander, who suggests they should let him die and thus end his reign of terror. It has always been about that, even when we didnt know it was.. I was suddenly taken back to the set of Lear, our last play, our last crime. What he wasn't anticipating, albeit what he wouldn't have expected from him under any circumstances, though Richard had a nagging way of proving the whole group wrong, was the act of, putting it literally, attempting to drown the one who did play Macbeth. If you liked this review, I post more of them on my socials. Oliver returns home for Thanksgiving and learns his parents will not be paying for his final semester, though the school agrees to let him work part-time as a custodian to alleviate his tuition expenses. (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. Bill Cipher is the main antagonist of the Disney Channel/Disney XD animated series Gravity Falls, serving as the overarching antagonist of season one and the main antagonist of season two. [1]. 9781785656477. James was every single constellation that ever was, and having him, touching him. Oliver is freed from a physical cage while James frees himself from an emotional one. She was trying to spare me.. I literally just finished the book, and I believe that James wouldnt have left that particular note to Oliver without it having some kind of meaning. We were two very eloquent men, well educated in the art of speech. I do love Meredith and maybe a part of me always has. James searched for him by the lake, only to realize Richard had been following him the whole time. Nothing happened for about five seconds, and I was already raising my hand to try again when a light went on somewhere inside. It sounds like he drown himself off the San Juan islands in Washington (where I live), in the winter time the water is cold and rough and deep, no matter how much dragging they did, its still the ocean, not a lake. Truth isn't stranger than fiction despite Mark Twain's best efforts to convince you. And of course there was Colin, standing there, slouching slightly, a look of absolute terror, pure and raw as daylight, adorning his features. In the four years, they have achieved the goals set for them, that is, until tragedy strikes and only six are left to. Can you believe we shared a room for four years and never did this?. James Faked his own death- Oliver is sure about it. 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. But I dont think its at Meredith that youre mad. He becomes jealous and realizes that he is romantically attracted to James. How do you think it feels to have the only person you care about be taken away from you, put in jail for a crime you committed and then leave you out alone? If We Were Villains is the debut novel of American author M. L. Rio, first published in 2017 by Flatiron Books. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ). Trying some small talk to break the ice. Drama and tragedy follows them on and offstage, and things begin to turn ugly when someone is found dead. Water left no room for regret. The students are briefly questioned by the police, led by Detective Colborne, and Richard's death is ruled a drunken accident. The fourth years are assigned King Lear as their spring production. we are left with the same uncertainty oliver feels except he has the chance to find the truth and we dont (rude if you ask me so imma assume he found him and they lived a happy gay life together), i'm with you. As you begin reading "If We Were Villains", you start reading through our narrator, Oliver's perspective. I went to jail for you and you faked your death for me. [3] On Goodreads, it has an average rating of 4.2 stars out of five. Is James alive or nah? Sure, they're utter trainwrecks who would be unendurable in real . 13 characters in If We Were Villains are available for you to type their personalities: James Farrow, Meredith Dardenne, Oliver Marks. Would that fit his character? The play performance of this is absolutely incredible, the reader . So I still think he's canonically alive but it's not super in character, idk. Its nice, inside, I commented, offhand. On the day of Oliver's release from prison in 2008, Filippa, the only member of the group with whom he has maintained steady contact, comes to pick him up. The rest have not really commented on supposed Joliver. If you have or are going to readIf We Were Villains, Id love to hear your thoughts. This was it. . James knew Oliver would be free in 4 years. Forgive me if it eventually got too much for me to stay. He snapped. On the day Oliver Marks is released from jail, the man who put him there is waiting at the door. Wow, present tense, Oliver? Do you think he loves them in the . Dark Helmet - Spaceballs (1987) Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Realizing their time is up, James kisses Oliver onstage. Oliver, James whispered, no more than a breath out of his lips; relief, pain, and surprise all mingled together. All that mattered was James mouth making its way through every inch of me, every minor corner of my body. I wanted to sob. He allowed it, leaning into my touch wherever it went, and studying my eyes with his own. 10 years after he was sent to prison for murder, Oliver Marks is finally ready to tell the truth about what really happened on that night, and the time leading up to his arrest. I know many in the DA community have read this book and so, I thought we should have a conversation about THAT ending. James mouth was softer than I remembered. It is very hard to put this novel down, because the framing hints at what is to come . You wanted to help him, but I told you to let be, do you remember that? Maybe it wasnt so surprising how obvious our feelings had been to everyone else but us. Youre blaming me? And I would go down for it; I did go down for it. His eyes, still cloudy with sleep, widened as he took in the sight of me, standing at his doorstep. Instead, it all felt rather anticlimactic, very bland and without flare. Truth is, maybe my own perception of James had been roughed up by the knowledge of what he had done, but James himself had never been a rough person, so there was no plausible reason why I should think his kissing would be anything but soft and tender. Villains: Wren by mlrio. I took my time, kissing, sucking at his skin and breathing him in, satisfied by the sounds he produced in response. Let us be happy, right now. It didnt matter how ungracefully we fell on the mattress, or how we cracked up laughing at the absurdity of two thirty-something adults acting like teenagers, never able to get enough of each other. James and Oliver. his girlfriend. 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. 151,260 ratings28,731 reviews. Filippa covered for you, Alexander was the one who said to do nothing, and we all agreed, even Meredith and Wren, as much as those two like to pretend theyre more innocent than the rest of us. 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. Ai tempi della condanna, non tutti erano convinti della sua colpevolezza, in primis il detective Colborne, che ora lo attende fu ", -------------------------OR-----------------------------------, Oliver knocks on the door of an abandoned cottage where he hopes that the man he went to jail to protect is inside waiting for him after faking his own death (seriously, this is another level of be gay do crime, this is where being a dramatic bitch takes you). I saw this place, and it got me thinking of you. I was getting nervous again. It has always been like that. If We Were Villains, written by M. L. Rio and published in 2013, 2017, tells the story of Oliver Marks, a former Shakespearian actor at the Dellecher conservatory, and the murder mystery that surrounds his 4th and final year at the conservatory. Oliver meets up with Meredith, moves in with her and slowly finds his way back to a somewhat normal everyday. In the only way that made sense for a method actor who played his role with such reality, such truth. Find and save ideas about oliver and james if we were villains on Pinterest. We were drawn to each other like . 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. A work in the dark academia genre, the campus novel is part murder mystery and part dramatic tragedy. And, yes, I am including Richard in the ones responsible for his death. We lived our lives in between sonnets, with drama and comedy lost together in a sky of words at our disposal. Howd you sleep? I asked, now stroking his hair. As if sensing my brain fume with concerns for the uncertain future, James began to shift on top of me, his head slowly rolling sideways on my chest to look up at me. And now they were standing precariously still, some glaring at Richard, some quivering quietly, Oliver crouching comfortingly next to James. And what will happen to them now?.. If you havent made any enemies in life, youve been living too safely. The James that Oliver loved is gone; however, physically, James is still around somewhere. But whenever you appeared as a choice on the cards, that is the one I picked. Look, I never thought she was my biggest fan, okay? Hi, he replied, his voice still slow and rusted from sleep. Im not going to deny that I love her-,. Content Transparency: This book contains adult material, including forms of violence/self-harm, scenes of emotional intensity, offensive language, and substance abuse. Took time, but it kept be busy. He answered, bashfully. I think the ending is supposed to give us false hope that hes alive but I saw his death coming, and I choose to believe that Oliver got therapy and lived his days with Meredith. Because maybe we didnt understand ourselves, yet, but we sure as hell understood each other.. The ending of If We Were Villains. Drama and tragedy follows them on and offstage, and things begin to turn ugly when someone is found dead. Why?, Do what, exactly? I asked, drier than I had intended. and all of this is kind of confirmed by the last sentence ig "his body was never found".. i hope what I wrote is understandable, sorry for the mistakes english is not my first language. I went to Meredith. James then grabbed the nearest item the boat hook and hit him with it. Soon enough, the kitchen was smelling nice, the aroma filling my chest and giving me a newfound strength. Oliver is now 31, a quiet, likeable man with a heavy past. 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. As a friend, and as something else I cant quite name.. I never did answer. Someone had to carry the guilt, after all, and James lungs were occupied. The group agrees to wait for Richard to die, then call the police and pretend he was already dead when they came upon him. No, I dont think so. I-, I stopped, guilt climbing up my spine. I kissed the top of his head. We have provided additional context below. Discover more posts about if we were villains, oliver marks, classic books, james farrow, grey academia, literature quotes, and iwwv. He even mentions to fillipa and Alexander wouldnt you change the end of Romeo and Juliet? IMO: The group of seven spoke in carefully chosen, always intentional Shakespearean quotes. This always seemed to be the case for James and me, all those years ago and all these years after. and if we follow Pericles, he was also separated from his family and they thought he was dead before reuniting. Youre alive, were the stupid words coming out of my own mouth. Everyone else knew, and that was enough to set the wheels spinning. He finished his thought. Oliver Marks has just served ten years in jailfor a murder he may or may Check out the Cast List for If We Were Villains first! If We Were Villains was named one of Bustle's Best Thriller Novels of the Year, and Mystery Scene says, "A well-written and gripping ode to the . Flatiron Books, 2017. It's not the whole truth. If We Were Villains by M.L. Since I was released, my world had been flipped upside down more times than I cared to admit, and the dizziness of it all left me senseless to what might await me on the other side of that door. M. L. Rio: If we were villains. The two tentatively resume their relationship. The scene James quoted in his letter to Oliver it has meaning. If We Were Villains is a love letter to Shakespeare and the theater. Of the performance of this is exactly the answer I was already raising my hand try! Filippa is the one I picked you dare put it all out, I never she. Allowed it, leaning into my touch wherever it went, and James if we were is... On and offstage, and it got me thinking of you, Filippa is the one I.... Their happy gay ending < 3 the dark academia genre, the aroma filling my and... Instead, it has always been about that ending from sleep in conversations the!, do you remember that stay close to the set of Lear, last! 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