If We Were Villains cover art

If We Were Villains

A Novel

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

If We Were Villains

By: M. L. Rio
Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Oliver Marks has just served 10 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. 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.

©2017 M. L. Rio (P)2017 Macmillan Audio Coming of Age Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Mystery Suspense Thriller & Suspense Fiction Exciting Heartfelt Scary

Listeners also enjoyed...

 If we were villains cover art
Boy Parts cover art
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes cover art
Piranesi cover art
If we were villains (German edition) cover art
Moon of the Crusted Snow cover art
Slewfoot cover art
In These Hallowed Halls cover art
Six of Crows cover art
Warm Up cover art
The End of Loneliness cover art

Critic reviews

"Much like Donna Tartt's The Secret History, M. L. Rio's sparkling debut is a richly layered story of love, friendship, and obsession.... If We Were Villains will keep you riveted through its final, electrifying moments." (Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, New York Times best-selling author of The Nest)
All stars
Most relevant  
I loved this! Fans of ‘The Secret History’ I imagine will love this too. Such interesting characters, full of twists and turns right up to the last minute. So good!!!

Amazing! Especially for Shakespeare fans!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I loved this book when I first read it but if anything I've loved listening to it more, this audiobook is so well read that it makes the story and characters come to life and the sections with a lot of Shakespeare lines which I found quite hard to understand and get meaning from in the book work so much better when you listen to it.
the story itself is so well put together it's something you just can't help but fall in love with.
I could never reccomend this book enough.

just perfection

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
great book and narration, emersive and easy to understand, finished in two days please read

Lovely

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
loved the story and how morally grey each character was, unexpectedly could relate to all of them. the end made me surprisingly emotional. the only bit that frustrated me was the narrator's voice for Wren was so squeaky and comedic when it wasn't supposed to be

great for fans of Shakespeare and dark academia

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I think the plot twist and the relationships of all the main characters was wonderfully written

the plot twist and the relationships of all the main characters

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I don't know what can I say to convince you to read it or listen to it! It took my breath away and kept me guessing until the last moment. I purchased the audio version of the book and gosh it was the right thing to do. The passion, intonation and overall delivery of the person reading make this book so much better. One of my favourites for sure ♥️

This is a beautiful story you must read!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The Shakespeare was wonderful. The story was thin and I found that I didn’t care about any of the characters. The narration was good other than dodgy English accents. Not a patch on Donna Tartt.

Not as good as it thinks it is

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The beauty of it hurts, the intensity kills, the tension can be cut with knife. I loved it

Beautiful drama

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I borrowed this book from my local library just after its release and when i joined Audible it was one of the first i put on my wishlist. And now i have it to listen too,its been well worth the wait,the narrator enhances this story and i highly recommend this audible.❤👍

Worth the wait.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It’s a beautiful tale that really touches your heart, and the twist itself was very good ! However, no disrespect to the author but the story left me feeling a sadness for all the characters. A very good coming of age novel ! Would recommend

A dark romance

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews