If We Were Villains

 If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio, 354 pages.

Seven aspiring Shakespearean actors at an exclusive arts school have spent four years growing deeply entwined with each other. Through the years the roles they play onstage on offstage have blurred and grown deeply entangled. When one of their own dies, all of the bitter feelings and guilt begin to poison the survivors, as they have to convince not only the police they are guiltless, but also themselves. Oliver Marks has just finished serving a ten year sentence for his classmates murder, and he is finally ready to tell the truth to the retiring police officer who has been haunted by the case all these years. 

This book feels, in many ways, like a love letter to The Secret History by Donna Tartt. That being said, I actually liked this book better than that foundational text of the dark academia genre. Rio did a masterful job creating in the reader the feelings of the characters, transferring an atmosphere that was frequently both suffocating and frantic. I also found the tension between the characters conforming to their assigned archetypes and existing as complete people fascinating. It also feels worth mentioning that I have been thinking about the end of this book since I finished it a few weeks ago. I would heavily recommend this as a tense, character-driven drama. 

Bunny

 Bunny by Mona Awad (2020) 305 Pages

I had NO idea what I was getting into with this one, but I'm so glad I dove into it. I read this a little under 24 hours. Devoured it. I felt like I was dreaming while reading it. A perfect start to Spooky Season reading. I honestly don't even have the words for an apt synopsis. If you like really weird, symbolic, dreamlike stories, you'll love this.

Grad students, writers, a cult-like girl group, absolutely wild imaginations, twisting reality, so many bunnies, violence, potential madness

The Secret History

 The Secret History by Donna Tartt, 559 pages.

Richard is a scholarship student at a small but respected university in New England. From the day he sees them he is intrigued by the insular and enigmatic group of classics students, the only five at the whole university involved in their program, which rarely puts them in contact with the other students and almost exclusively taking classes with one charismatic professor. After a chance encounter he is accepted into the program and their ranks, which begins a year that forms social bonds he can never break and ends with murder.

It's honestly a little surprising that I am just now reading this book, which definitely had an influence on many books I've enjoyed. The plot is honestly only alright, but the writing is lush and descriptive. It's not surprising the dark academia (which this book is largely credited as the progenitor of) is a sub-genre defined more by its aesthetics and atmosphere than anything else. The novel is immersive, and I found myself entirely unbothered by the fact that the details weren't anything phenomenal. Somehow reading The Secret History felt like the quintessential experience of reading a book. I don't know if I would recommend this book to everyone, but I would definitely recommend it to people who are more invested in prose than plot.