Unlike novels that merely quote the Bard for flair, Rio weaves the plays into the characters’ very language and psychology. When the characters speak in Macbeth , Julius Caesar , or King Lear during rehearsals or arguments, their lines foreshadow real betrayals, murders, and breakdowns. It’s a masterclass in dramatic irony—you know the source material, so you see the disaster coming long before the characters do.
Rio excels at creating a suffocating, insular world. Dellecher feels like a gothic dream—isolated, rain-soaked, candlelit, and obsessed with beauty and ruin. You can smell the old wood, the stage paint, and the desperation. The dark academia aesthetic isn’t just decoration; it’s the engine of the tragedy. If We Were Villains
The seven leads (the “villains” of the title) are archetypal but never flat: the Hero, the Villain, the Tyrant, the Temptress, the Ingénue, the Character Actress, and the narrator Oliver as the “sidekick.” Their relationships are toxic, obsessive, and deeply loving. Rio captures how people who create art together can also destroy each other with surgical precision. Unlike novels that merely quote the Bard for