Each has a role to fill on and off stage. The school has majors such as dance, Latin, Greek, traditional art and more, but the theatre department is the focus of the story - namely, the group of seven fourth-years. Taking place in the late ‘90s, the book is largely set at Dellecher Classical Conservatory, a prestigious school that guarantees success to its students. Oliver is finally ready to tell his story, and to relive it. Detective Colborne is now retired, and he wants to hear what happened on that dreadful night.

Readers find out he’s been incarcerated for 10 years for murder, and the lead investigator on his case comes to see him. Protagonist Oliver Marks is released from prison. The story begins at the end, or rather a time-skip of the events. Rio’s debut novel, “If We Were Villains.” One of the larger titles to come out of this era is M.L. Dark academia is known for the romanticization of literature, cardigans and studious attire, sepia-tinted photographs and boarding schools. With the popularity has come subgroups trying to centralize their taste, including “dark academia.” With 1.5 billion views on TikTok and around 1.2 million posts on Instagram, it’s fair to say the style has quite a loyal fanbase. The hashtag, # booktok, has almost 30 billion views on TikTok, proving the demand for good stories. Suddenly, reading for fun wasn’t given side-eyes, but full attention and an audience. Looking at their decorative shelves, the comfort and joy of reading had a renaissance for the generation. With little else to do, people turned to the activities they’d meant to get around to. That was until the pandemic closed all doors and opportunities for others. The time for leisurely turning a page, pressing a receipt - a makeshift bookmark - in the spine’s crack, was over. No longer did students read for pleasure, or even for class. The era of fantasy and dystopian novels (“The Hunger Games,” “Twilight,” “The Maze Runner”), was at an all-time high before stopping altogether. Students talked about their favorite book characters while waiting for class, read while walking to lunch and debated who would survive in a dystopian universe. If you grew up in the 2010s, you might remember the surge of young readers.

If we were villains about