Thank you NetGalley and ABRAMS Kids for giving me access to an eARC of We Are Villains by Kacen Callender. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is a fantastic YA dark academia about taking down systemic bullying in a boarding school. Ari is dead. She died last semester and Milo has come back to school to try to find out what happened to her and to prove to the people who harassed him that they didn't win. Liam is being blackmailed for Ari's death and as the proclaimed king of the school, leader of the bullying, he can't have that. So he hires Milo to investigate the blackmailing. Ari, Milo, and Liam have a point of view in the book as Milo investigates Ari's death, Liam's blackmail, and a slew of other incidents in the school.

We Are Villains is a critique of the way bullying can go unchecked by the adults in a school and the way students feel they must take matters into their own hands. No real school was mentioned in the book, but you see stories on the news all the time about the way students treat each other.

This book has a wonderful cast of characters all of whom are negatively affected by the bullying regardless of whether or not they're on the top or bottom of the social ladder. I think it was good to show all the sides, the pressure to hide to not be bullied, the pressure to appear untouchable and laugh off the bullying, and the pressure to be so vicious that no one would dare bully you. At the end of the day, all of these students should've been protected by the adults running the school, but weren't.

Callender delves into the way race plays a factor into the way the students are treated as well. In Ari's story, the fact that she's a Black scholarship student leads many of the white girls whose parents pay their tuition expect her to act like she's beneath them. The sexuality of many characters gets brought up, some of whom are ashamed of who they are or still coming to terms with parts of their identity. There is one moment when Milo, a Black transgender scholarship student is treated poorly because he tells someone he is asexual and aromantic. Class also plays into the way students are treated. The scholarship students are often targets for bullying especially if they do better than some of the other students on tests or in sports.

This was well done and I like the way that dark academia is used to show not only a mysterious death but also the constant mistreatment of the students that lead to Ari's death.

I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to read a book that will make them think.

5 out of 5 stars.

I really am a fan of dark academia, especially in the Waianae genre because I think that there is lots that go on at these boarding schools that adults don’t understand or even know about. And there were lots of things I liked about this book the general plot, the kind of morally ambiguous characters, it just all felt too long and the changing viewpoints got really tiring after a while. It just missed the mark a bit for me.

This is a spoiler-free review! We Are Villains was released on March 25, 2025 and is now available for purchase at select retailers.

I would first like to thank NetGalley for providing me an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. I have really been in the mood for a mystery book and when the approval came through on NetGalley, I was quick to download and get started. The premise reminded me of a few other mystery books I have read in the past, and I was interested to see where things were headed for Milo as he attempted to uncovered who killed his friend, Arianna.

Much like Boys with Sharp Teeth by Jenni Howell, our protagonist is on the hunt to determine who killed his friend, and is willing to go to extreme lengths to reveal the truth and get justice by any means necessary. Milo appears to be a wallflower and tends to stay in the shadows of others, but as more attention is drawn to him as the days go on, he is thrown into a whirlwind of events that have consequences for everyone. As readers learn more about Milo and his life outside of Yates, we are also exposed to his relationships with the students and how he views himself as an individual and on a deeper level.

The perspective changes nearly every chapter, and with short chapters, it became more of a challenge to keep track of who was talking - especially considering the perspectives are written in first person. While I do appreciate multiple perspective books, it felt as though this should have been limited to three perspectives instead of the larger amount that we had in the book. There were a number of characters who were more interesting to read about, and I would have loved to dive deeper into the more sinister individuals rather than dwell on some characters that in my eyes were not nearly as intriguing.

As this is a young adult book, I expected a certain ceiling or threshold that the author would reach without going into adult territory, but I fear that they kept this book hovering over more middle grade than young adult. I felt a little out of my element when reading this, and wish that the maturity was turned up a tad - considering this is a murder mystery, I wanted the stakes to be higher in certain scenarios. That being said, there were definitely chapters or events that fell into the young adult category, but it would have been great if the book felt more cohesive when detailing particular actions or diving into characters and their personalities.

This is a super quick read and you will be able to tackle it in a couple of hours - I was entertained, but felt as though it was missing a little something that would push it over the edge into something memorable for me. The mystery element was played well, and I have to say it definitely kept me intrigued throughout the entirety of the story.

**I was provided an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley.**

Actual rating: 3.5

Kacen Callender expands into YA dark academia with We Are Villains. Readers follow a cast of diverse characters at the prestigious Yates Academy as they come back from winter break. Just before the break, scholarship student Arianna Reynolds was found dead by the lake, marred by the fire started by unknown means. Ari was one of the most recent targets of the decades-old "game" of bullying that is inherited by legacy through the student body. Liam Reeves, illegitimate son of a Wall Street businessman, is the most recent King of Yates. And he doesn't have an alibi for the night of Ari's death. Cue Milo Pace, scholarship student and the unofficial campus private investigator. He will find out what happened to Ari, no matter how many stones he has to upturn.

There are many perspectives that this story is told through with the most constant storytellers being Ari, Milo, and Liam. Ari's perspective is written in a way that addresses Milo in second person, reflecting on what happened when she was at Yates. As such, readers get a bit of a fractured timeline with pieces of Ari's experience woven in with Milo, Liam, and the other perspectives. Readers tend to know primarily what Milo knows as he undertakes his investigation.

I appreciated the fast pace of the story as there was never really an opportunity to be bored. I also appreciated that queerness was incorporated casually, but was rarely at the forefront of the plot. This is especially true for Milo, who is Black, trans, and ace, but was allowed to simply be himself rather than being reduced to solely representative of those identities. The bigger divide in the novel was socioeconomic, with scholarship kids falling into different social standing compared to legacy kids.

Callender was not shy about conveying social and cultural messages within the story, and the messages delivered were very much in your face. That said, I feel like this style of delivery is appropriate for a younger to mid range of YA audience, which seems to be the target demographic.

I had some issues with suspending disbelief at the ending and how things wrapped up, but still had a pleasant reading experience overall. I would happily recommend this book to its target audience or to adults hoping for a fast-paced, school-aged drama-filled read.

This is a Kacen Callender book. What else do l need to say? Get it!

Need a little more? I read this on my first day of spring break pretty much cover to cover. It's a queer as heck dark academia murder mystery that has a diverse, truly diverse, range of characters. It has multiple POVs, dark vibes, and moments that will make you want to slap the school admin who are supposedly in charge of the school at the center of the book. I enjoyed WE ARE VILLAINS very much and wish I could ask Kacen Callender about the ending.

Officially, Arianna Reynolds’ death was ruled an accident, but her best friend Milo thinks that there is more to the story. Solving the mysteries around her death is the only reason Milo returns to Yates Academy. Even though he was a target of bullying the previous year.

Liam is the King of Yates who starts receiving anonymous letters tying him to Arianna’s death. He hires Milo to help him figure out the mystery. As they unravel the mystery, Milo realizes that there’s more to the story that Liam isn’t telling him.

Thanks to NetGalley and Amulet for an advanced copy of We Are Villains by Kacen Callender! It’s a Kacen Callender year apparently, since they have two books coming out in back to back months and I am here for it. This is different in tone from Chaos King, more of a dark academia thriller/mystery. For the most part, I think the story worked well in unfolding the mystery.

We get a variety of POVs in this, not just Milo and Liam which adds to the mystery. However, it does make the story itself feel a bit choppy as you read it. This might have been intentional, though. Callender also flips between timelines, making you question what really happened with Arianna’s death.

Despite the changing of POVs, we do get a strong sense of the characters throughout. Callender is good at developing characters in a small amount of time, which was important for developing the mystery and the overall setting at Yates Academy. We get to see the darker underbelly of the school as Milo unravels what actually happened with Arianna.

All in all, if you like dark academia mysteries, definitely check this one out when it comes out at the end of March!

A murder mystery at an elite school filled with secrets, betrayals, and a deadly violent game. Yates Academy is not like other schools... there's a King who creates a game... and anything goes... including being targeted, bullied, tormented, and forced to fight in a ring. Liam is the King of Yates and has held that role due to his family's old money and the threat of violence... and he's being blackmailed by another student for murdering Arianna Reynolds. Ari's death was ruled as an accident but her best friend Milo knows thats not the truth and will do anything to figure it out....but that means facing Liam. Luckily for Liam, he needs to hire Milo to help him find out who is threatening him since Milo is known for being the person around campus who is essentially an investigator and deals in uncovering people's secrets in return for money. Milo will work with Liam... only to get answers to how Liam is connected to Ari's death... but the closer Milo gets the more things begin to unravel and the truth might break them all. This was like Pretty Little Liars and Gossip Girl mixed together but in a less fun way with less likable characters, less of a fun mystery, and just less of a good vibe. I really just did not care about these characters or their story. The mystery and relationships were not well fleshed out and you are constantly jumping from one person's pov to the next and the time is going back and forth. Its like getting constant whiplash and not in a intriguing " I want to know what happens next" kind of way. I just did not vibe with this book and felt like it was so lackluster compared to other school mystery stories.

Release Date: March 25, 2025

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and ABRAMS Kids | Amulet Books for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

A student died at their school and no one seems interested in figuring out why or how. Except for her best friend, Milo. This is the main plot point of Kacen Callender’s We Are Villains. It begins from Milo’s perspective as he navigates a boarding school of elite and brutal teenagers called Yates. There, the others are out to get him not just for his scholarship status but for…something. When the book begins, we know he did something that pissed off the other students to the point that everyone is surprised that he shows up to finish his last semester. Over time, we get more and more details not just about his history at the school but about Ari’s mysterious death, which Milo is obsessed with solving. The “King of Yates”, Liam is another primary character whose role in the main plot we get over time.

The book jumps perspectives from Milo to Liam to Arianna herself (in second person) and to three other side characters that only get single chapters. I disliked that the book jumped perspectives so much, especially seeing as how the 3 characters that got 1-2 chapters themselves didn’t seem imperative to include. I felt like I was getting thrown all over the place because the author couldn’t figure out a good way to give the reader the information.

As previously mentioned, we gather information for crucial events as the book continues. This was a boon in that it kept the reader wanting to read more while, like Milo, trying to put pieces together themself.

This book’s description boasts a cast of queer characters of color. This is true. The diverse group of characters serve as a backdrop for this mystery in a way that highlights these differences without making them the point of the book.

While I liked the bites of information toward the truth and disliked the shifting perspectives, my main critique of the book resides with the sheer amount of unabashed graphic violence it contains. Yates’ bloodthirsty students are quick to turn on each other and frequently impose these acts of violence on one another with little to no motive. While I know that this is part of the point of the novel, especially with its references to Lord of the Flies, it wasn’t realistic to me. By this I mean that the lack of parental or administrative interference in such matters is incredibly unrealistic. The book itself points to this lack toward the end, adding a weird dark twist involving a teacher, but fails to insert any real adults until then. Again, part of this is because the school lets the students do whatever they want due to parental monetary power and influence. However, one could argue that this same power and influence could be wielded to protect these students from others. Many scholarship students are attacked because they are poor and cannot do much to retaliate, but even rich students are targeted.

The mystery was solved and the ending wrapped up. It was all anticlimactic given the darkness, mysteriousness, and violence of the book’s bulk.

This book is entitled We Are Villains to encapsulate the idea that all the characters in this story are bad. Callendar certainly proves this to be so, even as it’s clear who the worst ones are.

The 3 stars are mostly for vibes. I tend to enjoy pretentious boarding school settings, so I liked that aspect a lot. The mystery was semi-compelling, though certain reveals felt very convenient. I also felt held at a distance from all of the characters. Although the words on the page indicated quite high stakes, I didn't really feel it. The characters were all pretty unlikable, but I feel that was the author's intention and if it was, it was executed well.

Major warning for a LOT of violence. I don't think the synopsis adequately explains that the social structure of the school is based on heavy bullying. There is a "king" designated who can essentially command everyone at the school to torture people he dislikes, and he hosts a fighting ring pretty much every night. It is an important part of the plot, but I don't think I would have picked up this book if I realized the extent of the violence and bullying. I completely understand the author's intent in writing this book and I felt a level of resolution/catharsis at the end, but this just is not my preference in subject matter. For those who feel similarly, I would recommend you pick up another of Kacen Callender's books.

What started out as a fast-paced murder mystery turns into a musing on how, truly, we all must acknowledge our own faults and misdeeds before blaming everyone else for theirs. Kacen Callendar sets up a taut thriller in a cushy boarding school that ends hopefully. Well-crafted and thought-provoking, I was rooting for all of the characters at different times in the novel. I loved the gray areas that all of them existed in.

I had mixed feelings about this book. Dark Academia pushes the bounds of what is believable in a school setting but some elements of the story felt a little too unbelievable. The suspension of disbelief worked for the staff turning a blind eye to things happening at the school but it seemed shocking that no one was exposing secrets on social media before this became a plot point in the book. It really seems like at least one of the targeted kids would have been out for some revenge by sharing secrets with the gossip blogs but setting that aside I also had some other concerns. A second marker of the genre are the morally grey characters and it felt like some of this also fell short for some of the main characters. The way the perspectives shifted helped with some of this but a couple of the main characters still fell a little flat. Additionally the way the pacing of the book was one of the main characters arc explaining his more complex side felt kind of rushed. That said I did really like Milo and Ari as characters the ways they both alternatively focused on survival but also at times wanted to fight for change was really well done particularly the way they didn't quite align their friendship was so complicated and compelling and seeing their history unfold through the book was so well done. I also thought that while elements of it were definitely rough the complex bulling system and how they used modern technology was really interesting. I'm not sure what it would have taken to fully believe that the system would work but once I was more fully immersed in the story it was a great way to demonstrate the power dynamics and high stakes of social standing at the school. As I got more into the story I was able to just let go of things that were bothering me and enjoy it more, and by the end I really enjoyed how everything came together, I still really enjoyed the story as a whole.

I'm a huge fan of Kacen Callender's work, but this book unfortunately didn't live up to his prior books. Set at an elite, conflict-ridden boarding school, the book leaned so far into dark academia that it became farce. Elite schools do have immense problems with racism, classism and the like; they also have issues with bullying. Callender excels when he leans into the former, particularly in the sections from Arianna's perspective, wherein he describes her struggles to garner social acceptance amongst her wealthy, majority-white peers as a Black girl on scholarship. When describing bullying, however, or the general social setup of a boarding school, Callender's writing becomes so absurd as to imperil his more insightful observations about the former issues. Boarding schools do not have fight clubs. Their students do not regularly beat each other up. They also generally tend to avoid hiring (and covering up) the presence of serial killers. These elements might have worked had Callender made the novel speculative (about a magical military academy, perhaps), but given his setting it in the real world, it just felt ludicrous and honestly like a missed opportunity. The number of characters proved confusing as well, an unfortunate thing, because several of them (such as Milo) were genuinely interesting and not given enough time on page. The dynamic between Milo, Liam and Arianna was enjoyable to read, and Callender sneaks in some perceptive character-work with some of the more unlikeable characters. As ever, he shines at refusing to accept easy answers or to make any figure within the book fully evil. With that said, comparing this to Felix Ever After, I found myself missing Callender's excellent capturing there of the subtle ways in which bigotry manifests in so-called "Progressive" environments. Nevertheless, I am very grateful to have read this, and look forward to his later work.

We Are Villains is a quick, fast-paced read in the very morally grey, often evil world, of Yates Academy. At one point the book references Lord of the Flies and it’s so appropriate. This is a book about how hard it can be to break from traditions, even evil ones, if they are the status quo and no authority opposes it.

I really enjoyed Milo and Liam as characters and enjoyed how complex everyone was when their ultimate goal was truly to survive and the different ways they all went about accomplishing that goal.

Bullying, racism, misogyny, and class struggle play a central role throughout, so check your trigger warnings!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC. 3.5 stars rounded up.

Some great, well-developed central characters and an engrossing mystery make this a page-turning read. The themes of culpability, moral growth, and how to change oneself within a broken system resonate well beyond the walls of the toxic boarding school where this story is set.

It suffered a bit from too many points of view for my taste, but was a worthwhile read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC of this book!

3.5 stars, rounded up.

I enjoyed this book overall. It is definitely a dark story, and at times the level of violence and bullying tolerated by the school was difficult to believe. This is a perfect book for readers who enjoy morally grey characters and dark mysteries!

I think I wanted this to be a little bit more tense. Sure, we have a mysterious death, an illicit fight club, a tacitly accepted hierarchy of bullying, but it all felt only skin deep. I’d be really curious about the first aid facilities in this school and how no one ever investigated - it all felt a little too convenient given the sheer volume of incidents and the existence of social media. I also didn’t buy into some of the relationships between characters that only get revealed in the second half; if they were supposedly close then none of the plot would hold water.

What I really liked was Milo. Trans and aroace, probably autistic, constantly juggling his desire to puzzle through what makes other people tick with whether secrets can and should be kept. I think we could have gotten more of his moral dilemma, and that would have really hammered home his character.

I also thought the ending was way too neat

Another Kacen Callender novel? Sign me up! I have to admit it, it’s not my favorite genre and I loved too much Stars in your eyes, but this book is good too. The premises are so interesting and the story is developed really well. I was captured and I love it. It’s a truly good Dark Academia book.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

I’m always looking forward to the next Kacen Callender book. If nothing else, I’m always interested in seeing what comes next for the characters and worlds they create. I was curious as to how they’d go about this premise.

I liked the focus on identity, morality, and the complexities of being labeled a “villain.” The premise is strong, and the character dynamics are intriguing, particularly as they struggle with their roles in the story.

That said, the book didn’t quite live up to its potential for me. Some parts of the narrative felt fragmented, making it difficult to fully engage with the characters or their arcs. While the themes are interesting, the story didn’t come together as cohesively as I had hoped. At times, the pacing lagged, and I found it hard to connect emotionally.

Though it has its moments, We Are Villains didn’t quite resonate in the way I expected. It’s an ambitious book, but it fell short of delivering the depth I was looking for. 3/5 stars.

I feel like I should have enjoyed this, but I just couldn't get on board. Multiple POVs are something I struggle with - not keeping on top of them, but connecting to the characters properly and I think this is part of what happened here.

Review DNF: I'm sad to say I DNFed this book so fast, I made it about 70pgs but it was rough. It's a boarding school murder mystery (which I love!), but I found it difficult to read. It seems like it needs so much work still.

When the book starts its drops you into the story so abruptly it was jarring. There wasn't a lot of stage setting and it felt like I jumped into the middle of the story not the start.

The tone was all over the place. It had a serious vibe with the murder and intense school bullying happening, but the school social hierarchy was gossip girl level over the top (also there was a fight club?). The book is lacking the playfulness gossip girl used for balance so it just felt dark but with an extremely dramatic power dynamic. Maybe it didn't need playfulness but to make the hierarchy feel more natural and less exaggerated? I don't know, it just meshed together strangely. Something about it felt incohesive.

I just finished Where Sleeping Girls Lie in October (also a boarding school mystery) and I couldn't help comparing them. WSGL is phenomenal and We are Villains just seems like an early draft in comparison. I have enjoyed other books by this author before and don't think this one is a good representation of their work.

Thanks to @netgalley and Amulet Books for a copy of this book!