M. L. Rio

M.L. Rio is the pen name of an American author who published her debut novel If We Were Villains in 2017. The novel, about seven Shakespeare students at a performing arts conservatory, became a cult classic of the dark academia genre and a perennial bestseller. Rio studied English at William & Mary and earned her PhD in Shakespeare from King's College London. If We Were Villains was originally published by Flatiron Books and remained in print through consistent reader recommendations and TikTok (BookTok) promotion years after publication. As of 2024 she has not published a second novel. She has cited Donna Tartt's The Secret History and Shakespeare himself as her primary influences.