The Villa By Rachel Hawkins Summary, Characters and Themes
The Villa is a novel by Rachel Hawkins that explores female friendship, creativity, and the dark side of fame. It follows two narratives: Emily and Chess, two friends who travel to a villa in Italy with a dark history, and Mari Godwick, a writer who stayed at the villa in the 1970s when a murder took place.
The novel brings together past and present, exploring the mystery of the murder and the complex relationships between the characters.
Summary
The Villa dives into the complex dynamics of female friendship and creative ambition across timelines.
Emily, a struggling mystery writer, joins her estranged friend Chess, a self-help guru, on a writing retreat at a historic villa in Italy. The villa, once known as Villa Rosato, has a dark past involving a murder in 1974.
Intrigued, Emily delves into the past uncovering the story of Mari Godwick, a young writer who stayed at the villa with her musician boyfriend Pierce Sheldon and his friends.
Mari was grieving the loss of her child and found solace in writing a gothic horror novel inspired by the events of that summer.
The story also reveals the betrayal and heartbreak Mari experienced as her boyfriend, Pierce, began an affair with her stepsister Lara.
In the present, tensions rise between Emily and Chess as they both become fixated on the villa’s secrets.
Chess, eager to capitalize on the story, proposes a co-written book. Emily, suspicious of Chess’s motives, discovers a hidden diary belonging to Mari that sheds light on the events leading up to the murder.
Meanwhile, the story flashes back to 1974, revealing the volatile relationships within the group at the villa. Pierce is devastated by the suicide of his wife and clashes with Johnnie, a hanger-on to the musicians.
The tension culminates in a fight between Johnnie and Pierce, hinting at a possible motive for the murder.
Back in the present, a shocking revelation throws everything into question. Emily learns that Chess had an affair with her husband, further straining their already fragile friendship.
Despite their distrust, they decide to collaborate on the book, driven by a desire for success and a shared goal of eliminating Emily’s ex-husband, Matt, who threatens to expose their project.
The novel reaches its climax with a shocking twist. Emily and Chess drown Matt in the lake, staging it as an accident.
Their co-authored book becomes a bestseller, but their success comes at a terrible cost.
The story takes a final turn, revealing the truth behind the 1974 murder. In a flashback to 1980, it appears Mari confessed to killing Pierce. However, this is later exposed as a fictional ending she wrote for her novel.
The true story, hidden within the villa, reveals that Johnnie, not Mari, killed Pierce, protecting her from further heartbreak.
The novel concludes in the present day with Emily and Chess, bound by their dark secret, contemplating their next project.
While they achieved success, their friendship is forever tainted, leaving Emily questioning if she truly escaped the clutches of a controlling man.
Characters
Emily Sheridan (née McCrae)
Emily is a central figure in “The Villa,” portrayed as a struggling author dealing with personal and professional challenges.
Behind on her 10th installment of the “Petal Bloom” mystery series, Emily’s life is marked by her failing marriage and financial insecurity.
Her relationship with her childhood friend Chess is complex, characterized by both competition and deep-seated affection. Emily’s fascination with the villa’s dark history and her discovery of Mari Godwick’s diary serve as a catalyst for her own creative and personal transformation.
Throughout the novel, Emily evolves from a passive participant in her own life, often overshadowed by Chess, to a more assertive and independent figure, particularly after uncovering Chess’s betrayal and taking drastic steps to secure her future.
Jessica “Chess” Chandler
Chess is Emily’s childhood friend and a successful self-help author with a glamorous lifestyle.
Her relationship with Emily is fraught with underlying tension and rivalry, exacerbated by her affair with Emily’s husband, Matt. Chess is depicted as charismatic and manipulative, using her influence and success to shape those around her.
Her suggestion to co-author a book with Emily initially seems like an olive branch but is later revealed to be part of her broader self-serving agenda.
Despite her outward confidence, Chess’s actions reveal insecurities and a need to control her narrative and those in her life.
By the novel’s end, her bond with Emily is both strengthened and tainted by their shared crime, highlighting the complex interplay of loyalty and betrayal in their friendship.
Mari Godwick
Mari is the enigmatic author of “Lilith Rising,” whose tragic and tumultuous life in the 1970s serves as a parallel to Emily and Chess’s story.
Mari’s narrative is one of artistic passion, personal loss, and complex relationships. Her affair with Pierce Sheldon, her stepsister Lara’s entanglements, and the claustrophobic creative environment at Villa Rosato create a backdrop of intense emotional and psychological drama.
Mari’s character is marked by her resilience and ability to transform personal tragedy into artistic expression.
Her eventual confession to Pierce’s murder and the true story behind it—only revealed posthumously—underscore themes of deception and the blurred lines between reality and fiction in the creative process.
Pierce Sheldon
Pierce is a talented but flawed musician whose presence at Villa Rosato catalyzes much of the novel’s tension.
His relationships with Mari and Lara are emblematic of the complex, often destructive dynamics within the artistic circle at the villa.
Pierce’s character arc from charismatic artist to a tragic figure marred by personal loss and professional decline is central to the historical narrative.
His murder, initially shrouded in mystery, is revealed through Mari’s and others’ perspectives, highlighting his role as both a victim and a catalyst for the novel’s darker themes.
Lara
Lara is Mari’s stepsister and a budding songwriter whose creative ambitions and personal relationships are deeply entwined with those of Mari and Pierce.
Her affair with Pierce and involvement with Noel Gordon add layers of tension and betrayal to the villa’s atmosphere.
Lara’s character reflects the struggles of balancing artistic aspirations with personal integrity, and her eventual complicity in Pierce’s murder and subsequent estrangement from Mari add to the novel’s exploration of moral ambiguity and the cost of fame.
Noel Gordon
Noel is a famous musician and leader of The Rovers, whose invitation to Villa Rosato sets the stage for the novel’s historical narrative.
His charismatic yet capricious nature influences the dynamics within the group, particularly in his interactions with Mari and Lara.
Noel’s decline from a celebrated artist to a forgotten figure serves as a cautionary tale about the fleeting nature of fame and the personal sacrifices it entails.
Johnnie
Johnnie is a minor yet pivotal character whose actions significantly impact the narrative.
As a hanger-on seeking validation and success through his association with Noel and Pierce, Johnnie’s jealousy and ambition culminate in the murder of Pierce.
His role in the story underscores the destructive potential of unrequited ambition and the darker aspects of the creative milieu at Villa Rosato.
Matt Sheridan
Matt is Emily’s estranged husband, whose actions and attitudes significantly affect her life and career.
His affair with Chess and his attempts to claim financial benefits from Emily’s work depict him as opportunistic and unsympathetic.
Matt’s character serves as a foil to Emily’s development, highlighting her journey from victimhood to empowerment, particularly through the climactic decision to murder him and free herself from his influence.
Themes
Female Friendship and Rivalry
The central theme of “The Villa” is the complex dynamics of female friendship and rivalry, as illustrated through the relationships between Emily and Chess in the present day, and Mari, Lara, and others in 1974.
Emily and Chess’s friendship is strained by competition and jealousy, particularly surrounding their respective writing careers. Emily, struggling with her tenth installment of the “Petal Bloom” series, envies Chess’s success as a self-help author.
Their relationship further deteriorates when Chess reads Emily’s work without permission and suggests a co-authoring project, revealing a manipulative side as she tries to assert dominance over Emily’s creativity.
This tension mirrors the historical narrative where Mari navigates her relationships with Lara and the men around her.
The Villa itself becomes a metaphor for the darker, more hidden aspects of these friendships, where collaboration can quickly turn into competition, and support can hide underlying rivalry.
The ultimate betrayal, with Chess having had an affair with Emily’s husband and later conspiring with Emily to murder him, underscores how their friendship is both a source of strength and destruction.
The Cost of Fame and Creative Work
Another significant theme is the high cost of fame and the burdens of creative work.
The novel draws inspiration from real historical and cultural figures, paralleling the experiences of Mary Shelley and the members of Fleetwood Mac, to explore how fame can distort relationships and individual integrity.
For Mari, Pierce, and the others in 1974, the pursuit of artistic success leads to personal tragedies, including betrayal, murder, and a loss of personal identity. Mari’s novel, “Lilith Rising,” is a reflection of her own dark experiences and the price she pays for her creativity and brief fame.
In the present, Emily grapples with the commercial pressures of her series and the personal cost of her failing marriage, exacerbated by the manipulation of those close to her.
Fame, in both timelines, is shown as a double-edged sword—offering recognition and success, but also bringing intense scrutiny, jealousy, and the potential for deep personal loss.
Storytelling and the Construction of Reality
“The Villa” intricately brings a meta-narrative that questions the nature of storytelling and the construction of reality. The novel features “excerpts” of various artistic works that blur the line between fiction and reality, challenging the reader to discern the truth.
This is evident in how the novel alternates between Emily’s first-person narrative and Mari’s third-person perspective, alongside the fictional works within the story that mimic real literary forms.
Emily’s discovery of Mari’s diary and the hidden true ending of “Lilith Rising” highlights the layered nature of storytelling, where the ‘real’ story is concealed within fictionalized accounts.
This theme also touches on the reliability of narratives, as characters’ personal biases and intentions shape their recounting of events. Hawkins uses these narrative techniques to explore how individuals construct their identities and histories through the stories they tell and the ones they choose to believe.
The final twist, revealing that Mari’s true story differs from the fictionalized ending of her novel, underscores the mutable nature of truth and the power of storytelling in shaping our understanding of the past and present.