The Villa

The Villa (2022) by Rachel Hawkins is a novel that grapples with the dynamics of close female friendship and its intersections with fame and creative work, drawing parallels across time (1816, 1974, and the present day). A New York Times best-selling author, Hawkins writes modernized Gothic thrillers and young adult fiction, as well as paranormal romantic comedies under the pen name Erin Sterling. Hawkins, who studied gender and sexuality in Victorian literature at Auburn University, weaves together mystery, gothic, horror, and supernatural tropes with a focus on women’s experiences and roles. The Villa reimagines Gothic horror in order to explore the strangeness and high costs of fame. The Villa is inspired by the sexually charged group dynamics of the 1970s band Fleetwood Mac as they recorded the album Rumours and the tensions between Mary Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Lord Byron while staying in Geneva in the summer of 1816. The Villa balances historical fiction and thriller, creating a genre-defying exploration of female authorship and examines the tropes connected to female monstrosity and otherness.

Comprised of 15 chapters, The Villa follows the lives of Emily Sheridan, nee McCrae, and her childhood friend Jessica “Chess” Chandler as they uncover the dark and mysterious story of Mari Godwick during the years 1974 to 1976. Mari’s story is told in the third person but from her perspective, and alternates with first-person narrative of Emily. The two stories are woven together, with the present-day action acting as a framing narrative for the past mystery narrative. The novel follows the dynamics of Emily and Chess as they navigate Emily’s failing marriage, the competition between themselves, and their history as friends, explored through their experiences as they spend time together at Villa Aestas, in Orvieto, Italy. Villa Aestas has a dark history and is famous for a suspicious death that occurred there in 1974, when it was called Villa Rosato.

The novel contains “excerpts” of a number of artistic works: songs, novels, press articles, literary criticism, and more. All of these are Hawkins’s inventions but are presented as if real in the text. These “real” excepts break out from the two main narratives of Emily and Mari, enabling Hawkins to reveal (and withhold) information in a number of different ways, and also asking questions about the nature of storytelling and experience itself—it’s reliability and truth. Both Emily and Mari are authors whose work draws on their own experiences; these imagined works sit alongside the main narratives that they present to the reader and are suggestive of the complexity of identity.

This guide refers to the 2022 hardback edition of The Villa, published by St. Martin’s Press.

Content Warning: This guide and the source text contain material relating to death by suicide and references to miscarriage and abortion.

Plot Summary

Emily and Chess are old friends. They are both authors but have different lifestyles: Emily, behind on her 10th installment of the “Petal Bloom” mystery series, doesn’t have the money or fame that Chess enjoys as an author of self-help books, which she has turned into the Chess Chandler brand. Chess rents Villa Aestas outside Orvieto, Italy, and plans to work on her next book. She invites Emily to join her. Emily is hesitant, but Chess convinces her. Emily researches the villa and tells Chess that a famous murder occurred there in the 1970s.

As they arrive in Italy and settle into the villa, Emily and Chess are intrigued and unsettled by its past, which combines with rising tensions between them. Emily begins obsessing over the events of the famous murder and finds a copy of Mari Godwick’s Lilith Rising. Mari Godwick was the partner of the murdered man, Pierce Sheldon, and they were both residents of the villa in 1974 when the murder occurred. Mari only wrote one book, a best-selling and critically acclaimed Gothic horror set in the English countryside but depicting the events of summer 1974. Emily and Chess open their own old wounds, discussing a creative project they abandoned in college, Emily’s dismissive attitude toward Chess’s self-help career, and their disparate upbringings. They begin to feel that exploring the events of 1974 and Pierce’s murder presents new bonding and creative opportunities for them. Emily describes her defense of the profits and royalties of her Petal Bloom series and her need to fight her husband Matt Sheridan as they divorce. Chess, a self-professed self-help guru, appears to adopt Emily and her current problems (her divorce and floundering career) as a project.

Increasingly, the narrative shifts to flashbacks of London in 1974 and, later, Orvieto. Mari Godwick recounts her childhood experiences: The daughter of a prominent intellectual and a renowned journalist, Mari appears destined for fame. Her mother dies in childbirth, and her father eventually remarries. Mari describes the sometimes tense and competitive relationships in this family. Mari’s father is charismatic, and his house is filled with the artistic, rich, and famous. In this way, she meets a talented musician, Pierce Sheldon. Pierce, married with a child, begins an affair with Mari. In spite of his bohemian ideals, Mari’s father can’t countenance his daughter’s affair and a rift occurs. Pierce and Mari move into a small flat, shortly afterward joined by Mari’s stepsister Lara and a friend called Jane. In this crowded space, Mari becomes pregnant, giving birth to a boy named Billy. Succumbing to a fever, the infant Billy dies, and grief overtakes the household. Lara and Pierce start an affair, and Lara also becomes involved with a famous musician, Noel Gordon, the leader of a band called The Rovers. Noel invites Lara, Pierce, and Mari to Villa Rosato in Italy, where Mari works on her novel, and Lara works on her songwriting and musical talents, writing an album called Aestas.

In the present day, Emily and Chess discuss Emily’s sickness during her marriage to Matt and his desire to have a child. Both women write, each appearing to work on their designated projects. In truth, Emily starts to write a mix of memoir and nonfiction focusing on the house. Seeing Mari’s initials carved into a window and reading her novel Lilith Rising, Emily moves away from the Petal Bloom series, telling her literary agent about a new project and explaining her much delayed installment of the Petal Bloom mystery series.

In 1974, Mari describes the book she is writing. Mari finds herself subject to the attentions of Johnnie, a hanger-on for Noel who supplies the musician with drugs. Desperate to join the band or record with Noel and Pierce, Johnnie shadows them in Italy. Like Noel, he seems drawn to Mari and flirts with her, but she rebuffs his advances. Noel, bored with the villa and its claustrophobic intimacy, takes Johnnie and Mari to see Pozzo di San Patrizio, a well in Orvieto. There, Johnnie overhears Noel telling Mari about Johnnie’s faults and lack of talent.

In the present day, Chess has secretly read Emily’s work so far on Mari and the villa, and she tells Emily how good it is. Chess suggests that they co-author it, noting that Emily doesn’t have experience with nonfiction. Chafing at the suggestion and angry that Chess has read her work, Emily turns down Chess’s offer. Emily continues to read and think about Mari, finally realizing that her copy of Lilith Rising contains clues to the mystery of Pierce’s murder and the group dynamics of 1974. She searches near the initials carved in the villa and discovers Mari’s diary, which covers the time leading up to the murder. Emily hides her discovery from Chess.

Matt contacts Emily, telling her that she can’t escape paying him what she owes him, alluding to the new book project. This is something only her literary agent and Chess know about. Determined to safeguard her career and money, she brushes Matt off. Confronting Chess, she asks if Chess talks to Matt still, something Chess denies. After her literary agent denies telling Matt, Emily finds Chess’s computer open, discovering that Chess has taken her idea and is writing about the villa and the summer of 1974, and about Emily, portraying her as a character with frustrated dreams. After reading Chess’s words, which include some of Lara’s lyrics from Aestas, Emily realizes where the rest of the diary can be found.

In 1974, Pierce learns that his wife has died by suicide, drowning in the pond behind their house. His in-laws have sworn to take his child, something Pierce’s father supports. As Pierce’s world crumbles, Noel advises Mari to cut ties with Pierce, warning her that Pierce will destroy her too. Johnnie and Pierce fight, and Johnnie tells Pierce that he has destroyed his wife and now wants to destroy Mari.

The novel draws to a close, and in 1974 Mari finishes her novel, confessing to Pierce’s murder in a flashback.

In the present day, Chess admits that she and Matt previously had an affair, after Emily sees a bracelet that Matt had given Chess. They argue bitterly. Chess frames the affair as helpful to Emily, claiming that the marriage was killing Emily. Chess and Emily reach an uneasy truce and decide to write the book together. They plot to kill Matt, and Chess lures him to Italy, where they drown him in the lake, making it look like an accident. Their co-authored book becomes a huge success.

In an apparent flashback to 1980, Mari meets with Noel shortly before he dies, with his career stalled and Mari a literary star. He implies that he knows about her involvement in Pierce’s death, and Lara’s complicity. Mari calls Lara, and Lara refuses to see her, scarred by the events that night in 1974. In a separate flashback to 1993, Mari, dying of cancer, goes back to Orvieto. It is revealed that the events of the 1980 flashback never happened; they are the fictional ending of her novel Lilith Rising, which she completes whilst staying on Orvieto. Mari also writes another ending to the story, which is the true version of events: Johnnie killed Pierce for her, and she and Lara remained close until Lara’s death. Mari conceals this ending in the Villa.

Back in the present, Chess asks Emily about their next novel, and Emily realizes that in freeing herself from Matt, she has become bound to Chess.