The story kind of mystified me but the characters are crystal clear interpretations I could easily envision. At first I wasn't able to appreciate it, but it grew on me and I came to like it. Eerie!
I requested and received a free temporary uncorrected digital galley from Flatiron Books via NetGalley.

Title: Graveyard Shift by M.L. Rio
Publication Date- 09/24/24
Publisher- Flatiron Books
Overall Rating- 4 out of 5 stars

Review copy given to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Graveyard Shift is a very interesting novella that takes place over the course of 24 hours. Before, or after, whichever you prefer, I would highly recommend reading the author's note. M.L. Rio talks about what led to her writing this story and the place Graveyard Shift originated in the author should be heard.

As a whole I really enjoyed this. It’s dark and atmospheric, mysterious and engaging. We get to know several characters who are fully flushed out in a short period of time. Because it’s a novella, of course at the end of the story I wanted more and also, the plot did fit well for a novella. Hopefully that made sense. The characters being so different and interesting, kept me invested in the story. The major plot device is not my favorite but I truly enjoyed the various characters that I was a bit more interested in the main topic of the plot (you’ll see).

Like in the authors previous work, the writing is top notch and flows well. I think you will find yourself easily engrossed looking forward to finding out how it ends. All in all, I enjoyed my time with this novella. I think I had slightly higher hopes that were not met but I’m not mad I read it. My only real compliant is because I loved the characters and not the plot as much I just wish that aspect was slightly different. That’s a hard thing to put in a review because I am not the author and nor could I ever be.

I enjoyed Rio’s IF WE WERE VILLIANS so I was looking forward to this. I didn’t realize it was a novella until I started reading, but, hey, that’s fine. It had a great set up with a somewhat disappointing pay off, in my opinion, but some people are going to like it just fine.

The entire book is set from midnight to ten a.m. the following morning and involves a group of late night workers/insomniacs who regularly smoke together at the Church of Saint Anthony of the Anchorite on the site of a closed, condemned church which can’t be torn down because it’s a historic site. It abuts a large university campus.

The Anchorites are Edie, editor in chief of the campus newspaper, Tuck, who has something to do with the church, Theo, a bartender, Hannah, a rideshare driver and Tamar, a librarian/hotel front desk worker. One night they discover a freshly dug hole in the church’s abandoned graveyard. Who dug it? Why is it there?

I was struck by the author’s note at the beginning of the story, as I have insomnia, or something like it. It started not too long ago, but my sleep patterns are a mess; it may be due to a chronic illness, but I’ve had the illness for years and this is new. I usually sleep just a few hours each night, I then wake up around 2 a.m. and that is it for me….I’m writing this review at 5:30 and I’ve been up since 2:30 a.m. The author suffers from the same affliction. Maybe we can become best friends, because this is killer.

So, as I said, really liked the characters and the set up, but didn’t love the resolution. Overall enjoyed the story, though.

Overall this novella felt a little like scooby doo without scooby! It was a pretty good story overall and definitely had some good moments. I would go more towards 3.5-3.75 stars. It's a solid novella and a good read.

First book by M.L. Rio, I have heard great things about If We Were Villains for years. I loved the premise, perfect for spooky season. Will definitely be recommending this one to fellow spooky readers, and to patrons in reader's advisory conversations.

This novella packs so much into just a few chapters. Here, we meet a myriad of characters — and we rotate through their perspectives. The friends discover a strange hole in the cemetery where they usually meet. From here, a mystery unravels as they attempt to get to the bottom of why the hole was dug, who dug it, and what their ultimate goal is.

Right off the bat, we are plunged into the atmospheric prose of Rio’s newest novella. Set in a spooky college town, the friends use their skills to piece together why there was someone burying loads of dead rats into a hole in a historic cemetery. Admittedly, I found myself getting confused with the characters and what their roles were, but that’s to be expected in a novella. I’m sure that if I was able to spend more time getting to know the characters, I’d have a better handle on who they are and what motivates them. The inclusion of science and fungi and the likes was compelling and it even reminded me of some of T. Kingfisher’s work!

Overall, the story itself was quite engaging, as was the mystery. Though Rio had only a small amount of time and space to write the story of these friends, the language she uses certainly encapsulates the dark academia vibe. Rio’s other work If We Were Villains is on my TBR and, after reading Graveyard Shift, Rio’s novel will be moved towards the top of the queue. I’d recommend this book to anyone who likes dark academia, mysteries, and science.

Graveyard Shift is an immersive, creepy, and delightful little novella that I finished during a short flight.

The various characters who gather to smoke during their night shift find that a hole has appeared on the ground.

Through subterfuge and good old fashioned detective work, they begin to uncover the conspiracy that is taking place, and which has very personal ramifications.

This was fun, and proof that a talented author can do so very much with less than 100 pages.

*Thank you to Flatiron Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review*

Y'all right as I was super invested, it ENDED!?!?!? Freaking criminal.

But I'm glad to be reading M.L. Rio again. Between the characters whose heads we briefly inhabited to the graveyard's mystery, it had her signature atmospheric slow burn. It felt like we were tiptoeing closer and closer to a cliff and ended right before we went over it. Pretty dang artful, but I also want more.

3.5 stars. I liked the premise and the characters, but I think the novella could’ve been a novel with how many questions are left unanswered.

When you work the night shift and need a smoke, you end up at the local graveyard because it's the closest place off campus to sneak a cig. You meet other nicotine addicted, sleepless, late night weirdos there too and develop a kind of unspoken insomniac club. All's cool until the night you all notice a freshly dug hole in the ground and let Occam's razor take care of the rest.

This fungal thriller is a really quick read that flows fast off the page but with all loose ends and no resolution?! Are you being serious right now? That's how this book is going to end?!

I think my digital review copy is missing a couple chapters because there is no possible way it just hangs there like that. Send it back to the author. They have more work to do. They failed to understand the assignment.

Arrrrrgh!

Solid follow-up Rio’s “If We Were Villains.” Set over the course of a single night, Rio impressively manages to tell a story tinged with science and horror from 5 distinct points of view. Full review posted on Instagram.

In the midst of the town college's ancient cemetery, an unlikely group of night workers congregate each night to pass the lonely hours of the graveyard shift . One October night, they uncover something amiss in the cemetery; an open grave that leaves more questions than answers, and a gravedigger who drifts in an out of the churchyard like smoke. "Graveyard Shift" takes place over a single night, and as it unfolds, will take readers through an atmospheric mystery that's meant to be read during the dark hours of autumn.

The trouble with dark academia as a genre is that once it becomes too aware of itself, it instantly loses the fragile (but masterful, when done properly) foreboding, mysterious qualities that make it what it is. In "Graveyard Shift" despite it being a wildly different story from "If We Were Villains," it's immediately clear that M.L. Rio wanted to forcefully establish it as dark academia. And with that forceful declaration came details that felt contrived and expected: a dark October night, a graveyard, eerie happenings throughout a college town...a mystery to solve.

By the end of this novella, I felt like I'd read the first draft of a Scooby Doo for adults that lacked the sophisticated buildup I know M.L. Rio is more than capable of. If you're looking for something to scratch the "If We Were Villains" itch, this is regrettably not your next read.

Insomniacs. Graveyard. Rats. Science. Maybe this went over my head? Loved If We Were Villains... but this missed the mark for me. While this wasn't the great intro to spooky season reads I hoped it to be, it was a quick read and the narration was on point. Thank you to both NetGalley and Libro.fm for an ARC/ALC of this novella.

I am incredibly conflicted by this book - more so than any other I think.

I have been excited for another book by M.L. Rio for years now and was so excited to see another being released. I was a little nervous that it was only a novella (even though I love novella) with the synopsis talking about so many characters.

This book was creepy, atmospheric and I loved the writing so, so much. The characters are unique and wanted to know everything about them. This had the makings of an amazing book.

But it just felt so rushed. The plot seemed to jump from one convenient point to the next and I never felt like I could see how they came to the points they did. There was so much that could have been done with this, explored avenues with these characters and just as I was getting really invested, it ends.

This could have easily been four hundred pages and I wish that there had been the page count to flesh out the plot and characters.

So, a middle three as I love the writing and characters but this could have been so much more.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

I was surprised by this. It’s incredibly short but it’s got a lot. The characters are so well written that even though we don’t know a lot about them, we learned enough to create our own backgrounds and fill in the blanks. I wish this was longer. There was so much to work with here that I wanted it to keep going. I’m also slightly confused by that ending. I read this too quickly and I loved every moment.

5 big fat stars for this little novella! This book was so good that I'm torn between wanting it to be longer and thinking the novella length is perfect (it is perfect).

I loved the structure of following a different character at various points over the course of one night. The characters felt very real and fleshed out in such a short book. The writing was very atmospheric and created a spooky creepy graveyard vibe even when we weren't actually in the graveyard.

My only non-enthusiastic note is that there was a lot of science talk. It's not necessary to understand the science talk in order to understand the plot, but I did find myself skimming it because I just don't care for science. It didn't take up a lot of page time though and I know a lot of people will love that aspect.

Overall an amazing read and I know fans of If We Were Villains will love this one too.

While falling a tad short of the complex worldbuilding and character building I had come to expect from Rio, this novella still packs a punch in its limited scope. This is more so than anything a world for the reader to enter and engage in, and letting yourself just breathe the horrors of it allows for a wonderful single sitting read.

A spooky atmospheric novella about a group of night shift workers who investigate a mysterious grave. I thought the story was entertaining, but I was left wanting a bit more. I feel like we only really got to know a couple of the characters, I personally found Hannah the most interesting. The ending was kind of ambiguous and could be left up to interpretation, which I don’t necessarily mind. If you like gothic atmospheric reads, or M.L. Rio’s previous writing, you will want to add this to your fall TBR. Thank you to Netgalley and Flatiron Books for the advanced copy.

This book felt very reminiscent of What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher -probably because of the mycological heart of the plot. As someone who read and loved If We Were Villains, I was very excited to see what else M. L. Rio had in store for us. Something that Rio is fantastic at is creating atmosphere and she did not fail to give us great atmosphere in Graveyard Shift. It was eerie and held a dark academic air that I truly adored. The only thing I would have preferred is a longer story. I feel like this particular tale could have really flourished with a larger page count and more of a chance to really dig deeper into the mycology and the consequences of messing with things better left untouched.

First off, this was my first M.L. Rio book and I have been missing out. Her writing is engaging and I found it so easy to slip into this world. The characters were interesting and complex - I could see a novel or even a series made from this. I even enjoyed the research jargon, which is usually tough for me. I’m always looking for books that make reading fun and this is one of those books.

Now, I went into this knowing it was a novella, but I found myself wanting more. I felt that the end got me to the part I was most excited for…and that was it! I know sometimes it’s more fun to let your imagination answer, but this could have been a wild horror novel. Overall, a very fun read and will be (eagerly) waiting for more of her work.