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Graveyard Shift
The author of sales sensation If We Were Villains returns with a story about a ragtag group of night shift workers who meet in the local cemetery to unearth the secrets lurking in an open grave.
Every night, in the college’s ancient cemetery, five people cross paths as they work the late a bartender, a rideshare driver, a hotel receptionist, the steward of the derelict church that looms over them, and the editor-in-chief of the college paper, always in search of a story.
One dark October evening in the defunct churchyard, they find a hole that wasn’t there before. A fresh, open grave where no grave should be. But who dug it, and for whom?
Before they go their separate ways, the gravedigger returns. As they trail him through the night, they realize he may be the key to a string of strange happenings around town that have made headlines for the last few weeks—and that they may be closer to the mystery than they thought.
Atmospheric and eerie, with the ensemble cast her fans love and a delightfully familiar academic backdrop, Graveyard Shift is a modern Gothic tale in If We Were Villains author M. L. Rio’s inimitable style.
Every night, in the college’s ancient cemetery, five people cross paths as they work the late a bartender, a rideshare driver, a hotel receptionist, the steward of the derelict church that looms over them, and the editor-in-chief of the college paper, always in search of a story.
One dark October evening in the defunct churchyard, they find a hole that wasn’t there before. A fresh, open grave where no grave should be. But who dug it, and for whom?
Before they go their separate ways, the gravedigger returns. As they trail him through the night, they realize he may be the key to a string of strange happenings around town that have made headlines for the last few weeks—and that they may be closer to the mystery than they thought.
Atmospheric and eerie, with the ensemble cast her fans love and a delightfully familiar academic backdrop, Graveyard Shift is a modern Gothic tale in If We Were Villains author M. L. Rio’s inimitable style.
144 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 24, 2024
2086 people are currently reading
72328 people want to read
About the author
M.L. Rio
5 books9,805 followersM. L. Rio is an author, but before she was an author she was an actor, and before she was an actor she was just a word nerd whose best friends were books. She holds a master's degree in Shakespeare Studies from King's College London and Shakespeare's Globe and a PhD in English from the University of Maryland, College Park.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 10,887 reviews
July 15, 2025
all the if we were villains fans waiting 7 years for another book only for it to be 128 pages...kind of a slay.
even funnier that it has none of that magic.
to be fair, it has a lot of what if we were villains has – a ragtag group of characters, darkness, academia — and a lot of additional good stuff — graveyard settings, halloween vibes, sleuthing — but it never quite comes together.
or maybe it does but too fast?
this book takes place over the course of one night, and that doesn't seem that wild. it doesn't even seem like that eventful of a night, really. something creepy happens, and a group chat of people who smoke in the same graveyard at night anoint themselves with the task of figuring it out, and then pretty quickly they figure it out and it's not that spooky after all.
and they all live mundanely ever after.
bottom line: a long wait was not worth it.
(thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)
even funnier that it has none of that magic.
to be fair, it has a lot of what if we were villains has – a ragtag group of characters, darkness, academia — and a lot of additional good stuff — graveyard settings, halloween vibes, sleuthing — but it never quite comes together.
or maybe it does but too fast?
this book takes place over the course of one night, and that doesn't seem that wild. it doesn't even seem like that eventful of a night, really. something creepy happens, and a group chat of people who smoke in the same graveyard at night anoint themselves with the task of figuring it out, and then pretty quickly they figure it out and it's not that spooky after all.
and they all live mundanely ever after.
bottom line: a long wait was not worth it.
(thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)
September 29, 2024
there’s honestly nothing to say because nothing happened
February 2, 2025
the definition of wasted potential.
October 2, 2024
needed this to be 400 pages longer if i’m being perfectly honest
July 7, 2024
I was drawn in by the premise and loved the execution.
You know it's a great novella when you wished it was longer after finishing it.
I listened to the audiobook version and I especially loved the multiple narrators adaptation of the multiple point of views writing.
It felt somewhere between mystery and atmospheric horror, with well fleshed out characters and great pacing.
It was my first book from the author but with such great writing style and original ideas I will check out their other work.
You know it's a great novella when you wished it was longer after finishing it.
I listened to the audiobook version and I especially loved the multiple narrators adaptation of the multiple point of views writing.
It felt somewhere between mystery and atmospheric horror, with well fleshed out characters and great pacing.
It was my first book from the author but with such great writing style and original ideas I will check out their other work.
July 8, 2024
I guess I'm going to be the outlier here because I found this one to be kind of “meh.” I mean, it was okay and I found the individual chapters enjoyable, but there just wasn't enough of them to make an entire story. This is a very superficial tale with no real depth to the plot line or characters – it kind of reminded me of a dog-less Scooby Doo episode for adults, except for with way less action than the cartoons. If it had been longer and more fully fleshed out, I'm pretty sure I would have loved it. Insomniacs in a spooky graveyard are right up my alley!
But, yeah … what is the gravedigger doing in the graveyard so late at night? There's a tremendous sense of foreboding as our sleuths follow him around and you keep expecting something horrifying to happen, but then they move on to the next part of their investigation and it just kind of fizzles out. “Ooh, we discovered this crazy thing is happening in a totally mundane way! Anyway, let's eat breakfast burritos.” (This might be a slight oversimplification, but still.)
Despite my disappointment surrounding the ending, however, M.L. Rio really does know how to write atmospheric prose. The beginning bits in the graveyard are really top notch and I so wish that sense of creepiness had lasted through the entire novella.
Oh, and if you're wondering about animal death, there's definitely some in this book. Most of the deaths happen “off stage” and don't involve any gore, but there is a scene with a rat that's fairly awful.
The audiobook recording is pretty well done, although there is one character who sounds kind of flat and rather AI-narrated. It's 100% a real human voice, but my first thought was “this narrator sounds like one of those AI book readers.” Otherwise, though, it was fine.
My overall rating: 2.65 stars, rounded up.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me with an advance copy of this book to review. Its expected publication date is September 24, 2024.
But, yeah … what is the gravedigger doing in the graveyard so late at night? There's a tremendous sense of foreboding as our sleuths follow him around and you keep expecting something horrifying to happen, but then they move on to the next part of their investigation and it just kind of fizzles out. “Ooh, we discovered this crazy thing is happening in a totally mundane way! Anyway, let's eat breakfast burritos.” (This might be a slight oversimplification, but still.)
Despite my disappointment surrounding the ending, however, M.L. Rio really does know how to write atmospheric prose. The beginning bits in the graveyard are really top notch and I so wish that sense of creepiness had lasted through the entire novella.
Oh, and if you're wondering about animal death, there's definitely some in this book. Most of the deaths happen “off stage” and don't involve any gore, but there is a scene with a rat that's fairly awful.
The audiobook recording is pretty well done, although there is one character who sounds kind of flat and rather AI-narrated. It's 100% a real human voice, but my first thought was “this narrator sounds like one of those AI book readers.” Otherwise, though, it was fine.
My overall rating: 2.65 stars, rounded up.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me with an advance copy of this book to review. Its expected publication date is September 24, 2024.
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July 15, 2025
The cold and damp atmosphere of a graveyard after dark is a perfect setting to punch a hole in everyday reality into a pit of horrors, especially when a mysterious hole happens to appear in one. A fresh and empty grave becomes the catalyst for mystery and menace in M.L. Rio’s Graveyard Shift, a crisp little novella that is more thriller than horror but still has plenty of chills. Rotating between an ensemble cast of University students over the course of a single night, Rio’s drags us deeper into the darkness as the mysteries and clues begin to pile up—not unlike the bodies of dead rats that are soon found being poured into the ground. While it is a fun little fright fest, the writing groans under the weight of the story as if it is about to collapse into a wreckage of rather clunky dialogue and cliche before it stumbles across the finish with a bit of a lackluster ending. Still, Rio creates a rather interesting dark academia tale of rats, a rash of violent attacks about town, and unlikely companions hoping ‘their Scooby-Doo sleuthing might turn up some answers eventually,’ and Graveyard Shift makes for a quick little spooky season read still worth checking out despite being a bit disappointing.
‘They all leaned toward the center of the circle, watching it disappear. “Maybe,” she said, “it’s for somebody who’s not dead yet.’
To be honest, I almost DNF'd this. I was reading it at the bar when the bartender asked if it was good and I replied "no, please take it away from me" and gave them the book (they have good taste in books that I trust so I needed a second opinion but she also did not enjoy--see comment 21 below). But then I decided to grab it off the shelf at work and I'm glad I finished it at least. I respect M.L. Rio’s for waiting nearly a decade to follow up her much loved If We Were Villains with a tiny paperback novella just in time for Halloween, though I doubt this will satisfy fans. It’s like getting those bitesized candies while Trick or Treating when all the neighbors are giving out King sized. And this is coming from someone who loves novellas. This feels a bit half-baked and possibly a scrapped idea that could have worked better had it been polished into a succinct short story, but I suppose that's less marketable.
‘I’ve always been preoccupied with the intersections of art and science,’ she writes in her introduction, ‘especially the effects of sleep deprivation on the cognitive (mal)function.’ What Graveyard Shift does best is probe the wee hours of the night and the hazy horrors of lack of sleep and fried nerves as this group of students investigates the empty grave that has interrupted their nightly cigarette smoking. Calling themselves the Anchorites after the graveyard they meet up in, it is a rather charming group of people who only interact due to their smoking habits (something I can testify is a common social circle at Universities where smoking space is limited). With a journalist, the edgy girl, the hot bartender guy who is hard to hate even though you want to, an awkward loner who might be currently unhoused (can relate), this group is about to discover they got more than they bargained for when they stepped out for a smoke…
The premise really has promise that, unfortunately, the story didn’t deliver upon. While I liked the ensemble cast, each person felt more caricature than character, which wasn’t helped by the rather clunky dialogue. There were moments when I considered that it was intentionally overdramatic to nudge a sort of 80s horror meets noir vibe and gave it the benefit of the doubt, but by the end I was a bit tired of it. While I trust those who loved the writing in Rio’s Villains, this felt more like a writer trying to find a stride than having stepped into their voice and perhaps the stiltedness comes from it not having the space to really investigate its own story. I liked a lot of the early aspects, the creepy cemetery and paintings, and the attacks going around campus that felt like a zombie film waiting to strike:
What we end up getting, alas, is altogether uninspired and overly familiar. Still I quite enjoyed the way it moves between characters as it ticks off the hours pressing on towards morning but each voice was pretty similar and burdened with cliches. It can be pretty thrilling still and there are some rather sharp moments of imagery as ‘the borders between the real and the illusory dissolve,’ but it never amounts to enough.
‘He’d never had a rodent phobia before, but he was pretty sure he had one now.’
A quick and unsettling but also unsatisfying read, Graveyard Shift still made for a decent single sitting to bask in some seasonal scaries. It does make me want to check out her novel, however, and I will still count that as a win.
2.5/5
‘They all leaned toward the center of the circle, watching it disappear. “Maybe,” she said, “it’s for somebody who’s not dead yet.’
To be honest, I almost DNF'd this. I was reading it at the bar when the bartender asked if it was good and I replied "no, please take it away from me" and gave them the book (they have good taste in books that I trust so I needed a second opinion but she also did not enjoy--see comment 21 below). But then I decided to grab it off the shelf at work and I'm glad I finished it at least. I respect M.L. Rio’s for waiting nearly a decade to follow up her much loved If We Were Villains with a tiny paperback novella just in time for Halloween, though I doubt this will satisfy fans. It’s like getting those bitesized candies while Trick or Treating when all the neighbors are giving out King sized. And this is coming from someone who loves novellas. This feels a bit half-baked and possibly a scrapped idea that could have worked better had it been polished into a succinct short story, but I suppose that's less marketable.
‘I’ve always been preoccupied with the intersections of art and science,’ she writes in her introduction, ‘especially the effects of sleep deprivation on the cognitive (mal)function.’ What Graveyard Shift does best is probe the wee hours of the night and the hazy horrors of lack of sleep and fried nerves as this group of students investigates the empty grave that has interrupted their nightly cigarette smoking. Calling themselves the Anchorites after the graveyard they meet up in, it is a rather charming group of people who only interact due to their smoking habits (something I can testify is a common social circle at Universities where smoking space is limited). With a journalist, the edgy girl, the hot bartender guy who is hard to hate even though you want to, an awkward loner who might be currently unhoused (can relate), this group is about to discover they got more than they bargained for when they stepped out for a smoke…
The premise really has promise that, unfortunately, the story didn’t deliver upon. While I liked the ensemble cast, each person felt more caricature than character, which wasn’t helped by the rather clunky dialogue. There were moments when I considered that it was intentionally overdramatic to nudge a sort of 80s horror meets noir vibe and gave it the benefit of the doubt, but by the end I was a bit tired of it. While I trust those who loved the writing in Rio’s Villains, this felt more like a writer trying to find a stride than having stepped into their voice and perhaps the stiltedness comes from it not having the space to really investigate its own story. I liked a lot of the early aspects, the creepy cemetery and paintings, and the attacks going around campus that felt like a zombie film waiting to strike:
‘Dr Jekyll goes in…Mr Hyde comes out. Howling. Howling like--I don’t know. Not a sound I’ve ever heard a human being make. Swinging at everyone and everything in swinging distance. Not just with his fists either--this guy was out for blood. Trying to sink his teeth in people.’
What we end up getting, alas, is altogether uninspired and overly familiar. Still I quite enjoyed the way it moves between characters as it ticks off the hours pressing on towards morning but each voice was pretty similar and burdened with cliches. It can be pretty thrilling still and there are some rather sharp moments of imagery as ‘the borders between the real and the illusory dissolve,’ but it never amounts to enough.
‘He’d never had a rodent phobia before, but he was pretty sure he had one now.’
A quick and unsettling but also unsatisfying read, Graveyard Shift still made for a decent single sitting to bask in some seasonal scaries. It does make me want to check out her novel, however, and I will still count that as a win.
2.5/5
September 25, 2024
This isn't a novella, it's an outline for a novel masquerading as a short story. Can't believe I paid £15 for a physical copy.
The "novella" consists of just 108 pages which includes lots of blank space for chapter headings. Five POV characters for what boils down to less than 100 pages of story is overkill; there is no time to get to know any of them. There's no depth, no backstory, no connection - I couldn't tell you how long these people have known each other or how they feel about one another. I wasn't even sure of their ages, but I think they're supposed to be late 20s, early 30s? Either way it's irrelevant because they're not fleshed out people, they're just cardboard cutouts who exist to have stilted "banter" and sit around googling things.
The plot is boring; it doesn't really go anywhere, and it's so rushed that there's no space for any buildup of tension. It's all especially frustrating because I can see how these characters could have been deeper, how their relationships could have been complex, and how the tension and atmosphere could have been ramped up. That's why I called this an outline for a novel, and I can't believe M.L. Rio's editor didn't push for it to be expanded. (As an aside, I haven't read If We Were Villains, but from the love it gets, I assume the author is capable of pulling this off over 300+ pages.)
The whole thing was an exercise in pointlessness. It's basically a 1 star story, but it gets 2 because the writing was competent.
The "novella" consists of just 108 pages which includes lots of blank space for chapter headings. Five POV characters for what boils down to less than 100 pages of story is overkill; there is no time to get to know any of them. There's no depth, no backstory, no connection - I couldn't tell you how long these people have known each other or how they feel about one another. I wasn't even sure of their ages, but I think they're supposed to be late 20s, early 30s? Either way it's irrelevant because they're not fleshed out people, they're just cardboard cutouts who exist to have stilted "banter" and sit around googling things.
The plot is boring; it doesn't really go anywhere, and it's so rushed that there's no space for any buildup of tension. It's all especially frustrating because I can see how these characters could have been deeper, how their relationships could have been complex, and how the tension and atmosphere could have been ramped up. That's why I called this an outline for a novel, and I can't believe M.L. Rio's editor didn't push for it to be expanded. (As an aside, I haven't read If We Were Villains, but from the love it gets, I assume the author is capable of pulling this off over 300+ pages.)
The whole thing was an exercise in pointlessness. It's basically a 1 star story, but it gets 2 because the writing was competent.
September 25, 2024
i don’t know if it’s because i have insomnia myself or the fact that i read this faster than i could blink but i absolutely loved this book.
i don’t know if everyone will love this but surely it’s for me! i loved how it felt like scooby do but adult, i loved the graveyard setting and i loved this weird friend group they formed. i loved that not every character was a college student and that every character had something personal going on even with how short this book is.
one of my favorite tropes is when the found family is an unlikely group, where they form a found family relationship but either the characters hated each other beforehand or they’re so vastly different you wouldn’t expect them to be friends and surprisingly this book does that well! i think Rio does a good job at writing found family’s or group dynamics in general and i hope to see more of that from her in the future.
i do agree with everyone on the fact that it should’ve been longer but mostly because i fell in love with the characters and wanted more from them. i do think it’s the perfect length for this story because i actually don’t think for me that it would’ve worked as a full length novel.
i don’t know if everyone will love this but surely it’s for me! i loved how it felt like scooby do but adult, i loved the graveyard setting and i loved this weird friend group they formed. i loved that not every character was a college student and that every character had something personal going on even with how short this book is.
one of my favorite tropes is when the found family is an unlikely group, where they form a found family relationship but either the characters hated each other beforehand or they’re so vastly different you wouldn’t expect them to be friends and surprisingly this book does that well! i think Rio does a good job at writing found family’s or group dynamics in general and i hope to see more of that from her in the future.
i do agree with everyone on the fact that it should’ve been longer but mostly because i fell in love with the characters and wanted more from them. i do think it’s the perfect length for this story because i actually don’t think for me that it would’ve worked as a full length novel.
December 22, 2024
“She learned to live in that permanent twilight of sleep-deprivation psychosis. Life, if you could call it that, was a never-ending out-of-body experience.”
this book very much centers on five people who regularly are not sleeping normally, some from insomnia, some from depression, some from health anxiety, some from inadequate sleeping places, but who all meet up each night, around midnight, at a local graveyard in this small campus town.
we follow five friends, from the hours of midnight through ten am, when they find a freshly dug hole in the grounds of the cemetery they meet up at. and the story quickly unravels where the reader finds out more and more about why the hole was dug and what is being buried at their meet up place. i truly don’t want to say more than that, because the magic is for sure in the writing and the pieces that come together, but i had a really great time with this.
i also read this late night during magic con vegas, while i was a little sleep deprived myself, so i feel like it really added a good atmosphere to consume a story like this. also, i do sometimes struggle with health anxiety (mostly for my loved ones, sometimes for myself), which in all honesty is probably undiagnosed ocd, but it really makes me unable to sleep sometimes for long periods, no matter how exhausted i feel, no matter how much i wish i could sleep. and i don’t really even know why im typing this, other than to just let you know that i feel like i connected to this story (and the helplessness, the horrible obsessions, the isolation and loneliness) a little more than i was anticipating. (and i think if you have sleep issues, you might as well.)
but yeah, this is quick and fun and i feel like not many authors could make only 108 pages this unputdownable. and i truly will read any and everything ml rio chooses to give to us in the future.
trigger + content warnings: smoking, drinking, health anxiety because of undiagnosed lump, a lot of fungal imagery, a mc who is unhoused, dead animals (rats), animal death (rats), talk of animal testing, medical experimentation, blood, gore, insomnia, depression, talk of night terrors, one sentence mention of loss of brother in past to cancer (very minor side character), talk of how horrible the american health insurance systems can be, mention of drug addiction and use, mention of cannibalism
♡ If We Were Villains ★★★★★
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November 16, 2024
The amount of times I said "Hey Siri, what does _____ mean?" was truly humbling.
I know the ending left a lot of people frustrated. I agree that several small additions to the underlying plot would've made this far more satisfactory upon completion. Despite those deficiencies, I overall really enjoyed how this abruptly came to an end. Maybe my brain is macabre enough to supplement a wicked enough conclusion to satisfy my curiosity.
All in all, fantastic writing, quick and exciting action, immaculate vibes, fleshed out and fascinating characters, bite sized but certainly gross horror elements, and an immensely interesting subplot that will keep you questioning.
I know the ending left a lot of people frustrated. I agree that several small additions to the underlying plot would've made this far more satisfactory upon completion. Despite those deficiencies, I overall really enjoyed how this abruptly came to an end. Maybe my brain is macabre enough to supplement a wicked enough conclusion to satisfy my curiosity.
All in all, fantastic writing, quick and exciting action, immaculate vibes, fleshed out and fascinating characters, bite sized but certainly gross horror elements, and an immensely interesting subplot that will keep you questioning.
October 19, 2024
Started out so great but then just sort of fizzled out into nothing
September 24, 2024
Scooby-Do meets What Moves the Dead (T. Kingfisher)
M.L. Rio is a new author to me, as I did not read her first thriller, If We Were Villains.
In Graveyard Shift, a group of nightshift workers suffering from insomnia meet each night in the college’s ancient cemetery. One night, they stumble upon a hole in the church graveyard that wasn’t there before. When the gravedigger returns, the group tails him during the night because they believe he might be involved in some of the strange events that have been making headlines around town.
The Good: creepy and atmospheric
intriguing characters
the start of a sinister plot
explores insomnia and medical ethics
The Bad: not long enough to develop this plot
very similar to What Moves the Dead (the study of mycology) - it has an almost identical book cover!
reads like a self-aware Scooby-Do episode (and mentioned several times)
ends abruptly with no real explanation (or I completely missed it)
RATS! Involves some animal cruelty
This novella just needed several more pages in order to win over this reader!
3/5 stars
Expected publication date: 9/24/24
Thank you to Edelweiss and Flatiron books for the ARC of Graveyard Shift in exchange for an honest review.
M.L. Rio is a new author to me, as I did not read her first thriller, If We Were Villains.
In Graveyard Shift, a group of nightshift workers suffering from insomnia meet each night in the college’s ancient cemetery. One night, they stumble upon a hole in the church graveyard that wasn’t there before. When the gravedigger returns, the group tails him during the night because they believe he might be involved in some of the strange events that have been making headlines around town.
The Good: creepy and atmospheric
intriguing characters
the start of a sinister plot
explores insomnia and medical ethics
The Bad: not long enough to develop this plot
very similar to What Moves the Dead (the study of mycology) - it has an almost identical book cover!
reads like a self-aware Scooby-Do episode (and mentioned several times)
ends abruptly with no real explanation (or I completely missed it)
RATS! Involves some animal cruelty
This novella just needed several more pages in order to win over this reader!
3/5 stars
Expected publication date: 9/24/24
Thank you to Edelweiss and Flatiron books for the ARC of Graveyard Shift in exchange for an honest review.
September 26, 2024
not sure what it was exactly
January 6, 2025
A little underwhelming honestly, but I’d still recommend it if you want some strange vibes! Definitely felt like it stopped right when I was getting invested.
September 3, 2024
Every night, while the rest of the world is sleeping, five people working the late night shift meet in the cemetery for a smoke and a break from the menial labor they do. One night, they find a shallow grave has been dug, and a sleep-deprived investigation begins. This novella, spanning only 24 hours, expertly creates an atmospheric, spooky story that is only enhanced by the masterfully done full-cast narration of the audiobook. While there isn’t a ton of substance here, this novella reminded me just why I love Rio so much. She achieves a general unease through unnerving facts and questionable ethics of mad scientists and leaps made from sleep deprivation and it feels almost like an adult episode of Scooby Doo. This is the perfect novella to read when you want to immerse yourself into the spooky atmosphere of fall and makes me excited for whatever Rio does next. I really hope inspiration strikes for some more spooky novellas like this one.
Thank you for the arc. Book out: 09/24/2024
Thank you for the arc. Book out: 09/24/2024
September 25, 2024
I enjoyed
If We Were Villains
when I read it in 2017, but I’m puzzled by the reputation it’s acquired in the years since. It seems to be treated as one of the totemic campus novels, often spoken about as though it is equivalent to The Secret History rather than a pastiche of it (I always assumed it was a deliberate one – an homage in which Shakespeare takes the place of Classics). Rio’s second novel, then, arrives with a lot of expectation heaped on it. Can the author create a similarly compelling story outside an established and well-loved formula?
On the evidence of Graveyard Shift, I’m not convinced. It starts well enough, with five friends meeting at midnight in a churchyard that sits on a university campus, only to discover a mysterious open grave. Definitely academic, certainly dark. Too bad, the rest of it’s a damp squib. Despite being short, it’s devoid of tension or urgency, and the prose is riddled with cliches (‘like a dog with a bone, she refused to let the matter drop’ is a typical sentence). The characters are a grab-bag of features with no real personality, and the ending is silly. This might have made a decent episode of a podcast or something but it doesn’t work as a book.
I received an advance review copy of Graveyard Shift from the publisher through Edelweiss.
On the evidence of Graveyard Shift, I’m not convinced. It starts well enough, with five friends meeting at midnight in a churchyard that sits on a university campus, only to discover a mysterious open grave. Definitely academic, certainly dark. Too bad, the rest of it’s a damp squib. Despite being short, it’s devoid of tension or urgency, and the prose is riddled with cliches (‘like a dog with a bone, she refused to let the matter drop’ is a typical sentence). The characters are a grab-bag of features with no real personality, and the ending is silly. This might have made a decent episode of a podcast or something but it doesn’t work as a book.
I received an advance review copy of Graveyard Shift from the publisher through Edelweiss.
November 27, 2024
2.5 mid mycology
March 18, 2025
The audiobook was 3 hours! It was the most underwhelming 3 hours of my life 🧍♀️
February 23, 2025
This is my first book by M.L. Rio and I found it on KU, which makes me happy. I'll be searching for more of her books once I slim down my currently reading tab a bit more. I have a few books that I want to get through first that are high on my priority list.
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This book follows 5 people, who cross paths in a college church’s cemetery on a smoke break, as they find an open grave that opens the door for a dark secret that wouldn’t have been unearthed otherwise.
The characters work hard to unearth the secrets of the grave and those directly involved with the dug grave on a cold and dark October evening. They know something is going on and only they can figure it out. Or can they?
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This was not my cup of tea but I still enjoyed it. I felt hooked on it from the start and wanted to find out how everything tied together. I feel like a lot of the medical jargon went right over my head, though.
I felt like a lot of the material went in one ear and out the other, which is a damned shame, in my personal opinion. I felt like I would have enjoyed this novel more if it was written in a way that I could better understand. That’s just me, though. lol
I kept going with the novel, though, because I wanted to find out what happened in the end with the main characters. I wanted to find out what happened to the graveyard digger in particular but that was left kind of ambiguous, which disappointed me.
I don’t want to leave major spoilers in this review for people who haven’t read this book yet but I would still recommend it, all the same. I did enjoy it at the end of the day and that’s what matters more to me in the long run.
I normally hesitate to recommend books with a 3-star rating like this one but I don’t mind recommending it in this instance. It’s a shorter read, which I do enjoy from time to time when I’m between books.
I found this one to be hard to digest, though, but I do relate to the female characters who suffer with insomnia. I suffer with it as well, which is why my night shift schedule at work gives me so much freedom in the long run. I hope y’all enjoy if you pick this book up!
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This book follows 5 people, who cross paths in a college church’s cemetery on a smoke break, as they find an open grave that opens the door for a dark secret that wouldn’t have been unearthed otherwise.
The characters work hard to unearth the secrets of the grave and those directly involved with the dug grave on a cold and dark October evening. They know something is going on and only they can figure it out. Or can they?
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This was not my cup of tea but I still enjoyed it. I felt hooked on it from the start and wanted to find out how everything tied together. I feel like a lot of the medical jargon went right over my head, though.
I felt like a lot of the material went in one ear and out the other, which is a damned shame, in my personal opinion. I felt like I would have enjoyed this novel more if it was written in a way that I could better understand. That’s just me, though. lol
I kept going with the novel, though, because I wanted to find out what happened in the end with the main characters. I wanted to find out what happened to the graveyard digger in particular but that was left kind of ambiguous, which disappointed me.
I don’t want to leave major spoilers in this review for people who haven’t read this book yet but I would still recommend it, all the same. I did enjoy it at the end of the day and that’s what matters more to me in the long run.
I normally hesitate to recommend books with a 3-star rating like this one but I don’t mind recommending it in this instance. It’s a shorter read, which I do enjoy from time to time when I’m between books.
I found this one to be hard to digest, though, but I do relate to the female characters who suffer with insomnia. I suffer with it as well, which is why my night shift schedule at work gives me so much freedom in the long run. I hope y’all enjoy if you pick this book up!
January 2, 2025
⟢ 2 stars
and the crowd is . . . confused?
you know what this book reminded me of? five survive (derogatory). set over the course of one night, graveyard shift is a fast-paced gothic mystery featuring five night shift workers who meet in the local cemetery for a smoke. their night takes a turn when they found a freshly dug grave . they find themselves entangled in a mystery that needs solving.
i feel very lukewarm about this book. the premise was very exciting and the rats? it was so promising. but unfortunately, everything felt short. since it's a novella, it was paced super fast. it didn't leave time to get to know any of the characters well which isn't really a problem because, again, this is a novella. the biggest problem is the fact that nothing actually happened. the real mystery lasted for about 20 pages and had no actual resolution. so basically the summary for this book is: nothing actually happens. like nothing.
so initially i was going to give this book around 1-2 stars but i do respect m.l. rio for making her fans wait a decade until she released something new only to give them absolutely nothing. because if that's not free will then i don't know what is!
in short: it's spooky. it's gothic. it's fast. yet nothing actually happens so read at your own risk.
𖥻 “ she learned to live in the permanent twilight of sleep-deprivation psychosis. life, if you could call it that, was a never-ending out-of-body experience ”
and the crowd is . . . confused?
you know what this book reminded me of? five survive (derogatory). set over the course of one night, graveyard shift is a fast-paced gothic mystery featuring five night shift workers who meet in the local cemetery for a smoke. their night takes a turn when they found a freshly dug grave . they find themselves entangled in a mystery that needs solving.
i feel very lukewarm about this book. the premise was very exciting and the rats? it was so promising. but unfortunately, everything felt short. since it's a novella, it was paced super fast. it didn't leave time to get to know any of the characters well which isn't really a problem because, again, this is a novella. the biggest problem is the fact that nothing actually happened. the real mystery lasted for about 20 pages and had no actual resolution. so basically the summary for this book is: nothing actually happens. like nothing.
so initially i was going to give this book around 1-2 stars but i do respect m.l. rio for making her fans wait a decade until she released something new only to give them absolutely nothing. because if that's not free will then i don't know what is!
in short: it's spooky. it's gothic. it's fast. yet nothing actually happens so read at your own risk.
October 21, 2024
2.5/5
Szkoda, że jest tak krótka - czuję się jakbym przeczytała wyrwane z kontekstu 100 stron większej całości i nie czuję pełnej satysfakcji, choć potencjał bym spory!
Po czasie jednak czuję, że ta książka nie zostanie ze mną na długo.
Szkoda, że jest tak krótka - czuję się jakbym przeczytała wyrwane z kontekstu 100 stron większej całości i nie czuję pełnej satysfakcji, choć potencjał bym spory!
Po czasie jednak czuję, że ta książka nie zostanie ze mną na długo.
March 20, 2025
Very ‘What Moves the Dead’ which isn’t a bad thing…
I loved the gothic undertones of the story and that’s where most my stars come in. The characters were different enough but I didn’t feel like I got a good handle on them since the book was so short and changed between 5 different perspectives.
I’d recommend this read to people who like more gothic forward stories and those looking for a short book to catch up on their reading goal. (It’s like 100 pages).
3.5⭐️ rounding up.
I loved the gothic undertones of the story and that’s where most my stars come in. The characters were different enough but I didn’t feel like I got a good handle on them since the book was so short and changed between 5 different perspectives.
I’d recommend this read to people who like more gothic forward stories and those looking for a short book to catch up on their reading goal. (It’s like 100 pages).
3.5⭐️ rounding up.
September 25, 2024
i wanted to love it so badly, but it wasn’t in the mycological cards. started off well enough, then took a hard left into scientific babble, pointless character interactions, and a very anti-climatic finish. the dialogue and writing overall were also deeply stilted, it kept me from being able to fully immerse. pretty bummed, this might have to be where rio and i part ways.
December 2, 2024
I have strong feelings about this. I loved it, but pinpointing exactly why is a challenge. When I reflect on the book, it's all a blur, almost like a dream.
The plot is straightforward, but the atmosphere the author creates makes it feel incredibly complex and elusive. My experience with the book was unique—it was both strange and enjoyable, leaving a lasting impression on me.
However, I can say that I wished it were longer. Still, I appreciated the author’s decision to leave the story somewhat open-ended.
The characters were all relatable, and they felt like real people. Tuck stood out as my favorite; I connected with him on an emotional level more than the other characters. The vibe of this book evoked a nostalgic feeling reminiscent of a black-and-white thriller TV series.
In conclusion, you have to read this book to grasp why so many people love it. But even after reading it, you may still feel a sense of confusion, and I believe this ambiguity enhances the overall impact of the story.
The plot is straightforward, but the atmosphere the author creates makes it feel incredibly complex and elusive. My experience with the book was unique—it was both strange and enjoyable, leaving a lasting impression on me.
However, I can say that I wished it were longer. Still, I appreciated the author’s decision to leave the story somewhat open-ended.
The characters were all relatable, and they felt like real people. Tuck stood out as my favorite; I connected with him on an emotional level more than the other characters. The vibe of this book evoked a nostalgic feeling reminiscent of a black-and-white thriller TV series.
In conclusion, you have to read this book to grasp why so many people love it. But even after reading it, you may still feel a sense of confusion, and I believe this ambiguity enhances the overall impact of the story.
November 20, 2024
Honestly I expected this to be weirder, creepier, and just… more than it was. Novellas aren’t my favorite but I still expected this to hit harder. I have no idea how to rate it.
(Bumping this down to an even 3 stars)
(Bumping this down to an even 3 stars)
September 25, 2024
Pretty tough to make a 100 page novella boring. Especially one that has a rat attack in the first few pages. But this book pulls it off!
Skippable
Skippable
November 17, 2024
girl that ending!!!!! (underwhelmed)
November 11, 2025
This had so much potential 😕
Read for my Halloween Horror reading vlog: https://youtu.be/Lgu4XOoLWGk
Written review to come!
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Read for my Halloween Horror reading vlog: https://youtu.be/Lgu4XOoLWGk
Written review to come!
You can find me on...
Youtube | Instagram | TikTok
You can join our book club over on Patreon...
PBB Book Club
June 29, 2025
1.5 stars! ☆
⤿ major spoilers ﹒⟢
i didn’t read the blurb before starting this, and honestly, thank god, because i think it would’ve made me even more disappointed. this has been on my tbr for a year, it’s short, it’s october coded, and i thought it might snap me out of a slump. instead it made me want to stop reading altogether.
it was boring. that’s it. that’s the whole review. i was bored.
the first few pages already lost me—like i get that they were supposed to be mysterious and atmospheric, but there was just something going on right away with the open grave and five different characters standing around reacting to it and none of that helped me get into it. especially when it takes me a bit to retain anything. i didn’t have the energy to play catch up, and i didn’t care enough to try.
and i never did care. not once. the entire story takes place over a single night and somehow nothing happens. they find a grave. they stare at it. they follow the guy who dug it. they stare some more. it’s paced like a mystery but without the tension or urgency or buildup—just a bunch of people walking around talking in circles and making edgy comments. i kept waiting for something to change or escalate, and it just never did.
the concept had potential. weird grave shows up in a rundown cemetery. night shift strangers keep meeting there. something shady’s going on behind the scenes. okay, fine, i can get into that. but the way the plot actually unfolds? lifeless. like. rats. dead ones. a whole massive grave of them dumped into a hole in the middle of the night. and sure, that sounds disturbing, but in the moment? i felt nothing. and the way it escalates into human experimentation? what was that. genuinely what was that. i thought we were doing some kind of gothic supernatural campus mystery and then suddenly we’re in a bad science thriller about fungus and brain implants. and yeah maybe that shift was hinted at if you read the blurb, but i didn’t—so to me it just felt like a random twist from a completely different story.
the characters didn’t help either. i didn’t like a single one. i think i especially hated the plot, but these people didn’t do anything for me either. i don’t mind unlikable characters, but they need to be interesting. or funny. or emotionally compelling. this was none of that. the dynamic between them was weird, the banter wasn’t good, and most of them felt like walking archetypes. i don’t know. i just didn’t care about them. i barely remembered who was who half the time. literally half my annotations were just me calling edie annoying.
also i can’t stress enough how much this didn’t feel like a story. it felt like a premise. and even that might be generous. everything about it felt like setup with no payoff. we get these big dramatic moments and none of it leads anywhere satisfying. the characters find something weird, talk about how weird it is, then move on. and the writing kept trying to make it sound important, but i was just like… okay. sure. what’s the point.
this was one of those books that made me wish i just picked something else. and maybe i would’ve liked it better if i read it two years ago, or knew more going in, or wasn’t kinda slumpy already. but i didn’t. and i don’t. and it didn’t help.
literally what was the point of this.
━━━━ ⊱⋆⊰ ━━━━
☆ 🖇️ pre-read 𖥻 ＜꒱
vacation’s over, i’ve barely read anything in two weeks, and i’m officially in denial about entering a slump. if this one doesn’t work, i’m gonna have to start rereading comfort books out of desperation.
⤿ major spoilers ﹒⟢
i didn’t read the blurb before starting this, and honestly, thank god, because i think it would’ve made me even more disappointed. this has been on my tbr for a year, it’s short, it’s october coded, and i thought it might snap me out of a slump. instead it made me want to stop reading altogether.
it was boring. that’s it. that’s the whole review. i was bored.
the first few pages already lost me—like i get that they were supposed to be mysterious and atmospheric, but there was just something going on right away with the open grave and five different characters standing around reacting to it and none of that helped me get into it. especially when it takes me a bit to retain anything. i didn’t have the energy to play catch up, and i didn’t care enough to try.
and i never did care. not once. the entire story takes place over a single night and somehow nothing happens. they find a grave. they stare at it. they follow the guy who dug it. they stare some more. it’s paced like a mystery but without the tension or urgency or buildup—just a bunch of people walking around talking in circles and making edgy comments. i kept waiting for something to change or escalate, and it just never did.
the concept had potential. weird grave shows up in a rundown cemetery. night shift strangers keep meeting there. something shady’s going on behind the scenes. okay, fine, i can get into that. but the way the plot actually unfolds? lifeless. like. rats. dead ones. a whole massive grave of them dumped into a hole in the middle of the night. and sure, that sounds disturbing, but in the moment? i felt nothing. and the way it escalates into human experimentation? what was that. genuinely what was that. i thought we were doing some kind of gothic supernatural campus mystery and then suddenly we’re in a bad science thriller about fungus and brain implants. and yeah maybe that shift was hinted at if you read the blurb, but i didn’t—so to me it just felt like a random twist from a completely different story.
the characters didn’t help either. i didn’t like a single one. i think i especially hated the plot, but these people didn’t do anything for me either. i don’t mind unlikable characters, but they need to be interesting. or funny. or emotionally compelling. this was none of that. the dynamic between them was weird, the banter wasn’t good, and most of them felt like walking archetypes. i don’t know. i just didn’t care about them. i barely remembered who was who half the time. literally half my annotations were just me calling edie annoying.
also i can’t stress enough how much this didn’t feel like a story. it felt like a premise. and even that might be generous. everything about it felt like setup with no payoff. we get these big dramatic moments and none of it leads anywhere satisfying. the characters find something weird, talk about how weird it is, then move on. and the writing kept trying to make it sound important, but i was just like… okay. sure. what’s the point.
this was one of those books that made me wish i just picked something else. and maybe i would’ve liked it better if i read it two years ago, or knew more going in, or wasn’t kinda slumpy already. but i didn’t. and i don’t. and it didn’t help.
literally what was the point of this.
━━━━ ⊱⋆⊰ ━━━━
☆ 🖇️ pre-read 𖥻 ＜꒱
vacation’s over, i’ve barely read anything in two weeks, and i’m officially in denial about entering a slump. if this one doesn’t work, i’m gonna have to start rereading comfort books out of desperation.
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