Literally Dead Book Club discussion

Since we have 3 reads of the month, and they are all short- I didn't think we needed discussion posts throughout the reading process- so just share all of your thoughts on Graveyard Shift here!

I actually quite enjoyed this novella!

It brought me back to those early Sunday mornings as a kid watching Scooby-Doo episodes.

Would this have done better as a full length novel? Maybe but I will say I like that you were left wondering what’s next for Hannah.

I really liked this one! I might be biased as someone in academia but I thought the vibes were great, spooky but also real (in a way that is also kinda spooky lol)

2.5 stars, rounded down. I didn’t like the way this was written and I didn’t really understand the ending…

2 for 2 on novellas that end without any real answers 😅 are we supposed to infer that Tamar added the sleep drug to Hannah's eyes? If so, why would she do the bulk of the research about the experiments and give the evidence to the rest of the group? But otherwise I'm mystified about the inclusion of the egg thing Hannah found in the medicine cabinet.

I was fully expecting it to end with Hannah starting into a violent episode, as the research they'd all done pointed to anyone experimented on turning on people and hurting someone.

Everything seemed to wrap up a little too neatly (Edie gets her flashy article, Tuck gets a place to stay, etc) and then there was a strong turn in the last chapter, so I'm not sure what I'm supposed to walk away with here

I rated this one 2/5......

I loved the group of characters and I thought the premise was super interesting, but I just felt like it fell so flat! I understand that it was a novella but I just don't feel like it was a well-rounded story. The ending left my confused and was just lackluster.

I will say I did like her style of writing and I would totally be open to reading more of her stuff - I just felt like this was missing something

5 stars from me. The last and best of the three novellas.

I am in the middle of If We Were Villains right now and I just love the way Rio writes group of friends. Each of the characters are distinct from each other with their own struggles and growth which is something apparent even in this short novella.

While I see where people are coming with the ending being dissatifactory, but honestly I like that we don't really know what is going to happen.

2.75 stars for me, felt like an outline for a novel repurposed as a novella — too many characters, too much info-dump, and no time for proper plot development, emotional investment, or a satisfying conclusion.

3.5⭐️

I really enjoyed this book. I saw someone’s review recently that said this book was Scooby Doo + Reality Bites and I think that perfectly sums up WHY i enjoyed this book 🤣

5 stars for me! I loved the concept, the funky cast of characters and the weirdness of it all. The only thing I would change is its length. This could have been fleshed out into a whole novel and I would have loved it. I had been putting off If We Were Villains by this author and decided to pick it up immediately after and also gave that a 5 stars. I think I found a new auto-buy author.

2/5 sadly. I just felt like there was zero closure. It was too much for such a short book.

2 stars for me. It started out interesting, but it somehow managed to both be predictable and ended so openly that I'm not even curious what will happen next to any of them. I think it just didn't have enough drama for me. I love If We Were Villains, and will absolutely continue to read anything M.L. Rio puts out.

Because the book was so well-written, I feel bad giving it 2 stars. For me, it felt more like a group of people telling me about an event that happened to them the other evening. Enough to keep me tied to my seat until the tale ended, but not enough to want to see it put down on paper.
And I'm guessing that Hannah giving into violence the night before allowed her to finally get some rest?

Another ambiguous ending… Dang. This was another one where I thought the build up was well done and it had me hooked, but you again never really get anything solved. This might be an unpopular opinion but I’m starting to feel like these ambiguous endings are a bit lazy. Like then you don’t have to figure out how to end things or tie up storylines, just here’s another mystery you’ll never have solved. I also again wasn’t a fan of the graphic animal violence scene, that just isn’t for me.

I thought the characters were interesting, but I think this might have done better for me as a full length novel, where you got to learn more about the characters and their pasts. I also think it would’ve been interesting to get more about the experiment itself, as most of the explanation included was just a lot of science words, which got a little boring.

I liked the writing style and the atmospheric nature of the novella, but the ending just made it ‘meh’ for me. I think I’m giving this one a 2/5 as well.

This one was a 2 star for me unfortunately... just could not bring myself to care about the characters or the story

2 Stars for me. This short story was all short and no story.

3.5 for me
This was just slightly above average. I enjoyed the vibe but needed more substance. I wanted more spooky stuff and way more of the rats and fungus.
The open ending was great and I enjoyed that.

As someone with mild insomnia, a circadian rhythm weighted heavily toward the night, and a tendency to read or play games until the sun literally rises, I related a lot to the vibes of this novella. I liked the different POVs, the varied reasons why each character is up so late, and the contrast of the nighttime quiet with the hurried mystery. My copy of the book includes an essay, in which the author explains she chose not to write a happy ending because coming out of a sleepless night and starting the day is never easy — “sleepless nights have a long, forked tail”. Unfortunately for Hannah, the light of day brings more side effects of the fungus, signs she’s nearing the end. 4 stars because there were a few moments where more time spent on character background would’ve been nice.

2 stars. Felt like I’d read it before. All the characters were a little try-hard edgy. Nothing to really care about. Lazy ending.

5 stars for me!! this is brilliant. I love her writing. it's intelligent, DARK and very atmospheric.

I loved the characters and how they interacted with each other. The ending is a bit ambiguous yes. but i like that. Poor Hannah is doomed I'm sure!

i enjoyed this so much. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

I enjoyed this one. Liked the characters. Fun premise.

3 stars. I feel like this novella was just an outline for a larger novel. I would have loved to have seen this as a long book. I found the fungal references interesting but it didn't go anywhere. Hannah was crusing towards canabalism and I wish it would have leaned more into the horror.

A fellow graveyard worker here, I felt close, and more connected to these characters and I actually really like the writing style. I am a tad upset with how fast everything wrapped up and I wish there was more of an explanation or more answers than what was given. In particular to the rats. I just feel like there wasn’t enough ? I’m not sure how to explain it but I wanted more to this story. But overall I really enjoyed this novella, I enjoyed the characters, I enjoyed the plot. It was cool. 4⭐️

I really enjoyed the creepy "you wouldn't believe what happened last night" vibes. the characters felt distinct after a few chapters and the weird tangents are what I would expect a friend to get into while telling me a story. 4🌟

4 stars by me, also like the Scooby Doo vibes, the characters, the climax…. was disappointed by the sudden ending, expected one more chapter to wrap it up. Seriously thinking of looking for other books by the author. Btw. what is the November book?????

I settled on a 2.5. I enjoyed the characters, but the story itself was unfortunately boring to me. I can usually glean my own ideas to explain these kinds of open endings, but this one just left me feeling 'meh'.

This was the first book I'd read by this author and I really liked it, especially as someone who has worked the night shift and is a naturally a night owl. I know the feelings they felt when it came to lack of sleep.

While the ending was kind of cliffhangerish I still liked it and gave it a 4.25 stars rounded down to 4.