What do an empty grave, a bunch of dead lab rats, and a string of violent outbursts have in common? The answer to this question can be found in M.L. Rio’s new novella, Graveyard Shift, where Mystery, Inc. meets modern gothic.

Set in a college town, the story begins with a group of late-night workers who convene at the nearby graveyard behind the Church of Saint Anthony the Anchorite every evening at midnight for a smoking break. When the self-dubbed “Anchorites” stumble upon a freshly dug grave with no clue as to why it appeared or who put it there, they speculate that it might have something to do with recent fits of sudden aggression from random people on and off the college campus. Their evening thus turns into a focused hunt for answers.

With Occam’s razor as a guiding principle (“The simplest explanation is usually the best explanation”), each of the Anchorites plays his or her own small part in finding the truth, while also confronting the turmoil, both small and large, in their own lives.

Edie, a journalism student and editor-in-chief of The Belltower Times, thinks she’s found the latest story that will bring her acclaim. Tuck, who is tired, indebted, and has only half a degree in microbiology to his name, just wants a safe spot to sleep for the night. Theo, a handsome screw-up working at the local bar, The Rocker Box, is hoping for second chances with one-night stands. Tamar, a hotel receptionist with a library science degree she doesn’t use, wants something she cares about. Hannah, an insomniac ride-share driver, is looking for real answers to her sleeplessness.

Told over the course of one evening, Graveyard Shift is striking in its mismatched cast of characters and sharp, foreboding narrative voice. The world of the Anchorites is fast-paced and filled with labels — “Anchorites,” “The Hole,” “Hostile Incidents,” “Belligerents.” The terminology can be a bit confusing at first, but Rio quickly ushered me into this odd evening with haunting imagery and ripe tension in the Anchorites’ search for clues despite not knowing what exactly was around the corner. As soon as the second chapter, tensions run high as Edie and Tuck investigate the gravedigger from the shadows:

“…Tuck opened his eyes to try to mime at her to Stop, just fucking stop! But when he did, she wasn’t touching him. Wasn’t even close. Still on all fours, ignoring him completely as she maneuvered for a better view around the tombstone, hair hanging over her shoulder so she looked headless in the dark.”

With the shorter format of the novella, it is impressive how much character work is contained in Graveyard Shift. Each chapter shifts perspective to one or another of the Anchorites as each plays a part in the investigation, and I was enraptured with the decisive agency and personal dramas of each. Though some characters like Tamar and Tuck get less of a chance to shine than the others, it is harder not to be more interested in Hannah, as her eventual connection to the grave becomes clearer. I also felt moved by Edie’s arc throughout the novella, especially as she is the catalyst for the evening’s events and drives the investigation in pursuit of a new story.

With spellbinding characterization and an engrossing, serpentine mystery, Graveyard Shift is sure to add the perfect chill to a fall evening.

I was very drawn in by the premise, it was giving some What Feasts at Night vibes only in modern day. I would have loved for this to be longer. I enjoyed all of the characters and the switching points of view. I so wish there was more about what was going on with Hannah, I feel like that could have been expanded on a lot more and it definitely didn't go in as dark a direction as I thought it would. I did feel like it ended abruptly in not a satisfying way, almost as if it just started getting really good and then... it was done.

All the same, it was overall a very enjoyable spooky novella.

I wrote a review for the audiobook as well, but I very much enjoyed this bite sized spooky story! M. L. Rio's writing never disappoints, and I can't wait for her next full length book!

This novella was super easy to fly through and was a great autumnal read. Besides a lot of the novella being set in a graveyard, I did not find the story very spooky, which I was hoping for. Following a group of characters that were all very distinctly different, I enjoyed seeing the way each character’s voice and mind was portrayed. I do wish the novella was a bit longer so that we could maybe become more attached to both the characters and the plot. I wish the story had been more dark and eerie.

The dark side of research. The dangers of a life without sleep, and the desperation it can cause.

A group of night people gather to smoke on the edge of a campus, in the cemetery outside an abandoned church. One night, a Hole appears, like a grave, in a cemetery that hasn't been used for a century.

It takes the group down a weird path that exposes their fears, weaknesses, and desires, and forces them to see each other beyond the surface of just being the weirdos that still smoke and need to do it discreetly.

As someone who has had issues with sleep, the author's note beforehand was extremely relatable and probably my most highlighted part of the book, but the rest of it was also excellent. Once it gets rolling, the action doesn't slow down, and piece by piece things are revealed, and the true horror goes deeper and deeper.

I really appreciated the distaste for unethical researchers and the obsession with being the cutting edge that came through here.

I thought I would enjoy this, but it just wasn't for me. It's a novella that takes place over a single night and I don't think there was enough time to connect to any of the characters. By the end, I was skimming just to finish because I honestly didn't care about the mystery or conclusion.

A short spooky read with great writing style but too many questions and inconsistencies. Really liked the overall atmosphere.

I received this for review.This is a novella, and I think if you’re a fan of the spooky, you’ll enjoy this. I too enjoyed it but I think for me, to propel this into loving it, it would have to have been longer with more context. I loved the opening note by the author, saying this is for all the night owls perpetually on the graveyard shift. We night people get it. I think it’s a good quick read for spooky season.

M.L. Rio strikes gold again in this dark, atmospheric, spooky novella about five graveyard workers who take smoke breaks from their late nights shifts together. One night, the group discovers a shallow grave in the graveyard, and a 24-hour investigation follows, fueled by sleep deprivation, the exhaustion of menial labor, and all the spookiness that a graveyard setting provides. M.L. Rio is fantastic at creating a sense of unease in the reader through the simple yet skillful way she layers in description, dialogue, and the unreliable mental states of each character. The only thing preventing this from being five stars for me was that I think if it had been longer, the characters and story could have been given a shade more depth that I felt was slightly lacking in this nonetheless great novella. Highly recommend for a chilly spooky season evening indoors!

Thank you to NetGalley, Flatiron Books, and M.L. Rio for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

The idea for this book was an interesting one, and I thought I was going to enjoy it more than I actually did. The writing style of M. L. Rio is captivating, there were tons of lines I found to be quite clever and well worded- a lot of scenes even could've been captured in a movie. Despite this, after the first portion of the book the plot began to fall flat. It felt as though the dynamics between characters were not worked on enough, and the pacing just skipped past so many details. There could've been much more explained if it had been longer, and it definitely has the potential to be expanded upon. However, by the halfway point this book no longer had my attention at all, and the ending gives the audience a reaction of "that was it??" So much could be said and portrayed around the aspects of insomnia, and the real struggle that people face with that kind of experience, but to my disappointment Graveyard Shift failed to execute these themes properly.

while i thought this one got off to an intriguing start, for me it never came together. i did enjoy the dark academia meets the last of us vibes but i didn’t really feel invested in the characters or the story by the end. thank you to flatiron for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Every night, five unlikely people cross paths in a cemetery near a local university to smoke. One is the editor of the school newspaper, one is a bartender, one is a hotel receptionist, one is a ride-share driver, and the fifth is a former student who now takes care of the church that abuts the celebratory.

One evening they notice a hole that had not previously been there. And soon they observe the person who appears to have dug the hole. With this clue, the five seek to learn more about whether the hole is connected with a series of strange events around town. As their investigation goes deeper, they increasingly realize that an even more disturbing set of events may be underway.

From the author of If We We’re Villains, this novella is a dark and twisty story. With shifting perspectives, the author creates a richly imagined world with strong characters and interesting questions.

Highly recommend.

TW/CW: Language, cancer, classism, animal death (rats), depression, smoking, divorce, gory scenes, blood, toxic relationships, drinking

*****SPOILERS*****
About the book:
Every night, in the college’s ancient cemetery, five people cross paths as they work the late shift: 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.
Release Date: September 24th, 2024
Genre: Horror
Pages: 144
Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

What I Liked:
1. Audiobook has a full cast
2. Love the cover
3. Book starting off with authors note (very Stephen King)
4. Quick read
5. Playlist at the end 🔥🔥🔥
6. Enjoyed the writing style

What I Didn't Like:
1. Plot holes
2. Too many questions left unanswered
3. Don't really know who these characters are
4. Too short to give satisfactory answers

Overall Thoughts:
{{Disclaimer: I write my review as I read}}

Misery loved company, and made strange bedfellows.

Love that all these characters meet up in a graveyard to smoke.

We met 5 characters in the graveyard on a dark October night while having their smokes.

Edie - is a editor-in-chief and she has found a lump in her armpit. Feel like her personality kind of lacks.

Tuck - is living in the graveyard since not being able to pay his student loans and dropping out of college. (side note: they won't report your loans until you're out of school so I don't understand how he had to drop out of school because he didn't pay his loans). He's trying to loose Edie who is following him around the graveyard when he's just trying to return back to where he's staying. This brought another question to mind as to;
• Why would he leave this area to meet up with a group of people to smoke?
• Why would he lead Edie back to where he's been staying if he didn't want her know this about him?
They notice a bunch of dead rats and a gravedigger burying all of them.

Theo - is a bartender that sleeps with his co-workers. Found it odd that Edie had his number when she described her relationship with this people as random and not personal. Almost as they just bump into each other at same location/time. Theo manages to stop the gravedigger and persuade him to come in for a drink.

Tamar - hotel receptionist that thinks she suffers from mental illnesses and loves to give everyone a diagnosis of their own illnesses. She is good at figuring out that there is something wrong with the rats.

Hannah - drives a Toyota for the last 10 years suffers from extreme insomnia so badly that nothing helps. She is a rideshare driver. She lights up in her car because she doesn't care if she does. She mentions that she continues to go back to the graveyard to smoke because she wants to hang out with the group, but I didn't even understand how she met this group if there was no reason for her to go there to smoke, since she smokes in her car. I don't know one smoker who would choose to stand outside in the cold rather than sit in their warm car.

Hope we come back and it lets us know why they wanted to bury instead of incelerate them.

We actually find out that Hannah was part of this sleep study from a doctor who called herself Heather. And a few weeks ago they cut off the study because rats were dying. Hannah is desperate to find out if she's going to be one of the people but also dies. Extreme Rage and blindness are common side effects of this.

So they do tell us why the rats were buried instead of being burned and it feels like a very generic answer. The variance that are in the rat will just go back into the Earth because it's like this weird natural thing that reacts to animals and people. I just don't think that makes any sense because when you change how it's going into the body wouldn't that change its effects when it breaks down in the soil and affect everything else? I'm not a scientist so I don't really know. I also can't believe that this lab doesn't have its own incelerator so they wouldn't have to send it out.

Everything was just so easy to figure that it only took the one night to know what was going. And they all just know the sciences behind everything.

Tamer and Hannah are in a sexual relationship much to Hannah's chagrin. It's after staying the morning at Tamer's house that Hannah is showing signs of blindness and a sign that she's nearing death.

Final Thoughts:
Some parts of this book didn't make sense.
Why people who had no reason to be in the graveyard at all would either;
• Return to the graveyard
• There in the first place
Some of them had no reason to be there because their job didn't make them go there. It's never really explained how they all meet each other it's just implied that they all met that way. Like I said it didn't make sense for Hannah to have met these people or to return to hanging out with them. Why would Tuck leave where he's staying at to go meet these people to have a cigarette? Why would Theo need to go to the cemetery to have a cigarette when he works at a bar and you can just smoke outside it. Tons of smokers go outside to smoke plus I can't imagine this location wouldn't have a smoking area outside it.

So.... Does Edie have cancer? The lump is mentioned many times and goes no where.

Playlist mentions so many great bands/songs. Seriously dude had Concrete Blonde's "Bloodletting" which is a fangtastic song! She even brings it back to Elastica. Ohh and The Cure.


I do wish that all the characters would have been together as that's kind of what the synopsis hinted at but they're never really in a group as a whole together.

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Thanks to Netgalley and Flatiron Books for this advanced ebook. Thanks to Macmillan Audio for this advanced audiobook. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I absolutely loved If We Were Villains, so I was so excited to read the author's new novella! This was a great, short read for spooky season. It was so gothic and atmospheric, being set largely in a cemetery and abandoned church. The cast of characters were all very different, and we got to know just enough about everyone to be engaged in the story. Plus, that ending felt SO ominous.

I'd highly recommend this one as an eerie and short read for spooky season!

A short and creepy novella that shares the events of one evening after a group of misfits discover an empty grave. With an bandoned graveyard, odd mushrooms, and even a part time librarian in the mix this is the perfect spooky time story. I wish it had been longer but the author definitely succeeded in her concept and developing an intriguing storyline. Thank you to netgalley for providing me with an arc for review!

Graveyard Shift is such a spooky, engaging, and atmospheric story! The university graveyard setting is perfect for the story and it fits perfectly for autumn.

I feel conflicted by this title. While I was fully immersed in the story, and i personally love ‘bottle’ type plots where it takes place in one day in a closed setting, I ultimately wanted more from this. I found myself rereading the last chapter because it ended so abruptly. I felt like this world could have expanded a bit more to give us more characterization and a bit more resolve. I still liked this book though and the atmosphere it created. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this for review!

I loved the beginning of this book and was instantly hooked. Unfortunately, it del flat and ended up being a miss for me. It might work better as a full on novel. There wasn’t enough time to get into all of the characters. I liked that it took place over one night but it was missing the build up of tension I would expect in a novella.

Thank you to NetGalley and Flatiron Booksfor the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

This is a very atmospheric short read as fall and "spooky season" approaches. As with most novellas I do wish that the story was longer and gave us more time with the characters to really see their full development, however I loved the approach of everything happening over the course of a single night. There is no denying M.L. Rio's writing immediately draws the reader in and leaves us wanting more.

“They’re so keen to be on the bleeding f*cking edge they end up setting everyone else back decades.”

M.L. Rio, author of the bestselling If We Were Villains, returns with Graveyard Shift, a novella that promises an atmospheric and eerie experience as it follows five night-shift workers who meet regularly in a college’s ancient cemetery, only to discover a mysterious freshly dug grave one October evening which may be connected to the strange cases of people going berserk in town. However, the book fell slightly short of its potential.

The premise is intriguing—five insomniacs from different walks of life coming together to solve a mystery over the course of a single night. But, the execution leaves something to be desired. The plot and characters lack some depth, resulting in a story that feels somewhat superficial. Readers may find themselves wishing for more substantial character development and a more intricate plot to match the atmospheric setup.

Rio’s strength lies in her ability to craft an unsettling atmosphere, particularly in the opening scenes set in the graveyard. Her prose excels at creating a sense of creepiness and unease that perfectly sets the stage for what could have been a more chilling tale.

One of the main drawbacks is the brevity of the story. At roughly 130 pages, it seems that Graveyard Shift would have benefited from being longer and more fleshed out. The narrative builds anticipation for horrifying events that never quite materialize, which may disappoint readers expecting a more traditional horror experience.

Despite these shortcomings, Graveyard Shift does succeed in creating a modern Gothic ambiance. Rio’s writing style, familiar to fans of If We Were Villains, shines through in the academic setting and ensemble cast. The book serves as an ideal read for those looking to dip their toes into the spooky season, offering just enough of an eerie atmosphere to set the mood without delving into full-fledged horror.

In conclusion, while Graveyard Shift may not fully live up to the high expectations set by Rio’s previous work, it still offers an enjoyable, quick read for those seeking a taste of autumnal atmosphere. It’s best approached as a mood piece rather than a deeply plotted mystery or horror novel. Fans of Rio’s writing style and those who appreciate atmospheric prose will find elements to enjoy, even if the overall experience leaves them wanting more.