I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

This was my first M.L. Rio, and it flopped. I'm still planning on trying out "We Are Villains", but if I hadn't heard such high praise for that book, this book would have completely put my off reading M.L. Rio again.
I thought the story had such amazing potential, but it failed to meet it in any way. The story is extremely short and takes place over the span of a single night. I don't believe that a story has to have a point to be worth reading, but "Graveyard Shift" truly didn't give me anything. We spend so little time with the characters that I didn't care what happened to them. We are given all the information without any effort. If the story was novel-length, I think it could have been great. We might have been able to connect with the characters and care about the plot.
I listened to this as an audiobook and thought the quality was good. We get to hear from M.L. Rio in the beginning, and it's always a delight to hear the author's voice. The narrators were good. Nothing about the audiobook hinders the experience of this story. The story just doesn't offer a lot to begin with.
Thank you to M.L. Rio and Macmillan Audio via Netgalley for an ARC of this audiobook in exchange for my honest feedback.

I sent a personal note to the publisher. I'd prefer to refrain from a public review for this book. Thank you.

M.L. Rio's Graveyard Shift is a captivating novella that masterfully blends modern Gothic elements with a dark academic setting. The story follows five night-shift workers—a bartender, a rideshare driver, a hotel receptionist, a church steward, and a college newspaper editor—who converge in an ancient cemetery and discover a freshly dug, unmarked grave. As they delve into this mystery, they uncover unsettling events that challenge their perceptions of reality. Rio's atmospheric writing and intricate character development make this a compelling read for fans of eerie, character-driven narratives.

This novella felt dark and stormy from the beginning—it was well done and I wanted it to be longer, but that’s the nature of a novella!

I loved this book. The characters were interesting and very well described. They might not have been instantly likeable, but Rio does such a great job showing their humanity, that it makes perfect sense why these five characters is forming a bond around their insomnia. They have very different reasons for staying awake while others sleep, but they form a friendship and look out for each other.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

Experimenting with writing craft and words creates a dark mystery in psychological thrillers. I appreciate the unique style this book offers. Although it's short, I wish it were a bit longer.

I love M.L Rio! Truly they do no wrong! I'm such a fan of everything that they write. I enjoyed the pacing of this book and was drawn in from the start!

A perfect atmosphere of a cold and damp graveyard visted by the most unlikely group of people. I loved the quick pace of this novel and the audiobook format was perfect for a night where I could not sleep myself. The full cast narration adds to the atmosphere of the novel and creates an immersive experience.

This was not good. I was truly bored and zoned out because of that. The narrators sounded like they were doing commentary on a true crime doc. I literally had to ask someone else what exactly the point of this book was. The writing style is good but this could’ve been so much better if it were a novel and explained things more.

Calling all insomniac readers – read this in a single sitting on your next sleepless night!

Read this for:

🐀 a short, eerie grown-up Scooby-Doo-mystery episode dripping with gothic atmosphere
🌙 a group of misfit night shift workers in an old graveyard
🌿 eerie vibes, fungi, rats, grave-digging

Follow these 5 night shift workers who meet regularly for a late-night smoke break in an old graveyard over the course of a single Autumn night.

This morsel of a story is delightfully creepy, full of atmospheric tension, with a touch of dark academia and morally grey characters—plus, weird fungus! As expected, M.L. Rio, known for *If We Were Villains*, brings her signature beautiful writing and compelling character dynamics.

Unfortunately, the short page count meant that the mystery left super underdeveloped and the ending was SO abrupt. I wish this was a couple hundred pages longer!

as a lover of ML Rio’s debut, i was ready to love this one too, and she did not disappoint!! her prose is sharp and concise and vivid, which i adore. rio’s style translated well to novella format, even with a cast of five point of view characters. the mystery kept me hooked, and the creepy vibes were pervasive throughout. all in all a successful and gripping piece.

audiobook specifically: i LOVE that this had a full cast of different voice actors for each point of view. while the character voices were distinct in the writing, having different narrators helped me keep up even better. the overall production quality is great, and i loved ML rio reading the author’s note and playlist at the beginning and end respectively.

This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2024. Can I say it was disappointing? Not really, it wasn't what I was expecting so the fault lies with me and my expectations, Once past that, I found this to be thoroughly enjoyable if not too short!

I enjoyed the multiple POV's, it was so well done in this audio format and I found myself easily envisioning each character. While I went in with certain expectations, I still enjoyed the story as a whole. Again, I was expecting a dark academia setting within a college setting itself. Once I got into the rhythm of the story, I found myself immersed in the mystery of the graveyard and the newly dug grave - rats and all.

The atmosphere is dark and gloomy and I loved this! The characters - all from different walks of life, brought together at first for a place to smoke and gather in shared insomnia and then by a shared mystery, were exceptionally well drawn out, making this, again, a fantastic audio performance.

My thanks to MacMillan Audio for this gifted ALC

This book demands to be read in one sitting with a warm drink under a blanket. For how short this novella is, I felt so connected to the characters. The ambiguous ending leaves me hoping for a Part 2. Overall very enjoyable.

Graveyard Shift was a quick easy read that got me hooked quickly. I enjoyed the back and forth among the character narrations. I wished it had continued a little longer, but enjoyed the mystery of the novel.

GRAVEYARD SHIFT
M.L. Rio

My first trip on the Rio express and I didn’t want to get off.

Quirky and fun, not two words you’d normally use to describe a horror book, even one as short as GRAVEYARD SHIFT. But it was both of those things and although I don’t think it’ll hit right for everyone, it hit right with me.

It has a handful of characters, all a little strange in their own way. They come together to work the GRAVEYARD SHIFT and soon find themselves in the middle of a mystery.



I decided there was no better place to read GRAVEYARD SHIFT than a graveyard. No way to know what it feels like to walk over a grave than to do it. Although it wasn’t as scary as I would’ve liked it was atmospheric and a delight to experience. The only way to have heightened my experience would have been to read it overnight. But the graveyard I went to closes its gates at night, which is a creepy thought.

I listened to the audiobook, which was fantastic. It allowed me to walk through the graves, acknowledge those who have passed, and play a game of “who has the same birthday as me” with the gravestones. A bit macabre, but it fits right in with the material.

This is my first time reading Rio. I have not had the pleasure of reading IF WE WERE VILLAINS. It is on my long list of backlist titles that I need to prioritize. If you’ve read it, leave me a line in the comments. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

GRAVEYARD SHIFT Is out now, and ready for consumption!

Thanks to Netgalley, Macmillan Audio, and Flatiron Books for the advanced copies!

GRAVEYARD SHIFT…⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this audio book.

Quick read/listen with a decent amount packed in to such a short story. The ending was a bit abrupt, but I enjoyed it overall.

I enjoyed this audiobook! I don't know how much I loved the actual plotline, but I definitely liked the mood. Very atmospheric and moody (all of M.L. Rio's work that I've read feels this way, but works so well with this spooky story)! Good.

Okay, Okay, Okay!

First things first, can we talk about how much information was poured into this?

Never mind, let's take a couple steps back.

So basically, we’ve got this crew. They’re weirdos. And I don’t mean that in a harsh way, if that makes sense? They gather at night to smoke and catch up in this local graveyard because it’s just the right distance away from surrounding buildings. Yah know, with the specific smoking rules and such.

They're not really friends? Not really strangers? But they get together to talk every night. To chat.

The five of them are each very different from one another. That’s where the information comes in. You can really tell that Rio put in the time to research different aspects concerning their lives. Which is insane, seeing how there are FIVE of them and they're very different from each other.

Props Rio. I give you major props.

I won’t get into too many details, but one of the characters shares lots of characteristics with a friend of mine who is going into Library Science. It was like I was reading her life, with some extra bits and bobs of course.

Anyways! I really enjoyed the relationships amongst the characters as well as their realistic reactions to the problem at hand. I listened to the Audiobook, but I’ll probably try my hand at reading the physical copy when it releases simply because I feel like I missed some things. I also prefer Reading over Audiobooks, but I was too excited to wait!

I will also note, it was a multicast Audiobook! Not very many people know those exist and they're not super common. When I realized all of the characters were going to get their own voice, I was even more excited! It gives the listener a chance to really get immersed with the story, especially when the voice acting is done well like it was for this Audiobook. Great performance guys!

For now, I’m going to give this Novella a 3.5/5-star rating. I say that because, like I mentioned previously, I feel I’ll probably enjoy it more once I can read it with my own eyes and go back over certain things at my own pace. Not to mention I got lost in the sauce a couple times when it came to certain character’s inner monologues. The unfortunate side to backing up your characters with lots of information: Though it helps build the characters, it can be overwhelming when you have such a large cast and so few pages. Having to squeeze everything into something so small as a Novella and still clean it up for a satisfying ending couldn’t have been easy. If the book had been longer some scenes wouldn’t have felt so info dumpy.

Overall, it was a pleasure to read M.L. Rio’s writing again and I’m so glad to have been given a chance at early access to it.

My thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the free Advanced copy. This Audiobook is expected to be published September 24, 2024.

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.