The ARC for this book came in and the perfect time. I was really in the mood for a mystery and this novella hit the spot with dark academia, gothic vibes the audio was a really engaging listen. I particularly liked the multiple narrators for each character.

Graveyard Shift is about a group of people with various reasons for being up at night that meet at a graveyard nightly during their cigarette breaks. One night they discover a freshly dug hole in the ancient graveyard and that leads to a night of discovery.

I don’t normally read novellas so I felt like the conclusion was the first red herring in a normal length mystery which was a little jarring. Overall I think this was a fast paced listen that hit all the mystery notes in a small package.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the ARC.

I was soooo looking forward to Graveyard Shift as a fan of If We Were Villains.

Graveyard shift has the same great writing and atmosphere but the novella format really hinders it. Sometimes we find the characters glossing over details or just moving onto the next plot point so quickly it's hard to fully immerse yourself. It just feels like we have half of the story. There are a lot of POVs and details to keep straight for a book that's only 144 pages.

Overall, loved the concept and overall creepiness of the story. Just wish the story was more concise or longer.

TW: Animal Death (just in case that's a button for you)

I didn't have any strong reactions to this one. It's short. The premise is interesting. It wraps up nicely.

The audio was well done though sounds a bit mechanical at times.

I listened to the audiobook of Graveyard Shift by M. L. Rio. It was an entertaining, short listen, but it was just okay. I enjoyed the multiple POVs and the storyline, but the characters were a bit lacking and bland. The first chapter or two were a little hard to follow what was going on, as we were getting introduced to the characters and setting. The atmosphere and overall academia/spooky vibes were enjoyable and I thought the plot itself was interesting, albeit not the best executed.

If you’re looking for a short audiobook to listen to while on a drive or doing chores, I think this is a good fit. I probably would read/listen to another book by this author, but maybe not a novella.

Thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and the author M. L. Rio for the gifted ARC copy of this audiobook.

This was a quick listen with a very eerie backdrop. The combination of academia with sleep deprivation and unfortunate outcomes of thwarting insomnia was a compelling mixture of ideas. The graveyard with the empty grave, the rats, and the eye drops all had little clues woven throughout the story. However, I couldn’t relate to any of the characters and found them all to be bland. I do like that there was a playlist and a cocktail menu towards the end, made it feel more real.

Graveyard Shift by M.L. Rio was fine. I'm definitely glad I heard it on audiobook instead of reading it because the multi-narrator brought something fun to the experience. The novella itself was okay, I don't necessary thing it was captivating and I just wanted to know what was happening ASAP. The ending was a little bit of a let down, too. Overall, it was an okay experience.

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and M.L. Rio for providing me with the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This is a novella and I think that's my biggest issue with the story. Actually, jumping from narrator to narrator is my biggest issue.

Garveyard Shift follows a group of five people join together to solve the mystery of a freshly dug hole (grave) and a pile of dead corpses.

The concept was very interesting, however the execution didn't hit it for me. A novella is much shorter than a novel and jumping from one narrator to another diminished the tension and stakes of the story (for me). If the reader had remained with one narrator in particular, I think this story would have grabbed me and taken me for an intense ride, making this one of the best stories I've read this year so far. However, it didn't.

If the multi-narrator style was interregnal to the story, then I believe it should've been expanded into a novel.

I was so excited about getting another book by this author but, sadly, it wasn’t what I was hoping for. All-in-all it was just an okay read for me. Not terrible, not amazing. I think the lesson of my experience is that novellas are still just not for me. I rarely ever feel like I get anything out of them. And this story… I just didn’t really get it? As silly and dumb as I feel admitting that, it’s unfortunately true. It was difficult for me to connect to any of the characters because each chapter is told from a different perspective. It made the story feel choppy and the transitions a very jarring reading experience for me. While I like multi-POV novels, perhaps for a novella it just didn’t work for me. And I never felt like I got invested in the characters or what was happening with them. A few things I did find enjoyable though were the setting, atmospheric horror, and gruesome, creepy goings on. However, I failed to really connect my enjoyment of them with my experience of the larger plot as a whole. I also never felt like I was fully grounded into the story world, it didn’t transport me into it like I’d want. Nevertheless, I still think it was a mid three star read, and I’d recommend it to fans of this author’s previous work simply for the sake of it. I do look forward to their next full length novel, if there’s one in the future I’ll surely be picking it up, because I do love the author's voice, tone, and writing style in general.

M.L. Rio is without a doubt an auto-buy author for me. She has such a way of telling a story that just wraps you up and keeps you in a chokehold until the very end. I loved the dark atmospheric setting and her familiar large group of friends that all have different outlooks and points of view. So good!

this little novella was my first experience with m.l. rio and i thought it was... fine. graveyard shift is a tiny, well-written story about a handful of people that stumble across a freshly dug grave. they let their curiosity get the best of them and go on an investigation to figure out who dug up the ground and what secrets they want to bury.

i would say where this book excelled was in vibes and atmosphere. 10/10 was fully immersed in the darkness, i could smell petrichor, i would feel the dirt on my hands. the atmosphere was so rich and so visceral that i'm definitely going to have to pick up rio's full length novel sooner than later. unfortunately, i do think that the length hobbled this story. because the cast was an ensemble group of characters, each person got their own chapter. this was cool, but because this was a fairly short story it felt frustrating to be engaged with a character knowing that i'd have finite time with them to be put into a different character's head.

i like the whodunit scooby style of the narrative a lot - the investigative work teased open pieces of each character's background and i thought the author did a good job of making each perspective unique. sadly, it made it even more frustrating that there wasn't hours and hours more of this audiobook.

as far as the mystery itself, it was fine. i think length would have served here, too, but since the plot wasn't played out over chapters of set-up, i think an opportunity was missed to make the story more exciting. so i guess not a bad review. the writing, characterization, the dialogue, etc. was all good, i just wanted more of everything.

4.5 stars rounded up
Thank you, Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the audio arc.
Graveyard Shift starts by plunging this quirky, vastly different group of people who hang out in an ancient cemetery into a mystery. I thought it was atmospheric from start to finish. The plot centers on this unique sleep deprivation/insomnia representation. Everything about this worked so well for me.
Trigger warning: animal testing and animal death.

If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio is one of my favorite books that I have read in the last few years. I, like many others, have been eagerly awaiting Rio's second book which happens to come in the form of this little novella. I think this is a great example of Rio's writing skill when it comes to prose, but it is not a good example of what she is capable of when it comes to characters and plot. Everything sort of fell flat except for the eerie atmosphere of the graveyard.

In the end, I was a bit disappointed because I felt like the whole book was for nothing as the ending is quite lackluster. I did enjoy the audio narration and even though this novella is only 140 pages and therefore wouldn't be a hassle to read with your eyes, I think the audio is definitely worth a listen.

Graveyard Shift is a mystery novella that follows a cast of five late shift workers who discover a freshly dug grave in the disused graveyard where they typically cross paths in the course of their jobs.

I read If We Were Villains in the year or so after it came out, and I liked it enough that when I saw the author had a spooky novella coming out, I was very interested. Graveyard Shift carries over a lot of the same elements from its novel predecessor; namely a large main cast and dark academia vibes.

However, these elements don’t translate well into the shorter format. There are too many main characters given its length; readers don’t really get to know any of them, and none of them particularly compelling on the surface. The atmospheric elements also came across as surface-level because of the pace. Within the first chapter or two we’ve already checked boxes on a graveyard, a creepy statue, mushrooms, rats, and moody cigarette-smoking protagonists. The ending comes along just as abruptly, the final scene feeling climactic in its events and imagery but lacking the narrative backup to make it the haunting cliff-hanger it could be.

I definitely recommend reading/listening to this in one sitting as recommended in the author’s note. The full-cast audiobook provided some additional immersion, and I think listening for longer stretches would’ve helped even more. Immersed readers will appreciate mystery and atmosphere shining through the breakneck pace.

Graveyard Shift will fit the season perfectly when it comes out in September, and thank you to NetGalley for the eARC audiobook!

Thank you to the publisher for providing me a copy of Graveyard Shift in exchange for an honest review.

This book was not for me. At first I was hooked, excited about the length of this novella (especially since it was audio) and was hoping to be on the edge of my seat. Unfortunately that did not happen, I was left with more questions than I started with and it fell flat for me.

Solid, atmospheric, mystery/horror writing but the story itself was not fully realized enough for me to enjoy!

Unfortunately I really did not enjoy this audiobook. A lot of it largely has to do with the fact that I dislike audiobooks in general but this was particularly unenjoyable. I did not like the narrator voices- they sounded AI and fake and made it really hard to follow along. I didn't like the characters' personalities, either. I just couldn't get into them and the plot wasn't as interesting as the description sounded. There was one interested scene and the rest was boring and really uneventful. I was looking forward to this but was disappointed.

Graveyard Shift plunges readers into an atmospheric tale of mystery and suspense set against the backdrop of an ancient cemetery. The mood is eerie and sinister, drawing readers into a supernatural mystery. The story focuses on five characters who happen to be an unlikely pairing, but their work hours and insomnia bring them together. They witnessed some strange behavior at an old church near where they met to smoke. This event is the catalyst to kick off the story.

Even though this was a novella, it still had interesting characters, a well-developed story, and a believable mystery. Some of the characters' banter was funny and explored how we control or do not control our behaviors. As with any novella, you want more backstory or buildup of the story. The book's central themes could be expanded into a future book that I would love to read. I enjoyed the pacing and the steady rhythm. The author's descriptive writing created the perfect atmosphere for this story.

I received an Advanced Readers Copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, NetGalley and MacMillan Audio.

This was a pretty unique representation of sleep deprivation. It was a great novella about 5 people who have night jobs and encounter a grave digger at an old church. They notice a grave and wonder who dug it and why. As these people research and share their findings, they start to unravel the truth. I enjoyed this novella, but wish it was a bit longer as I would have liked some of the plot to unfold a little more.

This was good, enjoyable even, but predictable and formulaic. It has all of the elements of a story that I usually love...But I think this would have been better as a novel, rather than novella. The heart of the story, the best part, was the characters and their relationships to each other. With more time to flesh this aspect out, to let the storylines unfurl, I might have loved this. As it is, I was unable to overlook the "meh"-ness of the plot when coupled with the unexplored potential of these characters.

This book was so clear in each character. Every time the chapter changes to a new POV , the character was a clear image to me. I enjoyed it but found the ending lacking as it was so abrupt, however that is usually how I feel about novellas, like there is never enough story for me. I also appreciated ML Rio’s acknowledgements at the end, talking about the inspiration of the book.
The narrators were really good
Thank you Macmillan audio and NetGalley for the audio arc

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.