I went into this blind and this was totally not what I was expecting and I love that! This was a fresh take on dark academia + horror with a brilliant and flowing exposition. I hope to have more in this genre from Rio!

Considering how short it was I’m shocked that I felt like the story wrapped up nicely. I wish she hadn’t left us in suspense but I can understand why she did. I feel like suspense was the whole point. I expected it to just be a murder story, almost scooby doo like considering the rag tag group. However I got something closer to the last of us, and I really enjoyed it. Thank you to #netgalley for access to the audiobook!

In this novella, a motley crew of night-shift smokers gathers in a graveyard behind a university and discovers an open grave filled with dead rats. They take it upon themselves to investigate the mysterious gravedigger and the grave's contents.

I really enjoyed the book's narrative structure, with each chapter being told from a different POV. The unique threads connecting each character to the overall plot worked really well. The audiobook, with its talented narrators, truly brought the story to life. Every narrator skillfully built tension and infused an eerie atmosphere into the narrative.

The dark academia setting, a personal favorite of mine, added an intriguing layer to the story, particularly Rio's exploration of the effects of insomnia within this setting. The ending surprised me but left me wanting more. I wished there were a couple more chapters to see if I guessed the ending correctly!

M.L. Rio added some neat extras at the end of the book, including a playlist and some cocktail recipes. And be sure to read the author's note to learn more about the inspiration behind the story. This was my first time reading a book by M.L. Rio, and I'm already looking forward to the next one!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this audiobook for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This little audiobook was alright. I enjoyed the concept and the little rag-tag band of characters, but it didn't keep my interest as much as I had hoped it would. I think I was expecting a few things that just weren't realized and that was 1) more outright horror instead of a seeping kind of insidiousness 2) a shift away from the "I'm a journalist so I must get the scoop on this" mystery trope.

All in all, it was not a bad story, and it was a nice quick listen, it was just not a story I found myself very invested in.

Publication date: 24 September 2024

This was my first M.L. Rio book and, unfortunately, it was not a warm welcome to her work.

Graveyard Shift follows several young adults (probably, ages are really unclear) who meet late at night for smoke breaks in front of the old church on campus where they work. One night, they find a fresh grave at the church and one of them decides to investigate it. That one person then drags the others into the mystery with her.

Look, I love a good novella. Short and sweet stories scratch a specific itch for me - that itch being the need to get in and out of a story in a reasonable amount of time, Stephen King. Jokes aside, I was super excited to read this after the success of If We Were Villains. It's Spooky Season and this is all about people meeting in a creepy graveyard. Seems perfect right?

In this instance, the story really needed more space to develop. Having multiple characters in a book with a tiny page count is always a risk because the audience needs time to connect with them. In this instance, I did not connect at all. Every character felt basically the same and I was confused about how they fit into each others' lives aside from all being addicted to cigarettes.

The plot of the story came together quickly and without much detail. I felt that a few of the red herrings that were presented could have been cut to keep things moving along without the confusing asides that made the story feel jagged and unformed. Ultimately, that is the impression that I was left with; that this was a draft of a story that had a lot of potential, but needed to be polished up some more before publication.

As for the audiobook specifically, some of the narrators seemed to put more effort into the performance than others. I felt that the first chapter's POV specifically fell flat, with the narrator making no attempt at different voices to distinguish characters. Other POVs were easier to listen to, but the first chapter put a poor foot forward in terms of narration.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a DRC of this title.

I liked the idea of the story, but based on the synopsis/blurb/description, I expected it to be more of a paranormal story than it was. I'm also bummed that it was only a novel because 1) I want to know more about what's happening, and 2) the ending was so abrupt! Just as we were getting somewhere, the story came to an end. I'm not going to lie; I felt no connection to any of the characters. I started listening to this book, stopped, and picked it up today. I just wanted more, that's all.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for a free advanced listener’s copy. I received this copy in exchange for my honest review.

I thought this was a great short little treat for this season. I always know I enjoyed a short story or novella when I wished it was longer and that was the Graveyard Shift for me. I wish the anticipation had built more and the mystery lingered and these characters had lied and lingered around each other longer.

Reading the audiobook version I also got to enjoy a full cast for our characters which added so much to the ambiance of the story.

Overall, a great short read that’s easy and fun and ominous.

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan for my ALC! This book is out now! (Published Sept 24, 2024)

This novella is a mix between the dark academia that M.L. Rio is known for and horror. As a horror reader, this is on the lighter end of the spectrum. While it is creepy and eerie, it is not spooky or scary. This may be a good starter book for those wishing to dip their toes into horror. There is some gross fungal/animal body horror and a creepy storyline with a mystery element. However, you spend more time with each of our characters on their graveyard shifts (either working graveyard or because they have insomnia and can't sleep). You start to see some connections between characters and the horror plot that get more and more tangled together. However, this concept was not fully flushed out or particularly strong. The writing is excellent! Just the storybulding fell short. This novella is too short, not because I loved it and wanted to read more of it, but because it did not feel complete. I love the premise and concept! Just wish that it was executed better.

Dear Grave Yard Shift,
For a novella, you packed one heck of a punch! Rio's careful writing style and strong characters really shone through. Each person has such a distinct and clear character and voice and it came through from page one. Each chapter added a new layer to your story and I was so intrigued to know about the grave and the incidents that kept happening around campus. My favorite character was Helen, because she embraced being completely unhinged.

Creepy and mysterious, this novella of sleeplessness and revenge is an amusing little bite of horror from Rio. Lots of atmospheric tension and well drawn characters add to the jarring but interesting plot. I think you’ll enjoy this tantalizing story!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy. These opinions are my own.

I actually didn’t realize this was a short story, but I really loved it! It was perfectly spooky and captivating, in true style for this author.

This was a great quick creepy read to kick off spooky season!! I really love ML Rio’s writing style and thought this novella stood up on its own, although I would have gladly read a full length book with this premise. The atmosphere was stellar!

This book has the grunge horror aspect I didn’t know I needed. A group of night shift workers gather in an ancient cemetery where they discover a freshly-dug open grave. They begin to unravel the mystery of the grave and the gravedigger. Written (and narrated) from 5 different perspectives, M.L. Rio manages to give an abundance of depth to her characters in such a short time. Being a novella, I was worried the characters would be two-dimensional and flat. But I was pleasantly surprised with how much of an impact each character had on me after finishing this novella. An amazing dark-academia mystery that kept me on my toes.

Thank you Macmillan Audio for providing this audiobook for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own. Thank you to M.L. Rio for writing such a thrilling novella.

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.

My job is not glamorous, but it does allow me to plug in and disappear into stories! @macmillan.audio through @netgalley has provided me with M.L. Rio's novella, 𝔾𝕣𝕒𝕧𝕖𝕪𝕒𝕣𝕕 𝕊𝕙𝕚𝕗𝕥, narrated by a cast.

Dark Academia, Insomnia, an Open Grave in a Defunct Churchyard.

Adding in a sprinkle of mycology and rats, as the cover suggests, and we have a very eerie mystery of strange happenings in the wee hours of night.

I really liked how the chapters changed POV's and with a cast, this made the audio version of this easy to disappear into. The sinister undercurrent of the story kept its edge as the pieces of the puzzle emerged. I think that as a novella, it was a fun spooky story. I also feel left wanting a bit more...but maybe that is how it should be? I do wish it had lasted longer, going deeper into these night shift worker's lives and this mystery.

Fans of the author will no doubt be happy, but like me, anxiously awaiting a fully drawn out story.
3.5 stars

My first book by this author. Did not read the previous book, If We Were Villains. Graveyard Shift is a gothic horror type. I found it a bit disturbing. Not exactly what I was expecting. I prefer more of a suspense/thriller.

I received this ARC from NetGalley for my honest opinion.

Graveyard Shift is a dark academia novella that’s been released just in time for spooky season!
The premise of this book is quite simple. A group of late shift workers frequently congregate at the only place on campus they’re allowed to smoke–at the old cemetery. They’ve gotten to know each other over the years, just from these brief visits. A news reporter, a bartender, a hotel receptionist… But one night, they notice a fresh grave has been dug. Who would dig a grave in the middle of the night? And what will happen when they come back?
This is a short book with a fairly simple premise. It’s written in several characters’ points of view, and there are possibly too many characters for this to truly work as a novella. Another hundred pages was necessary to make me truly care for any of the characters. Adding length to the book could have also added a little more depth to the storyline itself. That said, the setting is delectably dreary, with the old cemetery and ominous church. The twists and turns in the plot were compelling. I also want to add that one of the characters studied library and information science, and it was refreshing to read an accurate take on the degree.
All in all, this is an atmospheric and quick read to consume one chilly night this autumn.

ML Rio's If We Were Villains was one of my absolute favourites when it came out, so I was eagerly anticipating this book! It's bite sized and spooky, and seemed perfect for the season. However this really didn't connect with me. It may have been because I listened to it in such stops and starts, but I found the plot strangely paced and the resolution underwhelming. It felt like the first quarter of a really promising book, but wrapped up too fast and with too many questions for me.

I enjoyed the concept of strangers bound together by insomnia, and that the whole thing takes place over one night, but my expectations were really high and the book didn't quite meet them. However I'd be intrigued to look at the physical book and maybe reread to see if it was just the audio that wasn't my favourite.

Thanks to the publisher for the e-arc!

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 Macmillan Audio for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

What a wild ride for such a short novella. I highly recommend this quick spooky read if you’re fans of The Last of Us and mysteries.
IT MUSHROOM RAT GIRL FALL!!