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.

A eclectic group of people meet every night sharing their breaks in an old churchyard while working the late shift. One night they notice a new hole that was not there before. They are confused as the gravedigger returns, they decide to follow him and uncover some interesting connections between him and some strange events.

This was a tough read for me. Although it is very short it took me awhile to get through it. I struggled with the slow pace and the lack of tension. I feel like there was so much more of a story here that just needed to be better developed. I liked the idea, the characters but wanted so much more.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review..

"Graveyard Shift" by M. L. Rio is a mystery novella. It's also considered to be a modern gothic story. It is partially set at a graveyard where a group of night owl people often randomly meet. One night, they see a new hole like a grave site, and they're all baffled. Throughout the night, they each get various clues about it.

Self named the Anchorites, they start making friends with each other more than before, thanks to this mystery. Edie is the editor of the school paper. Tuck is squatting in the church. Then there's Theo, the bartender, and Chelsea, the bar waitress. Hannah is an Uber driver. Tamar works at the front desk at a hotel overnight, and she's a librarian.

At the end of the audio, there is a song list to go with the book and then a few cocktail recipes.

This is a full cast audio recording. It is narrated by Jess Nahikian, M. L. Rio, Max Meyers, Si Chen, Susan Dalian, and Tim Campbell.

Characters - 5/5
Writing - 3/5
Plot - 3/5
Pacing - 3/5
Unputdownability - 3/5
Enjoyment - 3/5
Narration - 5/5
Cover - 4/5
Overall - 29/8 = 3 5/8 rounded up to 4 Stars

I kind of liked this novella. It was creepy and interesting. Check this out if you're in the mood.

Thank you to Netgalley, MacMillan Audio, and M.L. Rio for providing this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

I haven’t had time to read this yet — I’m so sorry. I plan to read it when Libby has the audiobook available.

wow thoughts on this one... the writing was superb, I just wish it was longer. and what the heck was that ending! Not the note I wanted an overall good story to end on.

Well I can’t like them all.
Even though this novel checked all of my boxes, the follow through did not.
It’s like bad episode of the old. Fashioned takes from the crypt. Literally…there’s an open grave. Here’s where my biggest issues comes in . I’ve been on college campuses as old as the states they are in. None of them had graveyards attached let alone why are so many people hanging out around an old church in the middle of night?? Other than security patrol, colleges do t have night jobs but whatever. All of these details took me away from what I had hoped would be a cool ”tell around the campfire” kind of story. The narrator deserves to use their voice work on a. Better project. It was the only tolerable part.

This was a delightfully creepy novella centered around a group of people in one night investigating a mystery. The audiobook was fantastic.

I really did not enjoy this. It would have been a DNF had it not been so short. Overall, it felt lifeless, pretentious, and left me with a feeling of “what was the point?”, because of the way it ended so abruptly. I’m not sure what I was supposed to take away from this, except that the author wanted you to know how smart they were. I wish they had taken more time to really develop a story and make this premise fun and original, instead of recycling concepts that are, frankly, overdone at the present moment. Check out The Last of Us or What Moves the Dead instead… they were both worth the time. I hate to say, this was not.

So exciting to have more to read from M. L. Rio. I adored Rio's cast of characters in If We Were Villians, and there is a new group here to delve into. I was fascinated by these characters and I love the idea of a mixed group meeting in a cemetery to smoke every night. And there's also an element of academia with college students and a library. This had some excellent spooky vibes, and I loved the full cast audio (including M. L. Rio reading the author's note and some cocktail recipes at the end!). There are some comparisons to be made with What Moves the Dead, both for the cover and for the presence of fungi-caused horrors. I'm between a 3 and 4 on this one, mostly because I don't think there's that much plot to hold up the story here. I liked spending time with the characters and finding out more about their lives, but the mystery of the gravedigger is kind of an open-and-shut case - and they basically solve it pretty early on in the story, then spend the rest of the book picking it apart, but then the moment where the book ends the outcome doesn't feel fully realized. Since it is shorter / a novella, this book feels like a delicious appetizer, a fun way to get in the spooky mood. I hope M. L. Rio serves us a full meal with their next novel, but I will read whatever they put out!

A somewhat random group of smokers meet in a cemetery for late night cigarettes. They come from different backgrounds, but they’ve bonded in one way or another. One night, they find an empty grave and hypothesize who or what is it for. Until the grave digger returns sending the group on a hunt for why he dumped what he did, and if it has anything to do with the incidents around campus lately.

I love an academia setting, and this one really hit the spot. I enjoyed following the characters through their journey to find the truth. There’s something about a journalism angle in a horror story that I’ve always loved. Think The Ring without any of the travel.

The audio for Graveyard Shift is great. There are multiple narrators for each POV which gives an extra layer of personality. Each narrator adds something to the character that made me feel more connected to the story.

My only complaint is I wish it were a full length nov because WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?!? If you’re looking for a spooky season read that’s atmospheric, creepy, and a quick read, add Graveyard Shift to your tbr!

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.