I really enjoyed this novella!

I enjoyed the multiple characters and how the whole thing took place in one night. It was creepy at times but I enjoyed the peek into what it must be like to not be able to sleep and how disorienting that might be.

The only downside is that I wish the story was a little longer, I feel like the characters could have been better developed with about 100 more pages but it was intended as a novella and I think it works.

✨️Review: The Night Shift by M.L. Rio✨️

Rating: 3.50 🌙's

Overview: When the Night Shift smokers club from a nearby college suddenly finds theirselves thrown into a mystery of medical research mystery.

Thoughts: This book was a little slow toward the beginning and I felt like it dragged a bit. That's because they wanted to introduce everyone all at once and try to give them personalities to help the plot. I feel like this could have been done more through flashbacks instead of putting it all into one lump at the beginning. However the plot does pick up and I started to be pulled in and the mystery and medical science of it all captivated me.


Possible spoiler: I used to be a pharmacy tech and I enjoyed the pharmacology aspect.

Very twisted and detailed. Each chapter is a different POV. All of it takes place over one night. Leaves you wondering the final outcome and how we got there.

Objectively, this is an intriguing story and I do enjoy the writing style. I do see the appeal and believe I would’ve enjoyed this more if: 1) it didn’t end so abruptly 2) it was a bit spookier. I was expecting to be scared but I was more intrigued than scared. I probably would’ve DNF’d if it weren’t so short, but I also wanted to stick around to the end to see how it ended. Overall I’m conflicted. I’d recommend it but it wasn’t for me. I’ll give the story alone 3 stars.

However, the audio performance was excellent and that deserves 5 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley I was able to listen to a copy of Graveyard Shift by M.L. Rio. I must say I do not read novellas often and I remember why I do not. I really do not have a strong love or hate for this novella. The subject matter was interesting and that is what caught my eye in the first place. The audio was well done though with all the different characters.

Thank you, NetGalley for this advanced readers copy of Graveyard Shift by M.L. Rio!

I wanted to like this Novella more than I did. The writing was great and the atmosphere was spooky and dark (all things I was hoping for). But, the story itself was lacking. I might have DNF'd if I was reading the physical book.

The narration was great! I especially loved that each character had a unique voice.

3⭐️

Unfortunately this was a big miss for me. Personally I think this either should have been cut down to a short story, or better fleshed out and built into a full novel.

Also this is not the book’s fault since there’s a rat on the cover (but not in the description!), but I have a huge rodent phobia so I nearly DNFed.

Thanks NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this ALC in exchange for my honest review.

There were parts that were dark, gruesome, mysterious, gothic...and there were parts that were building up to something but would ultimately go nowhere because this is a novella and tis the nature of such things. We follow five people as they congregate for their late-night smoke break and the interesting turn the night takes after they notice a fresh grave in the defunct churchyard of the college. For a novella, it definitely made me ask questions and think quizzically about possible scenarios, which I love when books do. And the ending. Thumbs up.

This was a fun short listen. It was well narrated with a full cast and the story itself was interesting. It felt like an amalgamation of a few different works by a few different authors, but I don't think that was intentional. It felt like If We Were Villains in that there was a group of people working together but also sort of being nefarious. It did take me a minute to get into it, but once it got going, it was solid.

This novella felt like a drag, unfortunately. As a major fan of this author’s previous works, it’s disappointing to see this interesting concept sort of fizzle out.

The vibes and the atmosphere are 100% there. Unfortunately, I just have a love/hate relationship with novellas. I feel like I never get to know the characters well enough and that's very important to me when consuming a book. The narrators were amazing though and I'll definitely be recommending this for spooky season.

This was my first experience reading a book by M. L. Rio as I haven't yet read If We Were Villains, and I was excited because I found this one to have a much more intriguing synopsis for me as it's a horror novella. Sadly, this really fell short for me. To start, I found the entire plot underwhelming and there were too many POVs for such a short book, I think there were 5 total POVs in just about 100 pages. I also struggled keeping track of who everyone was because they all felt like the same person. I was so excited for the spooky vibes and a fun mystery, but I couldn't bring myself to care about any of the characters or the mystery itself. There just wasn't enough space to develop the characters and plot in my opinion.

I did listen to the audiobook arc thanks to Netgalley, and part of me wonders if I would've enjoyed this a little bit more if I had read it physically because it was so hard to follow along with who was who, but I have a feeling from seeing other reviews that might not have been the case.

I really, really wanted to love this but it truly felt like just writing for the aesthetic instead of writing for the plot and the characters, and the longer I sit with it the less I think I liked this.

I'll still probably give If We Were Villains a try because it's so well loved and gets recommended to me quite a lot, but I don't think it'll be a priority read for me.

I need to read something else by this author. This did not do it for me, but I feel like I would enjoy the writing style.

Hmmm sadly this one didn't really do it for me. This was my first M.L. Rio and my expectations were high based on this author's fanbase, so maybe that was detrimental to my experience here. For such a short novel, it was too scattered for my preferences so I never found myself connecting with the characters (of which there are so many for a novella) or the plot. The writing itself is solid and the atmosphere is creepy, but I wish it had been a little more cohesive! Will try something else by M.L. Rio.

I listened to the audiobook and the narration was very good. I found the individual chapters enjoyable, but there just wasn't enough of them to make an entire story, I think if there had been more maybe I would have enjoyed the book a bit more. It felt a little superficial with no real depth to the plot line or characters. 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 things I would enjoy, and I did really want more. There's a tremendous sense of foreboding as the sleuths follow the gravedigger 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.


Thanks to NetGalley for the audioarc to preview.

"Graveyard Shift" was an excellent, creepy novella. The audiobook was great because it has a different narrator for each character, and the author reads her note. The setting and characters worked really well together here. I loved this as a novella, but I would gladly have read a longer book too. I'll be looking for more from this author.

Thank you NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for an audiobook ARC of this title!

This was a highly anticipated release for me! M.L. Rio's previous work: "If We Were Villains" was one of my favorite novels, and this work evokes the same suspenseful and eerie writing style. "Graveyard Shift" is a novella which seeks to evoke the anxious and stressful emotions that can arise in the night. The listening/reading experience of this book was made for the evening, and for sleepless nights. I do wish I had a physical copy of this book rather than an audiobook, to think on the atmospheric details in the text. Although I really enjoyed this book, I do not think it will stick with me for that long, hence the 3 star review.

The audiobook has multiple narrators, which contributed to a more immersive listening experience. Yet, I do think this book works better in a physical form rather than audiobook. Rio was able to add a lot of character development in a short work. I am definitely looking forward to her future works!

I loved the first book by this author, We Were Villains. I was very excited to read this book of short stories. The atmosphere of creepy was there. The stories were haunting. The only thing that held me back from really getting into this book, the stories just weren't long enough to fully pull me in. For short stories, if you enjoy short stories and for creepy, if you enjoy creepy, then this is a great book for you.

I really loved the premise, but the execution wasn't engaging enough for me. The characters weren't believable, both in the way they speak and their nonchalance at finding a potential missing body. I wanted more action earlier in the book, and I needed to feel immersed in the world without being distracted by the stilted characters.

A fun novella that offers a juicy sense of foreboding. Multiple narrators makes this a really fun listen, too.