Author M.L. Rio first gained fame with her 2017 “dark academia” novel If We Were Villains. This past September, she released her first published novella just in time for the spooky Halloween season. Inspired by Rio’s own struggles with insomnia, Graveyard Shift follows five individuals who, unable to sleep for various reasons, meet up in the graveyard in their college town each night to smoke. On the night the novella is set, they discover a strange hole recently dug there and decide to investigate it. In the author’s note, Rio describes the novella as “a story about sleep and sleeplessness that could unfold over only one evening, like a shady, troubled dream.” She certainly achieved this creepy vibe. The engrossing plot and well-developed characters confirm Rio to be a skilled author of the current generation.
The highlight of Graveyard Shift is M.L. Rio’s ability to craft believable, flawed characters. The novella alternates between five perspectives, which could’ve easily been overwhelming, but because each character is so unique, it is not at all difficult to follow the shifts in focus. Despite the novella’s duration of a mere ten hours, Rio employs minimal flashbacks to convey characteristics about its cast, relying mostly on their reactions to the present moment. This is a testament to Rio’s talent in character development. Each character is also complicated with many layers to their dynamic personalities, which makes it difficult to consistently root for them but also makes it easy to believe them.
Graveyard Shift maintains a creepy and unsettling atmosphere throughout, from its abandoned graveyard and church setting to the characters’ chilling discoveries. This ambience is further emphasized by its companion playlist, which is found in the back of the paperback. M.L. Rio also employs many academic references that convince the reader of its collegiate setting and emphasize the dark academia vibe. She manages to do so in an accessible way as well – readers do not need to immediately recognize each theory that Rio mentions as she is quick to explain them clearly. Therefore, this novel can be enjoyed by a wide audience. Though Graveyard Shift frequently dips into plot points fitting for science fiction, the characters, who work in a variety of occupations, ask each other to explain the science in more general terms that everyone can understand. This allows for the seamless integration of more complex topics into the novella.
The uncovering of the mystery, however, feels a bit anticlimactic. The characters don’t face many challenges in their investigations and appear to obtain information disappointingly quickly. The means by which they obtain the information are also not very exciting: much of it comes from interrogations rather than discoveries they make on their own. The novel’s merit, therefore, comes more from its characters and atmosphere than its plot, which is something that readers may want to consider before reading it.
Overall, M.L. Rio’s Graveyard Shift is a novella with both a well-crafted cast of characters and a perfectly spooky ambiance. Although the mystery falls a little short in terms of shock-value and excitement, the overall creepy vibes of the novel and the riveting interactions between the characters make up for it. Graveyard Shift is a perfect quick spooky read to enjoy the end of the Halloween and fall season. Just don’t read it in the dead of night!