Mini Book Review: Gaveyard Shift by M.L. Rio

Graveyard Shift
Publisher: Wildfire
Pub Date: 24 September 2024
Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Panda Rating:

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📖 SYNOPSIS

The bestselling author of international BookTok sensation If We Were Villains returns with a story of a group of misfits who meet in the local cemetery each night to unearth the secrets lurking in an open grave.

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 realise 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.

Atmospheric and eerie, with the ensemble cast her fans love and a delightfully familiar academic backdrop, Graveyard Shift is a modern Gothic tale in If We Were Villains author M.L. Rio’s inimitable style.

“What must it feel like, she wondered, for the first time and much too late, to be so desperate for rest that you’d let a doctor[…]drop her experimental poison in your eyes?”

As a fellow insomniac, that quote kind of hit because there are some days where I feel like I would give just about anything to be able to properly rest.

This was my first book by Rio (although I’ve had her renown debut on my TBR for years) and I enjoyed her writing style. This novella wasn’t what I expected at all but I loved how this story came together! It was a weird little novella about a group of insomniacs who bond over a shared smoking space and the incredibly weird and macabre things that happen in the quiet hours of the night. Despite its brevity, it was a packed novella as we jump from one unfolding scene to the next, through the eyes of different members of the group.

Even with their flaws, I found myself liking all of the characters (mostly). They’re messy, weird, fragile, lonely, and above all sleep-deprived creatures of the night. They felt real and relatable. These five made for an odd found family and I really appreciated that even in a novella that’s little over 110 pages, we’re treated to clear character arcs and we get to know more about who they are, what drives them, and what’s keeping them up at night.

I was surprised to find that the character who I empathised with the most was Tucker—there was something about him that made me want to wrap him up in a little cocoon to keep him safe from harm. No spoilers, but the perspective that I found most intriguing and whose section I found most riveting honestly surprised me! It was not who I expected it from and it also took the story in a turn that I didn’t expect! This intriguing mystery brings us closer to all the characters in a weirdly unique way and I liked how they went about solving it. While I’m not much for open endings, to me what we’re led to believe will happen next is only inevitable, even if it does suck to know it, but it’s nice to believe for even a minute that the worst has come and gone.

Overall, I’m glad I finally read this and I would recommend it if you’re looking for a short, weird and slightly eerie middle-of-the-night mystery with interesting characters!