Book Review: ‘Graveyard Shift’ by ML Rio (Gothic horror novella)
I’m a huge fan of ML Rio’s ‘if We Were Villains’ and it’s been a long wait for new writing from her so I was thrilled when this little gothic novella was announced and I immediately preordered it. Gothic ML Rio novella set in a graveyard? Sign. Me. Up.
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.
Sarah and I went were actually approached to interview M for our podcast, The Dark Academicals, and were offered NetGalley copies to read and review in preparation. She is lovely and so clever and we had a really great discussion - look out for the episode releasing in December at the end of this season of the podcast. Our paid subscribers of The Dark Academicals Book Club will get early access to the episode so make sure you’re a part of the club!
I’m having a bit of a horror renaissance at the moment and I was so pleasantly surprised by how gross this was. ‘Graveyard Shift’ plays with mycology and fungal horror on top of the Gothic elements to make something genuinely unsettling in such a short novella. There’s some fairly graphic and gross moments around the graveyard and it never feels like gross for the sake of gross, it' heightens the horror of what might be happening as well as raising the issues of medical ethics and the idea of what is underneath, what is growing and developing out of sight and out of mind which is important to this novella.
ML Rio is a master of ensemble casts and all five characters in ‘Graveyard Shift’ are fascinating. Tuck, Edie, Tamar, Theo and Hannah are five characters who should not really come into contact with each other; they all exist in the underbelly of the academic world, but very separately. They unveil areas and situations that are usually hidden in dark academia or dark academia adjacent novels and settings; they are the people that pick up the pieces after the fallout of a dark academia novel.
The ending of this feels a little abrupt and there are a lot of questions left unanswered, but I think for me it was an effective tool rather than something that felt unfinished or unsatisfying. Though, of course, I really wouldn’t say no to a full novel to get to know these characters more deeply. This story has stayed with me and the characters have continued to live on beyond the last page because there are so many threads left to pull on.
I really enjoyed ‘Graveyard Shift’ and all that was packed into so few pages, though I still did want a little more from the storya dn the characters. It was great to be enmeshed in ML Rio’s writing again and it’s made me even more excited for ‘Hot Wax’.
Thank you to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for the review copy.
Written by Sophie
