BookBrowse Reviews Graveyard Shift by M. L. Rio

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This unnerving thriller follows a group of sleep deprived friends as they uncover and investigate a local mystery.

Following the success of her debut novel, If We Were Villains, M. L. Rio's latest book is the quasi-horror thriller novella Graveyard Shift. Set in an unspecified US college town across a single evening, the story opens with a ragtag group meeting in the shadows of a disused church at midnight. Their friendship seems unlikely at first, and it is—they've been brought together for these regular after-dark meetings simply because the churchyard is one of the few places on campus that still permits smoking. And because, in some form or another, each of them is dealing with insomnia.

On this October night, as they gather for their usual smoke break, the group finds a freshly dug grave. They watch in secret as the gravedigger returns to bury something under the cover of night. Given that the churchyard hasn't been an active burial site in over a hundred years, this is an intriguing—and unnerving—scene. The town has already been on edge following a spate of violent outbursts from otherwise normal citizens, dubbed "Hostile Incidents," and the group wonders if the two mysteries are linked. When their smoke break is over, the friends disperse and return to their own lives, each of them determined to find answers.

Graveyard Shift proceeds in alternating point-of-view chapters, in which Rio paints vivid pictures of the protagonists' lives and personalities. Edie, a plucky journalist for the college paper, is dealing with the pressure of securing a big story and the anxiety of a potential cancer scare. Tuck is too proud to reveal his financial problems, and, unbeknownst to the others, has resorted to squatting inside the abandoned church. Tamar works through the night at a local hotel reception desk, longing for a job that uses her degree. Charismatic Theo runs a bar, dealing with rowdy customers into the early hours and berating himself for indulging in a string of one-night stands. And snarky Hannah, having exhausted every possible means to ease her chronic insomnia, spends her nights working as a ride-share driver.

As each character remains awake all night, Rio explores the debilitating psychological impact of sleep deprivation—especially with Hannah, a severe insomniac since childhood, whose exhaustion has made her sarcastic and irritable. "By the time she was thirty, she had given up trying, tired of being tired, tired of telling people she was tired, tired of being bombarded with imbecilic advice about how to be less tired," Rio writes. For Hannah, tiredness is numbing and forces her almost to disassociate: "She learned to live in the permanent twilight of sleep-deprivation psychosis. Life, if you could call it that, was a never-ending out-of-body experience."

It would be impossible to delve into plot specifics, and the mystery that the group unearths, without spoiling the reading experience. Suffice it to say that the characters' findings prompt questions about the ethics of experimentation in the pursuit of medical advancement—which is tied, all too uncomfortably, to their desire for sleep. And that in several memorable scenes, in which Rio leans into the creepy, brooding atmosphere she's created, Graveyard Shift transforms from a thriller into a horror novella.

For all its dark elements, however, much of the novella has a charming and nostalgic quality. The setting of a historic church; the macabre goings on; the charismatic amateur sleuths—this is classic cozy crime. And its structure—a motley crew of likeable characters that stumble into a creepy situation, then split up to hunt down clues before reuniting to solve the mystery—is basically an adult spin on Scooby-Doo. Rio and her characters are pleasingly self-aware of this: one character refers to their group as "Mystery Inc."; and when no-nonsense Hannah strikes out on her own, taking a more direct approach to getting answers, she thinks to herself that her friends' "Scooby-Doo sleuthing might turn up some answers eventually, but why wait? Let the kids keep meddling. The adults had some talking to do."

Playing on this trope also allows Rio to highlight differences in each character's personality. Each has unique attributes which aid them in their hunt for the truth: Edie's natural drive and leadership instincts; Hannah's fearless independence; Theo's charisma; Tamar's brains; and Tuck's local knowledge. Rio not only fully develops each character but also captures the genuine affection the friends feel for each other, as well as the way a shared experience can bond people together.

Rio's prose is rich and the atmosphere she creates is perfectly discomfiting, as when she describes the churchyard: "The light of the streetlamps encroached only so far, held at bay by a wall of ivy that had filled in the gaps between the bars of the fence. Within its crooked boundaries, angels wept elegantly over headstones while swinish gargoyles grinned and leered from their perches on either side of the church doors." There's an immersive quality to her writing that hooks the reader immediately. I did find myself frustrated at how short the book was, wishing for greater exploration and more closure. But readers seeking a short, punchy tale littered with affable characters, striking ideas, and images that get under your skin will find a lot to love in Graveyard Shift.

This review first ran in the November 20, 2024 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.