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Sign up todayGraveyard Shift
A Novella
Length
3 hours 9 minutes
Language
English
Narrators
Jess Nahikian, M. L. Rio, Max Meyers, Si Chen, Susan Dalian & Tim Campbell
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreBookseller recommendation
“Graveyard Shift examines insomnia through multiple points of view to create a haunting, atmospheric, forged-family story at the center of which is a dangerous mystery that could unravel everything. It’s gruesome, psychological, and queer, and I loved every single page. Recommended for horror fans who have problems with authority and anyone who’s looking for a creepy thrill.”
— Samantha • The Nonbinarian Book Bike
Bookseller recommendation
“Creepy & propulsive— a perfect spooky season read about a gang of insomniac misfits united around a mystery. ”
— Ashley • First Light Books
Bookseller recommendation
“A delightfully eerie listen, full of complex characters and chilling secrets.”
— Amanda • Watermark Books
Bookseller recommendation
“A fast paced grim noir. Rio beautifully handles an odd group of characters somehow in under two hundred pages. The perfect bite sized thriller with graveyards, rats and the sleepless. ”
— Kyle • Beldame Books
Bookseller recommendation
“The perfect spooky graveyard novella to haunt your Halloween TBR. A delicious mixture of Scooby-Doo-esque camaraderie and The Last of Us gore, Rio tells the story of a group of night shift workers as they investigate the strange goings-on at their graveyard hangout spot. Don't miss this modern gothic tale filled with rabid rats, furious fungus, and ominous open graves. ”
— Lambie • Underground Books
Bookseller recommendation
“As a regular reader of this brand of horror, it was a little easy to see where the plot was going but even so I really enjoyed the build up of the story as it went on! I appreciated how well the author delved into each of the characters in such a small amount of time, while avoiding making it feel like a rush to get everything out. Rio is a person with insomnia and it was interesting to see a perspective of that experience through one of the characters. Overall a fun, quick, and unsettling read for those looking to get into the genre! ”
— Sol • Quail Ridge Books
This program features multicast narration.
The author of sales sensation If We Were Villains returns with a story about a ragtag group of night shift workers who meet in the local cemetery 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 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.
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.
A Macmillan Audio production from Flatiron Books.
M. L. Rio holds an MA in Shakespeare studies from King’s College London and Shakespeare’s Globe and a PhD in English from the University of Maryland, College Park. Her bestselling first novel If We Were Villains has been published in twenty countries and eighteen languages. Graveyard Shift is her first novella.
M. L. Rio holds an MA in Shakespeare studies from King’s College London and Shakespeare’s Globe and a PhD in English from the University of Maryland, College Park. Her bestselling first novel If We Were Villains has been published in twenty countries and eighteen languages. Graveyard Shift is her first novella.
SiChen is a queer Chinese American actor who is passionate about stories that show the beauty and complexity of the immigrant, queer, femme, Asian experience. She is a classically trained violinist and violist, native Mandarin speaker, and has an extensive science background ranging from genetics to robotics to AI. As a narrator, their voice has been described as soothing, intimate, and witty.
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Reviews
"This place has everything—rats, fungus, thrills, chills, mysteries, hostile incidents—and M.L. Rio deftly weaves it all together into a short, sweet (okay maybe not that sweet) story. A rad, crisp, creepy read."
—Chuck Wendig, bestselling author of Black River Orchard and The Book of Accidents
“Like all M. L. Rio's work, Graveyard Shift is shot through with cool, heavily dosed with ennui, and dense with people-pleasures. Within this tangled skein of complicated characters (ranging from sweetly unhinged to truly problematic), Rio presents a world of nihilistic macabre only to strip it back, painting the gruesome with a softer brush and her singular gift for portraiture.”
—Olivie Blake, bestselling author of Atlas Six
“Graveyard Shift is wonderful - dark, strange and hair-raisingly tense - it spills over with atmosphere, full of flawed, fascinating characters. I raced through it.”
—Catriona Ward, bestselling author of The Last House on Needless Street
“[A] satisfying follow-up to If We Were Villains. . . Rio stuffs a plethora of surprises into her concise narrative without skimping on character development. This packs a punch.”
—Publishers Weekly
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