Reviews with content warning for Torture - Graveyard Shift

If you read other reviews for this novella like I did, they all have a common theme of “this should have been 100 page longer.” I agree, to an extent. I wish there was an another chapter to wrap up the story or at least another perspective I was hoping to return to. I was left with SO many questions. This is my first M.L Rio book and I will say I loved her writing style and how quick I became connected to the 5 misfits in this story. The cover art is also cool as heck.

Content Warnings

angorarabbit's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

TW: Graphic animal death, rats, insomnia, laboratory animal testing. Moderate alcohol, body horror, cursing, death, injury detail, violence. Minor medical content, sexual content.

Context: I do not read horror.

Ms Rio’s characters are well developed for such a short book. They are also quite relatable and I enjoyed spending time with all of them. Even Hannah, though I may not want to be alone with her. The horror aspect of the book was enough to get a lightweight wondering what’s going on in the biology department of the nearby uni, but not so much as to give them nightmares. In other words I enjoyed I quite a lot.

The ending has me hoping there will be a sequel. And I will check out If We Were Villains.

Content Warnings

aliyachaudhry's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

finally some representation! (nocturnal)

Content Warnings

thelittlebook_bee's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Maybe novellas are just not for me, but this felt unfinished. I'd just started to feel really invested in the story when it abruptly ended.

The characters blended together a bit, even with different narrators on the audiobook, but I feel like that's mostly because there wasn't much time to get to know them.

I would eat up the full length novel if it finished the story, this was VERY well written

Content Warnings

ezwolf's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

A group of strangers who all meet at a cemetery to smoke at night, come to their regular meeting place and discover someone has dug a hole in the ground. Not too unusual for a graveyard, but it takes the characters on their own fungi themed mystery plot.

This one wasn’t for me. It wasn’t bad, just kind of boring. If it were any long I might have considered dropping it, but at barely 3 hours long I kept going. I think it had good potential, it was just so many characters to keep track of in such a short period of time.

Thank you to NetGalley for making this available in exchange for an honest review!

Content Warnings

More...