M. L. Rio has such exceptional characterisation. They draw you into these pages and feel like you’re intruding on their lives. I have enjoyed this in Rio’s previous work, the layering and depth that is created in such a short space of time. You know and love and hate these people and this book is no exception. The connecting force of the two timelines is Suzanne, running away from that awful night many years ago. Her father’s death has kickstarted this reckless ride across the country and forced her to confront the complicated legacy he has left her with. That perfect storm that exploded in front of her and now drives her to abandon the life she has created. Suzanne is a fantastic protagonist – her voice is piercing and utterly captivating. You can’t help wanting to know her story and I loved her tenacity and the way the walls she built gradually started to show cracks. She is someone that wants to love so deeply but cannot bring herself to be vulnerable enough to. The events she witnessed made her retreat within and hide elements of herself behind a perfect façade.

Hot Wax is such a cool book—it nails that atmosphere and sense of style. Rio’s writing has always been gorgeous and dangerous in equal measure, full of thorns. Here it is channelled into the creative process and the fleeting thrill of stardom. This story is about the ritual of performance, especially the glamour and the glory of having an audience captivated in the palm of your hand. There is such a shine of star quality to Gil’s band and that utterly ensnares Suzanne’s narrative in her past, even though we know it will end in violence. I loved how Rio explored the way music transports to us a place and time and can capture so many emotions. We all have the soundtracks of our lives that may change over time, but a song can take you back to a specific place in an instant. There is plenty explored about the messy process of creating music too—the escalating tensions and simmering feelings that come to a head in dramatic fashion. Performing can mean constant changes and criticism, causing clashes and moods that can change in an instant. At the end of it, all they are pursuing is that greatness and all-consuming nature of the music. For all that music can root us in a moment, it is also a fleeting experience, one song rolling into another. There is an ephemerality to it that hugely informs this story, the fickle nature of fame and chasing that spotlight.

This book is a love letter to the power of music but it is also a gritty and dark examination of the underbelly of the industry. This goes into some difficult territory as you move between the two timelines. From the start, you know the storm is coming and the band will be torn apart but not precisely what happened. That stain of infamy forever alters the shape of Suzanne’s life and you are compelled to know just what happened all those years ago. Rio structures this well, keeping this pulse-pounding tension that never dissipates. With the shine of fame can come the temptation of power and exploitation, as well as the allure of addictive substances. It is a grimy world and conjures up plenty of well-known stories about the darker side of rock n roll. There is a dirtiness to proceedings that buries itself under the fingernails of everyone involved. No one here is entirely innocent, courting the bright lights of fame and chasing that sense of being immortal. You can live forever through your music but that may be all that is remembered of you. In the present day timeline, this manifests in the destructive nature of several of the characters. There is a joy found in freedom but Rio also packs in several twists and turns where nothing is as it first seems.

Like a good song, Hot Wax hooks you in and makes you lose yourself, even if just for a few moments. It exemplifies the sweat, tears and blood that go into the creative process and may just spill over.

Hot Wax is available from Amazon, Waterstones, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.

Will you be picking up Hot Wax? Tell us in the comments below!

Synopsis

A vivid and immersive tale of one woman’s reckless mission to make sense of the events that shattered her childhood, and made her who she is.

Summer, 1989: ten-year-old Suzanne is drawn like a magnet to her father’s forbidden world of electric guitars and tricked-out cars. When her mother remarries, she jumps at the chance to tag along on the concert tour that just might be Gil and the Kills’ wild ride to glory. But fame has sharper fangs than anybody realized, and as the band blazes up the charts, internal power struggles set Gil and his group on a collision course destined for a bloody reckoning – one shrouded in mystery and lore for decades to come.

The only witness to a desperate act of violence, Suzanne spends the next twenty-nine years trying to disappear. She trades the music and mayhem of her youth for the quiet of the suburbs and the company of her mild-mannered husband Rob. But when her father’s sudden death resurrects the troubled past she tried so hard to bury, she leaves it all behind and hits the road in search of answers. Hitching her fate and Gil’s beloved car to two vagabonds who call an old Airstream trailer home, she finds everything she thought she’d lost forever: desire, adventure, and the woman she once wanted to be. But Rob refuses to let her go. Determined to bring her back where she belongs, he chases her across the country – and drives her to a desperation all her own.

Drenched in knock-down drag-out rock and roll, Hot Wax is a raucous, breakneck ride to hell and back – where getting lost might be the only way to find yourself and save your soul.

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M.L. Rio, author of the bestselling If We Were Villains, returns with Graveyard Shift,  a novella that promises an atmospheric and eerie experience as it follows five night-shift workers who meet regularly in a college’s ancient cemetery, only to discover a mysterious freshly dug grave one October evening which may be connected to the strange cases of people going berserk in town. However, the book fell slightly short of its potential.

The premise is intriguing—five insomniacs from different walks of life coming together to solve a mystery over the course of a single night. But, the execution leaves something to be desired. The plot and characters lack some depth, resulting in a story that feels somewhat superficial. Readers may find themselves wishing for more substantial character development and a more intricate plot to match the atmospheric setup.

Rio’s strength lies in her ability to craft an unsettling atmosphere, particularly in the opening scenes set in the graveyard. Her prose excels at creating a sense of creepiness and unease that perfectly sets the stage for what could have been a more chilling tale.

One of the main drawbacks is the brevity of the story. At roughly 130 pages, it seems that Graveyard Shift would have benefited from being longer and more fleshed out. The narrative builds anticipation for horrifying events that never quite materialize, which may disappoint readers expecting a more traditional horror experience.

Despite these shortcomings, Graveyard Shift does succeed in creating a modern Gothic ambiance. Rio’s writing style, familiar to fans of If We Were Villains, shines through in the academic setting and ensemble cast. The book serves as an ideal read for those looking to dip their toes into the spooky season, offering just enough of an eerie atmosphere to set the mood without delving into full-fledged horror.

In conclusion, while Graveyard Shift may not fully live up to the high expectations set by Rio’s previous work, it still offers an enjoyable, quick read for those seeking a taste of autumnal atmosphere. It’s best approached as a mood piece rather than a deeply plotted mystery or horror novel. Fans of Rio’s writing style and those who appreciate atmospheric prose will find elements to enjoy, even if the overall experience leaves them wanting more.

Graveyard Shift is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of September 24th, 2024.

Will you be picking up Graveyard Shift? Have you read it already? Tell us in the comments below!

Synopsis | Goodreads

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.

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In these stories, dear student, retribution visits a lothario lecturer; the sinister truth is revealed about a missing professor; a forsaken lover uses a séance for revenge; an obsession blooms about a possible illicit affair; two graduates exhume the secrets of a reclusive scholar; horrors are uncovered in an obscure academic department; five hopeful initiates must complete a murderous task and much more!

In These Hallowed Halls is a brand-new stories from Olivie Blake, M.L. Rio, David Bell, Susie Yang, Layne Fargo, J.T. Ellison, James Tate Hill, Kelly Andrew, Phoebe Wynne, Kate Weinberg, Helen Grant, and Tori Bovalino.

INTRODUCTION
Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane

Dark Academia.

What do those words conjure up for you? Mysterious and dangerous occurrences in various seats of learning? Students, and sometimes their tutors, in peril? Murder? Magic? Ghosts? Dusty books in old libraries? Clandestine cults and secret societies devoted to ancient rituals? All or none of the above?

If you’re new to the subject, you’ve picked the perfect place to start. If you’re already a fan, then we think you’re going to love what we’ve got in store for you within these pages! In the last few years the phenomenon of Dark Academia has, quite literally, exploded. Fuelled by book clubs on social media platforms like Tumblr and Instagram, where people discuss classic and Gothic books, this wave developed into a subculture in its own right that grew even more popular during the pandemic and lockdowns. Let’s face it, there wasn’t much else to do during those times than watch things and read.

Books like Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, the Harry Potter series and classics such as Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray and the ghost stories of M. R. James have all been credited as inspiring the trend, as well as films like Love Story, Dead Poets Society and Cruel Intentions, not to mention more recent TV shows like A Discovery of Witches (based on the excellent novels by Deborah Harkness), A Series of Unfortunate Events and The Queen’s Gambit, which all helped to fan the flames.

So, you can imagine our delight when we were asked to edit this anthology and gather together some of the finest exponents of this type of fiction around. Author of The Atlas Six and The Atlas Paradox, Olivie Blake, brings you a timely and unique social commentary – which still connects to the past – in her story “Pythia”, while M. L. Rio (If We Were Villains) reminds us of the pitfalls and potential benefits of being in the wrong place at the right time – or perhaps that should be the right place at the wrong time? – in “Weekend at Bertie’s”.
The author who brought you novels such as Good Girls Lie and Her Dark Lies, J. T. Ellison, and Tori Bovalino – who wrote The Devil Makes Three and Not Good for Maidens – show us the real dark side of Dark Academia in “X House” and “Phobos” respectively. Whereas Helen Grant (Ghost and Too Near the Dead), Layne Fargo (Temper and They Never Learn) and Kelly Andrew (The Whispering Dark) introduce us to the disturbing strangeness of the subject in “The Professor of Ontography”, “The Ravages” and “The Hare and the Hound”.
Both Kate Weinberg and James Tate Hill return us to the worlds of their books (The Truants, and Blind Man’s Buff, Academy Gothic) in their stories “1000 Ships” and “Sabbatical”. Author of Kill All Your Darlings and The Finalists, David Bell, presents us with a thought-provoking tale, “Four Funerals”, that will stay with you long after you’ve finished reading it, as will Phoebe Wynne’s (Madam, The Ruins) story “Playing” and its intriguing insights. All this plus Susie Yang (White Ivy) and her meditation on relationships, secrets and longing, “The Unknowable Pleasures”.

Excellent contributions by authors writing at the top of their game, showing the full range and power of what Dark Academia can do. So, settle back in your favourite reading spot with your favourite tipple, preferably surrounded by books, and let the lessons begin!

Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane
February 2023

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