In Conversation with ML Rio, author of 'If We Were Villains' and 'Graveyard Shift'

we still can't believe this happened

Back in September we were offered the chance to talk to ML Rio, author of ‘If We Were Villains’ and ‘Graveyard Shift’, and a big face in dark academia, for the podcast and we were absolutely delighted to get to record an episode with her.

Season Nine is now finished, it’s Christmas Eve and my (Sophie) work is done for the year, so it’s time to kick back and relax for an hour and listen to us discuss the rise of Dark Academia, M’s writing processes and inspirations, that ending of ‘Graveyard Shift’, the cultural and lingustic legacy of Shakespeare, and a little insight into M’s next novel, ‘Hot Wax’, which is releasing in September 2025 (I totally already have the hardcover pre-ordered like the suck up I am).

We were so nervous to speak to M but she was absolutely lovely, and so, so smart - we got so much from our discussion with her and we really hope you enjoy listening as much as we did recording it.

Please bear with Sarah’s mic issues in the recording - Zoom recording is not kind to her pre-replacement struggling microphone! It’s been edited and refinished, even recorded in some parts of her speech as much as possible, but it is still a little noticeable.

We hope you have a lovely holiday season and we’ll be back for the final instalment of ‘The Dark Academicals Book Club’ next Tuesday with our 2024 Reading in Review.

Happy Holidays!

Sophie and Sarah x