Nightfall

by Marisela Treviño Orta, Cynthia Bastidas (Narrator), MaYaa Boateng (Narrator)

A bonding adventure goes horribly wrong in this gripping story of trust, survival, and motherly instincts. Karla and her stepdaughter Olivia are alone on a remote family camping trip when news of a mysterious outbreak in nearby San Francisco begins to trickle in.

With little information to go on, the two women must identify the biggest threat to their safety: the supposedly deadly virus, the stranger who stumbles into their campsite, or each other.

Playwright Marisela Treviño Orta was awarded a commission through the Audible Emerging Playwrights Fund, an initiative dedicated to developing innovative original plays driven by language and voice. As an Audible-commissioned playwright, she received funding and creative support to develop Nightfall, which was directed by Elena Araoz.

Genres: Horror, Audiobook, Fiction, Thriller, Mystery, Plays, Novella

2 pages, Audible Audio

Published June 3, 2021

Reviews

[Mike Finn · Rating 3 out of 5]

'Nightfall' was an intense three-hander play, this time featuring a teenage girl, her stepmother and a stranger who turns up with bad news and unknowable intentions.

The story was a twist on the 'What would you do to survive the apocalypse?' trope, made more intense by narrowing the focus to the three people alone in the wilderness, trying to work out what to do while coping with shock, grief, distrust and external threat. I liked the early sections of the play which established the uneasy relationship between the disaffected teen and her stepmother. I disliked the stranger as soon as he arrived, which is remarkable given that everything he said made sense but the script made me anxious and kept me that way to the end.

[Filling the Bookshelves · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know this says it's only 2 pages long lol but it's longer than that.
I was genuinely creeped out by part 3, I even looked around.
This is basically a little zombie story but it's just known that it's an illness.
I really liked this, make sure you listen with headphones on to get the full experience.
It was really short, I wish this was a full-length novel.

[Quinn's Quippy Quotes · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was one hell of an audio performance! Of course, being a fan of romance I love a clear cut ending, so this was somewhat dissatisfing. I love audio narrations that go beyond the voice. This one was killer.

[E · Rating 1 out of 5]

1 star. Listened to this on Audible. THIS SUCKED. From the acting to the story… it was awful. It’s short, but don’t waste your time. There are chewing noises, eating disorders and puking sounds, none of which are integral to the story. The teenage girl was SO ANNOYING. Ugh. And why is it that when there’s an outbreak like this that people don’t just automatically say “zombies”? It’s like they always skirt around that word and use something else as if the characters in the book haven’t ever heard of the concept of zombies… This isn’t worth your time.

[Lorraine · Rating 2 out of 5]

⭐️ ⭐️💫Stars. A free short story from Audible.
Nightfall started out well for the first third of the story and then I felt like the author rushed through the story line, making the story almost childish, loosing the reader in the process. And the ending, enough said.

[Kathy Adamson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Even though it's short - don't waste your time.

[Gillian Kaney · Rating 2 out of 5]

Even though the actors try their best, the characters are unlikeable and the story is too predictable.

[cobalt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was excellent. Really creeped me out in some parts there. I only found this because I was wondering if Jeremy Jordan had ever narrated an audiobook and this was the only result that came up. What a Great chance encounter.

I also appreciate the inclusion of the conversation between daughter and stepmother at the start because it gave us a look into their relationship. Which really gives the ending some death. The ending was really bleak and painful in many ways, but not depressing. Or in my head it isn't. It left on a really vein note. Because there was all that explanation about the nice so this day, I still don't know what actually happened in the end.*Vague *knife *to this day the errors are because I'm blind, and only using the dictation function on the keyboard

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5 - Bit rushed, bit jarring, and unfortunately the best performance and the most intelligence comes from the dude who is designed to be the “bad guy”. Like. It’s a zombie story. Or—1/3 of it is a zombie story. Pretty hard not to throw in with the only character who is actually behaving like it. (Also, as per usual with audio dramas: not a fan of being forced to sit through chewing and vomiting sounds.)

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

A short semi-audio drama free on audible. There were three character narrators, but no usage of music or SFX, at least that I can remember. It was pretty poorly acted and not that well written. It had a decent premise of a zombie outbreak but from a distance and the trust or not situation with a stranger, but everyone made kind of dumb decisions and eh, not worthwhile anyway.

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was kind of hoping to be surprised in the end but alas that did not happen. Too predictable and there was no information other than what Ryan provided which wasn't enough. Plus he was a godawful character! Plus side is everyone acted amazingly.

[Qui2 · Rating 2 out of 5]

This wasn’t too bad, but a lot of the dialog between the two women at the beginning of the audiobook was just annoying with the bickering. The ending was also annoying, because I couldn’t exactly tell what happened

[Ceilidhchaos · Rating 1 out of 5]

What the actual hell did I just listen to??

[Liz Hoffman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great concept, but poorly executed.

[Evan Gosse · Rating 2 out of 5]

All three characters fucking suck... I didn't care if anyone lived or died.

[Katie · Rating 1 out of 5]

What’s the point? What’s the moral? That horrible things happen to people who are good? Also this book needs a MASSIVE eating disorder trigger warning.

[Cheyenne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book started out promising; the acting was good, and I was interested in the family set-up. Unfortunately, this book didn't take the time it needed to fully develop the story properly. This is a three-scene play; the first two scenes were fairly short scenes of dialogue between two main characters as their relationship is established and their characters are developed. It felt like the opening of a novel-length work in its pacing. However, Scene 3 opens in media res, immediately after a startling and intense event has happened that the listener has no actual context for. It becomes confusing to try to figure out what exactly is happening, and there's never any actual narrative reason for omitting that part of the story. Scene 3 continues on from there, lasting the entire rest of the story and including all the action for the entire book. I won't spoil the ending, but I will say that it's not what I had hoped for, and I found myself actually wondering what the point of telling the story was at all when it had ended. And no, I usually don't mind it at all when stories don't turn out exactly the way you want them to, but the ending should have some sort of thematic resonance or in some way provide a sense of closure, and neither of those things really happened here. Unfortunately, it just ended up feeling like very amateur storytelling.

[Kry Tiger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Karla is on a camping trip with her stepdaughter, Olivia. Olivia’s father was with them, but due to an emergency at the hospital he works at, he leaves before the story begins.
Karla isn’t Olivia’s favorite person.. she resents her for “stealing” her father away. Karla is trying her best to bond with Olivia while trying to show her how to survive in the woods, and Olivia wants nothing to do with her or camping.
After a couple days of little contact with Olivia’s father, the girls hike to the Ranger station only to find it empty.
On their way back to camp, an incident happens. While trying to take care of Olivia, a stranger stumbles upon their camp with news that the world is no longer the same. The stories he tells sound like scenes from a movie. But this stranger may have his own agenda.

Wasn’t a long audio. I liked how Olivia and Karla were the epitome of step-daughter and -mom: bickering yet trying to find some common ground. Couldn’t stand some of the sounds, like swallowing or retching, but it added to the realism.
That ending… damn.

[Meghana · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hate the trope of female characters fighting over men. To see that a woman wrote this is especially disappointing. Why does the grown adult man, a father no less, get a pass for cheating on his wife and leaving his daughter and family, but the woman who he cheated with gets blamed for being a "homewrecker?" She's not the one who has a home or commitment to uphold!! The dude is!!! Good god, the bar is in hell for men, and women still try to push it further down. Stop it!!!!

Also, Karla is an idiot and a masochist. She clearly has no problems with killing people, just not the kid who verbally abuses her every 5 minutes to enable and exalt her a-hole father, and who will most definitely eat her. Why? Because she thinks of herself as the mOtHeR. AnD WoMen wHo aRE mOtHErs ARe JusT tHaT seLF-sACrIfiCiNg!

How many misogynistic tropes can an author fit into a 1.5 hr audiodrama? Orta's accepted the challenge, everyone. Ugh this triggered my gag reflex in more ways than one.

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were some interesting ideas and it was mostly entertaining. I liked the way Karla challenges what we "know" about zombie apocalypses.

The dialogue between Olivia and Karla was repetitive and cliché for step-mother/daughter relationships. I would have enjoyed it a lot more if there had been less arguing between them and more plot.

There's almost no action or actual zombies in it, if that's what you're looking for. It's mostly just dialogue.

[Char · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gave this short audio 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 for Goodreads.

A stepmother and daughter are camping alone after the dad is called and asked to leave his vacation to come help out at the hospital where he works as a doctor.
This was well told, had great sound effects, and was a compelling story, if a little predictable.

Read 3.26.25

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Started out really cool, though I didn’t discover it until after Covid, so it probably hit a bit differently.

For about the first third it was really good, but it should’ve been longer. The ending felt very rushed.

[Alan Villafana · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was really good listen. I only wish it was longer to expand a bit more on the outbreak itself. I could see this becoming a larger story. If you are into zombie and apocalyptic stories, give this a try.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed it but honestly I think it’s hindered by its length. I wanted more of the step daughter and mother. I wanted to see the attack and what led up to that with the spooky woods stuff. The time jump I did not enjoy. It was too jarring.

[Paige Richards · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was okay. I'm not usually into full production Audio book dramas, it was predictable for me as well. To be fair, I'm probably just not this story's demographics. Also. I fucking hate the sound of people chewing. Again, not an audio drama type person and that's one reason.

[Brieanna Elliott · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was fun, but there were a lot of plot elements that seemed like they'd be brought up later but there was no later because it was so short. It could have been expanded to a longer story where the plot elements could pay off.

[Ruthie B · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is well done look at what happens to those on the outskirts of a zombie breakout, I do wish there had been a bit more, however it was very well done. The audible performances made it very believable and increased the tension in the story.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish this story was longer!

[mel toland · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great story! Lots of fun!

[KP · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a quick listen. Not the best and didn’t have enough time to establish real depth or have any plot twists. But was entertaining for my quick flight.