Cenote (Novelette)

By: Shaun Horton

Narrated by: Merphy Napier

Length: 54 mins

Publisher's Summary

A vacation to Mexico is supposed to be about sun, sand, and drunken debauchery. It's not supposed to include being trapped in a cave and trying to keep your head above water, while slimy things watch you with gleefully hungry eyes. Ellie Hughes swears that if she makes it home alive, her travel agent is going to get such a bad review....

©2014 Shaun Horton (P)2019 Shaun Horton

That was fun!

This is a super short little thrill read. Not only did I not predict everything beforehand, as I usually do, but the ending was perfect!

A Good Spooky Short Story

Being from Yucatan myself, I felt like I could relate easily to the characters in the story. I'll definitely be more alert whenever I go diving again.

it's still not safe to go in the water.

Thanks to Shaun for a copy of this audio book. this is my honest review:

This was a fun and intense short story! i was really happy there was a cryptid in the story. that was fun. i loved the ending.
Merphy Napier does such a great job reading this story.

I love Aquatic Horror

I don't know what it is about aquatic horror that just gives me the creeps, but it does the trick on me every time. I don't know if watching Jaws as a kid scarred me more than I realize or if I have some repressed oceanic trauma somewhere in my background. I love it though. Any description with "aquatic cryptid" in the description sucks me in like a tractor beam. Shaun Horton was kind enough to send me a copy of this novelette and I wanted to return the kindness with a review. This is a nice taut little thriller that scratches all the itches in underwater terror. I have to admit that I didn't know what a Cenote was until I listened to this book and that in and of itself is terrifying to me. There's a couple trapped in a Cenote with seemingly no way out. There's something lurking in the water and as you can imagine things go from bad to worse. If you're looking for a nice thrill packed quick read then check out Cenote. Good stuff here.

Distracting narration takes away from the fear

I don't want to be mean, especially since I love Merphy's YouTube channel to bits, but throughout the story she sounds like she's either crying or trying to be seductive and the sulkiness of the narration is pretty distracting. I may have enjoyed this more as a book, which is my bad really - I saw her name attached to this and got excited and bought it without listening to a clip first. The story is creepy, which is what we are all here for. It could've done without some cringy bits (like the description of the other "sluts", that cringe broke the spooky vibe), but if you're looking for a bit of the fireside spook story feeling then it's a good way to pass an hour and does what it says on the tin.

Very eerie.

A short story, indeed, but it certainly packs a punch. The two characters were as developed as you'd expect from a 55 minute long story but they were still good characters and I was scared for them the entire time.

A very straight-forward story but it definitely left an impression on me.