Emma’ parents are frantic and Pao and Dante know they need to somehow, someway find their best friend. Of course the trio plans to meet again in the same spot, but Emma never shows.

La Llorona is a ghost who screams and cries, looking for another victim to pull into the river to never be seen again. Since Pao’s mom is extremely superstitious, she has told Pao numerous times about all of the terribly legends that surround the river banks. A schoolmate, Marisa, drowned in the river and the town believes that the river is beyond dangerous. Even though this is the perfect spot, they still remember the tragic event that happened in this same spot. Her two best friends, Emma and Dante, meet her at the edge of the river often because it’s the perfect spot to use her telescope to see the stars. Meet 12-year-old Paola “Pao” Santiago, a lover of anything space-related, non-believer of superstititions, and can’t stray from the Gila River. Pao has always relied on hard science to make sense of the world, but to find her friend she will have to enter the world of her nightmares, which includes unnatural mist, mind-bending monsters, and relentless spirits controlled by a terrifying force that defies both logic and legend. But when Emma never arrives and Pao sees a shadowy figure in the reeds, it seems like maybe her mom was right. Hating her mother’s humiliating superstitions and knowing that she and her friends would never venture into the water, Pao organizes a meet-up to test out her new telescope near the Gila, since it’s the best stargazing spot. Pao is embarrassed to admit that she has been told to stay away for even longer than that, because her mother is constantly warning her about La Llorona, the wailing ghost woman who wanders the banks of the Gila at night, looking for young people to drag into its murky depths. It’s all they’ve heard since a schoolmate of theirs drowned a year ago. Space-obsessed 12-year-old Paola Santiago and her two best friends, Emma and Dante, know the rule: Stay away from the river.

Paola santiago series