Title: Paola Santiago and the River of Tears
Series: Paola Santiago #1
Author: Tehlor Kay Mejia
Genre: Middle Grade, urban fantasy
Publication date: August 2020
Published by: Rick Riordan Presents
Source: Purchased hardcover
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Synopsis: Space-obsessed 12-year-old Paola Santiago and her two best friends, Emma and Dante, know the rule: Stay away from the river. It's all they've heard since a schoolmate of theirs drowned a year ago. 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.
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. But when Emma never arrives and Pao sees a shadowy figure in the reeds, it seems like maybe her mom was right...
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.
As someone who grew up in a Hispanic household, let me just say that this book sounded amazing! I was very much looking forward to it because it is so rare that the books I read ever incorporate the culture I grew up with. Especially when it’s spooky in nature! I mean, La Llorona?? Yes, please! These are the types of stories we were told as children in order to get us to behave: “Si no te portas bien, te va a llevar La Llorona.” (If you don’t behave, La Llorona is going to take you.) My childhood wasn’t traumatizing at all 🙃
You know what? Maybe I shouldn’t include gifs that are so creepy in a review of a MG book 😅 I’ll try to reel it in 😆
I loved the premise of the book! When Paola’s friend Emma goes missing Paola has the suspicion that one of her mom's ghost stories might be behind the disappearance: La Llorona. Paola is a science girly, so she didn’t really take her mother’s stories and superstitions seriously... until Paola sees a spooky figure at the spot where she was supposed to meet up with her friends. Despite always relying on hard science to understand the world, in order to find her friend, Paola had to confront the unknown and the unexplainable and face several supernatural beings that, scientifically, shouldn’t exist
Unfortunately, though, this book was a bit disappointing for me. I love horror and La Llorona is a classic horror icon, but I was NOT expecting this book to have any sort of horror element to it all, so that wasn’t the issue I had. I did appreciate that when we did meet La Llorona, she was described creepily, because she is, you know, supposed to be creepy. Lol. My issue with this was that the synopsis made such a big deal about La Llorona being involved, but in the actual book, the kids don’t start hypothesizing that La Llorona is behind the disappearances until just over the halfway mark!! That is wild to me! Because of this, I just didn’t find the book to be as engaging as I was hoping it would be. Idk, this just wasn’t what I was expecting, and honestly, this could just be my fault for going into this thinking it was going to be one thing when it was another.
But I did enjoy the mythology and just the overall representation of Mexican culture.
The way this is so true 😠If you don’t know about the chancla, consider yourself lucky ðŸ˜
This book just had so many relatable moments, and I really appreciated that! That was probably my favorite thing about this book.
Overall, this was an okay read. I didn’t get as much of La Llorona as I wanted, it was kinda slow, and yet I am somehow still very intrigued by the next installments of the series. I don’t know if I’ll continue the series to be honest... I want to, especially because the freaking Cucuy is apparently in the third book! Omg! The Mexican boogeyman, ya'll! I’m also intrigued by the identity of Paola’s dad. I think I know who he is, but at this point in the series, we don’t know much about him.
But we will see.
I loved the premise of the book! When Paola’s friend Emma goes missing Paola has the suspicion that one of her mom's ghost stories might be behind the disappearance: La Llorona. Paola is a science girly, so she didn’t really take her mother’s stories and superstitions seriously... until Paola sees a spooky figure at the spot where she was supposed to meet up with her friends. Despite always relying on hard science to understand the world, in order to find her friend, Paola had to confront the unknown and the unexplainable and face several supernatural beings that, scientifically, shouldn’t exist
Unfortunately, though, this book was a bit disappointing for me. I love horror and La Llorona is a classic horror icon, but I was NOT expecting this book to have any sort of horror element to it all, so that wasn’t the issue I had. I did appreciate that when we did meet La Llorona, she was described creepily, because she is, you know, supposed to be creepy. Lol. My issue with this was that the synopsis made such a big deal about La Llorona being involved, but in the actual book, the kids don’t start hypothesizing that La Llorona is behind the disappearances until just over the halfway mark!! That is wild to me! Because of this, I just didn’t find the book to be as engaging as I was hoping it would be. Idk, this just wasn’t what I was expecting, and honestly, this could just be my fault for going into this thinking it was going to be one thing when it was another.
But I did enjoy the mythology and just the overall representation of Mexican culture.
"She's still going on about La Llorona, huh?" Dante asked when they were alone, his tone forced, their earlier argument still looming between them. "Even my abuela stopped with that one when I turned ten. Now she just threatens me with the chancla. Much scarier."
The way this is so true 😠If you don’t know about the chancla, consider yourself lucky ðŸ˜
This book just had so many relatable moments, and I really appreciated that! That was probably my favorite thing about this book.
Overall, this was an okay read. I didn’t get as much of La Llorona as I wanted, it was kinda slow, and yet I am somehow still very intrigued by the next installments of the series. I don’t know if I’ll continue the series to be honest... I want to, especially because the freaking Cucuy is apparently in the third book! Omg! The Mexican boogeyman, ya'll! I’m also intrigued by the identity of Paola’s dad. I think I know who he is, but at this point in the series, we don’t know much about him.
But we will see.
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