As a lifetime educator and researcher of urban youth in NYC, I wanted to create a main character that embodies the strength, resilience and determination of the young NYC girls I have worked with all my life. I wanted this character to be Latina and I wanted to situate the novel in a Spanish speaking country that was both familiar, and yet unfamiliar to Americans. Americans think they know Puerto Rico, Boriquen (Indigenous name). It is local, a common vacation destination for American tourism. It is still considered a colony or “property” of the United States, but what do you really know about its people, its history, its mysteries… Nocturne, meaning “night melody,” takes the reader into a Puerto Rico few Americans know. The main character, Isobel, was born in Puerto Rico, but raised in Brooklyn, NY. Like so many of the urban young women that I have taught over the last 20 years, her life has always been lived in a liminal context, a world in between. Her adaptability, a product of the serendipitous spacing of events interwoven into her life, makes her capable of incredible acts of courage and resourcefulness. The events that transpire during her 17th year, in the mountains of Puerto Rico, will test her spirit in unexpected ways, as she struggles to establish her emerging identity, is awakened to first love and discovers long buried family secrets, all in the context of the terrifying yet fascinating world of the San Felipe Incubi. Follow Isobel on her journey of self-discovery.