Isabel was never supposed to be remembered. Her brothers became gods, her mother became a legend, but she was erased—until now. Every version of her story changes, but one thing stays the same: she refuses to be forgotten.
COMING MARCH 2025
Who or What is Candle Face?
It started with a name no one remembered: Isabel, the forgotten daughter of La Llorona, erased from history. While her brothers were mourned and ascended to godhood, Isabel was left behind—betrayed, burned, and forgotten. But she didn’t disappear. She became something else.
She became Candle Face.
For decades, I’ve tracked her presence. It began in my old Austin, Texas neighborhood, but the pattern stretched across centuries: lost souls calling out for help, her disciples killing in her name, and fugitives escaping from her lair, unsure if they were running from her or toward her. Candle Face isn’t just a ghost story. She exists in the minds of those who claim she isn’t real, in the places where people vanish without explanation, and in the voices of those who swear they’ve seen her.
The lost souls know her as their captor, keeping them trapped to feed her power. Candle Face disciples worship her, convinced she'll reward their devotion. Those who run, who recognize the signs and sense something watching, are caught between two versions of the same entity: Isabel, the child who was never meant to be forgotten, and Candle Face, the force that refuses to be ignored.
I thought I was investigating her. But what if she’s been using me?
What if every lost soul I identify, every piece of her story I expose, only makes her stronger?
And what happens when she no longer needs me to spread her name?
La Llorona’s Forgotten Daughter
You’ve likely heard of La Llorona and her drowned sons, but few accounts mention a third child: Isabel. Her name was lost beneath the wails of her grieving mother, overshadowed by two brothers who, according to folklore, rose to godhood. In their rise, Isabel was left behind, her fury smoldering in the dark for centuries.
Now, through cryptic notes left behind by a disciple, Mr. Smoe, her story reemerges to shift the course of Candle Face’s legend. These notes paint Isabel as both victim and menace—a girl betrayed, then reborn with ambitions that stretch beyond death. With every shift in the text, you’re forced to ask: Is she truly evil, or does she deserve empathy for a fate she never chose?
An Inexhaustible Puzzle
In its simplest form, Isabel: The Forgotten Daughter of La Llorona is a collection of 704 individual notes scribbled on scrap paper, gum wrappers, and the backs of receipts. I organized these notes using a cryptic filing system found within them, combined with my own, to form an eighty-eight-page book spanning around 10,500 words. The complete work consists of eleven 'books,' or chapters. You might think it could be read in a few hours, but each note, or line has multiple variations that flip, shift, and rearrange the narrative in real time. One book can be read in over 16 million ways. Across all eleven books that make up Isabel, that number expands to approximately 3.4×10^79 possible versions—more ways to read it than stars in the observable universe.
No single person could ever experience every variation. This isn’t just a story; it’s a puzzle that refuses to stay in one shape, a story that rewrites itself as you read.
A Reading Experience Like No Other
Holding a copy of Isabel is like holding a handcrafted portal. Each page is manually cut into horizontal strips, allowing every line to flip and reveal fresh text. A peaceful lakeside birth can suddenly become a cosmic warning of Candle Face’s rise. A sorrowful cry can shift into proof that Isabel was more misunderstood than evil.
Every reader becomes part of the story, pulling levers in a history that refuses to stay the same. Each flipped strip reveals pieces of the puzzle: Isabel’s rage, her need for recognition, the choices that led to her transformation. Some paths bring you closer to dismantling Candle Face’s power.
Handcrafted and Uniquely Yours
No publisher would take on a project that required this level of physical assembly, so Branching Plot Books stepped in. Every copy is built by hand, with each page torn into eight sections, allowing the text to shift. No two books are identical, and no two readers will experience Isabel the same way.
How you read, which lines you choose to flip, and the secrets you discover all create a personal version of the story. Millions of readers can share the same book, yet no two will walk away with the same understanding.
Discover the Secrets—If You Dare
These ever-shifting pages invite you to step into the mind of a forgotten child on the brink of divinity or destruction. Isabel forces you to see her motivations, her sorrow, and the consequences of ignoring her story. Will you see her as a soul crying out for recognition, or as something far more dangerous? The story is never fixed, and every variation holds a different answer.
A Legacy That Defies Time
The experience doesn’t end when you close the book. Isabel challenges you to become an investigator and a storyteller, piecing together parts of a story that refuses to be complete. Every shift in the text raises a new question, and just when you think you’ve found an answer, another version emerges, changing everything you thought you understood.
So Why Bother?
Because some stories fight to be forgotten. This one fights to be remembered.
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Isabel: The Forgotten Daughter of La Llorona
