Rick Riordan Presents: Paola Santiago and the Forest of Nightmares-A Paola Santiago Novel Book 2 - Paperback

by Tehlor Kay Mejia (Author)

Best-selling author Rick Riordan presents the sequel to Tehlor Kay Mejia's critically acclaimed ghost story about science-obsessed Paola Santiago.

"Paola is a brilliant, furious girl who often trusts her brain but trips over her heart."--Sarah Gailey, Hugo and Locus award-winning author of River of Teeth

Six months after Paola Santiago confronted the legendary La Llorona, life is nothing like she'd expected it to be. She is barely speaking to her best friends, Dante and Emma, and what's worse, her mom has a totally annoying boyfriend. Even with her chupacabra puppy, Bruto, around, Pao can't escape the feeling that she's all alone in the world.

Pao has no one to tell that she's having nightmares again, this time set in a terrifying forest. Even more troubling? At their center is her estranged father, an enigma of a man she barely remembers. And when Dante's abuela falls mysteriously ill, it seems that the dad Pao never knew just might be the key to healing the eccentric old woman.

Pao's search for her father will send her far from home, where she will encounter new monsters and ghosts, a devastating betrayal, and finally, the forest of her nightmares. Will the truths her father has been hiding save the people Pao loves, or destroy them?

Once again Tehlor Kay Mejia draws on her Mexican heritage to tell a wild and wondrous story that combines creatures from folklore with modern-day challenges.


Endorsed by Rick Riordan, author of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, soon to be a series on Disney+.

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Author Biography

Tehlor Kay Mejia is an Oregon native in love with the alpine meadows and evergreen forests of her home state, where she lives with their daughter. She is the author of three middle grade titles about Paola Santiago: Paola Santiago and the River of Tears, Paola Santiago and the Forest of Nightmares, and Paola Santiago and the Sanctuary of Shadows. Her short fiction appears in the All Out and Toil & Trouble anthologies from Harlequin Teen and The Cursed Carnival and Other Calamities from Rick Riordan Presents. She has also written two highly acclaimed YA novels, We Set the Dark on Fire and We Unleash the Merciless Storm. When she's not writing, you can find her plucking at her guitar, stealing rosemary sprigs from overgrown gardens, or trying to make the perfect vegan tamale. Follow her on Instagram @tehlorkay.