Paola Santiago and the Forest of Nightmares

Not part of Riordanverse This book or series is published under Rick Riordan Presents and its contents are not considered canon to the Riordanverse.

Paola Santiago and the Forest of Nightmares
Attribution
Author	Tehlor Kay Mejia
Publication Information
Publisher	Rick Riordan Presents
Release date	August 3 2021
Pages	323
Chronology
Preceded by	Paola Santiago and the River of Tears
Followed by	Paola Santiago and the Sanctuary of Shadows

Paola Santiago and the Forest of Nightmares is the second book in the Paola Santiago series by Tehlor Kay Mejia under the Rick Riordan Presents imprint.

Synopsis

Six months after Paola Santiago confronted La Llorona, life is nothing like she expected it to be. She is barley speaking to her best friends, Dante and Emma, and what’s worse, her mom has an annoying new 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 in a terrifying forest. Even more troubling, at the central is her estranged father, an enigma of a man she barley remembers. And when Dante's abuela falls mysteriously ill, it seems that the dad Pao never knew is 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 nightmares. Will the truths her father has been hiding save the people she loves, or destroy them? Once again Tehlor Kay Mejia draws on her Mexican heritage to the a wild and wondrous story that combines creatures from folklore with modern day challenges.

Plot

Third Wheel on a Date and Tension Between Friends

Paola Santiago reluctantly joins her mother and her new boyfriend Aaron on their date at Pizza Pete's. As the three sit in silence, she thinks of a recurring nightmare about finding her dad in the woods before being swallowed by the earth. She tries not to scuff, as her mother is watching her every move, as she watches three boys play a horror video game. Pao starts talking about a school project involving cloaking technology hen her mother spots Emma Lockwood with the rest of the Rainbow Rogues, their school's LGBTQIA+ club, and feels sad that she and Emma have drifted apart. As Aaron goes for another slice of pizza, a quarter hits Pao's glass and she is drenched in soda. Her mother scolds her but she points to the boys playing the arcade game as she goes to the bathroom to clean up. After cleaning herself off, Aaron rides his back back home as she and her mother walk home. As Maria is about to scold Pao, she hugs her mother and says she doesn’t want things to change so quickly. He mom hugs her back and says the bond between parent and child is forever. When they return to the Riverside Palace Apartments, they find Dante Mata outside and he apologizes for missing pizza due to “soccer practice”. Pao's mom leaves them alone as they have an awkward conversation. Things start off quietly until Dante's abuela calls him “Alberto” and says to come inside. Pao asks if she is alright and he snaps at her and insults her. Dante apologizes but Pao heads back to her apartment.

That night, Pao has a dream about her father again, but this time she finds Dante's grandmother in her father’s place. She calls Pao Maria and tells her stay away from someone named Beto, which she finds strange as her father is named César. Soon Seniora Mata vanishes and Pao sees floating green eyes start to surround her and she wakes up, still seeing the eyes and swats them away. After calming down a looking at Bruto, she hears giggling and the blender from outside. Leaving her room, she finds her mother and Aaron making smoothies and offers her some before inviting her to go hiking with them. She declines and goes to investigate Aaron's backpack and her mother’s bedroom. After finding no incriminating evidence to get her mother to break up with him and realizing he is moving in despite her pleas the night before. In a fit of rage, she trashes her mother’s room and finds notebooks. After tossing them around, she finds a note with her father’s name and a PO Box in Pine Glad, Oregon. After waiting for Dante to be at soccer practice, she goes to speak with his grandmother. After Seniors Mata brings out random ingredients for a dish she wanted to teach Pao to make, the girl tells the old woman she broke up with Beto and is now dating someone named César. The old woman pauses at this and, gripping her face, says the two names are the same and that some will stop to nothing to stop her before passing out. Pao questions the old woman’s legal status and wonders if calling 911 would get her deported. She calls Emma who agrees to call and pay for a private ambulance. Soon the green lights return, as well as Dante who can see them as well. The lights vanish as soon as Dante comes close to his grandmother and reveals she has been acting like that since they saved Emma and blames Pao for it. The ambulance arrives and Pao tells the paramedic everything that happened and goes with the Matas to the hospital. As they rush to the hospital, Pao decides to go to Pine Glad to find her father.

At the Hospital and Going to the Niños

Emma Lockwood

When they arrive at the Silver Springs Hospital, a nurse gives Dante paperwork, he goes with the doctors as Pao waits for Emma. Soon Emma arrives and she tearfully tells her everything that has been happening since Emma was saved, including her plan to go to Oregon to find her father and cure Dante's grandmother. Emma is shocked by this and convinces Pao to only do this if their is no logical explanation. They enter the room, claiming to be Dante’s cousins, where they say Seniors Mata is fine physically but they are not picking up any brainwaves. Emma talks to the doctors as Pao pulls a reluctant Dante into the hallway to talk. He knows she is hiding something but before she can tell him, they hear screams and her phone rings. She chooses to focus on the screams. They find two specters terrorized the people in the hallway. Pao takes out her knife as Dante goes to get his grandmother’s Arma del Alma. Soon Pao and a janitor are the only ones to remain in the hallway with the specters. He tells her to use her knife as he takes on one of the specters. As the janitor is preoccupied with one of the ghosts, the only grabs Pao and starts at squeez her and the green lights return. Just then Dante arrives, telling Emma to stay back as he takes out the ghosts just before he saves Pao, the ghost squeezing her calls her by her name and says to seek it out for answers.

After a moment of calm, Emma comes out and tells them the doctors looking after Abuela Mata hid during the attack. The janitor tells them that the nurses called the police thinking Pao and Dante destroyed the hallway and to get away as soon as possible, after Emma says she’ll take care and everything, Dante reluctantly agrees to go with Pao to Oregon to save his grandmother. They sneak out the back and out of town before heading to the Gila River to spend the night with the Niños de la Luz to throw the authorities off their trail and ask them for help in getting to Oregon. When they get close, Dante accuses her of orchestrating everything and hurting his grandmother just so she can be the hero. She snaps back that everything just happened and she had no control over it. After calming down he agrees to spend the night. They find the camp abandoned and Pao starts to panic, with Dante's criticism only making her feel worse. After telling Pao this will be the first place the police would look, she snaps at him, saying she was going through things as he was pushing her away. Dante retorts by saying she abandoned Emma after saving her and helping her come out, and only contacting her when she needed something. Things then calm down and, after a couple hours rest, they agree to catch a bus at Rock Creek, the next town over. Pao takes first watch as Dante falls asleep. She soon falls asleep and dreams she is in the forest again, chasing Dante’s shadow before finding her father face down, begging for help before it is to late and Pao promises to save him.

Naomi

Pao wakes up to find Naom standing over her and the green lights circling her again. Pao notices Dante is still asleep and is happy he has not woken up. The lights vanish as Naomi interrogates Pao. Pao says they need to get to Oregon as Naomi says Franco has brought the Niños up north to investigate an anomaly up north. Pao listens as she criticizes Franco for making La Llorona stronger and his poor choices, as well as criticizing Marisa for blindly following him. After learning Naomi has been taking care of small problems to get by, she tells her Franco and Marisa are both terrible for leaving and asks if this anomalies are from Oregon. After a brief moment of silence, Naomi agrees to take them to a contact in Rock Creek who can take them to Central California, and hoping she would join her and Dante further north. Naomi offers to stand watch as Pao goes back to sleep. In the morning Pao wakes up to find Dante glaring at Naomi. He reveals she let him get taken and has a great distrust of her. As Naomi secures the camp, Pao reveals to Dante that she asked Naomi to help them, much to his anger. After a brief argument Dante reveals that he’s worried about his grandmother and the two reconcile as Naomi returns and they walk two and a half hours to Rock Creek. During the walk Emma calls to tell them nothing has changed with Señora Mata and that she was moved to a new room and the police believe drug addicts attacked the hospital. When they arrive they buy sunglasses and breakfast burritos. Naomi reveals some she helped a few months back, Johnny, makes trips to Fresno and she thinks she can talk him into taking them. When they finish eating Pao goes to wash her hands and a woman appears out of nowhere. After telling Pao a sob story, she transforms and attacks the girl. Soon the woman stops and tells Pao to find someone in a voice not her own. After that the woman reverts back to normal and leaves. Pro forgets the encounter and goes outside. After meeting up with her companions, Pao sees an alter in the store for someone named Querida Elenita before they go to meet Naomi's contact.

Characters

• Paola Santiago
• Maria Santiago
• Aaron
• Emma Lockwood
• Dante Mata
• Carmela Mata
• Bruto
• Stacey
• Naomi
• The Hitchhiker

Chapters

1. There's Almost Nothing Worse Than Meat Medley Pizza
2. The Bad Kind of Boy-Girl Weirdness
3. Enough Monochrome to Make Anyone Want to Puke
4. The World's Least Compatible Lunch Ingredients
5. Worse News Than a Haunted Bingo Bonnet
6. Supernatural Cleanup in the ICU
7. Sometimes Honesty Is Actually Not the Best Policy
8. Knock, Knock, Nobody's Home
9. The Return of Everyone's Least Favorite Niña
10. Close Encounters and Chorizo Burritos
11. Transporting Minors Across State Lines and Other Ways to Impress Girls
12. Are We There Yet?
13. Enough Spit to Vaporize a Demon Dog
14. Everyone Loves Gas-Station Poultry
15. So This is Where Raisins Come From
16. Dreams To Thrill Your Inner Six-Year-Old at The Least Opportune Time
17. The Last Kid You'd Ever Expect to Babysit during a Monster Attack
18. Find Them, Purify, and Poof!
19. The Unlikely Hero
20. Fighting Monsters Alone Isn't All It's Cracked Up to Be
21. You Have Died of Dysentery!
22. Bus Santas Are Even Creepier Than Mall Santas
23. The Hitchhiker of Doom
24. Let's Never Talk About That Fluffy Bunny Ever Again
25. A Tiny Green Ally Can Get You Only So Far in the Haunted Woods
26. Not the Best Time for Pyro 101
27. The Underdogs Don't Win the Big Game in This One
28. One Last Trip on the Narcolepsy Express
29. The Monster Within
30. It's All in the Eyes
31. The Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth
32. Don't Feed the Void After Midnight
33. Forgiveness, Again
34. Looks Like Aaron Won't Be Moving In After All