Friday, May 26, 2023

The Thickety (J. A. White)

The Thickety: A Path Begins
The Thickety series, Book 1
J. A. White
Tantor Audio
Fiction, MG Fantasy/Horror
****+ (Good/Great)


DESCRIPTION: Kara Westfall was five years old when she learned how cruel her village of De'Noran could be - the night that she and her mother were both accused of witchcraft. Her mother did not survive, but Kara did... only to live as a pariah, same as her broken-hearted father and sickly kid brother Taff. The village is dedicated to the Path, the teachings of the savior who, two thousand years ago, sacrificed himself fighting a plague of witches and monsters who nearly destroyed the world. Now the rest of the world has apparently moved on, forgetting that magic was ever real, but those on the island of De'Noran know better: they live right next to the cursed wood of the Thickety, and can see with their own eyes the evil weeds and dark beasts that it spawns. To them, the Westfall family is still tainted by association, even after years have passed and neither Kara nor Taff have shown any signs of magic. Kara refuses to believe her mother was actually a witch. Witches are evil things, after all, and she knows her mother loved her, and no evil thing could possibly love.
Then the strange bird with the single eye draws her into the Thickety, to a buried book that whispers of great powers. A grimoire - possibly the very one that belonged to her late, doomed mother.
As Kara finds strange powers wakening within her, she begins to see her village in a new light. But magic is as much a curse as it is a gift, and if Kara isn't careful she could destroy everything and everyone she loves.

REVIEW: I read and enjoyed J. A. White's chilling standalone tale Nightbooks, so I figured I'd give this story a try. Like Nightbooks, it skews toward the dark side; while generally nongraphic, it doesn't shy away from danger or death, or the gray areas of morality that separate good from evil and right from wrong. After her innocence was shattered at a young age, watching her mother killed by her friends and neighbors (while her father stood by, apparently one of the very "witnesses" who turned her in to the town leader), she learned just how unfair and cruel the world could be, even as she strives to stay on the cultlike Path of the Puritan-like religion the islanders practice. No matter what she does, though, she and her brother are treated like monsters, shunned and bullied, while her father drifts in a state of deep depression that makes him more child than man. Kara can't help resenting his behavior, even as she struggles to keep him and her brother fed on an increasingly lifeless farm against increasingly insurmountable odds. For all that she can't bring herself to truly hate her tormentors, there's only so far a girl can be pushed, and she's just about at her limit when the odd little bird shows up to tempt her across the forbidden boundary into the Thickety.
Like everyone else in the village, she fears the Thickety, and has ample evidence from her own eyes of just why it's to be feared: the weeds and saplings at the forest's edge regrow almost overnight, and at least half the plants are toxic in some way. But there are also healing herbs to be found in the fringes, as Kara's mother taught her. This duality of nature is echoed throughout the book, from the neighbors who can be kindly (at least to each other) and cruel, the father who loves her yet inexplicably betrayed her mother, even to the magic that Kara discovers when she's led to the buried grimoire. There is, she discovers, great potential for good in it, chances to right wrongs and heal wounds and even explore the wonders of her world in a new and interesting way... but there's also a terrifying temptation with the power it offers, and a price to be paid. And even if Kara can manage to avoid the temptation, others in the village may not; she is not the only one in De'Noran consumed with resentment and frustration over the hypocrisy of the people and the Path. Through it all, she strives to protect her often-sickly brother Taff, born the very night the villagers killed their mother, even as she fears her very presence endangers him more than any illness. It's for his sake as much as her own that she pushes herself farther than she thinks she could go, endures things she did not believe she could endure - and wades into deeper, darker, and murkier magic than she knows is wise.
From the first few pages, where a young Kara is snatched from her bed by neighbors and forced to stand trial before the village, the plot moves at a decent clip, showing its darkness early on and only skewing darker as the tale unfolds. The villagers may be ignorant of much about magic and witches, but they aren't entirely wrong to fear the potential of magic or the power within the Thickety - truths driven home when Kara finds she's not the only one with the talent, building to a climax pitting her against everything she was raised to fear (and then some)... and an epilogue that reveals a final twist of the knife, setting up the next installment of the series and the next stage in her personal journey. It made for interesting, if occasionally chilling and brutal (especially given the middle-grade age range) listening. I wavered a bit on the rating, but wound up giving an extra half-star for not pulling its punches.

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