The Thickety Series by J. A. White

Back in around August, I read a message thread where Keeper of the Lost Cities fans were recommending other books to read.  The Thickety series was mentioned.  I read the free excerpt of The Thickety: A Path Begins on Amazon and felt that I would probably enjoy the book.  I had to wait around 2 1/2 months before I could read it, since I was busy with my third reading and analysis of the Keeper books.

The Thickety series consists of four books.

1.  The Thickety: A Path Begins, 2014
2.  The Whispering Trees, 2015
3.  Well of Witches, 2016
4.  The Last Spell, 2017

Here is the publisher's summary of the first book:

A dark, forbidden forest.  Vicious beasts.  Deadly plants.  An evil spellbook.  Secrets.  Mysteries. Witches, both good and bad...  Welcome to the world of the Thickety.

Full of action, set in an intriguing and dangerous world, and illustrated with gorgeous and haunting line art, The Thickety: A Path Begins is a truly stunning book.

A Path Begins is the thrilling start of a middle grade fantasy series about a girl, a mysterious forest, and a book of untold magical powers.  Kara and her brother, Taff, are shunned by their village because their mother was a witch.  The villagers believe nothing is more evil than magic, except for what lurks in the nearby Thickety.

But when Kara enters the forbidden forest, she discovers a strange book, a grimoire that might have belonged to her mother.  The events she then sets in motion are both awe-inspiring and terrifying.

And that is just the beginning of the story—there are three more adventures in the Thickety to explore after this first book in the series.

This is a middle-grade series.  Kara is 12 years old, and her brother, Taff, is seven.  Clearly, the publisher used the age of the characters to determine the target age for readers.

This series is too dark for some kids of middle-school age.  The books are creepy and unsettling, featuring deaths, maiming, evil witches, and a demon. 

In an online review, a parent stated that their 10-year-old began crying during the early part of the first book, so they had to quit reading the story.

The author should have made Kara 16 years old and Taff 11.  If Kara had been 16, then the books would have been classified as young adult, which would have made them appropriate for the intended audience.

To me, Kara acts older than 12.  She just doesn't seem like a child.  By the second book, Taff acts much older than seven.  He seems more like a child of 11 or 12.

Book 3, page 155:

"I just want my friend back," Taff said, finally meeting her eyes.  "Part of me thinks you should have trusted her.  The other part of me is glad you stopped her before she did something she couldn't take back.  I'm not sure there was a right decision."

Taff just doesn't seem like a seven-year-old to me.

I prefer low fantasy, which are books set in our world but with some magic in them.  Examples are Harry Potter, Keeper of the Lost Cities, and Percy Jackson.

This series is high fantasy.  I was able to get into the books because the beginning of the first book reads like low fantasy.  It feels like our world but set 150 or more years in the past.  As the story proceeds, it becomes apparent that the setting is not our world at all. 

During the third book, Kara enters the Well of Witches, which is basically a world within a grimoire.  It is really weird, and I skimmed.  I greatly dislike trying to visualize alternate realities.  The Well of Witches isn't that weird, but it was weird enough to cause me to disengage.  It's just how I am with high fantasy.  I have no patience for it.

I enjoyed reading most of this series.  I didn't care for the Well of Witches part of the third book, and I also grew weary of the final part of the fourth book.  Those are the two parts that I skimmed.  I read everything else.

This series is very good, although for me personally, I consider it just good due to my aversion to high fantasy.