ABANDONED. Pre-2000 Dark Fantasy book where a character is controlled like a marionette

[Thomadactyl]

I think it was a series; possibly a trilogy. Anyways the characters were involved in a battle in a circular field surrounded by trees, and some sort of monsters or possibly people who’s dead bodies were being controlled were attacking. One of the main characters died, then his body rose up and started to fight against his friends. The “main bad guy” was very far off. I think the characters were all teens with special powers that may or may not have come from gem stones?

[Bonnie]

Sounds similar to something that happened in "Taste of Darkness" by Maria V. Snyder. It's the third book in The Healer series. I don't remember anything about gem stones, though.

[Thomadactyl]

That series sounds fantastic. Unfortunately I read this book in about 2001-2002, and I’m pretty sure it had been out for a while.

[Bonnie]

Maria V Snyder is one of my favorite authors. The Poison Study series is one of my absolute favorites. I found this topic on another forum. Look here to see if one of these is your book:
https://scifi.stackexchange.com/quest...

[Thomadactyl]

Getting closer but not quite there. This book may have been very obscure and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was banned. A few more details - A) The parts I remember were all very dark, grim, and bloody. I may be looking in the wrong genre B) Each character seemed to be associated with a certain color. I distinctly remember red, blue, yellow, green, and purple characters.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Thomadactyl, are you still looking for this or did you find it?

[Kris]

No response, moving to Abandoned folder.

Thomadactyl (OP) was last active on the site in November 2018.