SOLVED. Book about a living corncob-child, an evil tree demon trapping little children under the earth and a mute boy with magical scars. [s]

[Inessa]

EDIT: Nice fella on Reddit found it! (The Mostly True Story of Jack by Kelly Barnhill)

Been looking for this book for years and probably made some post about it a while ago - and yes, if I could I'd pay any money in the world to find it.

Read it somewhere around 2014-2017 in Swedish, albeit I suspect that the writer was English/American. Was probably released around that time - at least not earlier than the 2000s, I'm fairly certain. Maybe I've dreamt all this - mixed up a bunch of different books. But I feel like I'm going insane - I need to find it. Help me!!!

Pretty sure that the cover had some tree with long roots on it - don't really know, so here's what I recall from the plot:

Boy (around the age of 12-16) goes to live with grandparents, relatives in general or friends of the family. Either wife and husband or sister and brother - a man and a woman, basically (not the parents). Meets a girl around the same age as the main character, who has a younger brother. He's mute and has scars on his hands and his face, that hurt from time to time. Possibly because of some connection to some larger magical power. These three find a tree, where some evil mistress holds little children/their souls to (possibly) keep the tree (and her) alive. The parents, friends of these children - everyone- have forgotten about their existence entirely. One moment that I remember in particular is the girl having a flashback to when she was younger, sitting near a cornfield, angry (because she's the only one who remembers her missing friend if I've gotten it right). Suddenly a corncob-child (sounds weird, I know - a corncob with feet and hands?) appears and starts running around on the field. The girl gets mad and throws a stone at it, which makes it disappear below the ground. It later turns out that this child was the victim of the evil tree woman and, in fact, the main male character.

I beg to God that I didn't imagine this, but if I did - do we have a book deal?
(As I mentioned, possibly made some other posts about this back in the day, so another user writing about the same thing might be me going a little too mad in this search)

NOT: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, The Faraway Tree

[Rainbowheart]

Bone Gap?

[Inessa]

Rainbowheart wrote: "Bone Gap?"

Oh WOW. Wow. I'm blown away... How the hell did you find this?
Not exactly sure if this is what I'm looking for, but kind of - about 99% sure. I'm stealing a copy as fast as I can and I can't wait to read it. Hopefully, this is the thing I'm looking for - I think it might be. Thank you so much, and again, HOW the hell did you find this?

[Rainbowheart]

I went to Google Books and searched "corn cob young adult fiction." The preview showed lots of references to corn, and the plot seemed vaguely similar, so I thought I'd suggest it. Hope it's right!

[Inessa]

Rainbowheart wrote: "I went to Google Books and searched "corn cob young adult fiction." The preview showed lots of references to corn, and the plot seemed vaguely similar, so I thought I'd suggest it. Hope it's right!"

Hello! You probably don't care but someone on Reddit found the book I was speaking of and it was apparently called "The Mostly True Story of Jack" (by Kelly Barnhill). I'm extremely thankful to you for taking your time to help me with this and I'll definitely still read Bone Gap :) Thank you!

[Rainbowheart]

We definitely care! I always like to know what the correct solution is, even if it's not the book I suggested.

The Mostly True Story of Jack for the link. Looks good!