ABANDONED. YA fantasy (/horror?) two boys searching for forbidden books of magic, find one book in a part-abandoned city which is an enemy stronghold (necromancers?), novel contains a tree (or landscape?) made of bones (skulls?)

[IRW]

I believe the book is the first of a series, and read it around 3 years ago, although I don't think it was newly published at that time.

PLOT: I can't remember much more than written in the topic. iirc the heroes make their first find in a room (tomb?) in a ruined town, but it's incomplete, damaged, or partly redacted. One of the boys begins to try to practise magic while they travel to the enemy stronghold. I think magic is considered evil in their world, and I think the bone landscape/tree of bones grows as the enemy gains strength, and possibly that the enemy is trying to summon something powerful and evil into the world.

Things it ISN'T: Mortal Intstruments. Anything set in our world (e.g. The Bone Tree, or Hexslinger series). The Bone Forest (Mythago Wood).

[Kris]

No response, moving to Abandoned folder.

IRW (OP) was last active on the site in September 2020.