SOLVED. YA Fantasy Forest series. Female main character who can "trade" memories to bond with animals. Likely between 2011 and 2017. [s]

[Devon]

Certainty Note: Anything with the phrase “I believe” or “I think” is a hazy memory for me. I am most certain about the plot.

Age: I believe I read this before 2018 but research into my checkout history research seems to indicate it was before 2017 as well. A reasonable start time is 2011.

Genre: Fantasy

Plot: The plot was of a girl who enters a magic forest for a reason that is unknown. The forest contained a variety of animals, I believe none of whom were real-life animals. The heroine could bond with these animals by trading a happy memory. For example, she recalls a happy time from earlier in her life to bond with a large animal, but afterward is unable to remember that certain memory. I believe the animals in this forest had some sort of sickness; she might have been trying to find a cure for them. This sickness might have been called “the blight”, although google searches with this attached seem to suggest I pulled this word from another book.
She has a few encounters with the main villain, a mysterious, powerful figure. I think the being had some sort of unique feature, like being headless or pumpkin-headed. She has no fantasy powers of her own to battle this villain other than the memory-trading, and I believe in their first encounter she simply runs from the villain.

Cover: The cover had non-photorealistic depictions of branches or a tree. It was a green book with whitish/blueish lettering for the title. The printing that I read had ridged pages and was hardback. I believe the title was only one or two words.
Obviously this might not be helpful as there could be multiple printings.

Illustrations: There might have been sparse illustrations. I recall there being 5 or 6 in the whole book, and there were all black and white. I recall one in particular being of a field of fireflies.

Characters: I believe the heroine enters the forest alone, at least for a portion of the book. She might meet with a brother at some point, although this might be in the second book. I believe her family is gone aside from this brother.

Setting: I believe this is set in a completely fictional universe; there are no references to any place or person on Earth. I believe this book also starts in the girl’s home village.

Tone: The tone of this book was decidedly dark for a magical forest book. I believe the large animal mentioned in the plot section was eventually killed. I believe there were also graphic descriptions of the sickness.

Books in Relation: There was a second book, although I am unsure if it was in a larger series. The cover was blue and had a very similar art style. The main villain I believe was a giant spider. It was found out either at the end of the first book or at the start of the second that the original villain was a do-gooder and the real villain pulling the strings was the spider. I remember the villain having a rather old-sounding woman’s name. I don’t recall any plot points of this book other than the main character and her brother getting caught in a spider web.

[Becca]

The Thickety series by J.A. White? The first book is A Path Begins, the second The Whispering Trees.

[Devon]

That's it! Thanks so much!
Do you know how to change this thread to solved?

[Claire]

Edit the header on desktop, there's a drop down box that let's you choose which folder to put this thread in