SOLVED. YA Fantasy about a boy in a world where the different colors of light are used as power. [s]

[Allen]

I read this book in 2017 or 2016. It takes place in an alternate world where light is power, and some colors of light are stronger than others. Light is shot out and used for all types of purposes. In the beginning of the book, the boy is using light (I think blue or green) to make music. He's good at manipulating the light, but his father has disappeared and his mother is poor or sick, so it's hard for him to move up to stronger colors. At the end of the first book, the boy has gotten to the top of the tower, and learns a secret about the strongest light (I think red or purple). In other books in the series, he leaves the tower and meets a girl who lives on ships in the ice outside the tower. The girl and him team up and go to another dimension with creature made of light. I've been looking for this book series for around 6 years, and I'm starting to wonder if I imagined it all.

[Ann]

The book series The Seventh Tower, the first book of which is The Fall by Garth Nix rose to the top of my mind when I read this book request, but I read it so long ago that I can't remember anything about it, and the reviews I could find don't mention manipulating light as magic. There is a girl who is an Ice Carl, though, so maybe?

[Allen]

That was it, thank you.