The Whispering Trees: The Thickety, Book 2

In a world where nothing is what it seems, there's a strong message of self-reliance to the point of distrust: "Taff -- you have to understand. No one is going to help us. We have to get through this by ourselves," says Kara to her optimistic, trusting brother. Strong messages about love of family and friends; courage in doing the right thing; everybody's talents coming in handy. Also, an enormous amount of hand-wringing, especially on protagonist Kara's part, about harmful actions that she winds up doing anyway, notably sending many beings to their deaths against a villain, and about the time-honored quandary over whether your obligations to your loved ones trump your obligations to the world at large.

The Whispering Trees begins with a violent death of a beloved companion and includes a lot of harrowing, scary scenes, from a fence that proves to be made of the reanimated bodies of deceased villagers to the killing of a being who springs to life as a sort of zombie clone of a child. There's also more personal violence, as when Kara injures a friendly bird when the bird tells her something she doesn't want to hear. Vividly described battles with monsters and evil magicians injure and kill many friendly beings. The murder of Kara and Taff's mother, who was killed for being a witch, hangs over the story.