What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

I'm pretty sure I read this in middle school around 2014-2018. It The book was definitely published before 2018. It was a hardcover book that was displayed in my school library, so it must have been relevant sometime around then. The cover might have been a light blue or some other cool-toned color.

The story was completely fantasy, not set in any real world place. There were magic plants and stuff, but the names for everything were pretty tame. I remember the character names feeling pretty simple. I want to say the protagonist's name started with R, but that might be putting too much confidence in my memory.

The main point of view character was a boy who works with a girl to save a forest from a sickness that was specifically referred to as a blight. I think there were descriptions of the sickly plants turning white, but I'm not entirely confident.

I think the boy might have been a thief of some kind. He was imprisoned at some point, and the opening scene of the book may have been a marketplace chase.

At one point, the boy and the girl have to go into an evil, stinky swamp with poisonous vapors. They're able to stay safe by chewing on some herb called either "sweet mint" or "sweet root", something with sweet in it. I remember the boy thinking that the people who named the plant must have had a weird sense of humor to name such a gross tasting plant that way.

They almost fall for a Will 'o' the Wisp type of creature, but they keep each other safe. There might have been an animal companion (bird?) involved. I can't remember if it could speak, or if it was just one of the characters being able to speak to animals.

Speaking of which, one of the main characters could speak to plants and animals, which was how they found out the forest was getting sick in the first place. The forest creatures were asking for help. I am almost certain this ability belonged to the girl.

I mentioned before that the boy was imprisoned at one point, and that was because he didn't get along with a powerful/ruling class of people within his city. I think they held some sort of religious influence? There was a fruit that was reserved only for these religious figures, and the boy breaks into the gardens and eats a bunch of the fruit because it tastes really good. I think at some point he shares a pie filled with the stuff alongside one of these leaders who is willing to give him a taste because he's one of the good ones. I think he was an old man? He had playful banter with the boy as if he were a mentor character.

The boy and the girl liked each other, but they weren't allowed to be together for some reason. I think the girl's dad was against it and he was powerful and evil or something. The girl was also taken to a tower and there was super special light magic involved? I want to say there was some magic object like a ring or disk, but that could be me mixing up one of many magical mcguffins typical in fantasy books.

I'm pretty sure the girl sacrificed herself to save everyone or something along those lines, because I remember the boy being super upset.

The ending might have been bittersweet because I remember getting really angsty about the two of them, but I was also just an angsty kid, so I could have just fixated on the sad part for fun.

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I've been searching for this book for years, but I just can't find this specific one anywhere, even on my old school library catalogue.

Below are books people have suggested before I posted here that ended up not being what I was looking for:
- "A Tale Dark and Grimm" by Adam Gidwitz
- "The Blight of Muirwood" by Jeff Wheeler
- "Everlost" by Neal Shusterman

Atlantis Rising by T.A. Barron?

She whirled around to face Promi. “You’ve got to join me! Now it’s not just that horrible priest endangering this forest. It’s the blight. And it’s spreading fast! Last week, it was only in a few groves on the eastern reaches. And now it’s here, deep in the interior.”

“This herb,” she explained while picking all the sprigs she could find, “is called sweetmint. My parents showed me where to find it . . . just in case I ever needed to enter the swamp.”

Becca wrote: "Atlantis Rising by T.A. Barron?
She whirled around to face Promi. “You’ve got to join me! Now it’s not just that horrible priest endangering this forest. It’s the blight. And it’s s..."
Omg that's exactly it!! I've literally been searching for years...thank you so much, you're amazing!

Glad to help!

Glad you found your book, beanjang.

Atlantis Rising (book 1) of the Atlantis Saga series by T.A. Barron - Becca's find.