Furthermore by Tahereh Mafi

Alice lives in the land of Farenwood where people get magical power from the land and the plants they eat.  In Farenwood color represents magical prowess, but Alice was born almost completely devoid of color, which makes her something of an outcast.  When Alice faces her 13th year and her "surrender" where she is supposed to be given a important task to complete for the community, she instead embarks on a journey with a village boy, Oliver, into the wildly magical land of Furthermore in hopes of finding her long lost father.

This is an intensely fantastical magical world, so much so that I was at first put off by it.  My old brain can't do the imaginative acrobatics it used to be able to do (or maybe I never was very imaginative). I almost gave up about 100 pages in, but I pressed on, and as I did I began to be more attached to the characters, and that carried me through to the end.  The book reminded me a little of the Glass Town Game I read a little while ago, or like Alice in Wonderland.  The magical elements were really random, without a lot of apparent rhyme or reason.  This book got starred reviews in Publisher's Weekly and Kirkus when it came out, I am guessing mostly because of the strong characterizations and creative use of language.  I read it this week because the sequel, Whichwood, is on my Starred Reviews list for this year.  I may have to take a break before I read the next one to give my imagination muscles a rest.(2016. 401 p.)