Amari and the Night Brothers by B. B. Alston Review *With Guest Writer!*

Hello, everyone! I'm excited to welcome a guest writer, who we shall call Hermione Granger for the sake of internet privacy, to the page, as they write a review of Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston. Spoiler alert: this review is intended for those who have already read Amari, so it includes some major plot details. So I'll hand the mic to Hermione! Enjoy! (Click image below for a synopsis of Amari.)

Snapshot review:

I genuinely enjoyed this book. It was pretty similar to some other books I've read, namely Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, and there were some tropes that have been repeated in other things I've read. That’s basically middle grade fiction though, so if you’re fine with that, it’s an amazing book.

Comparisons:

There was the theme of Amari getting in trouble, with a starting scene similar to that of My Grandmother Told Me To Tell You She’s Sorry. Amari's discovery of the magical world was similar to in Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, but the world was different enough that it still interested me. There was also a section where it mentioned that if someone is reporting some creature attack there's a department to handle that, making me think of the Ministry of Magic in that regard (definitely not like the Mist in PJO).

One huge difference to any of the previous books I’ve mentioned, obviously, was that the main character was NOT a white boy, but is a Black girl, and I honestly think that contributed to my wanting to read this book, since Amari was a) definitely not as annoying as Harry or Percy and b) more well-rounded and has a legit background. The portrayal of the neighborhood where she lives was interesting since that was something I'd heard about, and while I can't say whether or not it was well depicted, it certainly seemed realistic. Her being from this neighborhood definitely shaped her and the final scene there was amazing. Also, the fact that her mom was gone all the time seemed realistic, compared to some other books where the parents are just disappeared for no reason or they don't care about their kids. Amari's mom cares about her and has the neighbors keep an eye on her, but she is gone since she's at work which does make sense especially considering their situation.

Review:

Looking at the actual content of the story, I really enjoyed it. While there had to be a mean girl trope, there was a nice redemption at the end, even if it was a bit rushed (there was leading up to it, but it wasn't super clear that it was actually going to happen) and the whole telepathic thing kind of caught me off guard. The Dylan twist made me pretty happy, because it was well done and set up, and you don't see that too often in books (it's different from the Luke twist in PJO). Dylan seemed like he had places he could go, though his speech was a little bit cliche (as was some of Amari's situation, like having this huge power and target on her back and having to go save the world, but that's the point of the story so it's FINE). I love the tech element, it's very 21st century, compared to other books like HP that are in the past before phones or PJO in which they cannot use phones. Also, Elsie was just amazing, can we just appreciate we have an almost legit dragon here? More Elsie please.

There’s a sequel?

I don't feel like it necessarily needs a sequel, and I'd probably be okay without one, but knowing that there is one coming out makes me excited and I'm totally going to read it.

That is all I have to say on this book, but I would definitely give it 3.5/4 stars.

- Hermione Granger