Amari And The Night Brothers by B. B. Alston Book Review [in the end, we are all bound by our choices]

Blurb

An epic middle grade supernatural adventure series, soon to be a major movie starring Marsai Martin. Perfect for readers aged 8+ and fans of Percy Jackson, Nevermoor and Men in Black!

Amari Peters knows three things.

Her big brother Quinton has gone missing.
No one will talk about it.
His mysterious job holds the secret…

So when Amari gets an invitation to the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs, she’s certain this is her chance to find Quinton. But first she has to get her head around the new world of the Bureau, where mermaids, aliens and magicians are real, and her roommate is a weredragon.

Amari must compete against kids who’ve known about the supernatural world their whole lives, and when each trainee is awarded a special supernatural talent, Amari is given an illegal talent – one that the Bureau views as dangerous.

With an evil magician threatening the whole supernatural world, and her own classmates thinking she is the enemy, Amari has never felt more alone. But if she doesn’t pass the three tryouts, she may never find out what happened to Quinton…

Rating

Review

[ARC Provided by The Write Reads tours, my review is unbiased]

This magical series about a girl from a lower class neighbourhood, that finds out her missing brother was really working for a hidden world of magicians was incredible, and I loved following Amari as she discovered that magic existed, choosing a profession and training her magic.

This story felt like it was building up a world we get to know and love fully later, with hints of Zombies, Yetis, Atlantis and so much magic. It gave me just enough glimpses into the world to be so excited to learn more, and I have so many ideas as to where Amari might travel to next.

I liked the side characters that were Amar’s friends, Dylan (of the Van Helsings), whose sister went missing with Amari’s brother, and Elsie, a were-dragon that couldn’t transform but made brilliant inventions and could read people’s auras. On the other hand Dylan’s sister very much fit in that cliché snobby schoolgirl category and I found her incredibly annoying.

I’m not a fan of villain reveal scenes, as they’re usually quite obvious and a bit cheesy, and unfortunately this did fall into that category. The story overall though was just so much fun, and a promising start to the series. I can’t wait to see a full set of Amari books on my shelves.