Title: Amari and the Night Brothers

Author: B.B. Alston

Release Date: January 21, 2021

Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy

Number of Pages: 416

Summary: From Goodreads: “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 . . .”

Review: Thank you, The Write Reads, for organizing and inviting me to be part of this blog tour! Thank you to the publisher (Egmont Books) and Net Galley for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Book Hangover (n): (1) a term used to describe the feeling of not knowing what to do with your life because you just finished an amazing book that you can’t stop thinking about; (2) the feeling I have after finishing Amari and the Night Brothers.

Amari is thirteen. She lives in a bad part of town, and bullies are something she deals with regularly. To make matters worse, her brother has been missing for months, and far too many people suggest that he was involved with something illegal. After a particularly bad last day of school, Amari finds a briefcase that her brother left her that introduces her to the supernatural world and a very exclusive and competitive summer camp. Amari is determined to use this opportunity to become a junior agent and to find out what happened to her brother, even if it turns out that she has an illegal supernatural ability and that the supernatural world is in danger. What follows is an amazing adventure, led by an amazing main character, that you can’t help but root for and fall in love with.

The best part about Amari and the Night Brothers is Amari. She is such a memorable character, and she is so easy to fall in love with. She’s determined, tenacious, and brave, but she’s also nervous and scared about everything that’s going on around her. I loved that she was able to find the courage to face the obstacles in her way of achieving her goals and that she had human moments where she faltered and second-guessed herself. Amari is by far one of the best characters I’ve been introduced to in 2020, and I hope that this book falls into the hands of young people everywhere because she is the hero that the world needs.

I loved the challenges aspect of this book. I think that it’s a fairly common trope for there to be a series of challenges to complete to complete a quest, but I love it. I thought the puzzles were clever, and I loved seeing the different parts of the supernatural world. I also liked that the challenges tested the competitors on multiple things at once and that they had a lot of layers. Generally speaking, I loved all of the twists and turns in this book. I wanted to know what was going to happen next and how everything would tie together. Most of the twists and turns kept me on my toes, and I did not see a lot of them coming.

On a broader note, I loved the world-building in this book. The supernatural world co-exists with the normal world, and I had so much fun learning about it. I loved the different creatures, the different departments, and the different abilities that everyone has.

Overall, Amari and the Night Brothers is fantastic. I think everyone should read this book and buy a copy for someone else so they can fall in love with it too. It’s been a while since I’ve had a book hangover, and I think this book hangover will last a long time because this book is that good.

Rating: 5 Stars!