Sunday, February 2, 2025

Why Amari Peters is Even More Magical Than Percy Jackson

Image copied from Goodreads

Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston is one of the best fantasy adventures I've read in a quite awhile. Reading it was the perfect way to kick off black history month. She's a heroine that I wish had been out when my kids were middle grade readers. Her story bears some resemblance to the well-known Percy Jackson series in that Amari is from a single parent home, she struggles to fit in, and she's discovers a world full of supernatural adventure while attending summer camp.

But that is where the similarities end. Unlike Percy, Amari has an older brother she's always idolized. Despite the large age gap between them, Quinton always loved his little sis and did everything he could to look out for her. He paved the way for her to attend the same exclusive private school he went to and graduated from, though Amari worked hard to make the good grades needed to be awarded the same scholarship as her brother. And even though he has been missing for six months with no trace, Quinton is still looking after her, having left her a nomination for attendance at the same summer camp he went to when he was twelve. But despite how much she looks up to him, Amari has also always felt overshadowed by Quinton and is convinced that she doesn't quite measure up to him. 

The fact that Amari is bullied at school and doesn't seem to be able to make friends with anyone at Jefferson Academy seem to just prove her right. When Quinton's disappearance gives Amari's bullies more ammunition to taunt her she finally fights back, shoving the ringleader of the mean girls picking on her, which costs Amari her scholarship. But summer vacation takes a turn for the better when a mysterious briefcase delivered to Amari from Quinton offers her a nomination to attend summer camp with The Bureau of Supernatural Affairs. From there we are swept up into a magical world of magic and adventure.

I could not put this book down from the first page. Amari leaps off the page as a real and relatable character right from the start as she explains why she's in the principal's office, yet again. The pacing of the story also never lets up, with short chapters full of some new challenge or new discovery for Amari that keep you wanting to turn the page to see what will happen next. Alston builds a truly imaginative and fun, yet dangerous world for Amari to discover once she accepts the summons of the briefcase, sure that if she goes to the Bureau it will help her figure out what happened to her brother. Upon opening the case, Amari is shown wonders she never imagined with the aid of a pair of magical sunglasses. Special eye drops the instructions in the briefcase tell her to dose herself with also help her to see past glamours and reveal that supernatural beings live all around her, even in her own housing project. The nosy, mean neighbor her mother has always gotten to "keep an eye" on Amari might actually be a green complexioned witch. One who disappears in a cloud of smoke when Amari questions her about it. On the car ride to her first day at summer camp, Amari spots werewolves, and a pair of glowing eyes in a dark alley. Once they arrive at the Vanderbilt Hotel where the camp is taking place, Amari is whisked, in a talking elevator, to a labyrinthine compound below the hotel. Her roommate she ends up with is a weredragon and Amari finds herself immediately in the spotlight because her brother Quinton was part of a famous duo of investigative agents for the Bureau. This doesn't give Amari an advantage, though. It leaves her with yet more to live up to and the nomination doesn't guarantee her a spot at the camp. Amari will still have to earn it by passing a series of challenges, which will be harder for her since she is one of the few kids nominated who hasn't grown up knowing that magic exists. Of course things take an even more perplexing turn for Amari when she discovers that her "gift" that most students have supernaturally enhanced the first day of camp is actually a power that is illegal. In fact, Amari is someone that shouldn't even exist according to the Bureau. A circumstance that causes most at the Bureau and those associated with it, to be suspicious and distrustful of Amari, making it even more of a challenge to secure her place among them. 

In spite of these setbacks, Amari is determined to prove that she isn't in danger of turning into the evildoer everyone is convinced she will and fights to become a junior agent so that she can do what no one else has--find Quinton. Amari Peters is an underdog that readers can easily root for and her story is a fast-paced, imaginative adventure to rival any of popular series that have come before. It also handles topics such as not judging someone on where they come from, how they look, or for being unique in someway in ways that young readers can easily identify and empathize with. I found Amari's story to be even more magical and fun to read than Percy's and I loved the Percy Jackson series. I highly recommend this series by B.B. Alston to anyone in the middle grade reader age group who loves fantasy adventures or for anyone young at heart who enjoyed Percy Jackson or similar fantasy series. 

As for the next review for February, I'll be discussing cozy fantasy, The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst. Check out the book cover and blurb, copied from Goodreads, below.


The Spellshop is Sarah Beth Durst’s romantasy debut–a lush cottagecore tale full of stolen spellbooks, unexpected friendships, sweet jams, and even sweeter love.

Kiela has always had trouble dealing with people. Thankfully, as a librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, she and her assistant, Caz—a magically sentient spider plant—have spent the last decade sequestered among the empire’s most precious spellbooks, preserving their magic for the city’s elite.

When a revolution begins and the library goes up in flames, she and Caz flee with all the spellbooks they can carry and head to a remote island Kiela never thought she’d see again: her childhood home. Taking refuge there, Kiela discovers, much to her dismay, a nosy—and very handsome—neighbor who can’t take a hint and keeps showing up day after day to make sure she’s fed and to help fix up her new home.

In need of income, Kiela identifies something that even the bakery in town doesn’t have: jam. With the help of an old recipe book her parents left her and a bit of illegal magic, her cottage garden is soon covered in ripe berries.

But magic can do more than make life a little sweeter, so Kiela risks the consequences of using unsanctioned spells and opens the island’s first-ever and much needed secret spellshop.

Like a Hallmark rom-com full of mythical creatures and fueled by cinnamon rolls and magic, The Spellshop will heal your heart and feed your soul.




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Why Amari Peters is Even More Magical Than Percy Jackson

Image copied from Goodreads Amari and the Night Brothers   by B.B. Alston is one of the best fantasy adventures I've read in a quite awh...