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A review by sabrielreads
Amari and the Despicable Wonders by B.B. Alston
3.0
3.5*
Whew! This would’ve been a solid 4 but the ending really confused and frustrated me, I’ll be honest.
This instalment was just as action packed as the previous two, but I didn’t find there to be much character development or even relationship development in this one which was disappointing.
Jayden as a character really adds nothing to the story, and I felt the same when he was first introduced. There seems to be a forced love interest thing happening, which doesn’t have much believability, and he is kind of just…there. I was really hoping the author would lean into an enemies to lovers vibe with Amari and Dylan, as the potential for some real emotion is there. Romance definitely isn’t the genre I know, and it is middle grade so not much can happen, but they’re getting into their teens now and I think it would’ve been better if they were growing up a little more in each book. Percabeth gives me ALL the emotions and that is middle grade, so I don’t see why it can’t be done here too!
The structure also suffered a little - book one had the school year/trials structure, book 2 had the great game battles, and I thought this book would follow a structure of finding the Wonders but it really didn’t. It was more of a wild goose chase where Amari made a lot of hotheaded decisions that led to people dying.
Speaking of people dying - I can appreciate the author attempting to add gravitas to the situation by people being killed, but unfortunately the emotional impact of the deaths just didn’t hit home for me. Events occurred and then were moved on from too quickly, with the characters not really being given a lot of time to react before they moved onto the next thing they were supposed to be doing.
The final “showdown” once again happened in too few pages - I blinked and suddenly it was over. All three books have suffered from this. And the sacrifice made - I won’t spoil what and who it is - made absolutely no sense with the laws of the magic put in place. So there was zero emotional impact for me there as I was just confused and annoyed that it even happened.
I still love the world and I’m glad Amari’s story isn’t over (we get two more books!) but this really suffered middle book syndrome for me. Considering the next two books weren’t requested by the publisher until last year(?), I can only assume this book was originally meant to be the finale and then had to get changed around in order for there to be a continuation.
I’m still looking forward to the next book!
Whew! This would’ve been a solid 4 but the ending really confused and frustrated me, I’ll be honest.
This instalment was just as action packed as the previous two, but I didn’t find there to be much character development or even relationship development in this one which was disappointing.
Jayden as a character really adds nothing to the story, and I felt the same when he was first introduced. There seems to be a forced love interest thing happening, which doesn’t have much believability, and he is kind of just…there. I was really hoping the author would lean into an enemies to lovers vibe with Amari and Dylan, as the potential for some real emotion is there. Romance definitely isn’t the genre I know, and it is middle grade so not much can happen, but they’re getting into their teens now and I think it would’ve been better if they were growing up a little more in each book. Percabeth gives me ALL the emotions and that is middle grade, so I don’t see why it can’t be done here too!
The structure also suffered a little - book one had the school year/trials structure, book 2 had the great game battles, and I thought this book would follow a structure of finding the Wonders but it really didn’t. It was more of a wild goose chase where Amari made a lot of hotheaded decisions that led to people dying.
Speaking of people dying - I can appreciate the author attempting to add gravitas to the situation by people being killed, but unfortunately the emotional impact of the deaths just didn’t hit home for me. Events occurred and then were moved on from too quickly, with the characters not really being given a lot of time to react before they moved onto the next thing they were supposed to be doing.
The final “showdown” once again happened in too few pages - I blinked and suddenly it was over. All three books have suffered from this. And the sacrifice made - I won’t spoil what and who it is - made absolutely no sense with the laws of the magic put in place. So there was zero emotional impact for me there as I was just confused and annoyed that it even happened.
I still love the world and I’m glad Amari’s story isn’t over (we get two more books!) but this really suffered middle book syndrome for me. Considering the next two books weren’t requested by the publisher until last year(?), I can only assume this book was originally meant to be the finale and then had to get changed around in order for there to be a continuation.
I’m still looking forward to the next book!