A review by gillianalice
Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston

adventurous hopeful inspiring lighthearted tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

This scratched that Harry Potter itch! Little kid from a non-magical world gets thrust into the magical world and winds up being a savior of sorts. However, this book had the added layer of Amari being a little black girl from the "bad" part of town. Viewing the prejudice against her in the Bureau through the lens of the racism that she's experienced in the non-magical world was pointed and poignant. 

I was really impressed by how invested I got in Amari herself. She was rarely in a super high stakes life or death situation, but I was ready to fight some children on her behalf. 

<img src="https://y.yarn.co/e49f8b06-4f8c-4d62-a086-1dd5c8115ae7_text.gif"/>

My one issue with this was the audiobook narrator. She did really well 99% of the time, but she did Agent Fiona weird. I looked at the physical book, and I'm pretty sure Fiona is supposed to be Scottish. She uses "ye" a lot (as in "Quentin didn't nominate ye because he wanted ye to follow in his footsteps") but the narrator did no accent whatsoever and pronounced "ye" like "yee." I don't mind the lack of accent (Scottish can be hard), but the "yees" were so distracting. 

I've already put the next book on hold at my library. I can't wait to see where this series goes!