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Book Review: Amari and the Night Brothers (Supernatural Investigations #1) by B.B. Alston

cover art for Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston ( Bookshop.org  |  Amazon.com )

Amari and the Night Brothers (Supernatural Investigations #1)  by B.B. Alston

Balzer + Bray, 2021

ISBN-13 : 978-0062975164

Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition, audiobook

 

Thirteen year old Amari Peters has some big footsteps to fill: her older brother Quinton was the highest performing student at ritzy Jefferson Academy. Since his disappearance (or possibly death) six months ago, Amari’s grades, and behavior, are slipping, and on the last day of school, she shoves a mean girl who makes a dig about her brother and loses her scholarship, her best opportunity to get out of the Rosewood Projects and go to college. Grounded indefinitely, Amari hasn’t been home long when the doorbell rings and she’s asked to sign for a package that, oddly, has been delivered to Quinton’s closet. Opening the package, Amari discovers she has been nominated by her missing brother for a scholarship to the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs training camp. The Bureau of Supernatural Affairs keeps supernatural creatures secret while also protecting innocent humans. Quinton and his partner, “special agents” for the Bureau, have gone missing from the Bureau as well, and Amari decides to attend the camp in hopes of discovering what happened to her brother.

Early on, Amari is discovered to have tremendous magical potential, but this turns out to be a major problem when her supernatural power is discovered to be magic, as magicians are universally considered bad and magic is illegal. Among a throng of privileged “legacy” trainees, Amari’s race, socioeconomic status, and illegal magic make her a pariah among the other trainees, and more determined than ever to qualify to become a Junior Agent and find the answers that will lead to her brother.

While individual elements of the story may sound familiar (a mysterious letter, a summer camp for teenage legacies, mythical and supernatural creatures hidden in plain view, and evil magicians all show up in either Harry Potter or Percy Jackson) B.B. Alston has mixed them up to create something very different. A big piece of that is that Amari, a smart and determined Black girl who already has to prove herself in the outside world, is the point of view character, so we get to see a resourceful character working hard who keeps going even when she’s discouraged by hostility and racism. Nobody hands her a destiny or quest to fulfil, does her homework for her, or makes decisions for her, although she occasionally gets a boost of encouragment from a friend. Alston is also incredibly creative in his world-building (talking elevators with individual personalites, delightful and spooky departmental names and descriptions, gorgeously described magical illusions, magic that can manipulate technology, gossip rags that give you juicy tidbits only when you ask the right questions, and so much more).

Although there are some terrifying creatures and spells, the scariest parts of the book really involve the people who interact with Amari: spoiled mean girl Lara van Helsing, who spreads nasty rumors; evil magician Raoul Moreau, one of the “Night Brothers”; racist kids who draw malicious graffiti on the walls of Amari’s bedroom; Bureau directors certain Amari is a danger to the supernatural world. Amari and the Night Brothers is more of a dark urban fantasy and coming-of-age story than it is a horror story, but it is a great #OwnVoices title that provides a fresh point of view in a genre that seems to be telling the same story over again and again. I’m looking forward to book #2. Highly recommended for grades 4-8

Posted on January 20, 2021 by , Reply

Book Review: Crave (Crave #1) by Tracy Wolff

Cover image of Crave by Tracy Wolff

Crave (Crave #1) by Tracy Wolff  ( Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

Entangled Teen, 2020

ISBN-13: 978-1640638952

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook

 

Grace’s parents died in a car accident, leaving her no choice but to leave her home in California and unenthusiastically move to Alaska, where her uncle, now her guardian, is headmaster at a remote, exclusive boarding school. While her uncle, and her cousin Macy, seem glad to have her there, Grace at once notices there’s something off about the school (a giant Gothic castle) and the students. Her first encounter is with the dark, Byronic, and exceedingly rude Jaxon, who is both hostile and very hot. Despite his attempt at intimidation, Grace holds her own… at least until altitude sickness does her in. Flint, another friendly student, carries Grace and her suitcase up to the room she’ll share with her cousin (Grace spends a significant part of the book either suffering from altitude sickness, recovering from a twisted ankle, and recuperating from attempts against her life. This gives her both a reason for not keeping to a school schedule while actually living in a school and for her complete obliviousness about the fact that all the students are supernatural creature) As Grace attempts to integrate into the school with Macy’s help, she finds herself thinking more about Jaxon, despite his extreme bouts of hostility and his obvious concern and attraction to Grace, both ordering her a special breakfast when she’s stuck in bed and sending her a copy of Twilight “as a warning.”

Jaxon might have a point, if Twilight took place in wintry Alaska instead of rainy Washington,  if he and Grace were anything like Edward and Bella, and if the heat between the main characters was turned way up. As dysfunctional as Grace and Jaxon are together, their chemistry is undeniable. Crave is going to get a lot of hearts beating faster (and props to Wolff  for making consent between Grace and Jaxon explicit).

A lot gets sacrificed for Jaxon and Grace to come together– not just literally, as Grace bungles her way through lethal and bloody vampire politics and tensions between vampires and dragons, but in the name of romance (like Grace dancing with Jaxon at night in the Alaskan outdoors in nothing but a dress with spaghetti straps, a scene which is gorgeous to read but romantic only in theory). Despite the problematic aspects of the relationship between the two, they have their moments, both apart and together. The drama, secrets, and twisty relationships mean that Crave is not just the story of Grace and Jaxon; they are part of a larger picture that we have yet to see pieced completely together.  Crave is a compelling, escapist read with a healthy serving of snark, that urban fantasy readers and YA vampire enthusiasts should enjoy. Recommended for ages 14+.

 

Contains: violence, gore, murder, assault, ritual sacrifice

 

 

 

Posted on June 22, 2020 by , Reply

Book Review: Witch Hunter: Into the Outside by J. Z. Foster

Witch Hunter: Into the Outside by J. Z. Foster

CreateSpace, 2017

ISBN-13: 978-1974522255

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

 

Witch Hunter: Into the Outside by J.Z. Foster is a tongue-in-cheek, ghoulish farce.  Richard, a picked-upon, chubby nebbish, is a member of a group of nerds dedicated to combating supernatural evil.  He suspects that the members are only half serious about their rituals, array of holy weapons and clandestine attacks against evil.  Richard entices Beth, an ambitious, would-be, TV reporter, and Ted, her cameraman, to accompany them on a hunt for a local witch.

Although Richard’s goal is to track down the warlock with a sanctified knife, a necklace with a cross, holy water and a book of spells, none of the small group expects anything to come from the expedition. To their shock, they encounter a series of horrors, including a wight with an insatiable, ravenous appetite, a noxious, deceptive daeva, and murderous sankai with faces of children and bodies of animals.   The confrontations escalate into a showdown with a plague warlock, who has caused stillbirths, deformed births in animals, and other catastrophes in their local community.

With the exception of Richard, most of the characters are one-dimensional, but readers will be caught up in the fast-placed plot.  The chapters alternate between the witch hunters’ increasingly harrowing adventures and Richard’s jailhouse interrogation after he is accused of murdering Beth.  Readers will empathize with his struggle to confront his self-doubt, fears and loneliness.  As Beth wrote,

“He was more than the coward he though he was, or the fumbling nervous man he appeared to be.  Richard was proof that we could all become something greater.  When faced with the impossible, Richard stood.  Richard was the hope of man, and proof that our destinies are unwritten.  Richard was proof that our fates are our own.”

Highly recommended.

Contains: rare obscenity

Reviewed by Robert D. Yee

Posted on March 9, 2018 by , Reply
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