Thank you to Farshore books for sending me a copy with pretty glittery pages.
Themes: Magic, friendship, family and identity
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 …
I must confess this book was sent to me at the beginning of the year and every time I was like right I'm going to sit down and read it it seemed like there was always another deadline BUT I had such a great time chairing a Black History Month panel for the National Literacy Trust. And one of the authors was BB Alston! So of course I had to read Amari.
Now I've had a lot of people tell me that this book reminds me of mine. In some ways I can see it - Black girl with powers, magic school, missing brother, legendary brother but it definitely has a more Men In Black agent feel as opposed to my superhero, Dragonball Z vibe.
Amari is from the hood and struggles to fit in anyway. She's bullied and can't seem to find her footing. It doesn't help that Quinton, her big brother is loved in the real world and the magic world but when he goes missing, the police assume he's just another Black boy in trouble but Amari knows he is still out there. Then she gets nominated from him to attend The Bureau of Supernatural Affairs where Amari learns that she's a magician, the most feared gift in the magical world.
I really loved how he turned how we view magicians on its head and made them evil and the fact that Amari is one of the most powerful but is good was so brilliant. The book is very much an underdog story but there is also an undertone of prejudice and the assumption that Amari is trouble or not good enough. It reminded me of the narrative of Black women and how hard it is for us, especially African-Amercian Black women, yet Amari manages to overcome all that is thrown at her.
I liked her relationship with Dylan and I
won't lie I was gutted when Dylan's true colours came out. I'm usually good at clocking stuff but didn't think for a second that he was shady!
Amari is a great character and the book is full of all things any fantasy lover would enjoy - good vs evil, magic, friendships and a heroine we want to root for.
5/5
If you want to watch my interview with BB and Clare Weze click here
Grab a copy here
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