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Book Review: Deep in Providence by Riss M. Neilson

cover art for Deep in Providence by Riss L. Neilson

Deep in Providence by Riss m. Neilson.

Henry Holt and Company Books for Young Readers

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1250788528

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook

Buy:  Bookshop.org  |  Amazon.com

 

 

Taking place in Providence, Rhode Island, Deep in Providence introduces Miliani, Natalie, and Inez, whose friend Jasmine was recently killed suddenly in a car accident, Miliani is determined to bring her back. Inez and Natalie are skittish about it, but it seems so important to Miliani they agree and swear a blood pact. The story is told from the alternating points of view of the three girls.

 

Miliani’s family is Filipino. She has witchcraft in her blood but did not learn how to use it before her grandfather died, and her mother has forbidden it, and visits to her “dangerous” aunt, Lindy. Despite this, Miliani visits Lindy, who says it may be possible to anchor Jasmine’s spirit to another person if Miliani and her friends will do enough spells to thin the boundaries between worlds. Knowing her friends would not consent to anchoring Jasmine to another person, when she tells them, she omits that from her explanation.

 

Natalie is a half-Black, half-white biracial girl with a younger brother, Devin and an emancipated older half-sister. Her mother is a heroin addict and disappears for long periods of time. Her sister contributes to the household financially and wants Natalie and Devin to stay with her. Natalie refuses, and does a locator spell to find her mother, who they discover fatally overdosing. The girls do a spell and reverse her mother’s coma, but Natalie can’t control her mother’s addiction long-term. Natalie also does a truth spell on her sister and learns that she is a stripper and that’s how she is able to make the money to help them.

 

Inez is a Dominican-American citizen whose father was deported. She plans to sponsor him once she turns 18, but she has unprotected sex with her boyfriend and becomes pregnant. She tells him, and finds he is selling drugs. She does a spell to stop her boyfriend, and he is arrested and jailed for armed robbery. Inez also casts a spell to cause a miscarriage that nearly kills her.

 

Although her friends are seeing spirits, Miliani’s mother has been casting spells of protection to keep spirits away, so Miliani doesn’t see the damage her plan is causing. The issue of consent hung over the book and I was relieved to see it resolved.

 

The book goes into some pretty dark places: drug addiction, abandonment, grief, miscarriage and abortion are never easy to read about. But the girls’ friendship as they navigate  difficult situations and their grief over Jasmine is powerful, regardless of their magic.

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

 

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. AlstonBookshop.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