58 pages • 1 hour read
B. B. AlstonAmari and the Night Brothers
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 16-19Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 16 Summary
Lara reveals the reason why she’s so mean to Amari: she blames Quinton for Maria’s disappearance. According to Lara, Quinton guilted Maria into working with him on a top-secret project. Dylan reassures Amari, explaining the sacredness of the partnership bond and that Maria would not have been persuaded to do anything she didn’t want to do. Dylan and Amari bond over the shared experience of missing their siblings. Dylan relates to Amari’s feelings of isolation; although he and Lara are twins, they are nothing alike and aren’t close. However, when Lara excludes Amari from the Junior Agent trainee group at lunch, Dylan doesn’t defend her, wounding Amari. Magiciangirl18 contacts Amari again to arrange a meeting for the following night.
Chapter 17 Summary
Dylan makes up for his previous behavior by sitting with Amari during the next day’s Supernatural Immersion class. As a blow to Amari, Lara needles the guest speaker, a boogeyperson, by pointing out that magicians are technically the boogeypeople’s “masters,” since they created them. The boogeyperson bows to Amari and begs her not to include the boogeypeople in the magicians’ plot, startling Amari. Amari meets magiciangirl18 that night at the Vanderbilt Hotel.
Chapter 18 Summary
Magiciangirl18 is Dylan, who reveals that he is also a magician. While he can create illusions like Amari, he is primarily a technologist—a magician who can manipulate technology. This is how he’s been sending messages to Amari as “magiciangirl18.” According to him, being a magician runs in the Van Helsing family and is their best kept secret. Amari is so powerful because she is a born magician, a very rare thing; most magicians, like Dylan, receive their magic from another magician. Maria passed the magic on to Dylan after she made Special Agent. Learning that there have been scores of magicians in the Bureau reassures Amari that being a magician doesn’t mean one is automatically bad. Dylan also tells Amari about the Black Book, a book containing an entire record of the most powerful spells the Night Brothers created together. This is the object Moreau is after; supposedly, the Black Book is kept in the Great Vault at the Bureau. Dylan gives Amari a spell book written by the famous illusionist Madame Violet as a show of trust between them. Unfortunately, Lara catches Amari practicing spells from it and records it on her phone. Lara uses the video to threaten Amari into quitting Junior Agent training.
Chapter 19 Summary
Agents Magnus and Fiona won’t allow Amari to quit the program until she’s taken the night to think it through. However, the first tryout of the Junior Agent trainee program unexpectedly occurs that very night. Amari and Dylan are partnered and find themselves in a Wakeful Dream that takes place in a desert. In the Wakeful Dream, trainees are tasked with retrieving an unnamed valuable object that has been stolen. Amari and Dylan encounter a fearsome looking zombie, but as Dylan moves to attack it, Amari stops him—she notices that the creature is carrying a bouquet of flowers, suggesting that it is no threat. Amari explains to Dylan that she deals with that sort of thing a lot—being judged dangerous because of her background or how she looks. Next, Amari and Dylan encounter a girl who claims to have been abandoned by her partner; Amari wants to help her, but Dylan notices that the girl is hiding a weapon and stops Amari, saving them from an attack.
In the final part of the test, Amari and Dylan find several valuable items guarded by a giant water python. When they pick up an item, the water python is unleashed from behind a door filled with water. After some quick thinking, Amari realizes that the thing the water python is guarding isn’t one of the objects; it’s the water. Because the dream takes place in a desert, water is the most valuable thing there. Amari leaves the dream with water on her clothes, fulfilling the requirements of the tryout to “retrieve” the most valuable object. Her quick thinking earns her and Dylan first place. Dylan uses his tech-magic to erase Lara’s video, and he and Amari cement their bond as partners.
Chapters 16-19 Analysis
As the plot picks up speed and the character relationships solidify, the major themes of the book begin to shine in these chapters. Lara’s character develops in Chapter 16 as Amari sees that Lara, too, is carrying the weight of a missing sibling. Although this does not stop Lara from tormenting Amari and discriminating against her because she is a magician, it gives them a connection point and offers insight into Lara’s character. This develops the theme of Bonds of Family Loyalty; Lara is just as close to her sister as Amari is to Quinton, and although her pain doesn’t excuse her awful actions, it suggests that the power of family bonds motivates Lara just as strongly as it does Amari. Notably, although Dylan initially sides with Lara and does not stand up for Amari, he later uses his magic to erase Lara’s video, turning away from his own family bond.
The reveal in Chapter 18 marks a turning point both in Amari and Dylan’s relationship and in the narrative’s plot as a whole. The reveal about Dylan being a magician establishes him and Amari as foils, and their relationship will be used to develop themes such as Hope in the Face of Prejudice later in the narrative. Dylan’s confession helps Amari find some self-acceptance as he teaches her that “being a magician doesn’t automatically make you a bad person” (199). However, while Amari is openly a magician and faces the hate that comes with it, Dylan keeps his identity secret and so is spared the outward prejudice. This is ironic, as later, when Dylan is revealed to be a villain, he admits that prejudice was the driving force behind his actions. Where Amari deals with open hatred and finds inner strength in spite of it, Dylan secretly internalizes the prejudice by which he is surrounded, turning it into fuel for his own hatred.
Chapter 18 also mentions several important things that foreshadow major plot points: namely, the Black Book and Amari’s born magician status. While the full significance of these things is not expounded upon, it hints at future revelations that will reinforce their significance to the narrative’s conflicts and climax.
The tryout in Chapter 19 demonstrates Amari’s compassion and Dylan’s intelligence. The choices each character makes during the tryout reinforce their complement as partners and foreshadow key traits that inform the direction of their arcs. In the face of a threatening creature, Amari chooses restraint, connecting to her own experiences with stereotypes and prejudice. On the other hand, Dylan refuses to help an innocent-looking girl because he notices that she is lying. Amari’s restraint reflects her compassion and disposition to help others, whereas Dylan’s mistrust reflects the cynicism and suspicion with which he sees the non-magician population, as well as his ability to perceive others.
The tryout is also a turning point for Amari in terms of Self-Confidence and Discovering Identity. It’s the first opportunity she gets to demonstrate her skills, both to herself and others. In addition to the way her compassion allows her to see past the troll’s appearance, Amari proves that she is clever with the final trial. Even though Amari does not perceive herself as particularly talented, she is the only one in her class to make the connection between the water python and the water. As a result, she and Dylan take first place, concrete evidence of their capabilities. This helps Amari gain self-confidence, especially as part of her success stemmed from her personal experiences.
