58 pages • 1-hour read
Nic Blake and the Remarkables: The Book of Anansi
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Chapters 1-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of enslavement.
Chapter 1 Summary: “My Favorite Author Wants Me Dead”
Nic has a nightmare in which Tyran Porter, her godfather and former favorite author, chases her through the streets of Uhuru. He says that she will soon lose control over her growing power and calls her the Manowari, the one destined to destroy the Remarkable world.
Nic awakens in her father’s home and sees that she is glowing. The Msaidizi, an ancient weapon that assumed the form of a dragon when Nic found it a few months ago, comes to her and says, “You must take control of the Badili, or it will take control of you” (4). The Msaidizi explains that the Badili is an ancient power that is meant to help Nic fulfil her destiny. The Msaidizi is only able to come to Nic during times of need, and it returns to the Remarkable government, LORE.
Nic hates being reminded that she is the prophesied Manowari. Her twin brother, Alex, her Unremarkable best friend, JP, and her hellhound puppy, Cocoa, try to comfort her. JP encourages her to believe in the power of free will. The children go back to bed, and Nic tries to assure herself that she would never destroy the Remarkable world, which was built centuries ago by people who survived enslavement.
Chapter 2 Summary: “House Arrest, Haints, and Hot Messes”
Nic is staying with her father, Calvin, on the opulent Blake family estate, where he is serving his five-year house arrest sentence for kidnapping Nic when she was a toddler. That morning, she catches Calvin listening to Tyran’s prism pod, which is similar to a podcast. The disgraced Chosen One has been on the run for months, and Calvin tries to assure his daughter that no one believes the man’s conspiracy theories about LORE and the Msaidizi.
In two weeks, Nic will take the Manifest exam to determine whether she’ll be admitted to one of Uhuru’s five Manifestor schools. JP says that she’s welcome to attend middle school back in Jackson with him if she doesn’t pass. The twins’ mother, Zoe, comes to pick up the children, and she and Calvin argue because she wants the twins to live with her during the week once school starts.
To get away from her parents’ argument, Nic goes out to the estate’s grounds, which have “a pond, a basketball court, a pool, several gardens, unicorn stables, and acres and acres of fields” (22). The Blakes’ groundskeeper is Mr. Lincoln, an elderly man whose Gift was taken away by LORE as punishment for a crime he committed when he was young. Mr. Lincoln urges the girl not to blame herself for her parents’ problems, but she thinks that they would still be happily married if she weren’t the Manowari.
Chapter 3 Summary: “The Big Secret (Spoiler Alert: It’s Me)”
Nic’s grandmother, the president of LORE, brings her grandchildren, JP, and Zoe, to a basketball game. The Commissioner of the Remarkable Basketball Association, Magnus Marigold, is a Giant and a Msaidizi enthusiast.
Inside a luxurious private suite, Nic meets Vice President Rivers and his 14-year-old daughter, Skye. Skye tells the twins that Tyran’s prism pod is popular because people are frustrated with LORE’s lies and secrecy, and he claims that he’ll reveal “the Big Secret” soon (40). Nic fears what will happen if Tyran reveals that she’s the Manowari. When the game’s announcer introduces the president and the vice president, some of the spectators boo.
That night, Nic, Alex, and JP watch Tyran’s prism pod. The man looks gaunt and unkempt; he claims that his audience “will never trust LORE again” once he reveals the Big Secret (44). Tyran is the author of the Stevie James books, a children’s fantasy series based on his own adventures. JP proposes that they enlist the writer’s devoted fans to help find him.
Chapter 4 Summary: “When Brothers Attack”
Alex helps Nic train for her Manifest exam, and the children use mojos and jujus to create fire, wind, and water. The five Manifestor schools, or kinships, each have a different focus. Students with mathematical and scientific aptitude attend Ernest, artists go to Butler, future politicians go to Douglass, activists go to Thorn, and “people invested in the preservation and protection of Manifestor culture and traditions” go to Freeman (54). Nic hopes to be placed in Freeman, which is named after her ancestor and one of Uhuru’s founders, Sarah Freeman.
During the exam, Nic will be placed in a simulation of a “significant moment in Remarkable history that’ll put [her] abilities to the test in real time” (55). One of the options in the practice module is Roho’s attack on Uhuru, and Nic wants to see what the man many believed to be the Manowari did. She sees Roho destroy buildings, murder several Guardians who act as LORE’s police force, and strangle Tyran before she ends the simulation. She tells her brother about the Badili, but he assures her that she could never be like Roho.
Chapter 5 Summary: “Auntie Ambush”
Early on the day of the Manifest exam, Nic’s grandmother and great-aunts come to her mother’s condo to cook breakfast and get the girl ready for her big day. Nic’s grandmother and mother belong to Douglass kinship, and Alex is in Ernest, but most of the rest of their family is in Freeman. President DuForte’s late husband, Nicholai, was in Thorn, but Nic’s relatives rarely speak of him.
The five schools are spaced around a central Quad on an enormous campus called the Village. President DuForte greets the 42 students taking the Manifestor exam and tells them that they are joining a “rich legacy” of individuals who have learned to use the Gift to “serve the good of all Manifestors” (74). Many of the adults at the school recognize Nic because she found the Msaidizi, and their esteem for her makes her feel “like a fraud” (76).
Chapter 6 Summary: “For the Greater Good”
The proctor, Mrs. Reyes, guides the students into the exam room and tells them to do their best. The children put on goggles that use virtual reality to recreate key moments in Manifestor history. Nic’s test brings her back centuries to meet Old Toby, a Seer who helped Sarah Freeman and other Manifestors escape enslavement. Toby leads Nic to the cotton field where Sarah and other enslaved people are working and asks the girl how she wants to remind Sarah of her Gift. Nic uses the Gift to tie up an overseer, and she awakens the Gift in Sarah and the others by shouting the ancient incantation, “Kum yali, kum buba tambe!” (82).
When four overseers armed with guns rush towards her, Nic’s anger causes her to glow brightly. She hurriedly takes off her goggles and hides in a storage closet, which Mrs. Reyes forces open. When Nic gestures for the woman to keep away, an invisible force suspends Mrs. Reyes in the air and takes away her Gift. President DuForte and her bodyguards find Nic and take her to her presidential office. Nic’s grandmother assures her that Mrs. Reyes is receiving medical attention and that no one will know of the girl’s involvement.
President DuForte reveals that Nic’s exam results placed her in Thorn, and she questions the decisions the girl made during the test. Nic hoped that her actions would free all of the enslaved people, not just the Manifestors, but her grandmother tells her that people would have died because she drew the armed overseers’ attention. Nic argues that it’s unfair that Remarkables don’t use the Gift to help Unremarkables. Her grandmother agrees, but as president, her top priority is to protect Remarkables from those who would see them “as threats they must eliminate, or as tools they can exploit” (91). She gives Nic a gold Adrinkra charm necklace that belonged to Sarah, which will dampen her Gift until she gains greater control over it.
Chapters 1-6 Analysis
In the novel’s first section, prophecies, a classic fantasy element, introduce the theme of The Tensions Between Fate and Agency. The Manifestor Prophecy, which gives the first Nic Blake and the Remarkables book its title, continues to shape the protagonist’s life and self-image in the sequel. At the start of the novel, Nic blames her strained family dynamics on the Prophet’s declaration that she is the Manowari: “If it weren’t for my stupid prophecy, Dad wouldn’t have taken me away. I would have grown up here, he and Mom might still be married” (23). Her belief that her role in the Manifestor Prophecy turned her and her family’s lives into “one big hot mess” (23) overlooks the role of her relatives’ decisions and contributes to her efforts to fight against her destiny.
Likewise, Nic’s family and friends are invested in the fight against fate because they don’t want to believe that she is capable of unleashing destruction. In Chapter 1, JP sets up the classic struggle between fate and free will when he challenges Nic by saying, “Why does a prophecy really determine what you’re gonna do? Don’t you get to decide?” (9). Similarly, Nic tries to assure herself that her willpower outweighs “a century-old prophecy” (11): “I’m not gonna destroy the Remarkable world, it’s just that simple. I think. I hope” (11).
For Nic, the concept of fate is closely linked to power, and this connection gives rise to the theme of The Struggle for Power and Control. Nic’s difficulty with mastering her growing supernatural abilities is central to this theme and the story’s structure. The Msaidizi foreshadows the importance of Nic’s new power to the plot when she urges the protagonist to “take control of the Badili, or it will take control of [Nic]” (4). Nic’s experiences in these early chapters exacerbate her negative associations with her power. Like her, Roho wielded both the Msaidizi and the Badili, and her fear of becoming like the notorious villain is deepened by Tyran’s accusations and the exam simulations of Roho’s terrorist attacks. The incident with Mrs. Reyes seems to confirm Nic’s worst fears about herself. This fear explains why she quickly agrees to wear the Adinkra necklace even though the “thought of [her] Gift being weaker makes [her] feel like [she’s] losing part of [her]self” (94).
The necklace functions as a motif of the struggle for power and control because it limits Nic’s power and because it represents one of her grandmother’s most overt attempts to exercise control over her. The phrase “for the greater good” represents another motif of the theme because President DuForte frequently employs the expression when she tries to justify her attempts to control the other characters, particularly her granddaughter. Over the course of the story, Nic’s complex relationship with her power will define her inner conflict.
As in the series’ first installment, Thomas weaves African mythology and Black folklore into her contemporary fantasy narrative. In The Book of Ansansi, the author raises the stakes of The Value of Preserving History and Cultural Heritage by probing deeper into the forces that would censor or abuse this knowledge. The past comes alive for the protagonist through the Manifestor exam, which immerses students in “significant moment[s] in Remarkable history” (55). As the story continues, the government’s involvement in the Manifestor school system exposes students to propaganda, censors their knowledge of history, and advances an agenda that promotes the status quo over social progress. For example, allowing students to witness the devastation of Roho’s attacks through the exam simulations is an attempt to justify the limitations LORE places on Remarkables’ freedoms, especially those of non-Manifestors, in the name of public security.
Middle-school fiction often offers young readers moral lessons, but Thomas’s examination of The Importance of Honesty and Responsibility takes this a step further by providing social commentary in addition to individual character formation. Nic believes that her safety depends upon keeping her destiny as the Manowari a secret from the world, and she compounds her fears and worries by trying to keep them secret from her friends and family. Even though her loved ones know that something is wrong, her insistence that she’s all right makes it difficult for them to help her. Just as secrecy hinders Nic’s personal relationships, especially with her mother, dishonesty inflicts damage on the larger scale of her society.
LORE’s lack of transparency is one of the main contributors to the growing unrest in the Remarkable world, as demonstrated when the crowd boos President DuForte and Vice President Rivers in Chapter 3. The president lies about what happened to Mrs. Reyes, even to her fellow government officials. DuForte’s statement that “revealing the truth” sometimes “carries a cost” as high as keeping a secret illustrates the character’s carefully calculated deceit and double standards (91). The president gives herself permission to bend the truth however she sees fit as long as she can justify her actions by pointing to good intentions, such as her granddaughter’s well-being. This pattern of secrecy and deception continues throughout the story, deepening the divisions within the very society DuForte purports to defend.
These chapters offer foreshadowing about the novel’s cast and conflicts. For example, Chapter 2 introduces Mr. Lincoln and establishes that LORE took away his Gift as “punishment for some crime he committed a long time ago” (13). The kindly groundskeeper is later revealed to be Roho. Chapter 3 introduces Magnus and his interest in the Msaidizi, hinting at his attempts to force Nic to surrender the legendary weapon later in the story. Chapter 5 provides the first mention of Nic’s grandfather, Nicholai, foreshadowing revelations about his death and how this tragedy continues to shape President DuForte’s actions.
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