58 pages • 1-hour read
Nic Blake and the Remarkables: The Book of Anansi
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Chapters 13-18Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of bullying, racism, enslavement, and death.
Chapter 13 Summary: “When Wishes Go Wrong”
On the morning of the field trip, Zoe and the other chaperones guide the students to the high-tech New Underground Railroad. Nic witnesses a Guardian preventing a Rougarou conductor from working his shift and feels upset.
Zoe sits next to Nic on the train ride and invites her to talk about the field trips she went on with Calvin: “If I’m gonna say you can talk to me about anything, that’s gotta mean everything” (190). Nic opens up about missing her father and their life together in the Unremarkable world, and she points out that LORE laws treat non-Manifestor Remarkables unfairly. Zoe claims that the rules that were put into place after Roho’s attacks on the Remarkable cities are necessary for people’s safety, but her daughter is unsatisfied with this answer.
The train arrives at the New Atlantis Museum of History and Art, and Nic and Alex head for Mami Wata’s fountain. They pass the remnants of an enslavement ship that the water spirit sank, freeing New Atlantis’s founders. Nothing happens immediately when Nic tosses her necklace into the fountain, so she grows frustrated and takes it back. Suddenly, the fountain lowers, and an enormous anaconda seizes the children and pulls them through the hole in the floor.
Chapter 14 Summary: “Pretty Mermaid Mad”
The anaconda releases Nic and Alex, and the children slide down a pipe and land in a cavern. Mami Wata grants the children an audience. She is displeased to see Nic in New Atlantis because many places Nic goes to are destroyed. The spirit tells Nic that she possesses “raw power” that is even “stronger than the Gift” and warns her of the dangers of power untempered by wisdom (202). Mami Wata reveals that the Book of Anansi has the power to “reshape worlds, rewrite destinies, and unravel the very fabric of reality” (204). Decades ago, when the spirit learned that Roho intended to claim the book for himself, she split it into three boxes. One is still in her possession, one was entrusted to a wise and powerful Remarkable for safekeeping, and the third is missing.
The third box was entrusted to Amina, Mami Wata’s most loyal Mermaid. LORE claims that Amina was killed by hellhounds and the box lost, but Mami Wata doesn’t believe them because LORE has always been more interested in controlling Merfolk than helping them. Long ago, Anansi made the spirit promise to give the book to a Manifestor child wearing an Adinkra necklace, so she agrees to help Nic. If the girl can locate the box that went missing with Amina, then Mami Wata will give her the box in her keeping and tell her where to find the last box. Mami Wata gives Nic a blue stone that will allow her to summon the spirit and sends her and Alex back up to the museum.
Later that day, the twins tell JP what Mami Wata said. The boys worry that the Book of Anansi is too dangerous to give to Roho’s Apprentice, but Nic insists that they should continue their search for it because Anansi wanted her to have it.
Chapter 15 Summary: “Intriguing, Intense, and Definitely Illegal”
As part of his sentence, Calvin must do community service. Zoe helps him secure a volunteer position at the Village, allowing him to see his children every day. Nic appreciates being able to visit with her father during the school day, and she feels guilty because she’s been unkind towards her mother lately.
On Thursday morning, the twins ask Skye to help them hack into their grandmother’s virtual assistant so that they can access the Guardian files about Amina. The teenager agrees and invites them to the vice presidential mansion after school. Skye gives the twins an unrestricted portal opener that can teleport them to LORE’s headquarters and hacks Alex’s G-glasses so that their grandmother’s virtual assistant will think he’s the president. She urges Nic and Alex to move quickly because she’s not sure how long she’ll be able to interfere with the security cameras in the president’s office.
Chapter 16 Summary: “World’s Best Grandma, World’s Worst Grandkids”
Skye opens a portal that takes Nic and Alex into the presidential wing of LORE headquarters. The president’s assistant, Sylvie, sees the children and informs their grandmother. With Skye’s help, Nic acquires the data cube containing Amina’s file right before President DuForte enters the office. Nic explains the twins’ unexpected appearance by claiming that JP wants to talk to her. JP wasn’t expecting a call from the president, but he improvises a presentation about his search for Tyran.
Murph drives the twins to their mother’s home. En route, Nic receives a message from Roho’s Apprentice: “GOOD JOB GETTING THAT DATA CUBE. FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED TO AMINA AND FIND THAT STORY BOX. DON’T KEEP US WAITING” (237). Back home, the twins call JP and open the file, which states that Amina was lethally wounded by Roho’s followers near Redwood and that a Fairy named Lady Thema tried to save her.
Relations between Fairies and Merfolk are strained because Fairies showed Unremarkables how to make wands, which were then used to enslave Remarkables like the first Merfolk. Lady Thema runs a holistic wellness center, and the three children plan to sneak into one of her weekend retreats so they can ask her about Amina.
Chapter 17 Summary: “The Hero Who Fell First”
The next day, Nic’s Word Manifestation teacher has the class research their names, which he says offer clues to their destinies. Nic knows that she’s named after her maternal grandfather, Nicholai DuForte, but she knows little about him except that he was in Thorn kinship and a Guardian. While conducting research in class, she learns that Nicholai volunteered with non-Manifestor Remarkables and helped many Manifestors in the Unremarkable world discover their Gift, including Tyran.
Nicholai is honored as “The Hero Who Fell First” because he was Roho’s first victim (248). Before Nic’s grandmother was president, Roho attacked the DuFortes and set their home ablaze in an incident that transformed him from “a mysterious radical” to “a real, terrifying threat” (250). All that was found of Nicholai was his head Guardian uniform.
During lunch, Nic and Alex go to a laboratory inside the Ernest school. Alex explains that the twins and JP can conceal their identities at Lady Thema’s retreat center by using illegal Illusionary Masks, which he used to use to evade his bodyguard. The twins try to brew a shrinking potion, which they’ll need to enter the Fairies’ city, but it goes awry and causes Alex’s head to swell to three times its normal size. Nic administers a reversal tonic.
Chapter 18 Summary: “Operation Redwood”
The narrative moves ahead to the Friday before the retreat. Zoe drops Nic, Alex, and JP off at the Blake estate. Calvin is ecstatic to see them, and they make pizzas and watch a superhero movie together. Nic feels guilty because Calvin is looking forward to having a weekend with his children while she’s planning to sneak out. The boys want to call the plan off, but she convinces them to continue.
The next morning, Nic takes off her Adinkra necklace so that she can create a breeze and distract Calvin while she slips a sleeping tonic into his coffee. Mr. Lincoln sees the children sneaking off in their Illusionary Masks, which make them look like senior citizens. Instead of stopping them, he offers them words of encouragement: “You got something planned, and the freedom to go do it. […] Just have enough adventure for me too, all right?” (267).
While the children are on the train to Redwood, Nic realizes that she left her necklace back at the estate. A Prophetess boards the train and tells JP, “Your words will shape what is to come” (270). The children disembark at Redwood Station, enter the forest that contains the Fairy city, and drink a shrinking tonic. After the children shrink down to the size of Fairies, five snarling hellhounds surround them.
Chapters 13-18 Analysis
In the novel’s third section, Nic’s trip to New Atlantis highlights her conflict with The Tensions Between Fate and Agency. Her dialogue with Mami Wata causes her pain and anger because the spirit’s claim that “destruction trails [her] like a pungent odor” implies that she is already carrying out her role as the Manowari (203). Despite Mami Wata’s warnings, Nic remains determined to defy destiny at this point: “‘I’m not gonna destroy the Remarkable world,’ I say firmly. ‘I don’t know a lot of things, but I know I won’t let that happen’” (211). Nic’s resolution to find the Book of Anansi signals that she is beginning to embrace some of the prophecies about her because Anansi predicted that “his book would end up with the Manifestor child who would come, wearing an Adinkra necklace” (209). The Book of Anansi’s significance as a motif of fate is strengthened when it is revealed that it “contains words that can reshape worlds, rewrite destinies, and unravel the very fabric of reality” (204). As the story continues, the Book of Anansi challenges Nic’s understanding of destiny.
The New Atlantis Museum of History and Art offers a fitting backdrop for The Value of Preserving History and Cultural Heritage. The field trip takes Nic away from Uhuru, the center of President DuForte’s power. This distance helps her engage in critical thinking about the Remarkable government, such as when she tells her mother that the Remarkable world is “actually not all that different from the Unremarkable world” because marginalized groups face discrimination in both (194). Mami Wata contributes to Nic’s growing awareness of LORE’s deception by challenging the government’s claim that it “‘saved’ New Atlantis” and “‘civilized’ Merfolk by bringing them into their ‘league’” (206). This wording echoes historical attempts to justify colonization, exemplifying Thomas’s use of the fantasy genre to critique real-world issues. In addition, the author fuses history and folklore by making “people who jumped from slave ships” the first Merfolk (118). This transformation turns death into rebirth and illustrates the message of hope and resilience that underlies the novel despite the difficult subjects it examines.
Nic’s quest also teaches The Importance of Honesty and Responsibility. Concealing the Za Siri’s threats and the search for the Book of Anansi from her parents requires Nic to invent numerous lies. Her deceit is both an attempt to shield her parents and grandmother and a reflection of the negative modeling they’ve given her. Like Calvin, Zoe, and President DuForte, Nic keeps secrets out of a desire to protect her loved ones, but her deception contributes to the strain on her family.
The quest also yields lessons about the importance of responsibility. For example, Mami Wata urges Nic to wield her formidable power with wisdom and accountability, and bluntly points out her shortcomings on this front: “You evade responsibility for the effects of your actions, as if each is a raindrop becoming one with the sea, indistinguishable and forgotten” (203). Mami Wata helps the young protagonist recognize her problematic behavior patterns and encourages her to mature.
Throughout these chapters, Nic begins to take steps towards reclaiming her power and resisting her grandmother’s control. Her willingness to remove the Adinkra necklace, albeit for brief intervals, indicates a growing confidence in herself. Taking off the necklace to offer it to Mami Wata and to slip Calvin the sleeping tonic advances her goals, allowing her to literally and figuratively take back her power and agency. In future sections, Nic’s shifting attitude towards the necklace will continue to inform her relationship with her powers and herself.
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