Nic Blake and the Remarkables: The Book of Anansi

Over dinner, Magnus explains how his father, Septimus, acted as an ambassador for the Giants and advocated for their rights after LORE confined his people to La Vista. Septimus took the surname “Marigold” in an effort to “seem less savage to other Remarkables” (387). Nic struggles to reconcile Magnus’s account of LORE’s mistreatment of Giants with what her teachers and grandmother have taught her about the government.

Magnus is an expert on the Msaidizi, so he deduces that it rescued the children from Redwood. He offers Nic the story box in exchange for the legendary weapon. The Giant declares that he doesn’t care if the Manowari appears and uses the Msaidizi to destroy the Remarkable world: “You Manifestors act like the Remarkable world you built was for all of us” (391). He hopes to profit from another war and plans to turn the Msaidizi into a tourist attraction. Magnus theorizes that the dragon will appear if the children are in danger, so he has his guards dangle them over his penthouse’s balcony.

Skye hacks into the casino’s slot machines and makes them all dispense jackpots. Magnus and his guards seal the penthouse and then hurry off to investigate. The Watchful Eye alters the penthouse’s gravity, evading the children’s attempts to catch it. Nic realizes that she can reach the eyeball as long as she doesn’t look at it, and the Watchful Eye opens to reveal the final story box when she catches it. Skye hacks the penthouse’s security system, and Nic, Alex, and JP race through the casino. As the trio nears the resort’s exit, the floor vanishes beneath them.

Nic lands in Roho’s subterranean colony, which is built beside a volcano under the city of Jackson. There’s no sign of Alex or JP, and her communicator has lost contact with Skye. Roho’s Apprentice appears and shows Nic a video feed of her family and friends, who are alive but captured. The Apprentice explains that Nic’s sneakers contain tracking and listening devices as well as a remote-controlled portal opener. The Za Siri, or Secret Ones, have awaited the Manowari’s arrival for centuries, and they believe the Book of Anansi can teach the Manowari how to unleash the Badili’s full power. The Za Siri know that Nic is the Manowari because they captured Tyran and forced the truth out of him.

More Za Siri emerge from the abandoned colony and surround Nic. They explain that she will be able to give and take away the Gift if she learns how to control the Badili. The Za Siri hope that the Manowari will usher in a revolution because they believe “the world may not be beyond repair, but the League of Remarkable Efforts is” (409). The Apprentice reminds Nic how LORE discriminates against non-Manifestor Remarkables and ignores the sufferings of Unremarkables. 

Although Nic agrees that LORE isn’t just, she argues that war and destruction aren’t the answer. The Za Siri take the final story box from Nic. The Apprentice places the three boxes together and says, “Anansi, weave a story” (413). The boxes combine into a book with a glowing orange spider on the cover.

The Za Siri bring Nic, Tyran, Alex, JP, Calvin, and Zoe to the base of the subterranean volcano. They tie the girl to one stone altar and lay an unconscious Mr. Lincoln on another. The Apprentice declares that Nic will “restore [their] fallen ally” who has been “[s]tripped of his Gift and his memory” (418). The Apprentice claims that Mr. Lincoln is actually Roho and begins a ritual to unleash the Badili within Nic. Heat blazes through her body, breaking her necklace, disintegrating her bonds, and suffusing everything in light.

When Nic opens her eyes, she’s standing in the cotton field from her Manifest exam. Toby tells her, “You were created with a purpose. […] I should know. And my advice to you is this: Seek it” (422). He tells the girl that no power will be able to control her as long as she controls her power. The unbearable burning within her cools when he touches her forehead.

Nic awakens in Roho’s colony. At first, the Za Siri rejoice that her Badili has been unleashed, but she tells them, “I’m not destroying anything for you […] I’m done letting you or anyone else control me” (423). The Apprentice tries to prove their loyalty by suggesting that Nic remove Tyran’s Gift, but she refuses to act like the destroyer that the Chosen One and the Apprentice believe her to be.

Nic discovers that she can alter the world around her simply through her desires and emotions, and she makes the bonds on her friends and family disappear. A battle with the Za Siri ensues, and the Apprentice escapes with the Book of Anansi and Mr. Lincoln. Nic’s rage causes an earthquake.

As the earthquake makes the abandoned colony unstable, the Za Siri escape through portals. Nic uses her Giftech sneakers to create a portal that sends JP and her family to her mother’s condo. Instead of following them, she chases Tyran deeper into the colony, but he escapes by taking an elevator to the surface. Nic is unable to open another portal because she tore one of her shoes, and the Msaidizi flies her out of the cavern.

As she and her dragon hover over Jackson, Nic sees how the earthquake has damaged the city and spots Tyran. When she corners him, he accuses her of being like Roho: “You get into your little binds, fight your little fights, and leave a trail of destruction wherever you go. But as long as you tell yourself it was for the right reasons, it’s okay, right?” (436). His Gift was damaged during their last confrontation, so he attempts to kill Nic with a wand. She tries to rein in her Badili and thinks, “I cannot hurt him. I just want him to go away” (436). Tyran is pulled screaming through a vortex. Nic doesn’t know how she did that or where she sent him.

The Msadizi brings Nic to the woods outside Uhuru and stealthily returns to LORE. The Guardians bring the girl to her mother’s home, where she has a tearful reunion with her parents, grandparents, Alex, and JP. President DuForte informs Nic that Skye is also safely home. General Sharpe, the leader of the Guardians, interrogates the children about the Book of Anansi and the Za Siri, but Zoe and Calvin defend them. President DuForte orders the general to prioritize the search for Mr. Lincoln and the Book of Anansi over the hunt for Tyran and dismisses her.

Zoe and Calvin are horrified that the president and Nic’s grandfather knew that Mr. Lincoln was Roho all along, but the president argues that keeping him in Uhuru, where he could be closely monitored, was “for the greater good” (447). Enraged, Nic accuses her grandmother of seeking to control her and takes off her broken Adinkra necklace. The president describes the horror of witnessing her husband’s murder and the devastation of the Remarkable world at Roho’s hands, insisting that everything she has done is to protect the world from another tragedy. 

Nic reveals that the Za Siri threatened to expose her secret and that she was trying to protect her grandmother from the fallout such a revelation would have. Grandpa Doc knows that Anansi prophesied that his Book would go to a Manifestor child wearing an Adinkra necklace, and he says that the president inadvertently facilitated the very destiny she was trying to thwart. President DuForte says that she will always “put the safety and survival of the League, [their] people, and [their] culture first” and leaves (451).

Later that night, Nic wonders if Uhuru can truly be her home when LORE mistreats anyone that it deems a threat, including non-Manifestor Remarkables like Fairies and Giants. Grandpa Doc offers to repair the juju on the necklace so that it can limit her powers again, and she agrees. 



He reveals that he knows about the Book of Anansi because Amina was meant to deliver the story box to him. He also admits that he’s been avoiding Nic because he feels that the way he defeated Roho led to Tyran’s vendetta against her. Grandpa Doc offers to teach her to control the Badili because he believes she has that power for a reason “[w]hether it’s for the so-called greater good or not” (458). Nic confesses that she sent Tyran through a portal. Grandpa Doc fixes her necklace overnight.

The next day, Nic receives a distressed text message from JP. The twins use a portal opener to hurry to his home in Jackson, where they discover that the boy now has a Glow that marks him as a Prophet. His mother can see the Glow on all three children, prompting JP to ask if she’s a Seer. Mrs. Williams faints.