Nic Blake and the Remarkables: The Manifestor Prophecy

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2023

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-6

Chapters 7-12

Chapters 13-18

Chapters 19-24

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Chapters 13-18Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 13 Summary: “The Legacy of LORE”

Someplace Safe is deserted except for the children. The museum contains art depicting the 12 original Guardians who founded Uhuru and freed hundreds of enslaved Remarkables and Unremarkables. Two of the 12 are the twins’ ancestors, Sarah and Wesley Blake. The museum’s collection includes statues of the Seer Harriet Tubman, the Manifestor Nat Turner, the Manifestor Booker Bailey, and the half Giant John Henry. Henry wielded the Msaidizi in the form of his famous hammer. Ty sends Nic a message, informing her that the Elders are convinced of Calvin’s guilt even though there is no proof and that he will be sentenced soon: “You must find the Msaidizi in the next two days. It’s the only way to save him” (193). Nic is shaken by the thought that LORE might wipe her father’s memories, but LORE’s original mission gives her courage and determination. The twins nearly come to blows when Alex says that their father deserves whatever punishment he receives, but JP intervenes. Nic refers to Alex as JP’s new best friend and yells, “I wish [Zoe had] never found me!” (196).

The children put aside their disagreement to look for food. They emerge from the train station into a rural area and find a gas station. Before they enter the store, Nic and JP warn Alex to keep his hands out of his pockets and only to pick up items he intends to purchase. The cashier overhears Alex mention Unremarkable money, and she calls the police. When the children exit the store, a sheriff points a wand at them and orders them into his vehicle.

Chapter 14 Summary: “The Grand Wizards of Giles County”

The sheriff takes the children to a group of cabins in the woods, where a large number of Grand Wizards are gathered. A man named Ralphie suggests that the group change their name so that they’re not mistaken for members of the Ku Klux Klan. The Grand Wizards are devoted to revealing the existence of the Remarkable world, claiming that they will need to protect themselves from Manifestors one day. However, magic is far more dangerous and unpredictable than the Gift, and wands can run out of magic. The Grand Wizards are ecstatic to discover that JP is a Seer because this means that he can identify the sacred trees they chop down to make wands. Some of the wizards take JP into the forest while others tie the twins up with ropes made from Giant’s hair and mark them with the same anti-Gift curse that slave catchers used. The wizards intend to claim the reward LORE is offering for the children. They lock the twins and Cocoa in a room that happens to contain Cocoa’s mother, Cleo.

Nic admits to Alex that she feels jealous of him, and he reveals that he’s jealous of her, too: “You had our dad and you’re about to have our mom. I never had a dad” (214). Nic comforts her brother by sharing that her father always bought two cakes on her birthday, which shows that he missed Alex just like Zoe missed Nic. The twins reconcile and discover that they have a lot in common, including a deep love of caramel. Alex describes his life in Uhuru with his mother, and Nic tells him about their father and his penchant for improvising silly songs and collecting sneakers. She remembers that her father taught her that Giant’s hair is weakened by cold.

Chapter 15 Summary: “Wands Gone Wild”

The twins use cold air from a freezer to weaken the Giant’s hair ropes and free themselves. Nic picks the locks on the door using skills her father taught her. A wizard tries to stop them, but Nic breaks his wand. Breaking the wand ends the curse, preventing Alex and the hellhounds from using their powers. Cleo gives many of the Grand Wizards hallucinations of their greatest fears while Alex subdues others with his Gift. Nic takes a wand from a wizard and wishes for a way to escape. The wand responds to her wish by creating a fiery tornado that tears through the wizards’ camp. Cleo carries Cocoa and the twins into the woods in search of JP. They find JP’s phone near a magnificently beautiful wand-wood tree. Suddenly, General Sharpe and her Guardians appear, along with a bound JP. The Guardians capture Alex, and Nic uses the wand to create a fiery barrier around her. General Sharpe uses a wand to hit Nic with a curse, which breaks LORE’s laws. Cleo makes Sharpe hallucinate and carries Nic to Someplace Safe. As the injured Nic staggers towards Bertha, Hairy Man Junior throws a burlap sack over her head.

Chapter 16 Summary: “Boss Man”

Nic dreams that she is running along a brick path in a cave. She passes an abandoned town and hears someone call, “Find me, Nichole!” (234). She awakens in Bertha’s living room. Hairy Man Junior explains that Nic was unconscious for a day, and her father’s trial is scheduled to begin in four hours. Hairy Man Junior insists that the girl owes him a new house, and she retorts that he threatened to eat her. The shapeshifter explains that he’s a vegan and was trying to scare her. Nic notices that Hairy Man Junior has the Mark of Eden tattooed on his hand, and she accuses him of being the thief who stole the Msaidizi. He blurts out, “I ain’t the one Boss Man told to hide it!” (240). Using more accidental hints from Hairy Man Junior and JP’s notes on the latest Stevie James book, Nic deduces that the Boss Man is Roho and that his followers hid the Msaidizi in the dormant volcano under Jackson. Nic persuades the shapeshifter to take her to Roho’s lair by appealing to his love for his late father and by promising to give him her house. First, she wants to rescue her brother and JP from the Guardians. Hairy Man Junior smells the Miss Peachy’s bag Nic received on her birthday and tells her that it contains a powerful blizzard juju. This statement gives Nic an idea.

Chapter 17 Summary: “The Return of Roho”

Nic goes into a forest and uses the G-pen to send a message to General Sharpe: “TRACK MY LOCATION AND MEET ME HERE. BRING ALEX AND JP. I HAVE SOMETHING YOU WANT” (254). The General arrives with a dozen Guardians and the two boys. Hairy Man Junior uses his shapeshifting to transform into Roho, complete with a suit of armor made from the Msaidizi. While Sharpe and the Guardians are distracted, Nic freezes them with the blizzard juju from the Miss Peachy’s bag. Nic, Hairy Man Junior, Alex, and JP return to the Underground Railroad. Nic considers going to Roho’s lair alone because she’s afraid of putting her friends in danger, but JP insists, “Kevin and Chloe wouldn’t leave Stevie on his own” (260). Together, they set out for Jackson aboard Bertha.

Chapter 18 Summary: “Booby Traps and Raps”

Hairy Man Junior guides Bertha to the entrance of Roho’s colony as promised and leaves. Cleo also leaves, but Cocoa remains with Nic. The girl sends Zoe a message informing her that they’re in Jackson and have the Msaidizi’s location. Nic, JP, and Alex walk to the end of the train tracks. JP’s Seer abilities allow him to spot a concealed pit. In Ty’s books, Stevie and his friends have to overcome a series of booby tracks designed to test their courage to reach Roho’s lair. For this reason, JP suggests that they jump into the pit. Alex is terrified, but he trusts Nic enough to leap with her. The children float safely to the bottom of the pit, where they see three tunnels.

The trio splits up to investigate the tunnels, and Nic finds herself surrounded by darkness while disembodied voices mock her for not knowing how to use the Gift. She sees her parents and other relatives praising Alex and calling her a disappointment. The real Alex helps his sister break free from the spell. Roho was a firm believer in Elders Proverbs from Africa, and Alex realizes that the booby traps are inspired by these pieces of ancestral wisdom. For example, the tunnels echo the proverb, “Darkness eventually leads to light” (272). The twins find JP, who is weeping because his tunnel showed him all of his loved ones disappearing. They overcome the next two obstacles by crossing a rickety bridge over a pit full of snakes and crawling through a claustrophobic tunnel. At the end of the tunnel, the children find an elevator that takes them deeper underground.

Chapters 13-18 Analysis

In the novel’s third section, Nic’s quest tests her strengths and improves her relationship with her twin. In Chapter 14, Nic escapes from the wizards by using the skills and knowledge Calvin taught her, which emphasizes the importance of her bond with her father and reinforces her characterization as a heroine who overcomes problems by relying on her intelligence. In doing so, she lives by Calvin’s mantra: “Your brain’s the only gift you need. You’re the only gift you need” (220). This memory foreshadows the novel’s climax, in which Nic realizes the full truth of these words. Later in this section, Nic demonstrates growth by making an ally of a former foe, Hairy Man Junior, and by carefully crafting a plan to free JP and Alex rather than acting hastily. The author advances the protagonist’s characterization using the booby traps that guard Roho’s lair. For example, the tunnel reveals that Nic’s worst fear is her family turning on her because of her inability to use the Gift: “‘I shouldn’t have taken you,’ Dad says. ‘Your brother is obviously the better twin’” (270). Because the tunnel shows people their own worst thoughts, this means that Nic is still troubled by feelings of inferiority to Alex even though the siblings’ relationship is improving. In the next section, Nic confronts these negative feelings during the novel’s climax.

The Dynamics of Friendship and Loyalty take center stage in this section. In Chapter 13, Nic’s loyalty to her father leads her to clash with her brother: “He’s my dad! I can’t turn off my love for him!” (194). While Nic has a decade of positive memories to fuel her love and loyalty to her father, Alex considers Calvin “lowlife scum” because he only knows him as the stranger who kidnapped his sister and sent his mother into 10 years of grief (195). JP’s optimistic, empathetic nature leads him to assume the role of peacekeeper between the feuding twins. However, his friendship with Alex contributes to Nic’s feelings of jealousy and fear: “Whether it’s a house I love or a city I wanna call my home, every time I have something great, I lose it. Meanwhile, Alex gets everything I wish I had. I’d be silly to think it’s any different with JP” (199). Once the protagonist voices these painful, complex emotions, she and Alex are able to establish lasting bonds of friendship and loyalty. The twins’ captivity in the wizards’ camp gives them the opportunity to talk out their feelings of jealousy, and this heart-to-heart marks a turning point in the twin’s relationship. In a powerful demonstration of friendship and loyalty, Nic prioritizes rescuing JP and Alex even though she only has a few hours before her father’s trial. The boys reciprocate her loyalty by refusing to let her make the perilous journey to Roho’s lair on her own: “We’re in this together. One of us goes to the colony, all three of us go to the colony” (260). While the trio’s dynamics are tested in these chapters, they ultimately emerge stronger.

The novel’s two other primary themes are also alluded to in this section. The museum features notable figures who were instrumental in The Struggle for Justice for African Americans, such as Nat Turner and Harriet Tubman. Using the term “Grand Wizards” immediately calls to mind the Ku Klux Klan, and even in Thomas’ fiction story, the Grand Wizards pursue their agenda with force and coercion, just as they did in the Jim Crow South. The Importance of Heritage and Cultural Identity plays out on a personal level as Nic and Alex each learn more about the parent who was absent in their lives. A shared cultural identity is alluded to through references to African American folklore and proverbs. Long a part of African American folklore, John Henry is included in the notable figures in the museum, a nod to the fact that historians now believe he was based on a real person. In Chapter 18, Nic realizes that all of Roho’s booby traps are based on ancestral wisdom and proverbs.

The wizards’ wands symbolize guns. Although wands are mentioned in passing earlier in the story, the symbol is first shown in the chilling scene in which the sheriff targets the three children in Chapter 13: “He reaches for his holster, and I swear I stop breathing, but he whips out a wooden wand, a wizard’s weapon of choice” (203). The object’s placement in a holster and the fearful, threatening mood help to establish the wand’s symbolic meaning. By making the white sheriff part of a secret organization that distrusts Manifestors and channels destructive power through their wands, the author uses fantasy elements to explore real issues like racial profiling and police corruption.

Thomas continues to offer clues for her readers. For example, Nic’s dream about the cave foreshadows that the Msaidizi is in Roho’s underground lair. Additionally, the author hints that Roho may not be the malevolent villain everyone in the Remarkable world seems to think. As Alex observes of the lair’s defenses, “These traps don’t require evil-guy logic. They require wisdom. One reason Roho didn’t like LORE is that he thought they had strayed away from tradition” (273). Given Nic’s opposition to LORE’s current policies, such as its indifference towards Unremarkables’ suffering, Roho’s values may not be so different from the protagonist’s. This plays into the novel’s broader point that people are complicated rather than purely evil or purely good. Thomas leaves the details of Roho’s motives and goals open for further exploration in the sequel.