98 pages • 3 hours read
Eden RobinsonSon of a Trickster
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 1-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Nanas I Have Loved”
Jared Martin’s maternal grandmother, Anita Moody, has always distrusted and disliked him. She calls him “Wee’git” and “Trickster” and once gifted him “a jar of blood with little animal teeth rolling around the bottom” (1). His parents, Maggie and Phil, insist that her treatment of him has nothing to do with him. Before the Martins move further north to Kitimat, a town in British Columbia, Anita tells Maggie: “You know what he did to me. That isn’t your son. It’s the damn Trickster. He’s wearing a human face, but he’s not human” (2). Maggie defends her toddler and refuses to engage with her mother’s “old-school crap” (3).
On the way to Kitimat, they stop by Prince Rupert to visit Nana Sophia, Phil’s mother, who dotes on Jared. Alone with Nana Sophia, Jared mentions Wee’git, and Sophia tells him: “That Trickster’s been a huge dink to your mom’s family for generations” (12), but she admits she had a DNA test done to make sure he is Phil’s son.
Jared writes to Anita, telling her about the DNA test, and insists that he is not a Trickster. Her response explains that Sophia is Halayt, or a shaman, and, “She would know if you were a Trickster without a science test” (14). She warns him of Wee’git’s visits and apologizes that she cannot share more of her family’s “dark” story with him.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Simultaneousity”
A recurring unknown narrator, indicated by italicized text, attempts to explain the concept of magic and that “the root of supernatural ability is simply the realization that all time exists simultaneously” (15). This voice reminds the reader: “Remember that you were not always earthbound” (15).
Chapter 3 Summary: “The Food of Worms”
Jared is now 16, and his parents have been estranged for several years. A few years ago, Maggie dated a biker named Death Threat, and his debts followed her, making her and Jared a target of violent threats. While waiting for the bus one morning, Jared recognized a foreboding man across the street as Richie, a man Maggie had warned him about. Richie allowed his dogs to run after Jared, but Maggie ran over one of the dogs with her truck before it attacked him. Maggie explained to Jared: “Richie could be the answer to a lot of our problems [...] If you keep your cool and don’t take this personally” (21). Maggie and Richie started dating soon after, and Richie’s other Pitbull, Baby Killer, immediately grew attached to Jared when Richie moved in.
In the present moment, Jared is struggling to get through the school day because that afternoon Baby is being euthanized for heartworm. Jared’s classmate Dylan Wilkinson approaches him after PE and adamantly wants to buy weed cookies from Jared, which he is rumored to sell. Distrustful of those outside of his friend circle, Jared denies the rumor. Later that evening, after they put Baby down, Jared and his mother sit in his basement bedroom drinking together, until Richie drives them to a logging road to bury the dog.
Chapter 4 Summary: “All Shook Up”
Maggie often instigates play-fights with Jared and speaks lewdly with Richie, which makes Jared feel uncomfortable, especially in front of the other tenants to which they rent out rooms. Jared occasionally helps his elderly neighbors, the Jakses, with yard and housework. Mr. Jaks never remembers who Jared is because of his dementia, but Mrs. Jaks cares for Jared, and he always leaves well-fed.
On Friday, Jared smokes weed and plays video games with his friends Kelsey and Blake, then goes to the mall, where he runs into Maggie’s ex-boyfriend David, whom they have a restraining order against. David has somehow found out about Baby’s death, and the interaction leaves Jared shaken. At the bus stop, a raven speaks to Jared, advising him to stop using Axe body spray and reassuring him he no longer needs to worry about David. Before flying off, it asks Jared not to tell anyone they spoke, because it has “enemies” and does not want to make Jared a target (33). Jared is certain the pot he smoked was laced with something and that the raven is a hallucination.
Maggie approaches Jared after hearing from someone that he sells pot cookies and, convinced Jared is going to get himself into trouble, tells him he needs to start carrying a gun. Later that night Jared notices two holes in the wall and assumes a tenant must be spying on him. He does not tell his mom because “she had enough aggravated assault charges” (39).
Chapter 5 Summary: “The Advice and Wisdom of Nana Sophia”
Jared chats online with Sophia, who wants him to spend Christmas with her. He knows his mother would never allow it, and he does not feel inclined to stay with his dad either; Phil is “fresh off Oxy,” his new wife Shirley is “on a tear,” and her pregnant daughter is already living with them (41). Sophia reminds Jared that to get on Richie’s good side, he will have to “charm” him and show him respect. She invites him to move in with her when she returns to Canada in the spring.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Powder House Rules”
At school, Jared helps with his track team’s bake sale, which serves as a convenient cover when classmates outside of his “trusted circle” ask him for weed cookies. On Wednesday Jared goes to use the kitchen at his friends’ house to bake a new batch of cookies, and there, someone sneaks up behind him and knocks him out. Jared wakes up to a smoke-filled kitchen, missing his jacket, shoes, wallet, phone, and pot butter. When his friends return home, they offer him more weed to finish the cookies and convince him to stay for a party, even though he wants to leave. While he rests in a friend’s bed, a girl named Murchadh enters the bedroom and compliments his baking. She can sense a “loss” in him and explains that “we’re in the Anthropocene,” before kissing him. “Magic calls to magic,” she tells him, and he is certain that she is high, too (52-3).
Chapters 1-6 Analysis
Chapter 1 introduces Jared, the protagonist, and his dysfunctional family members. The only relationship that has remained consistent over the course of 12 years is Jared’s relationship with his Nana Sophia, who continues to dote on and financially support him. She remains the only reliable, responsible adult in Jared’s life as his parents’ marriage falls apart and they continuously struggle with addiction. But even this one good relationship he has is inherently problematic because he knows his violent mother will consider it a “betrayal.” Sophia tells him, “Loyalty is admirable unless it’s misplaced. Then it’s stupid” (40)—a sentiment that she acts upon later in Chapter 36.
Jared remains loyal to Maggie even though she is volatile and violent emotionally, verbally, and physically. She often crosses boundaries with Jared—such as when she is overtly sexual with her boyfriend in front of him or encourages him to drink with her—which only exacerbates the uncomfortable living environment of their home. Despite the constant parties, Maggie has few friends and has chosen to cut every family member out of her life; her isolation, desperation to make ends meet, and addiction all create an unstable world for Jared.
This instability is a result of Maggie’s own difficult childhood, which Granny Nita alludes to in the first chapter. The generational trauma they experienced at the hands of Wee’git is never explained outright in this novel, but from the very first pages of the novel, Anita makes it clear that the Trickster is malicious and distrustful. Jared does not start uncovering the supernatural parts of his life until he is 16, in part because his family members who possess magic keep it hidden. Maggie humorously alludes to her powers when she tells Jared that “Karma’s a witch” (18), but Jared has no reason to think she might be referring to herself. He knows that the world has hardened her, and she tries to instill the same violent resolve in him.
Jared does not know enough about his Native culture and folklore to understand the significance of the talking raven in Chapter 4. Twelve years have passed since Jared last asked about Wee’git, and he arrives in his raven form to attempt a relationship with his son for the first time. Jared’s addiction makes it easy for him to dismiss the encounter as a hallucination, and the fact that Robinson sets his encounters with the supernatural in his everyday settings makes it difficult for Jared—and for readers—to determine if his experiences are real or imagined. Magic continues to follow him, though, when he meets Murchadh at the Powder House: Her mother was a Selkie, a Scottish ocean shapeshifter, and Murchadh is drawn to Jared because she can sense his supernatural abilities, even if he cannot. The third-person accounts of Jared’s life are occasionally interrupted by an unknown narrator who attempts to explain the supernatural elements of the story in understandable human terms. The tone is often humorous, providing a light contrast to the dense concepts the narrator tries to explain.
