Character Clues
Character Analysis
Actions
Nick is impulsive, impetuous, and quick to act—moreso than anyone else in the book. In fact, Nick has trouble when he has to sit still or think things through, and he much prefers to be in motion, doing something, making something happen. He likes "the peace of physical exertion, being useful and not having to think" (3.75). Alan, on the other hand, is more cerebral. Sure he'll take action when it's required of him, but he prefers to think things through, make a plan, and be deliberate every step of the way.
Mae and Jamie have a similar yin-yang relationship when it comes to actions, with Mae being the one ready and willing to do what needs to be done. When, for instance, they have Gerald tied up and it becomes apparent they may need to torture him for information, Mae says, "I can help. I can do it [the torturing] too" (9.56).
On the other hand, we have Jamie, who, when we first encounter him is standing in Mae's shadow (1.82). Not only does Jamie not want to be the person to torture Gerald, he doesn't even want to be in the room when it goes down. In most situations, Jamie prefers to stand back and he only takes action as a last resort—like in the end when Mae is falling and he uses his magic to pull her to safety.
Family Life
It's interesting to note that none of the characters in this book has an intact family. Not Alan, whose parents are both dead; not Nick, whose parents, in addition to being divorced and dysfunctional, consider him to be dead; and not Mae and Jamie, whose parents (also divorced) don't even notice when they run away for a few weeks.
The fact that all four teens are, in effect, on their own, and that they are all fiercely independent (even Jamie, who dresses how he wants and seems pretty true to himself), gives them a level of grit, determination, and desperation that helps us to understand why they make the choices they do.
Physical Appearances
This one's more important than it seems at first, mainly because if we pay really close attention to the physical descriptions, we have a chance of spotting Nick's unique condition early on.
We know that Jamie and Mae have an obvious family resemblance, in contrast to Nick and Alan, who don't look like brothers at all. And we also know that although Nick looks almost exactly like Olivia, he has dark black eyes while hers are blue. We know that Daniel Ryves's eyes were blue, too, and if you've worked with Punnet squares, you know that it's relatively rare for two blue-eyed parents to have a brown-eyed child.
Add to that the fact that the possessed have flat black eyes, and you can see that Rees Brennan provided plenty of clues to help us characterize Nick through his physical description.
Props
Nick rarely appears without his sword. On the very first page we see him with it—"He rescued it, wiped the steel, and absently tested the edge with his thumb" (1.2)—and from then on we rarely see him without it. After disposing of the magician's body in Chapter 2, he enters his house "angling the door so he could see everything, his sword half-drawn, as he usually did" (2.20), and Alan has to tell him to put it down several times during their first meeting with Mae and Jamie.
When Nick is stressed out, he practices with his sword, and when he tests out his new sword at the Goblin Market, "it fit in his hand, the balance of the blade perfect. When he stepped back and made a few passes with it, the movement felt as natural and sweet as that of his own muscles" (4.165). So yeah, Nick's sword is a pretty important prop—it's a part of him, and it portends power, ferocity, and fighting prowess. (As well as hyper-masculinity. Head on over to the "Symbols" section for more on that.)