55 pages • 1 hour read
Rick RiordanDaughter of the Deep
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
On her last day of freshman year at Harding-Pencroft Academy, Ana wakes up to prepare for the freshman trials that upcoming weekend. She goes out to the sea to have a morning swim with her older brother, Dev, a senior who is in Shark House. Shark House is a tactical and militaristic house, as opposed to Ana’s own Dolphin House, which is focused on communication skills. The two swim with their friend Socrates, who is “a gorgeous animal […] a young male bottlenose” dolphin (8). Dev gives Ana a good luck charm for her trials, a pearl necklace fashioned from a pearl that belonged to their now-deceased mother. Both of their parents died in an accident two years prior, and so Dev and Ana have only each other. As Ana swims, something with which she is usually comfortable, she begins to feel a sense of foreboding about the water.
Chapter 2 Summary
After her swim, Ana grabs breakfast and returns to her room. There she finds her two friends and roommates: Nelinha, from House Cephalopod, which is focused on engineering and technology, and Ester, from House Orca, which is focused on education and healing. Ana also finds Ester’s service dog, Top, “the cutest emotional-support animal you’ll ever meet” (14). Everyone is getting ready for the weekend trials, the details of which are still unknown to all students. The three walk outside with Top, passing Dev’s girlfriend, Amelia. They all board the bus with the other freshman so they can head to the ship where their trials will take place. As they drive, Ana ruminates on her deceased parents on and HP Academy, “the only home Dev and [Ana] have in the world” (17).
Chapter 3 Summary
On the bus, Dr. Hewett, the much-disliked teacher of Theoretical Marine Science, announces that this year’s trials will be different than those in previous years. Ana considers Theoretical Marine Science class, thinking, “it’s cool stuff to think about, but also…not so practical?” (19). Gemini Twain, Shark House prefect, assigns the trail groups. Suddenly, however, there’s an earthquake, and the students see HP Academy crumble into the ocean.
Chapter 4 Summary
Many of the kids are crying. Ana sees Dr. Hewett and the bus driver, Bernie, speaking. As a Dolphin, Ana’s “training is all about communication. Gathering intelligence. Codebreaking,” so she reads their lips to find out that the Land Institute, their rival school, was involved in the attack (23). Ana tells everyone that she saw a torpedo hit the school, but the students in Cephalopod House, who specialize in problem solving, are skeptical. Dr. Hewett refuses to let the students return to HP Academy. He has the members of Shark House arm themselves, and he informs everyone that “Ana Dakkar must survive” (26).
Chapter 5 Summary
Distraught at the destruction of her school, Ana thinks about her brother, who is likely now dead, and how her life is clearly about to change. She thinks also about her parents, who died two years prior in a tragic accident, and about whom the professors at HP Academy are reluctant to speak. And now Gem, a student, is armed with assault rifles. Ana thinks, “another one of those oddities I don’t think about much: Harding-Pencroft has a dispensation to use military-grade equipment in our training” (29). Gem suggests that he, Ana, Nelinha, and Ester work together since they are the best in their respective houses. Ester reveals that she might know more about HP Academy than the others due to her Harding heritage. Ana then explains that she learned whoever attacked the school had inside help.
Chapter 6 Summary
Once the students reach the training ship, the Varuna, Ana tells the other Dolphins about the betrayal. She admits that she does not know why Gem was assigned to guard her. Another Dolphin reveals that Dr. Hewett used to teach at the LI, and Ana begins to be suspicious. She thinks, “this whole situation is wrong. I don’t want Hewett as our only adult supervisor” (36). Hewett tells all of the students that they are in danger. He also says, “for now, your families are safer, you are safer, if the world thinks you are dead” (37). But then, he suddenly announces that they all need to leave immediately.
Chapter 7 Summary
As everyone rushes to ready the Varuna to set off, Ana sees some secret boxes with fingerprint locks around the ship. Dr. Hewett gathers each house prefect to tell them that their true purpose at HP Academy is to guard its secrets. He opens one of the secret boxes to reveal a special kind of gun, explaining that the author Jules Verne “reported a few things correctly” (41). Ana remembers that Captain Nemo from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea “revealed that his real name was Prince Dakkar” (42). The prefects are confused about what Hewett means, when suddenly he shoots Gem with the gun.
Chapters 1-7 Analysis
These first seven chapters provide the necessary backstory to set up the plot of Daughter of the Deep, especially regarding Ana Dakkar’s family history and the house system at Harding-Pencroft Academy. These chapters also begin the major plot arc in the novel with the destruction of Harding-Pencroft Academy.
When the novel begins, Ana has only her brother left. Her parents are dead, which makes it emotionally meaningful to Ana when Dev gifts her the pearl necklace: This “pearl was the centerpiece of Mom’s mangalsutra, her wedding necklace. It’s also the only thing we have left of her” (10). Without even the bodies of their parents to provide closure, Ana and Dev must find other ways of connecting with their deceased family. However, even this small family can shrink. When HP Academy crumbles into the ocean, Ana thinks, “seeing [Dev] every day, I could hold on to the memory of what our father looked like. I could tell myself that our parents weren’t completely gone. But now…” (24). These initial chapters give Ana a tragic loneliness, depriving her of her parents and brother and even the home that was her school. Without any members of her family left, her memories lose footing. This deprivation makes the connections that Ana does make, such as those with Ester, Nelinha, and later with Gem, even more special.
The defining feature of Harding-Pencroft Academy, besides its focus on marine science, is its house system. There are four houses: Shark House, Cephalopod House, Dolphin House, and Orca House. Each house has its own unique focuses, and students are divided into houses “based on the results of [their] aptitude tests” (12). Shark House focuses on tactics and military-style training. Dev is Shark captain, and as Ana thinks, “always hungry, my brother, and always moving—the perfect Shark captain” (10). House Cephalopod focuses on engineering and technology, House Orca focuses on medicine, biology, and education, and House Dolphin focuses on communications and cryptography (a breakdown of each house is given just before the novel begins) (2-3). Although this system is reductive in the same way that all house systems must be, there is a great level of inter-house cooperation at HP Academy. In fact, Ana’s best friends are from different houses, and the three of them come later in the novel to work closely with Gem, who is from the fourth house. Although this system recalls the traditional boarding school motif found in series like Harry Potter, it is less restrictive and competitive than the reader might expect.
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