Member Reviews
My Native American heart is so glad for this story. I felt like I was taken back in time and transported to living near the reservation and in the north near the Canadian border. Even though this story takes place on the west coast and I lived on the east. This story is relevant to so many. I have also had to see the devastation of meth on someone first hand and this story really felt like it shed so much truth but also kept the plot and story moving. This book was more a mystery crime thriller than I was expecting. The writing was fantastic and the genre just did not matter. Once you started you did not want to put it down.
Mystery. Thriller. Marketed as YA but I would say it edges towards New Adult. Indigenous author. Drugs, romance, hockey. Great book.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read an ARC of this book!
I really expected to love this one, since it has gotten so many amazing reviews, and I generally love YA thrillers, especially ones with non-white protagonists. The premise sounds fantastic: Native American girl sees her best friend murdered in front of her and agrees to help with an investigation into a meth ring that is devastating her community. Unfortunately, it just totally didn't work for me. The storytelling is truly terrible, as the author is constantly telling instead of showing. The main character, Daunis, will mention something about her culture, and then go on to just explain what it is, rather than allowing the reader to experience her culture and learn about it through her actions and conversations. I also felt that it read like it was written by an older person trying to write teenagers, and the writing felt extremely stilted to me. I didn't love Daunis or any of the supporting characters either, and I felt like the development of the plot was not paced well. The first half of the book moves so slowly, and it isn't until the last fifth of the book that it feels like anything exciting really happens.
Unfortunately, this book just didn't work for me, but I appreciate having the opportunity to read it.
Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley is a new genre and new author for me. I liked the main character immediately. Her family has experienced losses and although she’s eager to flee her small community she postponed her academic plans to look after her family. She feels very conflicted about her roles within the community and culture. I liked how she formed a fast bond with Jamie because she needs confidence and the assurance she received from him. There is a fair amount of native words used that I had no clue what their meaning was, which while remaining true to the story, left me hanging with lack of definition. The ending was a cliff hanger.
I requested this book because we started a student-teacher book club where we focus on diverse voices.
I think that the students would enjoy this, and I plan on adding it to our “future reads” list.
The summer after high school graduation, Daunis's life shatters when her best friend Lily is shot by Lily's meth-addicted boyfriend Travis. But Travis and Lily aren't the only ones in Daunis's Ojibwe tribe who have been affected by illegal drugs. Daunis is then recruited by two undercover FBI agents to help them solve the mystery surrounding the increased influx and group-hallucinogenic variation of meth that has turned up in several Yooper communities. Will Daunis be able to help her community without betraying them to the federal government-- which has /not/ always treated indigenous peoples well?
The authenticity in Firekeeper's Daughter was FANTASTIC! Boulley poured her soul into this story, and it's obvious on the page. It is slow to get going-- I had a difficult time sitting down and making myself read it until I was 50-60% of the way in. Additionally, the 2003-2004 time period feels like it won't settle well with current teen readers, not like contemporary settings or trendy 1980's stories. Plus, the fact that Daunis is 18 and had graduated from high school makes me leery to call it YA. Like, I understand why she has to be 18 (thank you for not making Jamie a pedophile!), but YA skews toward older teens now so much, that I don't like it when it has protagonists who are out of high school. There is a lot of indigenous language used (like Anaya does in Bless Me, Ultima). But for any naysayers out there, this inclusion is super important! So yes! Please continue to include indigenous words in stories!
The mystery is very twisty. I did NOT see it coming who is involved in the drug dealing, and I definitely did not see it coming when [redacted] dies. I almost through my ipad across the room when that happened!
Diverse reads:
- Daunis is half Ojibwe (dad) and half Caucasian (mom).
- Many, many characters are tribal members.
- At the very end of the story, there is a reference to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. The story takes place in 2003-2004, but the emphasis of the story was more on the negative effects of drugs in tribal communities rather than MMW.
This was a fun YA mystery thriller that tied in the identity of being Anishinaabe kwe.
I think that YA mysteries aren’t totally for me, and found some of the plot points to be too convenient. There is also a fake dating trope in here that I didn’t love, so for those reasons this wasn’t a new favorite. That being said, the characters were interesting, especially allll the grandmas and aunties! The hockey element will excite my Canadian friends for sure, and this was generally a good time.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.
This was such a powerful, emotional, beautiful, strong debut from Boulder.
I fell in love with the cover of this book and I went into it without any knowledge of what it was about. I was blown away by the thriller aspect of the story woven with the culture of the Anishinaabe tribe.
I love learning about cultures I know little about and Boulley beautifully entwined aspects of this tribe and their modern day difficulties and struggles with a captivating story of murders and meth dealings within the tribe.
The main character Daniss has dealt with so much loss and struggle in her life. She is half white and half Ojibwe. She has to deal with prejudices on both sides, even some that come directly from her family. Her grandmother's look at the world very differently. I loved that even though Daniss was an unenrolled member of the tribe, she still felt such community with them and importance of that community.
It was sad to see how much violence - domestic and sexual exists in the tribes and how there is not much justice for those who have suffered.
Daniss ends up helping the FBI in investigating the meth problem in some of the tribes after her best friend is murdered. I love how smart Daniss is. I love how she uses her culture along with her brain to figure things out and keep on track. I love that even while helping them, her focus was not just on solving the case but in healing her community from the wounds.
I love that as she helps to solve the investigation, she learns much about herself and those she loves along the way. She really has to do some growing and the progression of her character was very well thought out and written.
I don't want to say more about the story because it is a crime story and I dont want to give anything away. It was very hard to put down.
This is a story about a girl fighting for the souls of her loved ones.
This was such a special book. I mistakenly thought it was a fantasy read (I think bc the cover is so beautiful?), but found it to be an excellent crime drama. This was a multilayered story about both protagonist and her personal relationships .. and the macro issues impacting her community. The exploration of her intersectionality is beautifully done.
I think the less readers know going in, the better for something like this, so I don’t want to say too much.. but everyone should pick this up!
4.5/5
Thank you Libro.fm & Macmillan Audio, and Netgalley & Henry Holt books for the e-ARC!
In Firekeepers Daughter, we follow Daunis Fontaine as she navigates her identity and where she belongs. As a biracial 18 year old with a white mom and Native American father, she has never quite fit in. She grew up with her white mom, and learned about her Native roots through her father’s sister. Although she’s biracial, she is fiercely proud and protective of her Indian community. She eventually finds herself in the middle of an undercover criminal investigation to find a drug ring suspected to be on her reservation. She agrees to be an informant, but there’s no way she could prepare herself for what her investigation would unearth.
I really enjoyed this own voices story. Angeline Boulley did a great job writing a story rich with Native American language, tradition, ceremony, folktales...etc. It’s so important to have stories about this community from people who identify with the community. I liked every ounce of Native American culture she put into this story. It’s also just nice to read a story about this community that goes against stereotypical depictions. We need so much more of this!
The mix of mystery and young love was great. Daunis has gone through so much even before the investigation starts, so I was happy she had a romantic interest as a positive light during a dark time. The build up to the investigation was slow, but once the investigation started, I was glued to the story and I couldn’t wait to find out what was going to happen. It was a mystery I couldn’t predict, and the result had my jaw on the floor. I also really loved every character in this story. Daunis in particular is so strong, kind, respectful, passionate, and intelligent. She is a true fighter.
I didn’t necessarily like how much trauma Daunis experienced in the story. Not to say it’s impossible or unlikely that anyone can go through all those things, but I think the story could’ve still been strong if less negative things happened to her. It’s as if Boulley just wrote in every bad thing she could think of. In this case, I think less would’ve been more. I also think there are multiple scenes that didn’t add anything to the story and could’ve been scrapped.
Overall, this is a great story, and I’m looking forward to more from this author. Thank you Netgalley and Macmillian for the Firekeeper's Daughter ARC.
This is a phenomenal debut--I can't stop thinking about it days after I finished it. It's marketed as a YA mystery/thriller, but it is so, so much more than that. It's also a literary book that is the most poetically beautiful thing I've read in awhile, and it includes so much well-deployed information about Anishinaabe culture, religion, and language (but even the most info-dumpy sections are well-motivated and gloriously well-incorporated). It's NEVER a slog, though I do think the novel is a bit long and includes so many different tones that at times I felt a bit of whiplash (particularly in the transition from pt. 1 to pt. 2). However, I think this is probably, for the most part, intentional, as it mirrors the whiplash the main character is experiencing (as well as the way violence/trauma and assault/murder interrupt the flow of life and irrevocably change things). I felt like the thriller elements weren't quite as well done as the rest, but that doesn't detract much from this tour-de-force of an epic novel (and I did not go into this expecting any 'epic' quality, but here we are).
An extraordinary debut novel that brings the beauty and depth of the Ojibwe culture to life. The story pulls you in not only with the mystery at its center but the way it weaves in all the facets of Ojibwe life into the story is truly remarkable. You will come away from this story touched on so many different levels. The experiences that so many Native women have lived is so vital to bring to a wider audience and this book does that important work through this well crafted, wonderfully paced story that brings so many amazing characters to life. The story focuses on Daunis, a biracial, but not enrolled member of the Ojibwe tribe. She should be leaving Sault Ste Marie for college but a family tragedy has changed her plans and will keep her at the local college. Daunis loves science and medicine as well as hockey, and through her brother she meets the local hockey teams newest star member, Jaime. But there is something that just doesn't quite mesh with Jaime, and after a devastating murder close to Daunis, she discovers exactly why things seemed off. There has been an explosion of meth related incidents and this latest brings an undercover FBI operation to town. Daunis becomes an informant in order to help but the connections she finds to so many people close to her and revelations about her past have terrible impacts beyond anything she could have imagined. Add to that the connection she has with Jamie which brings both joy and heartache in equal measure.
I absolutely loved how Angeline weaves in so many traditional stories but also combines that with the science of plants and medicine and how these are combined into Daunis' worldview. The importance of the elders and their knowledge, the strength of the bonds between women and how this is the core of the story make this just a gripping tale. And the reveals of who is behind the incidents certainly left me shocked!! The relationship between Daunis and Jaime is beautifully written, and the novel is full of so many wonderful, complex, flawed, real characters whose experiences will stay with you long beyond finishing the book. This book is fantastic not only for mystery lovers but for anyone who wants a greater understanding of Native culture and specifically the experiences of Native women. Truly, this a marvelous read.
You know the saying “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover” well in this case, you can. The beautifully illustrated cover leads to an intricately crafted story about community, heritage, family and love.
Daunis was raised between two worlds and learns to navigate between them,. Boulley’s descriptions of life in the Eastern Upper Peninsula are spot on including the cultural aspects of Anishinaabe traditions.
Great debut!
Thank you Netgalley and Macmillian for the Firekeeper's Daughter ARC.
I couldn't put this book down. It's one of the best books I've read in a while. Well-written, well-plotted, with fully fleshed out characters. I was given an advanced reader's copy through NetGalley.
Content warning: This book contains gun violence, sexual assault, drug overdose and possession.
Daunis Fontaine is bi-racial and struggles to fit into her two worlds: her mother's white family and her Ojibwe culture. She dreams of studying medicine but puts her plans on hold when tragedy strikes her family. Her Uncle David dies, presumably of an overdose, and shortly after her grandmother suffers a stroke. Daunis decides to spend her freshman year of college at home, where she can support her family and still earn course credit.
Everything feels a little easier when Daunis meets Jamie. Handsome and kind, he's new to town and the newest player on her brother Levi's hockey team. It isn't long before Daunis finds herself trying to push aside the way Jamie makes her feel.
But everything changes on a fateful night when Daunis witnesses a murder. It's clear Jamie is not at all who he appeared to be and something sinister is happening in her community. Reluctantly, Daunis agrees to become a citizen informant to uncover what's happening in her community. It is hoped that her knowledge of chemistry and traditional medicine will help uncover exactly what's happening and who's responsible. But each clue leads to more questions and more deception. Daunis has to decide how far she'll go to protect her community.
Daunis is tough. She doesn't take anyone's shit but she's an unquestionably good person who cares deeply for her family and her community. I want there to be more main characters like her! Smart and ambitious, she's determined to figure out what's going on in her community and who is causing it. Her relationships are beautiful. Her friendship with her best friend Lily, Lily's grandmother and other elders in her community, with her aunt are all such good stable relationships built on trust and respect. I loved seeing the strong support system she had even when she was forced to pull away from them because her role as an informant. Her relationship with Jamie is complicated to say the least. There are so many layers of truths and lies to untangle but it is clear he truly wants what's best for her.
Untangling the layers of this thrilling mystery was exciting, heart-pounding and, at times, even jaw-dropping. It was difficult to put the book down and go to bed. I truly didn't want to stop reading. Daunis' journey is full of emotion and pain but she has the support of a community that will always carry her through her most painful moments and show her how to heal, which was beautiful to read about. The ending felt right for the story and for Daunis as a character. Her strength is there at every moment in the book, guiding her.
I appreciated and loved the way Dauni's Ojibwe culture was shared and weaved throughout the story. It was so clearly a part of her character and I learned so much. I am grateful to the author for sharing that knowledge.
I'll be continuing the story in my head, creating a vision of how I want Daunis' life to turn out but I ended this book feeling it was true to Daunis.
Firekeeper's Daughter is a book that swept me away. I was pacing myself, minding my own business, until at about 60% when I needed to finish the whole thing in one evening. Oops. There are so many elements I loved about this ownvoices debut like the feelings of Daunis feeling split between the pieces of her family. Boulley tells the story of Daunis feeling like her identity is controlled and defined by other people. The complications in the system while also knowing the truth in our bones.
Firekeeper's Daughter doesn't shy away from the trauma of the past. The generations of cruelty, racism, and crimes committed against the Native community. One of my favorite elements is Daunis' family. It's complex, but full of so much tenderness both in our biological relations, and the found family, her community. Boulley tackles the notions of "one of the good ones" as well as questioning how we seek justice. Does it take external help or do we have to root out the problems in our community from the inside?
Firekeeper’s Daughter is a gripping read that explores modern Ojibwe life through the eyes of an incredible character entangled in a criminal investigation. Daunis is a biracial teenager who witnessed a murder and is pressured to assist the FBI in their investigation, all while seeking her place in the Ojibwe community. This was a very powerful book that will stick with you long after you finish it. I would highly recommend this book for older teen readers, due to the realistic issues that the main character faces (violence, drugs, sexual assault, and more). These topics are treated with dignity and maturity; at no point is the description excessive or exploitative. This is sure to be a popular title, and rightfully so.
This is an incredible debut novel, full of emotion, courage, devastation, and truth. It is technically a mystery/thriller, but the character development and cultural insight make it so much more than one genre. I hesitate to give more details because it will spoil the magic of going into this book without knowing what’s in store, but it is a must-read. One thing I do want to mention is that this is the first recent book I’ve read that is set in the early 2000s, and I really enjoyed it as someone who grew up during that time (flip phones, low rise jeans, no social media!).
As a white reader, I very much enjoyed the insight into Ojibwe culture and language, and really felt the tensions Daunis experiences between the two sides of her family. This book is devastating in a lot of ways, but it’s also hopeful.
It it marketed as YA, but should really be read by only mature teens and adults. The topics covered would’ve been too mature for me as a teen, but I was a very sheltered late bloomer.
For anyone who is interested in Native/Ojibwe culture, loves kickass women, or appreciates a good mystery, this is a must read!
Author Angeline Boulley's debut has a soothing storytelling tone and strong female protagonist.
Thank you for the e-ARC Macmillan Children and NetGalley!
Listed as fantasy however I looked up but both the Ojibwe tribe and Anishinaabe indigenous people and yes they did exist!
Ojibwe Indians (msu.edu)
also
http://www.bigorrin.org/anishinabe_kids.htm
I am not a big fantasy fan and sometimes they work for me other times they are Okay!
I have no doubt there are many readers who will connect with this story and love it!
Want to thank NetGalley and Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group for this early release granted to me for an honest professional review. Publishing Release Date scheduled for March 2, 2021
t took me a long time to read and process this book. The story of an Anishinaabe young woman who stumbles into an FBI investigation on her reservation seemed a little ridiculous. However the incorporation of Ojibwe/Saulteaux culture into the story was carried off pretty well, and saved most of the incredulous scenes.
Daunis is a half white, half Abishinaabe woman living in Sault Ste Marie, UP Michigan. She lives with her white mother, who comes from a well off family in Sault. Her life has had a lot of upheaval before the story starts, including the sudden death of her beloved Uncle David, the debilitating stroke of her mother's mother Grand Mary, the end of her hockey dreams, and a break up. She runs every day to help herself heal from these things, all the while anticipating another tragedy, which comes when her friend Lily becomes entangled with a meth dealer.
Obviously there's a LOT happening in this book, and the juggling of all the plots points kept me from getting into the story for the first half. I kept putting it down because it was getting too complicated, then picking it back up to be so lost in the story that I had to backtrack to figure out what was going on (again). At some point I figured out everything that was happening, and all the players involved, and from there the story went by quickly. Once it got going, it was great. Very exciting, and even though the story takes place in 2004, there were a lot of things that felt very true to now. The characters were fantastic, from Levi to Auntie's family, to Ron, to all the elders, who reminded me so much of the elders in my own Native community, full of humor and snark, and willing to do anything to protect their community.
There were a few points about the story that bothered me, and are the reason this book is not a five star. The main thing that made me nuts was that Daunis was so willing to be an informant to the FBI. I cannot imagine a Native person who would voluntarily do this. Maybe if the FBI was threatening, or blackmailing someone with federal charges, or federal prison, but some kindly FBI agents ask you for a favor, and you just do it? There is not an Indigenous person in the world who is raised to trust the FBI, or the Bureau of Indian Affairs. At best, you would treat them with extreme suspicion. Agreeing to help them out, just because you feel like it? No, no, no, no, no. Daunis has some bullshit about how she wants to protect her community, and her little cousins, which are sentiments any Native woman can agree with, but any Native woman also knows the real ways to protect the community and they have more to do with blanket parties, and yellow pansies than with government agencies. I guess I can imagine that Daunis, who is not an enrolled member of the tribe and has always felt like something of an outsider to "true" tribal members maybe doesn't feel empowered to help her people in any other way, but this still felt stupid. The way to be accepted by tribal communities is to NOT run around with the FBI. Along with that, she tells EVERYTHING about her community to Jaime, the FBI agent posing as her boyfriend. As a reader I liked the info dump of Anishinaabe Life 101, especially because although some things about their culture is familiar, and even similar to Pueblo culture, so much of the information given were things I didn't know. But again, I don't know of many Native people who could get away with just spilling out every secret of their culture to someone who doesn't belong to that culture, and who is there to gather information that could hurt people in the community. At some point Daunis is like, "Oh yeah, I probably should stop telling him so many secrets," but to quote George Costanza in the infamous "backwards" episode of Seinfeld, "But you already told me everything!" As a Pueblo woman I am constantly amazed at the openness of Northern tribes, just yapping away about every little aspect of their culture, so take my Puebloan criticism with a grain of salt, but Daunis's eagerness to share every little thing about Anishinaabe life was . . . startling. Especially considering she was sharing with an FBI agent who clearly had no idea what his tribal status was, or even who his people were.
Getting past these nitpicks, this is great book that depicts modern Native life beautifully. Daunis is a proud Nish Kwe, a strong Indigenous woman who takes her connection to her people very seriously. Their continuance is her focus, and the reason for her life's work, but she is fully aware of the negative aspects of life as a Native woman. The sexual assault, the access to drugs, the divide between those who are enrolled, and those who are not, and the divide between those who are mixed, and passing, and those who are not. Instead of painting over these problems, or justifying them, she works like hell to make sure there is some justice to keep her people moving forward. Her culture defines her, but doesn't immerse her. I like to think the same is true of me. I also loved all the characters who reflect a range of so many Native people, from the father who drums and sings outside his son's jail cell, to the elders who wryly call their cars "good pony" and who come through for Daunis more than once, to Auntie who carries the burden of being a Native woman and mother with grace and strength. I see people I know and love reflected in these characters, and I am so grateful this book tells pieces of their story. And although I nitpicked and struggled with this book I am so glad more Indigenous fiction is being published; someday I will be able to pick and chose over the great ones, and the bad ones, and not feel guilty when I don't love everything about them because there will be so many Native writers out there it won't matter that there are some not so great ones. This one falls in the middle for me in terms of story, but is a ten star reflection of Native life.