At first, the plot was all over the place and I wasn’t really sure what the direction of the book would be. However, it quickly became obvious that the author was laying the foundation for a lot of events and conversations that not only had a lot of importance for the story itself, but the greater issues and conversations going on in real life. What never lacked in her writing was heart and bold characters.
I always appreciate this author’s work because of her beautiful writing and the way she is able to use her talent to craft stories and teach her readers. If you loved The Firekeeper’s Daughter, this is another must read!

Angeline Boulley brings us back to Sugar Island in Warrior Girl Unearthed. It is here where we meet the next generation of girls in the Firekeeper family. Perry Firekeeper-Birch was ready for summer and just slacking off. However, after a tiny fender bender, she now has to work all summer to pay back her Auntie Daunis for repairs to the Jeep.

Thankfully she has the other outcasts in the summer program she is stuck working in, Team Misfit Toys, and even her twin sister Pauline. Together they are a winning team beating everyone else in obstacle courses, they plan vigils for missing women in the community, and make sure summer doesn’t feel so lost after all.

However, when she attends a meeting at a local university, Perry learns about the “Warrior Girl”, an ancestor whose bones and knife are stored in the museum archives, and everything changes. Perry knows that she has to return Warrior Girl to her tribe. Determined to help, she learns all she can about NAGPRA, the federal law that allows tribes to request the return of ancestral remains and sacred items. The university has been using legal loopholes to hold onto Warrior Girl and twelve other Anishinaabe ancestors’ remains, and Perry and the Misfits won’t let it go on any longer.

The Misfits realize that a heist is the only way to bring back the stolen artifacts and remains for good. But there is more to this repatriation than meets the eye as more Indigenous women disappear. As secrets and mysteries unfold, Perry and the Misfits must fight to find a way to make things right – for the ancestors and for their community.

Warrior Girl Unearthed is another powerful thriller from Angeline Boulley. She writes with a strong voice, has well-developed characters and plotlines, and her incorporation of the Ojibwe culture is detailed so readers have a better understanding of what life is like for contemporary Indigenous populations.

Another knockout story from Boulley. I think I still liked FKD better but this was excellent, informative, and such an important story.

Thanks to the publisher for the advanced copy

3.5*
Perry and her twin sister Pauline will spend the summer doing internships for their community. They are members of the Ojibwe tribe. Perry starts working for a man who is dedicated to retrieving Native artifacts. When she learns about the circumstances of “Warrior Girl”, she becomes determined to bring the remains of the girl back home. A local university holds the remains but has no intention of returning them to the tribe.

Throughout the summer, Perry is shifted from one assignment to another. She ends up with a group of other outcasts and they decide to capitalize on their status by calling themselves the Misfits. When they learn of a scheme to transfer a collection of Native remains, the Misfit group devises their own strategy to bring them back.

The caper plot is the weakest part of the book. It’s the circumstances of the Native people’s claim to their own artifacts and human remains that is powerful. Many tribes in the U.S. and also in Canada have had similar battles to return their ancestors to their homeland. Boulley informs us about the inequities that Native people face and the failure of authorities to acknowledge their rights. She’s a talented writer and uses her stories to point to serious issues that native cultures have long fought for.

Really really good, as to be expected! I loved firekeeper's daughter, and while they both stand alone, this one had some of the characters/familial ties from the first book. I really enjoyed it, but it is hard when the first book is SO good, you naturally want to compare. While i do think FD is my favorite, this one was still a very good read that kept me hooked to the end. I hope there are more books to come!

“Doing the right thing for the right reason, with a good heart and clear intentions, matters.”

⭐⭐⭐💫

Thank you Netgalley and Henry Holt and Co. (BYR) for a copy of this book for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I discovered Angeline Boulley's first book, Firekeeper's Daughter, in a book tour and loved it, so I was thrilled to request a copy of this one. I had no idea until I started reading that Warrior Girl Unearthed is a spin-off/sequel to Firekeeper's Daughter!

Warrior Girl Unearthed follows Daunis' cousin, Perry Firekeeper-Birch, in a word set about a decade after book 1. Perry is sixteen years old and has little plans for her summer other than relaxing. Unfortunately, after a wreck, she is forced to get a summer internship to pay her family back for the damages. While working at a museum, she discovers an ancestor (the "Warrior Girl") whose remains are kept at the museum. Leading to a trail of increasingly horrifying summer discoveries, will Daunis be able to find a way to bring Warrior Girl home?

I want to start out by saying that I find Boulley to be a great writer and that Firekeeper's Daughter was a five-star read for me! She writes about incredibly heavy topics and real-world issues with compelling characters and somehow even a dash of humor and romance spun in along the way. While most of that was still evident here, I struggled with the characters this time around. Last time, I was in tears for how much I cared about the characters (and was thrilled to see glimpses of them in this book). This time, even after finishing the book, I find I struggle to remember more than one thing about each character. The atmosphere is still stellar, though, and I was able to easily jump into the story and imagine everything.

The writing was great, and I had the intrigue to continue reading this over all but one of my four other current reads! The plot, however, felt disorganized and as though it had been hastily dropped last minute. This book really marked the heist aspect and the saving the "warrior girl" aspect, but mixing this in with some everyday problems, the plot of the last book, along with other real-world issues felt highly convoluted in a way that felt like Boulley wanted to write a sequel, a spin-off, and a separate third standalone but ended up throwing it all into one book last minute. The ending of book 1 was unsatisfying in a way that made sense, but the ending of this book was unsatisfying in a way that made me wonder whether the plot had been forgotten along the way.

I still enjoyed listening to this read, and the narrator, and would definitely read another book by this author.

I would recommend this to readers who enjoy YA books with hard-hitting topics (such as the horrible way museums and private collectors have treated indigenous communities' belongings and ancestors, abuse of power, sexual assault, racism, and missing Native women) and who don't mind a lack of plot resolution.

I need more! Angeline is a phenomenal writer and I love not only reading for entertainment, but the stories and what I have learned about her culture in both her books are amazing. This reminded me of a Nancy Drew but way more interesting.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan for this DRC.
Perry Firekeeper-Birch takes us on an adventure/murder investigation that is part teenage high jinks, part archeological mystery, and part learning how to be part of a team. Perry shows multiple times how important it is to work with others, those you like and those you don’t, and the importance of knowing your own mind. I thought Boulley did a great job of weaving a lot of history and education into the book without it feeling heavy handed.


#WarriorGirlUnearthed #NetGalley

Fire Keeper’s Daughter was excellent, so I had high hopes for this and it absolutely delivered. I love how Angeline Boulley weaves together the Native American history and a mystery. I am intrigued, entertained, and constantly learning, and it’s such a perfect combination. I will read anything else she publishes and I’m sure I’ll love it, too.

“Warriors are willing to do what others can’t or won’t do for their community.”

Warrior Girl Unearthed takes place ten years after Boulley’s debut novel, Firekeeper’s Daughter, which won many awards and was named by Time in their 100 Best YA Books of All Time.

Firekeeper’s Daughter’s protagonist was Daunis, then- age 18. Warrior Girl Unearthed focuses on Daunis’s niece, Perry (twin to Paulline) who is now 16. She is a good character to use to follow-up to Daunis because their personalities are similar— blunt, strong, outspoken, risk-takers, opinionated, kind, loyal to their tribe and family.

I didn’t feel as lost at first reading this book compared to Firekeeper’s Daughter. It may be because I was already prepared for the Ojibwe language and the Yooper slang to be used. It may also be that this one didn’t ALSO have all the hockey jargon and anatomy terminology that were relevant to Daunis’s character.

It felt like Boulley didn’t take on as many threads to weave together as Firekeeper’s Daughter. The plot and character were a bit simpler. Warrior Girl Unearthed is 100 pages less, as well, so I think Boulley made some good choices with her second book.

Another improvement Boulley made with this book was better writing of the text conversations. They were more realistic. Poorly written text messages is one of my pet peeves so I was happy about this.



This book felt slow in the beginning. Having not really read the Goodreads summary, I wasn’t sure what the main conflict of the story was going to be.

It starts off with Perry wrecking Daunis’s jeep and needing to earn money to pay for the repairs. This drops her into a tribal summer intern program she is less than enthused about.

Her assignment introduces her to a collection of tribal artifacts, sacred items, and ancestral remains held at the nearby university. One of the remains is a woman they call Warrior Girl.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but this was the set-up for the primary plot. Getting these items and remains back to their tribe where they should be. It is a discussion on the repatriation act of 1990 (NAGPRA) which was enacted not only to restore these things to their rightful place, but to make sure remains and items were treated with dignity and respect.

Perry vows to do whatever it takes to stop the college from dragging their feet on inventorying their collection and making sure Warrior Girl is returned to their tribe where she can be returned to the earth from which she was robbed.

The secondary plot is the increasing number of young women from their tribe and others going missing and the laws around what crimes are prosecuted by whom.

There are lesser threads including a small romance plus the relationship between the two sisters (twins) and their differing personalities.

So yes, it was slow in the beginning, but I think all the build-up was necessary to Perry’s character and her devotion to her vow. We have to see the challenges of jumping through hoops and doing things the legal way. We have to see the disrespect of some of the characters and her growing commitment to repatriation. We have to believe that she cares about it so much that she really is willing to do whatever it takes to complete her vow.

It makes the climax of the book and her actions make more sense.


Some things I liked: It was great checking in with Granny June again. It was nice to know where Daunis ended up. I really enjoyed the character (Sam Hill) who was just called ‘What-The’.

I liked the good familial relationships shown and that even though Perry was a teenager, she still loved and respected her parents. I liked that the romantic aspect of the book was not the driving force of the plot nor of the main character’s behavior.

I thought Boulley did a good job of using the Ojibwe language in a major way while also cluing the reader into what was said in a natural way so it didn’t feel like you were just reading a dictionary.


Some things I didn’t like: All the swearing. It was less than some books I read, but for some reason felt like more. It may be because the main character using the f-words is a 16 year-old which feels worse. There is also some drug use (Perry’s twin keeps a stash of weed gummies for her anxiety). There is also reference to ‘sneaky snags’ which is her twin out having secret sex. Nothing is said more than that, but both the drugs and the sex are referenced as if it’s no big deal.

Sure, maybe that’s a normal thing for teenagers— which I’m pretty sad about if it is— but I would not want my teenagers (whenever I have them) reading this book with that content. It’s marketed as a YA book, but in my opinion, the content is beyond that.

One thing that annoyed me, which was also used in Firekeeper’s Daughter, was the phrase ‘pointed her lips.’ It was used 8 times in this book. And I still don’t really understand how this looks in real life.


Did I like it more than Firekeeper’s Daughter?

That is a hard question. I think I liked Daunis better than Perry. But I think the ‘mystery’ part was better in Warrior Girl Unearthed. I think the pacing was better in FD. FD also had discussion around tribal traditions and the challenges they face in America as a whole, but I think it was more dominant in WGU. Really it felt like a book about repatriation but jammed into a fictional YA framework. So I didn’t like that as much.

It’s good to learn things about a culture I know very little about. But it felt a little too political. Espeically with the inclusion of the comments regarding black people shot by police. Perry’s father is part-black but it seemed like a political comment rather than necessary for the story. Or things like this:

“‘You really wanna study where women and people of color are invisible?’” This quote may have been said as an exaggeration by a character, I don’t know the author’s intention, but it’s a bit too mainstream narrative for me. Women and people of color are hardly invisible. They are thriving at all levels! They may face some unique challenges at times, but as a whole I don’t believe they are as disadvantaged as I’m told to believe.


“These moccasins were taken off of ancestors in their graves.’ He looks horror-struck. I take deep breaths before continuing.’”

“‘I saw a ceremonial pipe fully assembled.’ He grimaces. ‘You get it, Web. Lockhart shouldn’t own it, and he for sure shouldn’t be displaying it like that.’”

These two quotes are commenting regarding non-natives. They also talked very negatively about people who tried to sell these items at garage sales or on eBay. One the one hand, yes, there are people who are ‘grave robbers’ and intentionally steal things for their own financial benefit. Who openly disgrace the native traditions. And that’s a real problem.

However, on the other hand, there are people who just don’t know. They don’t know what they have. How are they supposed to know that they have a ceremonial pipe and that it’s horrifying to assemble it?! I don’t know how easy it would be to find out this information, but the book didn’t not give much grace in the way of ignorance. They found any white person touching any Native item or remains as one of the worst things.

I guess I struggle a little with wanting to respect their traditions and the sacredness of their items, but also feeling like their attitude towards this to be pretty harsh.

I do want to learn, and I know that there were terrible things done to Native Americans (like the boarding schools) that stripped them of their culture and lives, but what she was trying to teach me via a novel felt a little too forceful in this book.


So in conclusion, both books had their pros and cons, but overall I think my first impression after reading Firekeeper’s Daughter was a little better than after reading Warrior Girl Unearthed.


Religious Differences

I am not sure how to correctly state the difference between Natives who practice and worship the traditional way and Natives who became Christians, so I’ll probably say something wrong, but I’m still going to state my ponderings anyway.

[I found this article by a Christian Native American that I thought was good]

One thing that was said multiple times in different ways was:

“I stare at random tourists and wonder how they would react to their ancestors being stolen for research. I’m guessing they would see it as sacrilege.”

I would definitely not like if someone exhumed my parents, grandparents, or even great-grandparents because that does seem disrespectful or jarring emotionally. But personally, I don’t know if it would really bother me if people decided to study my ancestors’ remains. To me, they are just bones. They are not there anymore. And maybe I could learn something more about my ancestors.

I understand that is not the way non-Christian Natives view it.

“We ask the ancestors to forgive what was done to their physical bodies, and we pray their spirits are at peace.”

Boulley quotes Chip Colwell saying,

“I know for these Native American traditionalists, the bones in the boxes are pulsating with power. For them, the dead are not really dead at all... For them, repatriation is a religious duty, not a political victory.”

And even with the treatment of their funerary items or other other cultural items. They treat bones and items as sacred. They think the bones have power and that their ancestors speak to them from the grave and guide them in their life.

That is different than my Christian beliefs. The Bible teaches us not to worship the body or objects, that it would be idolatry. The only eternal things are God, his Word, and people’s souls. Everything else will pass away.

If someone was going to auction off a stolen Bible for $20,000 in a disrespectful way, we may mourn the treatment of God’s Word, but I don’t think we would buy it just to return it to respect. We would (or should) use that money to help people. People who are living.

The holiest part of Christianity is the holiness of God and of Jesus. And Jesus is alive- there are no remains to protect or preserve.

When I think of bodily remains, I know it’s not my relatives. Their souls have departed. They don’t need that body anymore. They will get a resurrected body that is far better.


I say this because Boulley has brought up something I’ve never thought about before. I am exploring why I have a hard time understanding their traditions. Our religious beliefs drive the way we view the world and what’s in it and it’s very different.

Even though we have differing religious beliefs, I love that in America we are free to have and practice differing beliefs. We should still respect each other’s traditions. Their preservation and care for their funerary items does not hurt anyone so I think the repatriation act is a good and rightful thing.

I don’t think anyone should just go around digging up known burial grounds without proper authorization. That seems like a worthy law. I can understand this sentiment:

“Our ancestors’ bodies and funerary objects have been written on with markers and pens, handled, and studied by professors, researchers, and students for far too long. Their bodies, laid out in cardboard boxes, on metal shelves, is your university’s shameful reminder of the disrespect for human dignity.”

I am also not an anthropologist. If we were to just return all tribal objects from anywhere in America to wherever they go— what would we lose? I don’t know. I don’t know what the aftermath would be. I guess we would then rely on the tribes around the country to educate us on their past and culture instead of studying burial grounds for that information.

“Cooper says museums use that label, ‘culturally unidentifiable,’ as a catchall if they don’t have the resources to do a proper inventory. He says they also use it even after tribes provide evidence, because then, the museum can still hold on to the objects."

I can believe that museums and university departments make little effort in following through on inventorying a collection and actually trying to get it where it needs to go. I can believe there is deception used to avoid following the rules.


Recommendation

Angeline Boulley, a Native and a firekeeper’s daughter, definitely writes unique books and I enjoy reading a book written from a Native author in a setting and culture that I am not familiar with. I always enjoy learning while I read.

This book is long but doesn’t take too long to read. I think the plot is still decent and the characters are mostly likable— though sometimes Perry can be a lot.

If you plan to read this, I think I would still read Firekeeper’s Daughter first, but you wouldn’t have to.

Whether you are a Native yourself, or a non-Native, I think this book will invoke some feelings. Feelings that may be hard to understand and cause you to struggle. I think that’s a good thing.

I did say that it felt too political at times, but as I reflect, I’m glad that it made me think about what I believe and how I should interact with the Ojibwe culture and religion. I don’t have it all figured out, but it’s good for me to think about.

I think the only reason I would stop reading Boulley’s books is if the swearing continued to be as it is. (And I especially wouldn’t recommend this for YA readers as I mentioned earlier.)

Overall, this is a book about a teenage girl who discovers an injustice done to her tribe and, like a warrior, will do anything to rectify it. It’s the (mostly) selfless quest to right a wrong and uphold the religious beliefs she and her family hold.

I think most people will enjoy this book!

[See my original post for a couple other book links and pics relevant to the book]

**Received and ARC via NetGalley**

Another thrilling mystery from Angeline Boulley!

I loved being able to revisit the setting we got in Firekeeper’s Daughter. And I loved that our main character was a little messy and bold and had such a big heart for her people and their sacred items and remains.

Can’t wait for the next book from Angeline Boulley!

Angeline Boulley did it again! This was an excellent story with great characters and an interesting plot.

Beautiful story that teaches such an important lesson about NAGPRA and the ways that white institutions try to circumvent those guidelines. The author perfectly weaves in a very different storylines while creating a very lovable, authentic protagonist. Angeline Boulley is an "always purchase" for me and my classroom.

You can tell how much Angeline cares so much about her community and sharing stories from the way she writes about them. It's very easy to fall in love with the characters and you'll want to learn more about their culture. This is the first book that I've read by her and I can't wait to read what else she writes.

A stunning follow up (both in terms of publishing order and a literal follow-up within the Boulley's fictional world) to Firekeeper's Daughter. While this work deals with similar heavy themes, it feels less raw and harsh that its predecessor. The baddie reveal is really pushes the limits of credulity, but the characters are so great you as the reader don't really care. We'll be buying this for our library immediately.

We are back in Sugar Island with Perry, niece of Auntie Donnis. I’m this book, Perry stumbles upon Indigenous objects that were stolen and she hatches a plan to get them back. Readers learn how they might feel like to have your culture disrespected by people who claim to cherish history and culture.

I absolutely LOVED Boulley's first book, _Firekeeper's Daughter_, and was very excited when I heard she had a second book coming out. I didn't know that Daunis, the MC from the first novel, was a character in this one as well! In fact, she's the MC's aunt, and the events of this book are set about a decade after the first, so we see Daunis as an adult. While we know that Daunis did in fact go to Hawaii for school, and we know she has a young son, we don't get many details about either of those life-changing events here. But then, Daunis is just a side character here. Still, I hope Boulley will eventually fill in the blanks of her story someday!

I enjoyed reading this novel, though not as much as the first one. I found the MC, Perry, hard to like, She's impulsive to the point of being reckless, and while that's part of the trajectory of her character--she eventually learns how damaging her impulsive acts can. be--it takes a long time for her to get there, and I'm not sure I believe it when she does.

I will say I learned a LOT about NAGPRA by reading this novel, and I love the way Boulley begins each chapter with a quote from old or new scholarship about the ethics of museums holding on to Native American objects and remains. The information about NAGPRA and the many loopholes that make it difficult if not impossible to enforce seems a little "info-droppy" at times...it's not incorporated smoothly into the narrative in the same way Boulley wove details about the dangerous conflicts between tribal law and state/federal law into FKD.

Nevertheless, the novel does show the reader how wanton and horrifying the trade in Native American artifacts is, and by the end, we understand why Perry feels like the ends justify the means employed to repatriate artifacts to their rightful place. We also understand why her mentor at the tribal museum, Cooper, is also right to follow the more straight and narrow path to achieve the same goal.

It's a good novel, but I think if I have to choose one of the two to read in my young adult literature class, or to recommend to young readers, it'll be FKD.

I read Warrior Girl Unearthed last month and was wowed by @angelineboulley ‘s sophomore novel. Staying within the same family, tribe and YA genre, this book tackles yet more struggles Native American tribes face.

This story starts off with a bang. Literally. Teenager Perry Firekeeper’s-Birch is ready to have a carefree summer fishing and not doing much else. Unfortunately, she has a small car accident in the opening pages and must now work to pay her aunt back for damages. She works at the same location as her twin sister participating in an internship summer program for local tribe members.

Perry quickly learns about a “warrior girl” whose remains and knife are stored at the local university rather than within the tribe itself. She quickly learns of the ways tribal remains and other artifacts are treated outside of tribal communities. What she (and you as the reader) learns is appalling. Being the headstrong teenager she is, Perry sets to make things right regardless of whatever nefarious means it might be.

This book is written beautifully though I will say that I did enjoy Firekeeper’s Daughter more. This one still gets a ringing endorsement from me and I can’t wait to read whatever Boulley writes next.

I really liked Boulley's second book. It had everything I loved about the first one: an incredible story with a focus on the culture and history of Ojibwe, so much knowledge about lots of different topics (repatriation, NAGRA, MMIWG2S, etc.), and strong women. I didn't love this one as much as the first one and it felt a little scattered but I will still read anything she writes!

I'd definitely recommend this book to my students. I love how the author weaves in teachable moments without being so in your face. Definitely a lot of information which can lead to great discussions