Firekeeper's Daughter
Ratings128
Average rating4.2
Daunis should be starting her first classes away at college, her first steps to becoming a medical doctor, her dream, but instead, she is home, after a tragedy has struck her family. As an unenrolled tribal member and the product of a teenage relationship between a wealthy rich White girl and a Native hockey star, Daunis has always had to feel her way carefully through her two families. And now a new version of a toxic drug is striking down people she has known and loved all her life, and she is asked to help with the undercover investigation.
A thriller. A story centering on Obijwe culture. The wild ebb and flow of young love. Hockey life. All somehow bound into a unique coming-of-age story.
I can't recommend this one enough.
I really liked this! I was interested in reading it and then super excited to learn it was about an Ojibwe girl Michigan! I went to high school near a reservation and casino of Ojibwe people (Saginaw Chippewa in Isabella co.) so it was really fun to read things that were very familiar to me: the rural setting, the hockey obsession, poverty, white people being mad about casino per capita payments, and even graduating high school in 2004!
I couldn't put this down as I was reading it–I loved Daunis as narrator and I was fully engaged with her world and ongoing investigation. It did fall apart a little bit toward the end and as I think about it I think maybe this book ultimately bit off a little more than it could chew, but it's still an amazing debut novel and I definitely look forward to seeing what Angeline Boulley writes next.
Like for example why was it a late-book reveal that Daunis has nerve damage in her shoulder? It's from her POV, why was she keeping it a secret from...herself...and then why did that reveal have very little to do with anything going forward? And I suspect the writing around the Little People was out of a respect to not wanting to write too much about Ojibwe lore but it was also kind of like..."here's hundreds of pages of mystery about meth and also there are magical creatures that are literally real and talk to you when you're high but we can't tell the FBI about it so anyway, my shoulder hurts. like I respect that maybe you don't want to write about this lore and I know some other Native American writers have gotten some backlash for putting too much sacred lore into writing but then like, IDK, maybe don't write about it at all instead of just the smallest, wildest tease of a plot element?!?! Also I'm just speculating that that might be the reasoning for it but it just seemed like...a weird level of buildup for extremely little follow through on this plot element that seemed very interesting to me!
Also hey, great to have another hockey novel for my teen hockey enthusiasts! (It's a hockey B-plot for sure but still a good amount of hockey content I think.)
Also content warning for sexual assault, drug use/overdose, murder, etc...like PG-13 but heavy for a younger teen or anyone with specific triggers.
This book caught me by surprise, I wasn't expecting a deeply personal and complex journey about identity, belonging, and community. Daunis is half white and half Ojibwe, she doesn't quite fit in to either world. When she's called upon to help her community, she's thrust into a journey that'll change her understanding of how the world works.
The author shows us how choices can cause unintended consequences in the future. I felt devastated and healed at the same time. Highly recommend!
The author of this book is Native American, and it takes place on and near a reservation in northern Michigan. The reservation has been plagued with rising drug use and deaths, and our protagonist gets thrown into the middle of figuring out who is responsible for all the harm that is affecting her community. The writing is very suspenseful, and there were lots of fun twists and turns along the way.
The absolute best part about this book is the immersion on modern Native American culture. There is so much beauty and also acknowledgement of pain and suffering. My only minor quibble is that this book is YA and I could feel that at points (a few of the plot twists were pretty obvious, and some of the scientific/forensic concepts were over-explained). All in all, though, a good read!
I ended up enjoying the hell out of this, despite the absolute need for willing suspension of disbelief that a government agency would recruit an 18-year-old (and teach her to make meth so she would be able to recognize the process) without a parent being informed. Honestly, I could have done without the meth storyline entirely.
What I LOVED was the interaction between community members, Auntie and the holidays and pow wows. I found learning about the culture so powerful- maybe that is why the plot with the meth seems so trivial in comparison.
Boulley's voice is incredible.
Again, just want to state for the record that I HATE that Reece Witherspoon has slapped her book club sticker on the cover. I almost didn't read it just because of that.
You shouldn't judge a book by its absolutely gorgeous cover (or title for that matter).
I was so hopeful about this YA Goodreads favorite from 2021. The premise sounded good and it is nice to receive a contemporary story about Ashinaabe in Michigan.
There are a lot of triggers in here you may want to chat about your teen with, especially if they are a younger teen. Multiple overdoses, making drugs, witnessing the shooting of a friend, and rape. And I'll throw in insta love because that's a romance trope that I find triggering. My issue is not that these very difficult subjects are in the book, but I think too many were thrown in. What bothered some other reviewers, that these difficult topics are glossed over, actually seems very realistic to me both from the viewpoint of how the Ashinaabe people are treated by non-tribal people and how girls and women are almost expendable when their lives are taken from them.
In some ways, Daunis is an interesting lead character. She was once a very good hockey player and hasn't followed the typical path so many other girls her age.
