A REESE WITHERSPOON x HELLO SUNSHINE BOOK CLUB YA PICKAn Instant #1 New York Times BestsellerSoon to be adapted at Netflix for TV with President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama’s production company, Higher Ground. “One of this year’s most buzzed about young adult novels.” —Good Morning America A TIME Magazine Best YA Book of All Time SelectionAmazon’s Best YA Book of 2021 So Far (June 2021)A … Time Selection
Amazon’s Best YA Book of 2021 So Far (June 2021)
A 2021 Kids’ Indie Next List Selection
An Entertainment Weekly Most Anticipated Books of 2021 Selection
A PopSugar Best March 2021 YA Book Selection
With four starred reviews, Angeline Boulley’s debut novel, Firekeeper’s Daughter, is a groundbreaking YA thriller about a Native teen who must root out the corruption in her community, perfect for readers of Angie Thomas and Tommy Orange.
Eighteen-year-old Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in, both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. She dreams of a fresh start at college, but when family tragedy strikes, Daunis puts her future on hold to look after her fragile mother. The only bright spot is meeting Jamie, the charming new recruit on her brother Levi’s hockey team.
Yet even as Daunis falls for Jamie, she senses the dashing hockey star is hiding something. Everything comes to light when Daunis witnesses a shocking murder, thrusting her into an FBI investigation of a lethal new drug.
Reluctantly, Daunis agrees to go undercover, drawing on her knowledge of chemistry and Ojibwe traditional medicine to track down the source. But the search for truth is more complicated than Daunis imagined, exposing secrets and old scars. At the same time, she grows concerned with an investigation that seems more focused on punishing the offenders than protecting the victims.
Now, as the deceptions—and deaths—keep growing, Daunis must learn what it means to be a strong Anishinaabe kwe (Ojibwe woman) and how far she’ll go for her community, even if it tears apart the only world she’s ever known.
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Daunis was born half white and half Native American. While she lives with her white family, she visits her Native American family often. When her uncle dies, something is amiss. Daunis sets out to find out what is going on with the tribe and the hockey team she used to play for. She has the help of the new hockey player and his uncle.
Opinion
This is hands down a must read book! If you like mystery, intrigue, romance or suspense, you need to get ahold of a copy. This story gripped me and would not let go. Though this book is long, it is well worth the time invested in reading it.
Many thanks to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC of this book.
The Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley is YA mystery based in the Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) community. For a book that is being marketed as a “thriller,” I really had to force myself through the middle of the book, so I think “mystery” is a better fit. When reading a book by a minority group like Native Americans, I think it’s so important to distinguish between the book’s merits as an #own voices read with a PoC protagonist and the book’s merits on its own terms. I 100% support having more books with Native American protagonists. The Firekeeper’s Daughter is a step in the right direction, and I wish more books were out there like it. Unfortunately, I just didn’t enjoy the book.
The Firekeeper’s Daughter revolves around Daunis, a half-Native young woman who starts to investigate the community she grew up in after a series of deaths. Here is an informative quote from Chapter Two that describes the main character and her best friend:
“We are descendants – rather than enrolled members – of the Sugar Island Ojibwe Tribe. My father isn’t listed on my birth certificate, and Lily doesn’t meet the minimum blood-quantum requirement for enrollment. We still regard the Tribe as ours, even though our faces are pressed against the glass, looking in from outside.”
Here is a quote from Daunis’s point of view from Chapter Four about her mixed heritage:
“Yet even with such deep roots, I don’t always feel like I belong. Each time my Fontaine grandparents or their friends have seen my Ojibwe side as a flaw or a burden to overcome. And the less frequent but more heartbreaking instances when my Firekeeper family sees me as a Fontaine first and one of them second.”
When I was reading the opening chapters, I was reminded of Veronica Mars, one of my favorite TV shows. The idea of a Native American girl detective is amazing, and I was really looking forward to reading this book. I just wish the book had been executed better.
The first problem I had was that there was too much exposition in the opening chapters. I understand that we’re being introduced to a new world and that many outsiders don’t know about life in the Anishinaabe community, but some information should be reserved for footnotes. Daunis explains way too much, and it makes her sound like a know-it-all. The second problem I had was that the prospective love interest Jamie was way too perfect. He always listens to her, always tries to understand her, and never gets angry – not even when she insults his background, not even when she punches him? It reads more like fantasy wish-fulfillment than reality. Lastly, the climax/end of the book is completely unbelievable, and not in a good way.
Overall, The Firekeeper’s Daughter is a fun YA mystery that should be lauded for being an #ownvoices read and introducing many of us to the realities of Native Americans living today. Although I didn’t enjoy it personally, I’m sure that many readers will appreciate the book for what it is on its own terms.
CW: Drug use, murder, suicide, sexual assault
Thank you @angelineboulley @henryholtbooks @librofm for a #gifted ALC of this audiobook.
5/5 Stars
, ’ .
This book is Boulley’s debut novel and it was AMAZING!!! This book opened with foreshadowing that hooked me into the story from the first scene until the last. Boulley herself is an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians and combined her love for her community and storytelling into a page-turning novel for the masses!
What I loved:
I loved the push and pull that Daunis faced by being biracial, never feeling like she fit into either cultures.
The character development was spot on, the characters on complex yet relatable
So many of the characters were Indigenous People from the Ojibwe tribe. Not only does this have lots of BIPOC inclusion but we also get to learn about Ojibwe customs and struggles they face
I loved the addition of the Ojibwe language throughout the book.
I loved the YA Thriller genre; the thriller part kept you hooked into the story and the YA part allows this book to be read by a wide variety of ages.
What I didn’t like:
Not a darn thing!
: I recommend getting this on audiobook! The narrator really brought this book to life, especially the Ojibwe language. I loved hearing the words spoken as they should be, not how I would have butchered them in my head.
The Firekeeper’s Daughter is classified as a YA thriller, but is so powerful and engaging, it should be read by everyone. It takes place in 2004 on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and follows Daunis, a young biracial white/native woman. She is incredibly intelligent and athletic, excelling at science and hockey. She is a great friend. After a traumatic event, Daunis is roped into helping the FBI as an undercover confidential informant, investigating a meth dealing ring in her community. She makes this difficult and complicated decision because she is committed to helping and seeking justice for her family and community.
The characters and community are so well-developed and described, the reader feels like they are right there alongside Daunis, immersed in her world.
Firekeeper’s Daughter skillfully and sensitively addresses a lot of important issues such as racism (I suspect a lot of of people have their own version of “Bigotry Bingo”), substance abuse and drug dealing in native communities, multigenerational trauma, the horror of residential schools, the role of casinos, and the complexity of law enforcement on and around tribal lands. Through Daunis’ eyes we see the prevalence and impact of the murder and sexual assault of indigenous women and the infrequency with which the perpetrators of these acts are brought to justice.
The Firekeeper’s Daughter is an astounding, intense, incredibly well-written phenomenal #ownvoices story that grips and enthralls the reader. I read this 490 page book in two days. I would rate this book six stars if I cold. It will win awards. Thank you to #BookishFirst #FierceReads and @angelineboulley for an Advanced Reading Copy.
I received a free electronic ARC copy of this excellent young adult novel featuring high schoolers of the Ojibwe tribe of First Americans in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. This book features a lot of ice hockey and teenage angst but is an excellent look at life in small Michigan towns and the influence of weather on the lifestyle of the community. There is a wide net of family support not often seen in large American cities, and a sense of comradery similar to that experienced in the western towns I am familiar with. But of course, down here we have football…
I enjoyed this dip into winter – and have stopped whining about our low of 23 degrees one-night last week – and thoroughly enjoyed a look into the lives of these families. It was good to see examples of support and compassion expressed well during this pandemic that has us all isolated and feeling our own angst against the world.
And it is soon to be adapted at Netflix for TV with President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama’s production company, Higher Ground! How exciting!
Daunis Fontaine is half white and half Ojibwe, and her Grandmother Pearl always told her that bad things happen in threes. Within months, her Uncle David died and her GrandMary (Grandmother Mary) had a stroke and is now stuck in a long-term care facility. She can feel the third bad thing on the horizon, so she decides to enroll in a college closer to home, with the idea that she can stop it. Well, the third bad thing happens… But even though she couldn’t prevent that tragedy, she’s given the chance to help prevent the circumstances that caused it from happening again.
This book’s greatest strength is it’s complete and total immersiveness in the culture of its setting. Boulley doesn’t really hold your hand about terms that you might be unfamiliar with, and I actually really appreciated that. That’s not to say it’s weak in any other respect; on the contrary, I was impressed by this book on the whole. Boulley’s writing, the prose in general but especially the dialogue between characters and the way they interact…the way Daunis is with her family, with her best friend, with a stranger who she might be falling for, all feel so authentic. It’s engaging as a suspense thriller, and I also loved the complicated relationship Daunis has with Jaime
It might’ve dragged in parts? 50 or so pages I feel could’ve been edited out (it’s fairly long at almost 500 pages). But really, I barely noticed.
Loved loved loved this book.
*I received an ARC from the publisher through BookishFirst
Outstanding Suspense Thriller
This is an outstanding suspense thriller that takes place on tribal lands near Sault Ste. Marie. The book is full of tribal lore, beliefs, and medicines as well as the disconnect with white bigotry. The mystery portion addresses something that has affected almost all of the families in the US. The final denouement is very surprising. The ending is satisfying and haunting. I highly recommend this book. I received this ARC book for free from Net Galley and this is my honest review.
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 debut novel builds slowly as the Boulley takes her time with the plot and then there’s a point where she picks up the pace without racing to the end where her readers are reading into the early hours of the morning and the alarm clock be damned. Like the plot, the author’s characters are introduced, not only Daunis Fontaine, the main character, but the secondary characters as well slowly and thoroughly until readers feel like they know these characters almost as well we know their own friends.
Boulley has world building skills on display as she draws her readers into her characters’ worlds as well as the tribal community of the Ojibwe with the use of language, nuance, and folklore.
This debut deserves a large audience not only of teens and young adults, but adults as well because this book has unique takes on racism within the Ojibwe community where the color your skin determines where you fall on the spectrum of Native Americanism, where your status is set down in black and white on the day you’re born, and where some familial and community ties are stronger than any of the other ties that bind us together. It is a book that shows that what we think we know is true isn’t necessarily true.
My thanks to Henry Holt & Co. and Edelweiss for an eARC.
This review is for an excerpt that truly sets the tone for what is to follow. Daunis in many ways straddles two worlds as her father was a part of the Indigenous people and her mother a white woman descended from French settlers. This story is a revelation as well as a criminal suspense one with deaths, drug use and prejudice. Daunis is at a crossroads in many ways as her uncle recently died, her maternal grandmother has had a stroke and she decides not to go away to university but to stay another year at home. Set against a background of hockey players seeking a better life Daunis stands out as a strong young woman who only wishes to be accepted but sometimes what you wish for can bring terrible consequences. I highly recommend this book and will certainly read more from this author.
This voluntary take is of an excerpt I requested from Netgalley and my thoughts and comments are honest and I believe fair