I received a free e-ARC of Firekeeper’s Daughter thanks to Fierce Reads in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are solely my own.

I absolutely loved this book. I’d been anticipating this book since I found out about it’s existence, so when I found out I won an ARC, I was so excited.

Let me tell y’all, it lived up to the hype. I still find myself thinking about this story, Daunis, and the cast of characters we journeyed with even after the last page has been turned.

I’m a huge fan of strong female protagonists, and Boulley hit the nail with Daunis. She is biracial and a product of teenage pregnancy. Neither side of her family really embraced her, but she is heavily involved with both. She feels like an outsider but is trying to find her place.

I loved the insight to the Ojibwe community that Boulley weaved into the story. The language and traditions that we learned about was such an important inclusion into the story and an important piece of Daunis’s identity. Another aspect that we see is loyalty. Loyalty is shown in many different ways in this book, but we can see it throughout. Women were loyal to each other during a specific tradition even if they didn’t want to participate. Later, toward the end of the book, we see the elders being loyal to Daunis; I won’t say more as it would be a spoiler. Throughout the book, we see Daunis being loyal to her community during her time with the FBI as she’s constantly wondering whether she should tell Jamie and Ron or keep something to herself for a while.

The storyline itself is so powerful. It covers a plethora of issues including violence (gun, domestic, etc.), drug addiction, grief, sexual assault, racism, unfit parents, corruption, and greed. What starts as an investigation into a drug-operation turns into an eye-opening experience for Daunis into the lives of those around her. We’re taken on a thrilling, dangerous, hope-filled ride as we search for answers with Daunis.

Boulley’s masterful telling of Firekeeper’s Daughter is one that won’t be forgotten. I highly recommend this book. I’ll be keeping Boulley on my radar.

This was a book I could barely put down. I kept finding myself holding my breath while I was reading.

Originally looked at getting this for the middle school library where I work but it's definitely a bit too mature for that age group. Absolutely would recommend it to high schoolers though, with a few content warnings.

“I’ve been left behind before, but I was always caught by surprise. I thought it would hurt less if I saw it coming. But now I realize that knowing doesn’t lessen the pain, it just gives it a head start.” - @angelineboulley


This book was something else. Not only did it delve into issues like the deep and ongoing pain of the Native American peoples in the past and present but it dealt with the horrible pain that secrets hold. Every single heart ache that the female lead in this book deals with stems from the generational angst that she and her people have faced. Whether it was that her father and uncle had both left her when they passed away, a community that tries to hide not only how racist they can be but hide the shame they feel at one of their own falling victim to drug use/abuse.

I won’t delve much into the story because it is one that you have to go in blindly into to truly feel everything that the author tries to convey in this wonderful book. But I will say that the last chapter hit me the hardest at the realization of just how strong women in minorities have to be to survive and it made me even more proud of my Hispanic culture.

Please do yourself a favor and go pick up this wonderful book and thank you SO much to the author and publishers for sending me an early e-galley of this book.

CW: meth addiction, murder, gun violence, sexual assault, mourning, kidnapping and racism

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me an ARC of this book.

What a marvelous debut! Firekeeper’s Daughter is a book I know I will never forget. Daunis Fountain is a biracial Ojibwe 18y/o who is in a race to stop the corruption and the drug-related crimes harming her community. She’s one of the strongest characters I have read in a long time. What happened to her never broke her spirit, and even though her world fell into pieces, she stayed strong. She also had an amazing family filled with strong women that had her back through everything. I cried on multiple occasions, both in happiness and in pain. During the book we also see her struggling with her identity, feeling split between two worlds, and I believe Boulley handled it fantastically. The thriller aspect of the book was well executed since I couldn’t put it down and I needed to know what was going to happen next. The book leaves you on edge with every passing page, especially after 70% in. I enjoyed so much seeing and learning about the Ojibwe people and their traditions as well as their spiritual beliefs. Firekeeper’s Daughter has so many layers that fit perfectly with one another and its complexity makes you sit down and analyze what you are reading. I believe everyone has to read this book at least once in their lifetime. I’m very excited for the adaptation and I cannot wait to see this story come to life on the screen.

I really enjoyed this one! A fast-paced, well-plotted mystery set in an Ojibwe community in the Upper Peninsula. I think the book could read a little clunky for people who are already familiar with Ojibwe customs, as there are a lot of explanations, but as someone who is unfamiliar with the culture, I loved learning so much. Also, the book is marketed as YA, but the main character is 18-going-on-19 and I think it has a lot of adult appeal. I would recommend to both teen and adult mystery fans! I also got some Beartown vibes, as the story begins with a girl and a gun in the woods and hockey plays a major role, but they are definitely different stories.

When a young Native American woman witnesses a horrific crime, she’s approached by law enforcement for help on solving a much bigger problem. As the teen tries to make sense of the threat to her community, she also fights to save it. Author Angeline Boulley writes with confidence and authority in her debut young adult novel Firekeeper’s Daughter.

Although her blood marks her a member of the Native American community, Daunis Fontaine has always felt like she’s never quite fit in. One parent of her parents is white; the other is a member of the Ojibwe tribe in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Daunis has lived in the town of Sault Ste. Marie in the U.P. her entire life, but both non-Native residents and Native residents let her know she doesn’t fit in with them.

Daunis does her best to ignore both. She wants to take the culture she loves and respects into the future. With her eye on medical school, Daunis wants to use the knowledge she’s gained of plants to study their medicinal properties and then use that information later as a doctor.

Even before her dreams can get going, though, they seem to be crashing around her. Her Uncle David, the science teacher at her high school, dies from what looks like a drug overdose. Her grandmother suffers a debilitating stroke, and Daunis’s mother commits to taking care of her. As much as Daunis wants to go away to college, she makes the difficult decision to defer her enrollment for a year and take classes at the local university instead.

The local hockey club is a welcome distraction. In high school Daunis was one of the few girls who made it to the boys’ varsity team, and even though an injury has pretty much ended her athletic career she still hangs out with the players. They include her half-brother, Levi, the new captain of the team. Daunis can’t wait to see him get on the ice with the C on his jersey. It makes Uncle David’s death and her grandmother’s stroke almost bearable.

A new player moves to town, and he notices Daunis right away. Her best friend, Lily, teases Daunis mercilessly, but Daunis won’t allow open herself to heartbreak again. The first time it happened, she almost didn’t recover. She has to be strong on defense this time, even if Jamie Johnson has the most amazing eyes.

An awful crime involving Lily renews Daunis’s grief, but it’s only the beginning of the senseless acts in town. Meth has made its way through the Native community, and Lily’s ex-boyfriend, Travis, is its latest victim. After the situation with Lily, the FBI approaches Daunis and asks her to do something that leaves her speechless. They want her to help them figure out who’s making the meth, who’s transporting it, and how.

Despite her reluctance, Daunis agrees. She can’t bear to watch others fall victim to the torturous drug that literally hollows people out. Although she’s always been nothing but honest with her family members, now Daunis finds herself keeping secrets from the people who love her the most. Jamie is becoming more and more of a distraction from everything, and more kids fall victim to the drug ring. As Daunis works her way closer to the center of the illegal action, she comes to realize it may strike closer to home than she first believed.

Debut author Angeline Boulley uses her firsthand knowledge as a member of the Chippewa Indians in Sault Ste. Marie in Michigan to inform this important story. Readers will find a book rich in cultural education in a way that is neither preachy nor condescending. Daunis informs readers about the things that matter the most to her in her culture in a way that feels organic and personal.

The book digs deep into issues that will be relatable for anyone, no matter their ethnic or cultural background. It showcases situations and customs specific to the Ojibwe tribe, but it does what successful novels should. It proves that despite differences, at their hearts people are all the same.

Some situations and scenes might be better suited for the upper young adult market, and occasionally the influx of information can make some Native customs a little hard to keep apart. Regardless, readers will find themselves appreciating Native American with more informed opinions. I recommend readers Bookmark Firekeeper’s Daughter.

Hede: A winning combination: 8 books for March from Rick DeStefanis, John J. Jacobson, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Harlan Coben, Dan Gutman, Iain Lawrence, Angeline Boulley and Jess Phoenix

There are about 200,000 books published each year in the United States alone. To pare that down a bit, Mountain Times is spotlighting eight titles — fiction, young adult and nonfiction — that are worthy of attention and are now available in March.

Fiction

‘Rawlins: Last Ride to Montana’ by Rick DeStefanis, The Word Hunter Books, $23.95

The Memphis, Tenn.-native Rick DeStefanis, a former paratrooper with the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division, is a master of military fiction who has lived most of his life in northern Mississippi — all information that gives no indication of just how well his Western historical fictional ‘Rawlins’ trilogy is written and received.

DeStefanis introduces the young Tennessean Virgil Rawlins against the backdrop of the Civil War and the American West in “Rawlins, No Longer Young.” Through that introduction, we learn of Rawlins’ own code of honor, of meeting Sarah McCaskey and most importantly, of his unique ability to question his own touchstones. It is in this novel that Rawlins learns that defining his future begins with the decision between being an outlaw or a lawman, with shades of gray and blue both tinting the choice.

In “Rawlins, Into Montana: Even Paradise has its price,” the former Confederate soldier and Sarah agree to lead a wagon train of 20 families along the Oregon Trail and into the Montana Territory. While many of the adventurers are on a quest for gold, Rawlins and his wife are setting out for Paradise Valley, aptly named for its natural beauty but antithesis to the dangers that threaten their peace, family and land.

The segue from that novel fits perfectly into “Rawlins, Last Ride to Montana.” Hoping for a reconciliation with Sarah’s family in the East, the Rawlins set out from Paradise Valley with their children. By this time, Virgil’s fighting skills, gained on the battlefield and during his time as a Pacific Railroad policeman, have become legendary. But during the few times when legend is not enough to deter attackers, we learn of Sarah’s strength: “Rawlins felt Sarah’s presence when she stepped up close behind him in the doorway and pressed a revolver into the hand behind his back. That was his Sarah. She was that kind of woman. She saw things through the same prism as he did — one of frontier survival.”

Developing dual storylines in this final novel of the three — Virgil and Sarah separate for much of the story, he driving cattle and she attempting familial fence-mending — DeStefanis presents enough realistic adventures and scene building to ensure this novel has room on your bookshelf next to Louis L’Amour. And although “Last Ride to Montana” is a continuation novel with enough exposition to leave you satisfied, if you’ve got the space, add the first two books as well.

‘All the Cowboys Ain’t Gone’ by John J. Jacobson, Blackstone Publishing, $27.99

Continuing along the Old West trail for a moment, new this month is John J. Jacobson’s “All the Cowboys Ain’t Gone,” a late-1880s story with a 2021 motif.

Jacobson’s novel is the most quixotic cowboy story you’re likely to ever read. And just like that storied tale, this one is funny, adventurous and most of all, timely.

“All the Cowboys Ain’t Gone” is a man-out-of-time story. Texan Lincoln Smith is living at the turn of the 20th century, a time when the Old West is rapidly fading, much to the chagrin of the young man who fashions himself as the last true cowboy — even channeling a Johnny Cash who won’t be born for nearly 40 years as the story opens: “His mother wouldn’t let him take his .22 caliber rifle out by himself until he turned twelve, three long months from now.”

Old beyond his years, Lincoln longs to live a chivalric code from a time when men such as his Texas Ranger father righted wrongs with nobility. And true to those roots, when as a young man his heart is broken and he is expelled from Dartmouth for nearly blowing up the school — and after serving for a time in the only stint a “true” cowboy at that time could achieve: traveling in a second-tier Wild West show (“Bronco Buck Burke’s Wild West and Tranquility Show wasn’t a first-line outfit like Buffalo Bill’s,” the narrator explains) — he decides there is no recourse but to do what all romantically challenged men must do: join the foreign legion.

Weaned on dime novels, Lincoln’s grasp of what the foreign legion will be like rivals Cervantes’ creation, and from there the story becomes pure fun. Meeting up with a couple of American treasure seekers also planning to enlist, he travels toward exotic lands, meeting, fighting and mentoring with his anachronistic tendencies in tow. Armed with his father’s keepsake Winchester, he encounters Crocodile cults, desert hermits and enough adventure and derring-do for a lifetime — both his and ours.

Even given the story’s early 20th century setting, Jacobson has written a novel for now. Lincoln Smith is the hero today for all of those who, if not long for, certainly wax nostalgic about a time before the iPhone, the Internet and social media were ubiquitous.

‘The Committed,’ by Viet Thanh Nguyen, Grove Press, $27

There’s plenty of existential action — two words that aren’t often juxtaposed in books of any type — in Viet Thanh Nguyen’s new novel, “The Committed.” But here we have it.

From page 1, as the man of two faces begins to describe a horrific journey fleeing to France, and page 2 with a perennial conundrum and Vonnegut-esque reply — “And it stuck us all then, the answer to humanity’s eternal question of Why? ... It was, and is, simply, why not?” — we get the early sense we’re in for cerebral ride.

And we’re right.

“The Committed” is a sequel to Nguyen’s 2016 action-filled existential Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Sympathizer.” Set in the 1980s, the novels share a narrator — a half-Vietnamese, half-French Communist spy who calls himself “a man of two faces and two minds” — and a continuing story.

After the man with two minds went undercover in “The Sympathizer” as a refugee in America, he was captured and committed for re-education. Now, he arrives in Paris with his blood brother, Bon. Hooking up with the French Vietnamese woman who is declared as his “aunt,” the men set up a business dealing drugs to French intellectuals — allowing Nguyen room to bring in the ideas of revolutionaries such as Fanon, Marx and Sartre.

From there, the novel takes off, sometimes funny, sometimes brilliant and, admittedly, sometimes overwritten in scenes that work hard, as when the man with two minds becomes involved in gangster activity, uttering lines that can fall a bit flat: “You can’t torture me. … I’ve lived through a re-education camp.” Well, actually, anyone could be tortured, and the man of two faces lives on to produce a complicated story in which the reading pleasure is in unwinding the twists.

Still, this is Nguyen and themes of addiction, authoritarianism, colonialism and the like are woven masterfully into a story brimming with suspense, challenging the Sympathizer with tasks as divergent as reconciling his own inner turmoils, combatting a state-sanctioned colonial mindset and reuniting his two best friends whose world views are at polar opposites.

To date, four authors have twice won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction — Colson Whitehead joined Booth Tarkington, William Faulkner and John Updike in that exclusive club in 2020 — but after reading “The Committed,” it’s clear that Nguyen could be a contender for a fifth addition. It would also be the first to win a Pulitzer for a novel and its sequel and, of course, the symmetry of Nguyen winning in 2016 and Whitehead in 2017, and Whitehead in 2020 and Nguyen in 2021 would be just about as existential as it gets.

‘Win’ by Harlan Coben, Grand Central Publishing, $29

A Coben standalone novel about Win — super rich, super handsome Windsor Horne Lockwood III, fixer friend to sports agent Myron Bolitar — has long been a fan fancy, and here it is, with the author’s 33rd novel starring the sidekick in a title story all his own.

His own it is. Win’s narrative penchant is speaking directly to the reader — a style you’ll either love or hate. Devotees of first-person stories will devour the book, and others … well, they’ll no doubt ride alone for one of Coben’s most tautly plotted thrillers to date.

Win is the uber-competent friend everyone wishes they had. He’s able to make problems disappear with the wave of his wallet or a flash of his phone, and if a date to a beach house via helicopter is on your bucket list, he’s the guy that’ll loan you all three.

But here, Coben’s “Win” is more complicated in several ways than in the author’s typical fare. For one, Win has his own moral compass, and is fit enough to force the needle to point toward his own True North. What makes him either a smartass or a badass, depending on your own view, is that he doesn’t really care what you think, and tells you just that. So, it’s not that those who’ll find him intolerable aren’t in on the gag, they just don’t like the brand of humor.

But in this novel, Win’s voice is perfect for a story that involves a rediscovered Vermeer that had been stolen from the Lockwood estate, an ancient suitcase of the narrator’s that’s discovered in the apartment of a dead subversive from the 1960s and a cousin who was one of 10 young women abducted and taken to the “hut of horrors” for just about every unimaginable horror a woman could be forced to endure.

Through money, no small amount of intelligence and a lot of muscle, Win sets out to unravel these riddles, driven by the ever-present need to keep the family name unsullied and his own sense of social justice just as clear.

Clear also is Win’s voice to the last page, when the facade breaks just a crack as we witness the one — the only — thing he cares for beyond himself: his “biological daughter.” Yet true to form, he closes the crack just as quickly, sending the reader off with vintage Win narrating the black and white of his worldview: “When my daughter turns and looks at me, all those grays suddenly vanish in the bright of her smile. For perhaps the first time in my life, I only see the white. Am I being hackneyed? Perhaps. But since when have I cared what you thought?” Badass, indeed.

Young adult fiction

‘Houdini and Me’ by Dan Gutman, Holiday House, $16.99

Dan Gutman has authored more than 150 books, with about a dozen of those either nonfiction or written for adults. The rest he writes for children, tweens and teens, and based on the success of his “My Weird School” series, he gets the way kids think. But better, he get the ways kids learn.

There’s a lot to learn in his odd and inviting “Houdini and Me,” and the author pays considerable attention to details in his honest storytelling. As Gutman writes in an afterword, “everything in this book is true, except for the stuff I made up.”

Kids, and adults enlightened enough to pick up a YA title, will learn in this book a lot about the famed magician Harry Houdini (including his real name and how he performed some of his most iconic tricks), a lot about New York City during both the early 20th century and today (including incredibly accurate physical details — Gutman lives eight blocks from the house on 113th Street where Houdini lived; an inspiration for the story) and a lot about loyalty, friendship, bullying and facing your fears (the foundation of YA and really well-written adult novels).

You’ll also learn about some things that aren’t exactly or fully in the undeniably true camp, spirituality chief among them.

Gutman’s story is tied to a vintage cell phone and Houdini’s ability to communicate from the dead on it with 11-year-old Harry Mancini. The author does make clear in “Facts & Fictions” at the end of the book that his story has limits — “you cannot communicate with dead people by text message. Don’t bother trying” — but the prospect is intriguing. If Houdini could communicate from the afterworld, what would he want?

The answer to that is nothing less than to perform his best escape act ever — coming back from the dead by exchanging places with a young boy from the future. Harry Mancini is that boy, and although the storyline reads implausibly on the surface, the deal is that both would get something from a temporary exchange — young Harry a chance to experience the life of a worldwide celebrity and Houdini the chance to make good on his famous boast that could he cheat death, he would somehow find a way. The moral dilemmas presented make for engaging and thought-provoking reading.

‘Deadman’s Castle’ by Iain Lawrence, Margaret Ferguson Books, $17.99

Combine the name Igor and a title with the word castle and you’re likely to come up with something a la “Frankenstein.” But Iain Lawrence’s “Deadman’s Castle” is much creepier than that.

Six years before the story opens, Igor Watson’s father “saw someone do a terrible thing.” Since then, the family has been on the run, changing towns and homes through a witness protection program run by the Protectors whenever the Lizard Man — the boogeyman, so named because of a tattoo, who did the terrible thing — catches up with them. It could be days or years until the family has to move and the uncertainty is now wearing on 12-year-old “Igor,” his latest alias and one of so many that he can’t remember them all.

Approaching his teen years, Igor finally talks his father and mother into letting him attend school, something he hasn’t done since kindergarten. With his cover story intact, Igor begins to experience all that a public education has to offer — making friends, bullying, classes and homework included — but soon realizes that his parents’ web of rules (curtains closed, be home before dark, don’t travel further than a certain street and continually lie about his background) aren’t going to work if he wants to make friends on any real level. Worse, their new town is the only one of the dozens that he’s lived in that somehow feels like home, with an unaccustomed unfamiliarity about it, and he doesn’t want to have to move again.

The closer Igor gets to making serious friendships, the more his story starts to slip. And, the longer they stay in the town, the more he begins to doubt his father’s sanity. After all, only his father has ever seen the Lizard Man.

Lawrence develops this story with real suspense, real problems and the very real concerns of any pre-teen — especially one whose life is built on a series of lies that if unleashed could threaten his family’s safety. The “creepy” factor — Is there really a Lizard Man, and, if not, why would his father, a former college professor, make up not only that, but the story about the Protectors and force his family to move and start anew time and again with his mother complicit in the scam? — is well developed, and it is only through the power of friendship and honesty that the action is resolved.

“Deadman’s Castle” is not your typical YA fare — probably because Iain Lawrence is not a typical YA author, having himself lived in 11 different homes and attended nine different schools before high school — and middle readers will love it. Every young teen at some time questions parental authority and rules, and in “Deadman’s Castle,” Lawrence has tapped into an instinct for rebellion that will universally appeal.

‘Firekeeper’s Daughter’ by Angeline Boulley, Henry Holt and Co., $18.99

Angeline Boulley’s debut novel “Firekeeper’s Daughter” is one the most beautiful books, in substance and production, that you’ll find among YA readers — and it’s also one of the most important.

The Anishinaabe author began writing the novel a decade ago with the idea of creating an “indigenous Nancy Drew” character — crafting a story with people and settings that reflected her cultural upbringing. And, because storytelling is central to the Anishinaabe way, a novel springing from “an Ojibwa girl with a Native dad and non-Native mom” makes sense.

In “Firekeeper’s Daughter,” Boulley accomplishes this and more.

The story centers on 18-year-old Daunis Fountaine, a teenager who loves her life but wants more — she longs to be an official part of the Sault tribe. Originally planning on leaving home for college, Daunis changes her mind after her uncle dies from an overdose and her grandmother has a stroke.

She then decides to enroll at a school near her Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., home. Battling complex familial challenges — her Anishinaable father is deceased — she soon becomes involved in challenges outside of the family. When her best friend is murdered by a boyfriend who is addicted to meth, she begins to explore the pervasive drug overdoses infiltrating the Ojibwa reservation and uses her education in chemistry and native plants to go undercover for the FBI to help source the seller. As the story develops, Daunis becomes increasingly concerned that her investigation will expose more than a drug dealer — opening truths to old scars that could threaten to sunder the community she loves.

Tightly plotted with taut suspense and meaningful characters, there is little wonder that “Firekeeper’s Daughter” has been adapted by Netflix for TV and plucked for many YA book clubs. Exploring what it means to be an Anishinaabe kwe (Ojibwe woman), making stands on issues of citizenship, language and drug use within Native communities are important topics that are addressed with skill and sensitivity.

Some advice: Read the book before you see the story on television. Boulley’s storyline will be well-adapted to the small screen, but the crisp characters and the nuances and subtleness of her language and writing could only be fully appreciated in novel form.

Nonfiction

‘Ms. Adventure: My wild explorations in science, lava, and life’ by Jess Phoenix, Timber Press, $24.95

The best nonfiction reads like fiction, and that’s certainly true of Jess Phoenix’s “Ms. Adventure: My wild explorations in science, lava, and life.” And when you lead a life as exciting as that of an extreme explorer, scientist, volcanologist and cofounder of the environmental scientific research organization Blueprint Earth, it’s certain that any book of those adventures would read like a thriller.

Yet here it’s all true, and Phoenix’s message that “exploration and science are our birthrights as humans” is soundly and thrillingly shared.

Like authors of the best fiction, Phoenix is a skilled writer and gifted storyteller with a startlingly ability to weave telling details into her narrative. It’s no wonder that she is so often tapped to speak at national forums — her life is her story, and the passion she feels for her profession and the climes she studies are captured with infectious enthusiasm on each page.

Geologists and explorers alike will thrill in some of the career highlights Phoenix shares — teasing ancient secrets from rock specimens, harrowing high-altitude treks into the Andes’ Nevada Salkantay, enduring a bout of appendicitis on Hawaii’s Mt. Kilauea and railing against a media establishment that sometimes works to sensationalize her sex above her profession (as when she is asked by a TV crew to fake a fall so that she could be “rescued” by a male team member) among those.

Other stories detail more inner journeys, such as her acceptance into the Explorers Club — the international professional society that works to advance field research and “reserve the instinct to explore” — but are no less stimulating. “Ms. Adventure” transcends stereotypes in important ways, and is sure to excite a new generation of adventurers.

Firekeeper's Daughter, by Angeline Boulley is an excellent novel that takes place in the upper peninsula of Minnesota. Daunis Fontaine is an eighteen-year-old former high school hockey star who dreams of college and escaping a world where she never really fit in. Her family is hit by one tragedy after another so her plans of college are dashed, along with her hopes for a different life. She spends her days caring for her delicate mother and grandmother, helping with the elder Ojibwe people in the community center. The highpoint of her day is spending time with her best friend, Lily, and her half-brother Levi. At one of Levi's practices, Daunis meets Jamie, the newest player whose uncle teaches at the high school. The more time Daunis spends with Jamie, the more she likes him, even though she senses that he and his uncle are hiding something. She's right, as another, awful tragedy brings the truth to light. Daunis agrees to go undercover for the FBI to find out more about a new, fatal drug that is making the rounds of their community. With Jamie's help and her knowledge of chemistry and traditional Ojibwe medicine, Daunis uncovers more and more layers in her community as more girls are found dead from abusing the fatal drug. Can she work fast enough to discover who is behind the manufacture and distribution of the highly toxic chemicals without losing herself in the process? Boulley has crafted a suspenseful mystery steeped in Ojibwe culture and the issues that modern Native Americans must face, as well as those that their ancestors dealt with that have continuing repercussions in the present. I recommend this book to everyone - no matter what type of book you prefer. Firekeeper's Daughter is a good read and I learned a lot. Thanks to Net Galley for the ARC.

I have a new top read for 2021!

Are you seeing all the 5 star reviews around for this one? Yeah, believe the hype. Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley is astoundingly relevant, vulnerable, stunning, thrilling, heart-breaking, and eye-opening. I couldn't read it fast enough, but didn't want it to end (which it finally did in the most beautiful way).

If you've read Winter Counts, this has some of the same edge-of-your-seat aspects of a who-dunnit mystery of drugs in a Native American community. In contrast, Firekeeper's Daughter really gets to your heart and helps you understand more of what's beneath the history and traditions of this community. I connected more with this story, and felt that it endeavored more to teach and guide the reader.

I really appreciated the descriptions of the hand-made clothing for the ceremonial dances and what each element stands for. The community elders are a mixture of spunky and stubborn, with a strong hold in their shared history and culture. The YA aspect brought together the different storylines of school, drugs, sports, consent, hope, family, friendship, and finding a way to meld valued traditions with a changing world.

TOP READ OF 2021!

CW: sexual assault, gun violence, drug use/addiction/abuse/sales/overdose, murder, kidnapping, PTSD, grief, death (come prepared)

{Thanks to Henry Holt and Co for the advanced copy. All opinions are my own.}

Firekeeper's Daughter is a stunning debut, I adored this story and how it was crafted. Daunis Fontaine is a young woman between worlds: her Anishnaabe heritage and her white mother's family, never quite fully immersed in either side of her identity. This book did an incredible job of exploring issues of race and identity, as well as educating readers about Ojibwe culture and Anishnaabemowin language in organic ways throughout the story.

The story centers on solving a mystery around the deaths that have impacted Daunis in the past year (her uncle and her best friend), and how they relate to the growing opioid crisis in the Midwest. The first section of the book takes a little while to get into, but the final third of the novel is compulsively readable and I couldn't put it down.

Daunis is a brave, intelligent, strong, and independent protagonist, and her reasoning behind her actions and responses to events in the book make sense to the reader, unlike a lot of YA heroines. I was not totally sold on the romance for the middle section of the story, but I am really happy with how it played out and the messages Boulley sends to younger readers about what is healthy in young relationships, and valuing your needs as well as those of the people you love.

Overall, this is a beautiful, layered story that I haven't stopped thinking about since I finished it - probably will be on my favorite books of the year.

Content warnings for sexual assault, murder and gun violence, and drug use

What a beautifully heartbreaking novel. An invitation into another culture that my students for years to come with love.

The book is unashamed of its language, traditions and culture, allowing the reader moments of understanding, but only as outsiders looking in. The book does a beautiful job of shining a light on the Anishinaabe people and their heritage and issues that impact their community today. I have never read young adult true-crime fiction before, so even the genre is fresh and exciting. There is a lot of grief in this book, some real world issues that are heavy. There’s also a lot of love here and I cannot wait to share with my students.

This book is sure to be crowned one of the top books of the year. Beautifully written with deep characters and wonderful writing. I will be purchasing this for my physical shelf.

Daunis Fontaine lives in two worlds. It’s not just her self-imposed divide between Hockey World and Real World, but also her very real straddling of the line between her Ojibwe tribal heritage and her life as the granddaughter of one of the old money white families in her Upper Peninsula town. But all of Daunis’s carefully built walls come crashing down when Jamie Johnson moves to town in Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley.

Trigger Warning: The following review for Firekeeper’s Daughter contains mentions of sexual assault.

Firekeeper’s Daughter explores several extremely relevant topics – the meth and opioid crisis ravaging the Midwest, the racism and countless other issues affecting America’s Indigenous population, and the treatment and dismissal of women, particularly women of color. Boulley seamlessly address all of these issues in one heart-pounding thriller about a college freshman who stumbles into an FBI investigation into meth dealers in her tribe.

Simply put, there is a lot going on in this book – more than just the core story about the investigation – but it never feels like too much. These issues often come intertwined; I mean, can you even discuss how women of color are treated without discussing racism? That’s the whole point. Daunis is the perfect main character because she’s a bridge into this world; she’s unaware of the pervasiveness of the meth, and the meth is the big part of the story. She also experiences both worlds, so she has a unique perspective the other characters do not.

Daunis is a great character in general. She is caught between two identities, not really belonging to either. Her white grandmother has attempted to stamp out her Native heritage, while the tribal community at large doesn’t treat her as one of them. She has a privilege that many of her Anishinaabe family do not, but at the same time, she experiences the same racism and microaggressions that they do. But it isn’t just these aspects of Daunis’s character that make her fascinating; she is warring with a lot of conflicting desires, and I think we can all relate to that feeling of just not having any idea what we should do.

I’m unsure how much I can reveal about Jamie – the catalyst to many of the changes Daunis goes through over the course of Firekeeper’s Daughter – without delving too much into spoiler territory. As a character, he’s a mystery. Daunis spends much of the book recognizing how little she actually knows about him. It’s hard to know whether or not I like him because I’m not sure how much of him is really him.

There’s a fake dating aspect, which normally I would be all over, but it’s hard to enjoy that bit because of the investigation. I do like that it had a very realistic outcome, which I obviously won’t delve too far into. You’ll probably be able to infer a lot from what I’ve already written, but again, spoilers.

The main mystery is incredibly well-crafted. I didn’t want to put the book down; I had to keep going because I had to know what was going to happen. I said that Daunis stumbles into the investigation, but the truth is that it comes looking for her. She agrees to help because she wants to help her people; as the book goes on and more members of her tribe are suffering, she wants to make sure that someone involved is thinking about the future of her community. But she also makes mistakes, because she’s an 18-year-old who’s been roped into a serious federal investigation.

I think what Firekeeper’s Daughter does well is keeping the reader on their toes. Daunis knows very little when she joins the investigation, and therefore everyone is a potential suspect. She has no idea who is involved, and so neither does the reader. I was genuinely surprised by a few of the revelations.

There is a lot of focus on the Ojibwe cultural traditions, which is fantastic. It’s a very important aspect of Daunis’s life and so it’s in everything that she does. At times I would have appreciated an index or a glossary, because this is a culture I’m unfamiliar with, but at the same time, I understand why Boulley didn’t include one. It would have felt inauthentic to have Daunis explain what she was doing. She doesn’t need an explanation, so she doesn’t provide one. It’s not on Boulley to hold the readers’ hands. What couldn’t be figured out from context can be researched. I do so love a good Wikipedia deep dive.

Firekeeper’s Daughter also has some amazing female relationships. Ojibwe is not matriarchal in the anthropological sense, but women play an important part in the community. Daunis is shaped by the various women in her life and community. Due to hockey and the nature of the investigation, a lot of Daunis’s interactions are with men, but the women are just as important in not only what’s going on but also how Daunis reacts to it. I love all of the female characters (even the ones I don’t like) because they’re nuanced and complex.

One thing I must mention: Daunis is raped later in the book. It isn’t graphic; there is the lead-up and then there is one sentence where she alludes to what is happening. It does come up later in conversations with other characters, but there is never much description about the assault itself. Still, I feel the need to let you all know it’s there, so you can prepare yourself.

I highly recommend this book, not only for the fantastic look at Indigenous culture (or Ojibwe culture, obviously all tribes are not the same), but because it’s a truly gripping mystery. I thought I had it figured out and it surprised me. My heart stopped at one point, and I thought I’d read it wrong. I’ve been slack about reading during quarantine because I can’t usually summon up the motivation (or the attention span), but Firekeeper’s Daughter had me hooked from the beginning.

After a series of staggering losses, a young Ojibwe woman joins into a crime investigation in her search for answers. I knew that I would like this book, but I am pleased to say that I loved this book. We are immediately introduced to Daunis’ world, and her efforts to balance the expectations of two cultures as she is mixed-race. She is on one hand contemplating following her white grandmother’s dreams of her attending the University of Michigan, while she is trying to convince her Ojibwe aunt, brother, and community that she is still part of their family even as she begins the process of growing up. The book does a great job of dropping us into this world, with language and customs that are unfamiliar to us, but the author rightly assumes we are intelligent enough to figure it out on our won. I love books that give you a new culture without walking you through it like an afterschool special.
Daunis is my favorite kind of YA heroine, as she is smart, clinically so, and yet she can be naïve and optimistic in a way that makes you root for her but never count her out.
This book is set almost twenty years ago, and the references to the early 2000s are used sparingly but you understand that this could not be happening last week. All the teenagers felt like what my mom calls junior adults, as they were becoming independent of their parents and still making the kinds of mistakes that the safety net of young adulthood allows for. The references to generational trauma were so thoughtfully detailed in their connections to past and present.
This book references issues like drug addiction, sexual assault, and gun violence, but it is not an issues book, if that makes sense. The best novels have a world that is fully developed, good and bad, and Firekeeper’s Daughter gives us the beauty of the indigenous community along with the injustices they continue to experience.
I loved spending this time with Daunis and I look forward to what Angeline Boulley writes next.
Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC!

The writing is pretty easy to get through however, this was so YA that I cringed and got second half embarrassment from Daunis throughout the whole book. I really really didn’t enjoy this book and am pretty disappointed because I had high hopes for this one. It took about 20% for the murder-meth mystery to ensue but I can’t say that I was invested or even a little interested. It’s also extremely boring with a lot of description. I do love the cover though. Thank you to Netgalley and to Macmillan for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

“It’s your identity, but it gets defined or controlled by other people.”
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“The stilettos aren’t f*me shoes. They are f*you shoes.”
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What can I say about Fire Keeper’s Daughter?! I loved it! It’s Sadie meets Winter Counts and is full of gorgeous tribal stories and traditions weaved into a modern teen’s world. Daunis is transitioning from high school to college while balancing the politics of her heritage (half white and half Obijwe) while trying to figure out how meth is so suddenly killing off her friends. She goes from a hopeful teen to a ruthless CI trying to save her tribe and find herself in the process.
Daunis was everything you want in a heroine, she was strong, passionate, opinionated, kindhearted, clever and proud. Her love for her tribe and her family was so inspiring to read. She had the emotional ups and downs of a teenager but did her best to be wise and practical when faced with situations that should have absolutely floored her. The turns of the story will break your heart but her resilience will make you proud.
It was one of those reads where I was literally pacing myself because I don’t want it to end. This is the perfect read if you’re looking to be wholly entertained, solve a mystery and diversify your shelves.

MIND BLOWN! Hands down, best book I’ve read in 2021. Every emotion is touched in this beautiful piece of literature and I felt all of them in an immense way. The fact that this is Boulley’s debut is unbelievable. It’s an incredible story that expertly blends the real world (circa 2004) with Ojibwe traditions and culture.

Every single character in this book is important and necessary, their humanity is tangible. Daunis is young and strong, confident and forward, a refreshing face in an overwhelming sea of whiny, doormat female protagonists. She’s stubborn but not foolish, she’s intelligent but still manages to be age appropriate. Every interaction she has is natural and the dialogue is seamless. Even my romance averse reading preference appreciated the tender moments that happen between Daunis and Jamie and I couldn’t help but hope for their relationship to turn into something more.

Boulley doesn’t hold back, her writing style is eloquent but raw, tasteful but real. There were several moments where I swear my heart stopped, my breath wouldn’t come, and I had to fight back tears. Even though I had an advanced e-galley, I had to go out and buy a hard copy, I had to feel the power of it in my hands, experience it with every sense. I would recommend this book to anyone from young adult to elder, there is something to be learned and enjoyed for everyone. I will be singing its praises for a long time coming.

I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley. The opinions are my own.

“If you knew it was the last time you were going to see someone, would you say something profound? Would you share how much they meant to you? Would you ask any burning questions? Would you ask for forgiveness? Would you thank them?”

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Co (BYR) for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Content warnings: drug addiction/abuse/sales/overdose, sexual assault, murder, gun use, kidnapping, PTSD, grief, death, probably more but it’s 4am and I’m struggling

Firekeeper’s Daughter follows Daunis Fontaine, the child of a secret romance between a French heiress (?) and beloved Ojibwe hockey star Firekeeper. Daunis is already dealing with the struggles of being a young adult deciding her future and education when she is struck with what feels like an ever-growing list of tragedies in her family and community. Will Daunis be able to make a difference in the new role she is given while still staying true to herself and her community?

I don’t typically read thrillers, but the excerpt I read of Part One of this had me drawn in. The page appearing once and seeming mysterious/meaningless only to break your heart later? I knew I needed a copy immediately.

The first 25% of this book (other than the first page) reads somewhat like a typical teen romance. I already found myself growing attached to all the characters, thoroughly enjoyed the humor and mixed media (text messages, dreams, maybe letters). There are many side/minor characters in the story, but each one is not only so relevant to the plot, but felt so multi-faceted and real that my heart broke any time any of them were put into danger. And, wow, is there a lot of danger.

This story does not pull punches, and has a very raw and gritty take on tragedy, losing loved ones, and a laundry list of events no person should be subjected to. I admire how these events were not just used for the sake of a plot twist or to be ‘edgy’, and the characters dealt with their grief or traumatic events in ways that were realistic and not just to fuel some romantic scene and be immediately ‘cured’ of/forgotten about.

The sense of community and descriptive experiences in the life of Daunis’ Ojibwe community was stunning and I loved learning about their traditions. I also knew almost nothing about hockey or most of the scientific processes regarding drug creation, so that was interesting to read about as well.

This book is so much more than a thriller or mystery or romance, and I’m still both heartbroken and inspired by Daunis’ journey hours later. I would absolutely recommend this to others and would certainly read more from this author!

This story was simply beautiful while dark and reflective.

Dantus is Half white, half indigenous, and struggles with her two parts. She is starting her freshman year of college when she witnesses a murder and then decides to be a CI in an undercover investigation on a meth ring that may have hockey connections.

This story was gripping, dark, beautiful, enlightening, and so many other adjectives. The Ojibwe words, rituals, and other cultural aspects woven throughout the entire story, was beautiful added layer. The self reflection on culture and self identity, but also moving forward through past traumas. The reflection of what does love me, and can you love someone and still dislike them? Moving forward through torturous grief, while keeping secrets from everyone around you. This story was so deep, while also thrilling!

CW: drugs, murder, rape

5 🌟

Finishing this book, I want so badly to give it 5 stars! It has a strong own voices female lead and a complicated ending that acknowledges trauma, lack of justice, and growing maturity.

But that first 25% man... I get what Boulley is doing here. We need to start with the teenager with a crush to really get the growth and depths that are hiding beneath. I barely made it to the moment it all crumbled and the book really took off. So, I'm cheating a bit with 4.5 rounded up.

This deserves the praise it's been given. I can see many people really digging that first 25%, and being even more gobsmacked when the plot hits with a vengeance. If you dont, stick with it and it will reward you.

I've recommended this to a school librarian. It goes so well with putting more humanity on the legacy of many of the things we try to cover in US history courses. Indigenous boarding schools, broken treaties, lack of law enforcement, missing Native women. It's all here interacting with the present and confronting cultural resources. It's pain and beauty and resilience all entwined, and with that comes no easy answers.

Thank you to Angeline Boulley, Macmillian Children's Publishing Group, and Netgalley for an advance ecopy in exchange for an honest opinion