Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me an advanced copy of this book to read and review.

This would be a good book to read for Young Adult readers who are wanting to transition into adult books, or adult readers looking for a more advanced Young Adult novel.

While this novel takes place in the early 2000s in Sault St. Marie Michigan amongst the Native American Ojibwe community, it’s still relevant to the issues that are faced in Indigenous communities today.

The first half of Firekeeper’s Daughter introduces the reader to Daunis Fontaine, the 18-year-old main female protagonist. We get more information about her friends and family, and her relationship with them including her half-brother Levi, her mother, and her badass Aunt Teddie. This set-up to establish the plot and to introduce us to Daunis was well done - I really understood the community and the relationship Daunis had with everyone. She was well-developed and it helped in the second half of the novel when things picked up.

While Daunis was well-developed and I immediately liked her, I had a hard time connecting and liking Jamie. I thought his character fell flat and wasn't as strongly developed as Daunis, or even Levi.

I flew through the second half - once Boulley established the relationships, the setting, and everything the reader needed to know, the plot picked up. I could hardly put the book down, I kept thinking about it well after I finished the novel.

Firekeeper’s Daughter shows how much care, time, and thought went into crafting Daunis and the characters. It brings forth the Anishinaabe people and the issues they face on a daily basis. There are such complex and strong characters in this novel, you can feel the love and care Boulley put into this novel and crafting a strong community around her main character.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC excerpt of this book for an honest review. I am currently catching up on late arcs.

Since I am catching up, I did listen to the audiobook while reading. The storytelling is strong and the audiobook is very good. I enjoyed being able to read a Native American story. It was lovely and I enjoyed hearing the differences between the two lifestyles of White and Indigenous cultures. It's refreshing since it's hard to find stories from Indigenous voices in a better light than it has been in history.

I enjoyed hearing about the family and the life aspects. The mystery aspect wasn't my favorite, but I might continue to read at another time. I'm excited to hear more Elder stories and truths, but I am not in the mystery mood at this time.

Thank you Netgalley & publisher for the amazing chance to read and review Firekeeper's Daughter.

This book was by far my favorite read of 2021! Author Angeline Bouley did an amazing job portraying the struggles and social/justice issues indigenous people have to deal with through the eyes of young Daunis, a biracial Ojibwe woman living on her family's reservation. After a traumatic and hard loss of her best friend readers enter Daunis's world as she stands in an emotional limbo; unsure of what her next steps should be. While partially accepted by her community due to her father's background, Daunis is also seen as a "outsider" due to her mother's social class and white background.

Daunis's character was brilliantly written and portrayed as she come to terms on the types of choices she has to make in order to protect the community she loves. She's strong, smart, hilarious, and real; I felt a connection to her pain and struggle as she sees through her own eyes a growing poison stretching and killing the young teens/adults in her home. While there were small plot holes that were barely addressed, they don't overshadow the main plot points or Daunis's character development.

5 stars for Firekeeper's Daughter!

It was kind of hard to get into this, only because it is a sample. However, I loved the writing style and the main character! The front cover? AWESOME! So eye catching! I am eager to read this book in it's entirety.

-Update: I'm listening to it...SO GOOD! The narrator is fantastic!

This book packed so much in there that I don’t even know where to begin. I will say, it is a great book! It’s was, suspenseful, impactful, mysterious, and has a sprinkle of romance (fake dating and real).

Daunis is biracial, white and Indian girl, but is not accepted for being one race or the other - not white enough or not Brown enough. Not only does she deal with her race acceptance and being accepted in her tribe, she also has to deal with tragedy within in her family, friends, and community. While she tries to figure things out she finds out so much more about her family, friends and community that is a lot for a young girl to handle IMO. Not to mention horrible things that also happens to her at the same time.

I loved that this book had so many pieces to it because it kept me on my toes. Guessing The Who, the what, and the why! It gave me all the emotions from the different events which I love when a book can do that. It also gave a lot of the tribal cultural facts and practices.

I did give this one 4.5 stars only because there was a small portion In which it slowed down for me, but it was a very small portion. If you have not read this one yet, I highly recommend!

Man, this is a good book. Beautifully written, this book ticks all the boxes with a compelling plot and rich, complex characters that kept me riveted from the early pages. This book got a lot of buzz with clubs and celebrities (hi Reese) and I can see why. Purchasing for my teen. Highly recommend!

Loved every moment of this delicious and timely Indigenous mystery! I can't wait to see what Angeline Boulley writes next. Thank you for sharing your talent, Angeline.

Some of the books that are “big” on IG are just meh. This is not one of them!
*
This genre-crossing book started off slow but picked up with a feminist, action-packed, YA storyline interwound with romance and facts about Anishinaabe culture.
*
The main character, Daunis, is the teenage daughter of an Anishinaabe father and a French German mother. She’s smart, independent, and deeply connected with her Anishinaabe culture. She learns about a dangerous strain of meth infiltrating her community and goes undercover to find the source. She uses her extensive chemistry knowledge and cultural knowledge to guide her.
*
This book suffers from uneven pacing, and the first 20 percent was too slow for my liking. But once I got past that point, it was a real page-turner. In addition to the action and mystery of investigating the drug ring, the book explores ways in which the FBI and federal government fails Native American communities, especially women.
*
I enjoyed Daunis’s connection to her culture and am excited for YA readers to see these kinds of dynamic female characters in their reading lives.
*
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for this excerpt!

I requested an excerpt of Firekeeper's Daughter, I wasn't able to read the whole book. Throughtout the book I was very confused as to what was going on because I didn't understand most of the history and I wasn't really interested in the beggining. But all of that changed when I read the last page of this excerpt because wow. Turned very dark in a matter of pages and I am very interested to read what happens next! Kudos to the author for piquing my interest so quickly!

3 stars for the excerpt!

Great book, I LOVE the cover it’s beautiful. The story was great, I enjoyed the characters. I was definitely hooked from the first few chapters

I received the partial ARC of this and loved it! I haven't yet made it to finish it, but it's on my list!

I was lucky to get an early copy of this, and it ended up being a BOTM club book too. First, the cover is beautiful. Second, the representation in this book is amazing. I love being able to read from new authors and especially expanding and opening myself to diversity. I loved this book so much and the story that it told. I would love a sequel!!

4/5 stars

Indigenous people have been in the news recently and I realised I knew very little about these people, communities, histories and cultures. Where I live the Native American history is hardly even thought about but I strongly believe we are all connected to each other regardless of where we are on this planet and the more we know of each other, the more we can empathise, expand and evolve as humans.

Reading this book was exactly that for me. It opened a doorway into a world I knew almost nothing about and it gave me an appreciation for the intricacies of this new world and the need to learn, understand and respect a culture that is so beautiful!

The book follows Daunis Firekeeper, a mixed heritage Native American who is thrust into facing the ugliness that lurks beneath the beauty of her community. After witnessing a shocking murder she is given the opportunity to work with the FBI to find the root of the ugliness and protect her community. Along the way she discovers that life isn't always so black and white and becoming woman isn't an easy path.

The writing is beautiful, you truly feel the emotions, the connections; and the history and culture come through, and you get such an appreciation and respect for this culture that is still very much alive and being passed down from generation to generation so beautifully. You also get glimpses into the terrible history and injustices this community still carries within their hearts and minds.

It always leaves me reeling, the terrible acts of the past when I read about them. A lot of people would claim that we who are alive cannot be held responsible for the sins of our ancestors, but generations later they are still healing from those sins, so do we not have responsibility too?

Books like this, written by #ownvoice authors always leave my heart a little bruised, my mind expanded and my respect increased for these cultures, communities and peoples. If you have not picked this book up, please do! This book was a beautiful insight not only to their past but also their present and a hope for their future! I truly got a sense of respect and appreciation for these peoples who are so absolutely beautiful in every way!

This was perhaps mystery-wise not my thing, but story wise was incredibly strong and I definitely enjoyed reading this story.

Daunis is the product of a teen pregnancy between a successful white man and a tribal member on a reservation in Michigan. She loves hockey, but doesn’t seem to fit in anywhere. Tragedy strikes and she’s caught in the middle of an FBI investigation. Can she bring the truth to justice?

I found the cultural aspect of this book amazing! A YA contemporary novel brought to life by the beautiful indigenous culture. I found it completely fascinating the strength/power of women in the indigenous lifestyle. It intrigued me from the first paragraph, but I began to lose interest in the middle. The ending pulled the storyline together. The Firekeeper’s Daughter reminded me of Bear Town because of the style in which it was written. Thank you Netgalley and Henry, Holt & Co. for this ARC.
.

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* Interesting book, really liked that it takes place in Michigan. This book would have been a 5 star book or at least a 4.5 but im more leaning towards 3.5 bc i can not get over the uh 17 thing, rather her had been turning 19. but otherwise i did really like this book.

Overall, I give this a solid three star rating. I am typically not much of a YA reader so I had to remind myself several times throughout why the writing/dialogue was the way it was because for me, it was not good dialogue. However, I LOVE Native American fiction and will always jump at the chance to read a new book, especially one that Tommy Orange acclaims so much! I think there was a bit that was probably shored up before the full publication of the book as well, so I don't want to critique that too much. I have recommended this book to a few friends and to my fifteen year old daughter as well.

Full review to be posted soonish.

I would like to thank the publisher and netgalley for providing me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley is a captivating mystery that embeds the reader into the Ojibwe world of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan and Ontario and Sugar Island. Daunis’s deceased father was an Ojibwe hockey player and her mother is from a wealthy, influential white family. She’s just finished high school and instead of following her dream of studying premed at the University of Michigan, she’s staying home after the death of her uncle and her grandmother’s stroke to be with her mother. She can’t avoid the meth crisis that’s hit her community and taken the lives of people she loves. The mystery is phenomenal, but it’s the view of native culture and the issues facing her tribe that make this special.