This is another great read by Angeline Boulley that includes a murder mystery and the theft of cultural artifacts. It does a wonderful job familiarizing the reader in the Obibwe culture in Michigan. Since Perry wrecked her (and her twin, Pauline's) jeep she has to spend the summer as a paid intern for the tribal community. Her heart and her head strong temperament has her changing internships three times. Perry also learns about who to trust and whether the end justifies the means. Wanting to recover the Warrior Girl and past skeletons of her tribe leads her into danger mostly from adults. The book has strong friendships and could be called a coming of age book.

Angeline Boulley’s “Warrior Girl Unearthed” is her second YA novel featuring members of the Firekeeper family. The Firekeeper-Birch twins are now teenagers and, much to Perry’s (Pearl May) dismay, participating in a paid summer internship program in the tribal community. Perry would much rather be fishing than stuck indoors, but a traffic accident while speeding has left her in debt to her Aunt Daunis. While working the internship, Perry is forced to confront the impact of missing and murdered indigenous women (MMIW) and the theft of cultural artifacts, including the remains of ancestors. Along the way, the family becomes embroiled in a murder investigation and Perry makes a startling discovery that leaves her no choice but to take matters into her own hands in order to bring her ancestors home, but will she be able to carry out her plan before a killer strikes again?

I loved catching up with the characters from Boulley’s first book “Firekeeper’s Daughter.” The title of this book seems to refer both to the thousands of remains still held by museums and private collectors as well as Perry’s burgeoning power as an indigenous woman. Part of Perry’s appeal is her sense of justice coupled with the impetuousness of a typical teenager. She makes grave mistakes with her big heart, but it’s clear that she has the larger community in mind. She struggles through self-reflection and learns to temper her power to get what she wants. The list of thought-provoking aspects to this story are practically endless.

“Warrior Girl Unearthed” is a powerful story for those who enjoy contemporary YA fiction featuring strong female characters, indigenous stories, and mysteries. I will be getting copies of this book for my classroom.

Classroom Considerations: This story would be great as a jumping off point to discuss topics such as MMIW, the legacy of Indian Boarding Schools, and who owns cultural artifacts.

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group for an advance reader copy of “Warrior Girl Unearthed” in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

“Warrior Girl Unearthed” will be available in early May. I highly recommend pre-ordering your copy now.

“Warrior Girl Unearthed” is a powerful novel about reclamation.

Boulley does a fantastic job familiarizing her readers with Ojibwe customs and traditions through the perspective of the main character Perry Firekeeper-Birch as she spends the summer looking for ways to return the ancestral remains of the Warrior Girl to her tribe. The context provided about NAGPRA, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, is very informative and shows that like many other laws in the system, it is flawed when inadequately enforced, as is the case Boulley’s novel. Perry’s frustration and despair radiates off the page and cannot help but weigh heavy on the reader’s heart every time she is denied access to her people’s sacred items and ancestral remains when she goes by-the-book. Left with no choice, Perry organizes a heist to reclaim what rightfully belongs to the Ojibwe tribe.

While Perry begins to set her plans in motion, Indigenous women begin to disappear. This element of mystery further immersed me in the story and spreads awareness about the MMIW movement. Boulley’s shocking revelations about the killer’s connection to the stolen artifacts and remains had me on the edge of my seat!

At its core, “Warrior Girl Unearthed” honors the history of Indigenous people and sheds light on their experiences with past and present injustices. I could not recommend it more.

"Warrior Girl Unearthed" is not exactly a sequel to "Firekeeper's Daughter" but it does tell the story of one of Daunis' niece's, Perry. Many characters from the first book make appearances, and we do learn a bit about "the rest of the story." While this is definitely still a mystery, it is also a heist book - action-packed but not as much a thriller, which I actually enjoyed more. I'm looking forward to Boulley's next book already. Recommended for ages 14+.

Angeline Boulley delivers another phenomenal story of a strong Indigenous girl figuring out who she’s going to be whilst undergoing a mystery & suspense adventure. Not quite as strong as Firekeeper’s daughter, mostly due to a less focused plot & character cast, this is nevertheless unputdownable.

I found the plot really hard to follow and did not feel attached to any of the characters. Feels like a lackluster follow up to The Firekeeper's Daughter. I wonder if the writing process was rushed to not lose the popularity of her first novel? The plot is interesting in theory, but fails for me in writing.

People will be clamoring for Angeline Boulley's next novel after the success of Firekeeper's Daughter and there is no sophomore slump to be found in Warrior Girl Unearthed. I loved it!

Warrior Girl Unearthed follows Perry (Daunis Firekeepeer's neice) as her carefree summer of fishing turns into a required internship within her tribal community. When she is assigned to work with the quirky director of the Tribal History Museum, she thinks that her summer will be even worse than expected, but then surprisingly, she starts to learn about NAGPRA, a law that requires the return of ancestral remains and sacred objects to Indigenous communities. The most frequent offenders of NAGPRA are museum and private collectors, and Perry gets first-hand experience in seeing the way that both kinds of offenders can use bureaucracy and red tape to delay the return of items. Perry is not without fault, but she is devoted to her tribal community and is a firm believer in doing the right thing, so she starts to wonder if she and other like-minded community members could take steps to expedite the process of returning some items that are being held locally, though doing so could be a dangerous situation for all involved.

The book starts as a lovely story about a modern mixed race family living on Sugar Island, dealing with friendships, health issues, sibling bonds and rivalries, and Ojibwe traditions and practices. About two-thirds of the way through the book, the tone shifts, creating a page-turning suspense story complete with a daring rescue, an unexpected disappearance, and many desperate acts done in the name of justice. Perry is a character who is easy to root for, even when her decisions are based on emotions and not logic, and it was a delight to follow her through this story. And as a person not connected to any Indigenous groups, learning more about NAGPRA and the injustices that it aims to prevent or undo was incredibly enlightening and valuable.

I will definitely be purchasing copies of this book and recommending it to my students.

I received an early-release copy from Netgalley. I really enjoyed this book. This is Boulley's 2nd book and I appreciated her point of view and education about Native culture. Like her last book, the story reads like an adult book to me, essentially explaining and dealing with topics that were complicated but the narrator itself was a teenager. It was incredibly interesting but I did have to pause, reread, and process different sections that dealt with institutions delivering back native artifacts and remains to tribes. I feel as though a teen might struggle with fully understanding the issues that were presented in the book. I also found the book to deal with less intense issues than Firekeeper's Daughter. Rape is mentioned but does not happen in the book. It definitely felt less graphic. I loved Perry as a narrator and overall really enjoyed the story. The "mystery" kind of resolved itself quickly, but I didn't mind. I truly liked the issues that Boulley presented and I can't wait to read more by this author.

At a YA Book Festival I attended last year, Angeline Boulley was the keynote speaker. I asked her if we’d be seeing Jamie in this novel, to which she replied: “Readers often know what they want but don’t often know what they need.” AND MAN, was she right!

Warrior Girl Unearthed follows Perry and Pauline Firekeeper-Birch, 10 years after Daunis’s story in Firekeeper’s Daughter. The tone for the two novels felt completely different, and it worked really well. Perry’s personality is nothing like her Auntie Daunis’s. She’s spontaneous and often acts without thinking of the potential consequences. She’s been immersed in her culture daily since her birth, yet really only connects with it in a way that would have been otherwise improbable, if not impossible, without her summer of interning.

While we don’t see much of Daunis in this story, Perry takes the limelight and runs with it in a way that had me smiling, cringing, laughing, and crying from the first page. This is another slam dunk by Boulley that really has cemented her as my favorite author.

I really enjoyed this second book by Angeline Boulley and was completely caught up in Perry's story. I appreciated her spunk and how she wanted to take care of so many things on her own without asking for help from her family. I loved how Daunis from Firekeeper's Daughter is woven into this story, too.

Another brilliant tale from a gifted storyteller. Boulley pulls her readers in by making her characters both relatable and mysterious. Plot points and pacing are consistent and create a very fast read. Already looking forward to her next book.

This book is EXCELLENT. Like Perry, I wanted to punch something a lot of the time, but never felt hopeless. Having not read FIREKEEPER'S DAUGHTER, I didn't realize the characters were intertwined - may have to go back and read that one now!

When I read Firekeeper's Daughter as an ARC back in 2021, I knew Angeline's writing and story was special. She opened my eyes to realities that I hardly knew anything about, and I feel in love with her characters like the leading lady Daunis. Almost a decade and a half later, Warrior Girl Unearthed begins, and we get to meet the new generation of teens within the Ojibwe community and to see what happened in adulthood to FD characters.

Now it's hard to not compare this title to FD. I really tried hard not to, but the stories follow different people within the same family, so it's hard not to think of Daunis/ her story when she's chastising our new lead Perry Birch-Firekeeper in this new book. The distinction in Perry as a lead was VERY apparent. She's three years younger than Daunis was in her own book, and Perry's immaturity is never-ending. I had to keep reminding myself that, of course, Perry would not be as mature as Daunis because three years in teenager years is basically a century and a half, but I found myself disconnected from Perry's feelings. She's impulsive, head-strong, and blunt. She's not afraid to communicate her feelings to people even when it may not be in her, or her community's, best interest, but all of those reasons are why she is a great lead. It's the reason why she concocts this plan to save her ancestors bodies/ ancestor's sacred items from museum archives/ inhumane "collectors."

The heist is an interesting element to the plot. There's a lot of talking and no action until the final 100 pages when Perry and her crew actually commit the heist. While I'm not going to go into the specifics of the heist due to spoilers, the outcome was incredibly surprising to me. I did not think the outcome was hinted at or even foreshadowed much. It felt out of left field, and then, the subsequent events felt rectified in a very quick fashion. There just didn't feel like much time was allotted to this situation, and when contrasted with all the research/ conversation scenes, I felt like more time could've been given to Perry and this moment, so we could've guessed the "big reveal." The whiplash within that climactic scene would've been less intense too. Also, a significant murder happens in this book. I'm not going to detail who or why because spoilers, but it felt easily rectified too. Daunis is thrown into jail as soon as this happens, and I think more time could've been given to this plot point besides the scene where the actual murderer confesses. That plot alone could've been this entire book because Daunis was seemingly an easy scapegoat, and it would wrap up her loose ends from the first book. But then this wouldn't really be Perry's book. It would be Daunis Part II. Overall, the missing Indigenous women, surprise murder, and reclaiming ancestors/ ancestor artifacts was a lot to put into this 400 page book. It muddled the pacing and impact of these imperative moments. FD was so impactful because Angeline paid attention to the details and wrote those scenes raw. That feeling wasn't here as much.

Warrior Girl Unearthed is a must-read contemporary for everyone—just like Firekeeper's Daughter. I don't think people should read this one before FD because spoilers for the first book are rampant. Plus, it flows with the time period better from the early 2000s to mid 2010s. I'm so excited to see what else Angeline has up her writing sleeve because she writes so beautifully about her Ojibwe community. It's a treat to feel the love for her people and her culture with every new book.

Thank you to Fierce Reads for the eARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book is intriguing and kept my attention. It was fascinating to learn more about the Indigenous culture. I can’t wait to share it with my students!

Perry had planned to spend the summer fishing, but her Auntie Daunis strong-arms her into joining an internship program. Working at the tribal museum is a total drag, until she learns that a local university is hoarding Anishinaabe artifacts and the literal bones of her ancestors. Coupled with the epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women, it is too much to bear. She and her fellow misfit interns are ready and willing to do whatever it takes to bring their people home. Perry is a fiery protagonist kept grounded by her strong sense of community and cultural tradition. Boulley’s sophomore novel is a little less traumatic but just as intense.

I especially enjoy reading when I can learn from a book. In this one I enjoyed learning more about indigenous culture and traditions. It was entertaining and I highly recommend.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I loved Angeline Boulley's debut, Firekeeper's Daughter which was easily a five star read, but honestly I love this one even more. Warrior Girl Unearthed has just as much intrigue and is a master class in story tension, but it's also just so beautiful. I liked Perry immediately, her brutal honesty, her need to learn boundaries, and her childish exuberance. She's a completely believable sixteen year old. Sometimes thinking as an adult, sometimes a child, and often led by impulses that are noble but her stubbornness and impatience get in the way of clear thinking. She grows in this book in a realistic way, by making mistakes and reflecting on them. Luckily, she has a supportive family and community and shame is not a part of her upbringing. There's a light romance arc in the book that is really sweet too.

There are two main plot lines that include a mystery -- one is about MMIWG2S, missing and murdered indigenous women, girls, and 2spirits. The other is about returning the bones of ancestors and handmade objects home and out of museums, universities, and private collections. We learn about the laws and see book quotes taken from a list that Perry is reading for her internship with the tribal museum. However, this story is so rich and complex, so intriguing that you never feel like you're just learning a lot of history. I.e. it is never boring. Boulley has a gift for balancing many characters in a story line with just the right amount of description and character traits to keep the readers from getting confused. I mean, they're all intriguing characters too.

Strong family connections, a found family relationship with misfit friends, finding meaningful work, developing identity separate from a twin, and contributing to community in a meaningful way are all explored in this beautiful story. I hope to see this one as a streaming series in time as well as Firekeeper's Daughter.

Angeline Boulley is a master of the written word. I didn't think anything could compare to Firekeeper's Daughter, but this books is right up there with it on quality. I was entranced by the characters again and the storyline was stunning. I couldn't put it down. I will definitely be recommending this book to others.

This. book was extremely well-written. There were some plot gaps for me, but it worked as a sequel or as a stand alone book. The culture of the book was strong, and I appreciated the character development.

Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley is an amazing book. Lush world building and amazing writing, what an excellent story.