I loved returning to the community of the Firekeeper’s Daughter. This is the story of Perry, one of Daunis’ twin cousins. The book is a great mystery with a side of romance that tackles relevant topics like reclamation and missing indigenous girls and women. I also loved seeing the follow up between Daunis and TJ although I still have questions.

This is another smart girl sleuthing at the crossroad of her culture and white thieves of it. Same setting, some of the same people, provided this reader with sequel, but not vibes. As a big fan of the author's first book, I'm completely satisfied with this story.
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Perry Firekeeper-Birch isn't going to have the summer she wanted. Instead of fishing with her Pops, she is going to be working all summer to pay back her Auntie Daunis for car repairs after getting in a fender bender thanks to a bear. The summer program she is enrolled in is going to be even worse than she thought when she's assigned to work for the town oddball, Cooper Turtle at the local museum. Things get more interesting though as Cooper takes her under his wing and begins to teach her about repatriation laws in the United States and a local university that has been using legal loopholes to hold onto their Anishinaabe ancestors' remains. Determined to help return her ancestors home, Perry begins to uncover community secrets from the past and present that will make her mission even more dangerous.

This is a stunning second novel from Boulley that allows readers to dive even deeper into the Ojibwe community of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. I think she is a really special author who has the ability to captivate readers and take them on a thrilling journey while also opening their eyes and teaching them about the complexities of society and life. Perry took a minute to grow on me as a main character, but I think that is part of the pay off in the end as you get to watch her grow, learn, and care about her family, friends, and community throughout the book. There is an incredibly strong cast of characters around her as well. I think this book will prompt many readers to reflect on contemporary cultural practices surrounding how we handle/teach/look at history and how it is valued by museums and/or other educational institutions. Readers get to learn along with Perry about the repercussions of laws made without the input of the people/communities they will affect and just how tragically our country continues to undermine Native American communities.

This wasn't as heart-stoppingly thrilling for me as Firekeeper's Daughter, but I really enjoyed it. Much like her auntie Daunis, Perry was a character I loved spending time with. I learned a lot reading this book and I love that we're seeing wider representation in YA!

So powerful! Perry, one of Daunis’ little twin cousins from FIREKEEPER’S DAUGHTER, is in high school and is working with her sister and peers on a summer internship for the tribe. It was so nice to catch up with Daunis and the rest of the Sugar Island inhabitants, and this story was just as thrilling as the one in Firekeeper’s Daughter.

5/5 stars! OMG! I cannot say enough good things about this book. I read "Firekeeper's Daughter" by this author so I knew the story would be quality, but it still blew me away. The diversity and cultural representation were amazing, and the friendship plotline was truly remarkable. The message of the story was powerful and so relevant to the world we live in. I feel like I learned a lot from this story and can't wait to read the next book by Angeline Boulley.

I received an advance review copy for free through NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily

Thank you to MacMillan Children’s publishing group for the opportunity to read,rate and review this arc which release May 2,2023.

This is an indigenous story written by an indigenous author for starters. It was powerful, moving and woven so intricately. I was engrossed. I highly recommend diversifying your book shelves and adding this book to it.

I was an early fan of Firekeeper's Daughter and shouted about it to everyone I know, so I was so so thrilled to review Boulley's follow up novel, Warrior Girl Unearthed. It actually connects to Firekeeper's Daughter far more than I expected, so a refresher wouldn't hurt before picking this one up, but it's not required!

Boulley has definitely done it again with Warrior Girl Unearther. We follow Perry Firekeeper-Birch, a biracial girl living on Sugar Island with her parents and twin sister, Pauline. Perry is the rebellious twin who would rather go fishing all summer than have a tribal internship, but her Auntie Daunis (from Firekeeper's Daughter!) makes her participate in the internship program as payback for paying for car repairs after an accident. This internship forces Perry to discover the dark history of Indigenous anthropology, stolen artifacts, and the biased nature of the formal laws supposedly instituted to repatriate items to their tribes. Along the way, we see the impact of the MMIWG2S crisis, something that ends up hitting Perry very personally.

Boulley is so good at seamlessly adding in Ojibwe language and culture to a very packed plot, and it worked so well here in a book all about the intricacies of stolen items and stolen women. Both these crises have laws that are ostensibly to prevent abuses, but they also both have very easily exploited restrictions that enable these abuses to take place, and limit the power of tribes to enact any real action. It was so frustrating to watch, but Perry is a kickass young woman who won't let anything get in her way, even colonialist laws.

This is definitely YA, and with a nicely wrapped up plot (almost too nicely) it does feel that way, but it has more than enough complexity to appeal to any reader interested in learning more about the theft and repatriation of Indigenous artifacts and bodies.

Overall, highly recommend, Boulley's second novel lives up to all the hype!

Angeline Boulley brings us back to the world of Sugar Island in this brilliant thriller set in the same community as Firekeeper's Daughter. This time the focus is on one of Daunis's twin nieces, Perry. Now a high schooler, she discovers that the remains of several of her community's ancestors have been stolen. What follows is both a heist to return them to their rightful home, and a nuanced exploration of the ongoing violence often perpetrated by the very institutions claiming to care for Indigenous peoples. Perry is a powerful MC and Boulley's writing is both effervescent and moving as ever. I'm excited to read whatever she writes next.

This long-awaited second book from the brilliant Angeline Boulley was definitely worth the wait! Like Firekeeper's Daughter, Boulley does an amazing job with seamlessly weaving native culture and stories into thrilling stories with powerful girls. Warrior Girl Unearthed is another big hit! I loved reading about twin sisters Pauline and Perry - and especially her stinky dog Elvis Junior! Warrior Girl Unearthed tackles big issues like missing indigenous women, as well as the proper return of human remains and historical objects to tribes, rather than museums. And Perry is in the middle of it all. A beautiful, fast-paced, thrilling story that can't be missed!

I adored Firekeeper's Daughter, and was so excited to get my hands on this one. One of the things Angeline Boulley does beautifully is weave her characters' Native American cultural practices into the story. She does that again with this book, and I think it's the best part of the book. Learning about the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) and the theft of indigenous artifacts and remains was eye-opening and changed the way I think about museum collections. It's easy to think about historical objects as static, but this book illustrates how preservation of ancestral burial grounds and practices is an ongoing part of many tribes' religious beliefs. Disrupting those burial sites isn't just digging up something from the past, but interfering with an ongoing communion between the living, the earth, and the ancestors' spirits. And that's not even getting into the ways institutions manipulate the language of the law to deprive Native American tribes of the respect owed to them.

Perry is a great character to follow. She's complicated and nuanced because she makes decisions and takes actions that are technically illegal, but in attempts to counteract a system which is biased and deeply problematic. You can't help but root for her because of how much she cares about her community and her culture. The supporting characters are also great-I loved Shense, was so happy to see the return of Granny June, and enjoyed getting insight into what happened to Daunis after Firekeeper's Daughter.

I felt like the mystery element of this story dragged the plot down a bit. There's an important discussion about the issues around Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) and how legislation protecting women from violence has loopholes that create opportunities for predators to harm indigenous women with little consequences. However, the progression of the MMIW mystery plot just felt a little jerky to me. The breadcrumbs leading to the reveal were mostly there, but so much of the story focused on the NAGPRA discussion that the MMIW case almost felt like an afterthought. I still loved this book overall, but that's why I gave it four stars instead of five.

when I think about books I love to think about, they all have one core element in common — they manage to both comfort and challenge me to learn, to feel, to live. boulley’s latest achieves precisely that.

in it, we see the world through the eyes of Perry Firekeeper-Birch, a young Ingenious woman living in Sugar Island. Perry is a twin, and while her other half strives for excellence, Perry’s only big goal is maximizing her time fishing. At least until she crashes her car, and in response, her family forces her to work as a Kinomage intern. while initially seeming to pose a bane to Perry’s existence, her summer volunteering to work eventually for her Tribal Council sends her on a path of engaging with her ancestry and a confrontation of all the many ways colonists have — and continue to do so — oppressed, harmed and stolen from her community. except Perry decides enough is enough, hatching a plan to take back what rightfully belongs to her tribe. along the way, she reckons with budding romance and fights to protect the people she loves as reports of missing young Indigenous women, both in Sugar Island and nearby, continue to rise.

steeped in emotion, intrigue and reverent mysticism, Warrior Girl Unearthed paints a startling, vibrant portrait of present-day threats and issues borne by Indigenous communities across the country today. it is informative and immersive, proving, once again, that Angeline Boulley is a literary force unlike any other.

*thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC.*

An interesting story full of twists, turns, fun characters and overall a book I would consider reading time and time again.

Firekeeper's Daughter was one of my favorite books last year, so I was incredibly excited for this companion novel. I think this one may be even better, although it's also hard to discuss without spoilers.

There are links to Firekeeper's Daughter, but this is all very much its own story, too. (AND the door is left wide open for a direct sequel, not a companion novel.)

These are two of the best books I've ever read; Angeline Boulley is definitely an author to watch. Highly recommended.

I love being back on Sugar Island and with the community from Firekeeper’s Daughter. This book has more wide YA appeal as it focuses on a high school student. There is a lot to learn about reclamation that all readers will learn. I wish the pacing had been tighter. Plot was repetitive at times and action was drawn out. I would’ve liked more intensity to feel more like a heist. Things wrapped up rather quickly and perfectly in the last 20 pages.

** WILL BE PUBLISHED ON APRIL 3, 2023**
My Thoughts:
Angeline Boulley, native Indian author, probably one of 80 right now, worked in DC at Indian Affairs before leaving to become an author. What she brings to this book is an understanding of the bureaucracy of getting artifacts back to tribes. She brings this background into her sophomore book that she dubs "Indigenous Laura Croft, tomb raider." The way institutions are able to hide artifacts to loophole around policy may be fiction, but I am more worried that this just skims the surface and the true extent of grave robbery is even worse than it seems from this book.

I am also obsessed with the warrior girl. How do I learn how to be a tomb raider too? What part can I play in repatriation of my own ancestors? I think if I were a young indigenous kid reading this book, I definitely would like to seek out more answers.

The pacing moves a little slow at times, but the horrors at the end, especially the description of the silo is so purely evil and sick that I read too fast to get to the end and I did not see the twist coming until it was right in. front of me. Sick!

If you already read Firekeeper's Daughter, you will see Daunis show up as the aunt to Perry and her twin.

From the Publisher:
Perry Firekeeper-Birch has always known who she is - the laidback twin, the troublemaker, the best fisher on Sugar Island. Her aspirations won't ever take her far from home, and she wouldn't have it any other way. But as the rising number of missing Indigenous women starts circling closer to home, as her family becomes embroiled in a high-profile murder investigation, and as greedy grave robbers seek to profit off of what belongs to her Anishinaabe tribe, Perry begins to question everything.

In order to reclaim this inheritance for her people, Perry has no choice but to take matters into her own hands. She can only count on her friends and allies, including her overachieving twin and a charming new boy in town with unwavering morals. Old rivalries, sister secrets, and botched heists cannot - will not - stop her from uncovering the mystery before the ancestors and missing women are lost forever.

Publication information:
Author: Angeline Boulley

Publisher: Henry Holt & Co.

Publication date: May 2, 2023

This book is so beautiful and incredibly informative. I loved how Boulley added in so much information on the reclamation laws/acts and look forward to learning more about this. The book is heartfelt with an excellent mystery attached to it. I especially enjoyed the Daunis update.