This book was a little slow getting into it at first, but once the story picked up, it really sped up! I loved the tie in to Firekeeper's Daughter! I'm such a fan of that book and I was so happy to see some returning characters in this one!

Genre: YA mystery

Perry Firekeeper-Birch lives life at full throttle - it’s written in the scars on her skin and the intensity with which she approaches the things she cares about. Her sister Pauline is the “smart twin,” the one who is academically driven, looking for the best internship before her junior year of high school. Perry could take it or leave it, and wants to spend her summer fishing. Unfortunately, things don’t go as she wants, and Perry is required to work a summer internship at the cultural museum in order to pay back Auntie Daunis for repairs to her jeep from a fender bender. But this experience awakens something in Perry: a drive to learn about the artifacts and remains of her Ojibwe people, and to repatriate “Warrior Girl”, an ancestor whose bones are stored at the local college archive. While Perry works to understand how she can help the dead, there are more Ojibwe and other indigenous women going missing. Perry, Pauline, and the other “Misfit Toys” from the summer internship program are determined to set things to rights.

An outstanding sophomore novel from Angeline Boulley. I learn so much when I read her books. I found Warrior Girl Unearthed to be faster moving and more accessible than Firekeeper’s Daughter. While there are layers to the story, there is one major plot arc driving the narrative pace.

As rising high school juniors, Perry and Pauline are on the cusp of adulthood. In some ways, Perry, the narrator, spends much of her time defining herself in comparison to her “perfect” twin. Perry’s growth arc throughout the novel moves away from comparisons and towards recognizing her own abilities and strengths. She loves Sugar Island, loves her family, her culture, and her own strength. She’s learning - as all teenagers must - to navigate her own desires with what the community and her mentors deem appropriate. The stakes are higher for Perry as she learns about the very real impact of the NAGPRA, Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, and blurs lines of morality to try to do the right thing.

Gripping and informative. You do not need to read Firekeeper’s Daughter first in order to appreciate Warrior Girl Unearthed. The audiobook is narrated by Isabella Star LaBlanc, who brings a richness to Perry’s story.

Thank you to Henry Holt & Co, MacMillan Audio, and NetGalley for an ALC for review. Warrior Girl Unearthed is available 5/2/23!

This was a fantastic follow up to The firekeeper's daughter! Not quite as high stakes thriller as her last book, this YA mystery follows Ojibwa tribal citizen Perry, a relative to Daunis, who has an accident with her Aunt's jeep and is forced to work for the summer in order to pay for it.

When she gets assigned to work for the museum she ends up involved in a project to get local tribal remains and artefacts returned from various institutions. Full of important cultural insights and a great teen heist plot at the end. This was fun and meaningful and excellent on audio narrated by Isabella Star LeBlanc.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy and Librofm for an ALC in exchange for my honest review!

Well I loved that.
Boulley has quickly jumped into my top favorite authors. I love how much I learn about Indigenous culture and rites while being immersed in a mystery/romance novel.

This book is set in the same community as Firekeepers Daughter but follows Perry and her friends during their internships the summer before Perry’s Junior year.
So much goes on plot-wise: a heist, romance, missing girls that keeps you completely hooked the whole time.

I loved the characters and hope we get more stories with them or different characters in this community.

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced listening copy.

To say this read evoked a lot of emotions would be an understatement. When I say I felt everything, I really mean I felt it all. I laughed for the joy Perry had in each of her friends. I was moved by the tribe standing with one of their own. And I was so, so angry that people are treated so poorly because of the color of their skin, their culture, their beliefs, and so much more. My heart continues to hurt days after reading the book.

I loved the book and seeing the cultural aspects and their importance to her tribe. The story itself is beautiful. The last 10% was not only chaotic, but the ending sped by faster than a race. This would have been fine, except it just seemed out of place. The rest of the book was beautifully constructed, the details were beautiful, and instead of that we kind of just got a brush over of what happened. I feel like it took away from the rest of the book.

I absolutely recommend the audio and any audio read by Isabella Star LeBlanc. They pulled me into the story, had me feeling every emotion, and hanging on the edge of my chair more so than if I had read the physical book.

It did feel like there might be another book within this tribe, since we’re kind of left hanging at the end, and I’ll no doubt be reading that one, too.

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Co for a gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.

4/5

The author has a talent of writing a story that pulls you in and at the same time educational and informative. There’s some things that were discussed that I had no idea about. Some things that just make you upset with “loopholes”. I love how Perry and the Misfits come together to bring their ancestors home.
I loved seeing Daunis in this book, loved her life update.
I loved the audiobook!! The narrator, Isabella Star LaBlanc does a phenomenal job bringing the characters to life and I just loved how she portrayed the many characters in the book.
I highly recommend this book to everyone. It brings important topics to the spotlight that everyone should know.

I loved Angeline Boulleys debut when I read it earlier this year and was so excited when I heard this was coming out. I love how effortlessly the culture and language of the Ojibwe people were entwined throughout the story. I really am glad we got to see what happened to Daunis after Firekeepers Daughter.

I really loved the characters in this, I felt they all had distinct personalities, and the character growth we got to see was really well done. Getting to see Perry’s growth from her summer of slack dream to caring so much about her internship and the ancestors. I liked the focus on the repatriation of native remains and sacred items and it goes to show the fight they are unfortunately still having to get back what’s theirs. The loopholes museums and collections use to keep their wrongful ownership of these items were heartbreaking, especially knowing these are current issues. I liked the carryover of crimes against native women since it is still such a prominent issue due to laws preventing proper justice for these families. I felt this continued to do a really great job of talking about very serious issues that are still incredibly prominent today.

I feel like this book kind of strayed from the plot. It felt like too much was happening for a 400-page book. While we are introduced to the Warrior Girl earlier on, there isn’t much focus on her otherwise. The plot kind of veered from the rightful return of ancestral remains and sacred items to a murder and kidnapping plot. I understand why to an extent, but it also felt a bit unnecessary.

I really enjoyed this book and getting to hear from all of the characters from the first book. I will say though, I was hoping for something about Jamie but I can also understand why he wasn’t mentioned.

Another winner by YA author Angeline Boulley. This story follows Perry Firekeeper-Birch, a high schooler who is part of a summer internship program for native teens. She gets placed at a local museum where she learns about an ancestor known as Warrior Girl and how her remains are stored in the archives, away from her community and traditions. After this shocking discovery, Angeline and her fellow interns create a plan to bring their ancestors home and with that, they come across some truly shocking discoveries.

My favorite part about this book was the educational piece, specifically learning about the NAGPRA, the challenges modern indigenous people face and how the US legal system fails to support these communities. Like Boulley did with Firekeeper’s Daughter, it was easy to feel the emotions from the characters as they fought for their rights and the mystery and twists integrated throughout made the story impossible to put down. I listened to the audiobook and loved the narration, so I definitely recommend that book.

Read if you like:
-YA reads with mature content
-OwnVoices native authors
-Slow burn mysteries
-Learning about museums and artifacts
-Cameos from Firekeeper’s Daughter

Thank you Macmillan for the ARC/ALC! Pub date 5/2

Thanks to Macmillan Audio, Macmillan Young Listeners for the copy of this ALC!

"Warriors do for their people what others can't or won't."

Angeline Boulley is such a talented author. While her books are YA, she writes across genres so that they're perfect for anyone who likes YA, contemporary fiction, thriller/mystery, and a hint of romance. She also writes about incredibly important topics and educates through often too-real fictonal storylines.

Warrior Girl Unearthed follows the story of Perry Firekeeper-Birch and navigates through missing Indigenous women and NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act), the federal law that allows tribes to request the return of ancestral remains and sacred items. We quickly unveil the amount of injustice present in both of these areas, and Perry is determined to take some matters into her own hands with her group of friends, Team Misfit Toys. My emotions were ALL OVER THE PLACE during this read and I honestly learned a lot. This was excellently narrated by Isabella Star LaBlanc.

Read if you:
- want to learn from an OwnVoices Native author
- enjoy YA books, mysteries and/or heists
- like cameos from an author's past books
- have wondered where museum items come from
- followed the case of Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind and the creation of Savanna's Act

I loved hearing this story read aloud. What a wonderful companion to Firekeeper's Daughter. Boulley is a force in literature. I will be reading all of her books always. The plot and the characters were wonderful and I couldn't wait to keep reading.

If you know me, I always recommend Firekeepers Daughter and it’s one of the best books I’ve ever read. So I was stoked when I heard this one was coming out! I loved this one just as much. Perry is a true warrior. I loved being able to see Daunis 10 years later and seeing where she’s at in love. Granny June will forever make me laugh. I love the education about Ojibwe & the laws that make it harder for them to reclaim their ancestors. If further dives into jurisdiction of law enforcement and how there’s a gap for crimes that occur on tribal land. Seeing this through Perry’s eyes (a 16 year old) was really intriguing, as she was still growing up and had to learn to make her an mistakes. This is, yet again, another book I think everyone should read immediately. Now I’m already hoping Angeline writes a third book!!!!

Thank you NetGalley & Fierce Reads for an eALC in exchange for an honest review. This will be our May 2 and you will want to preorder asap!!

5 stars

Boulley has another winner for readers with this most recent effort!

Perry, the m.c., is excited to experience a relaxing summer, but those plans rapidly change first when she ends up having to do an internship and then even more so because of what she learns during said internship. Summer goes from chill to boring to finally thrilling when Perry begins to uncover the many ways in which indigenous people - especially women - have been harmed and are continuing to be harmed in the present day. This weaving together of past trauma, culturally centered disrespect, and present terror create a complex web that forces Perry, her contemporaries, and certainly readers to face some difficult truths about how people are treated and how they choose to treat others. There's not a simple answer or a simple correction, and the layers of different women in distinct life stages and their specific stories really help to bring the depth of these horrors to light.

The plotting is excellent, but Perry is such a likeable character that she really stands out as the most admirable part of the entire work. She's flawed but focused on what is right according to her own value system, and her determination and certainty are refreshing.

I joined the masses in loving Boulley's first novel, and I love this one just as much if not more. The representation is excellent, but also this is just an exceptionally well-crafted narrative with a compelling m.c. Recommended, obviously!