A white woman proceeds on a "misguided investigation" and that premise leads the reader on a pointless journey to what end? An epilogue that provides "faith" that all will turn out right for misguided, privileged white women?

I enjoyed this book. It starts out with a strong mystery, and the small town is almost its own character. The main character learns about her family's past and really begins to understand how it shapes her perceptions of the world. She, and everyone else in her universe, are pretty small-minded, and I think the recognition of her own biases was realistic and honest.

For me, this book should have been either a little longer or done a little less. The beginning is slower paced and very atmospheric, but the end was a little rushed. It transformed from a mystery to a more literary novel, and none of the major issues that drove the main character really get resolved at the end. I did really enjoy the way this book was written, and I think it's a nice exploration of the societal struggles of being a woman, and grappling with the idea that what you think you know is wrong.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this!

I won’t say I struggled to finish this, I was invested in seeing the end so that kept me pulled in. That said, I definitely have some feelings about this book and not all of them are positive.

First: what a depressing scene the author sets of PG, I’m sure it’s accurate for the late 90s/early 2000s. Very good world building and the little details help flesh the settings out. I didn’t dislike Jenny so much as I pitied her; I couldn’t stand everyone else in her life. Her mom sucks, her husband sucks, her friends suck. I feel like she was a pretty well-built character, and I did like her more by the end. She did learn something I guess by the end and ended up a little less ignorant than her friends? But the end was a little unsatisfying.

I feel like this is being advertised as a book about missing and murdered indigenous women, and throughout the story we did see Jenny learn and come to some more understanding about the native people that live around her. However, this should not be marketed as a book about missing and murdered and indigenous women, as Rachelle was basically just a side quest in this. We got zero resolution of that issue. This really isn’t a thriller and I hope it isn’t being marketed as such. This is very white lady centered and even though Jenny did meet some indigenous folks toward the end I don’t even know what the purpose of introducing those characters was since there was no further interaction or impact i really saw.

Some parts of this felt like tedious stream of consciousness writing, normally I don’t skim over stuff like that, but there were definitely some paragraphs I kind of had to skim. A few places I didn’t really know what was being talked about? Easy enough to pick back up, but still annoying.

Overall, it was not a bad read, but it was not really a great read. I wouldn’t really say that it accomplished drawing attention to missing and murdered indigenous women in Canada. I am sure there are books that are better representative of this horrifying issue.

This started off hard to read. Jenny’s thoughts are a bit scattered and I had trouble following her character. But then things fell into rhythm. Jenny is not shy to let the reader know what the white people in the community think of the natives. But then she befriends her neighbor, that then disappears (along with plenty of other unreported natives). She takes it upon herself to be the savior, getting shut down multiple times, all while battling infertility, emotional and physical abuse.

My rating was looking up until the last portion of the book. The ending just missed the mark. What had the potential to wrap up more about the missing women and children was left to a single page while we got a epilogue on Jenny covering several years and little substance. But perhaps that is the message after all? The people of color always get forgotten.

A subversion of a missing woman plot that follows a white housewife’s misguided investigation into the disappearance of her missing indigenous neighbor. The main idea of the story was good but the plot and the ending were unsatisfying.

So so so good! Definitely agree with the comparison to Tana French. The ending felt a bit abrupt but I was okay with it given the overall themes of the book. Thank you Netgalley for the ARC and I will definitely be following this author on Goodreads!

Thanks to Astra House and NetGalley for this ARC of Fireweed by Lauren Haddad.

I'm conflicted about this one. The ongoing tragedy and outrage of murder missing indigenous women and girls is something that should be aired as often as possible but this felt very awkward in that the missing women and girls seemed to be a prop for the story of the young white woman who's the main character. Maybe that's the realistic way things are and maybe that's why it's told that way. Maybe most of us care about it but then get on with our lives having done very little to change things?

One thing that it does get right and hammers mercilessly is the contrast between the attention given by the authorities and the media to the blond white woman - Beth - who disappears and that of the young Native women but we know this already and it's not very subtle here.

Another thing that felt genuine, though I've never visited remote British Colombia so can't really say for sure, is the blatant and unrelenting racism against Native people where even talking to an Indigenous neighbor was cause for marital strife. Maybe that's what the author was trying to expose?

Although the time when the book is set - sometime pre-mobile phones - is the explanation, it seems unlikely that even if they're remote the term 'Metis' would be unknown to the people of the town or that - even if they didn't care about it - the forced taking of children from their homes and the residential schools and 'foster homes' would be unknow. All felt unrealistic.

There was an odd sense of a happy ever after for the main character which, again, is maybe what happens in actuality but felt inappropriate.

Fireweed follows Jenny, a bored and lonely white housewife, and her clumsy investigation into the disappearance of her Indigenous neighbour, Rachelle.

I really wanted to love this one but I’m conflicted about the author’s decision to focus on MMIWG through the perspective of a deeply ignorant white character.

Besides this, I found myself needlessly confused at some of the details. For example, there were two side characters with the same name and inconsistencies with the location of Rachelle’s house in relation to Jenny’s.

Overall, there were some suspenseful and gripping moments and the premise is really interesting. With that being said, the execution needs some refining.

Thank you NetGalley and Astra Publishing House for providing me with this ARC.

I was looking forward to reading this book, but it fell a little short for me. The premise was great because this is such an issue, but I couldn't connect to the characters and the ending was a bit of a letdown.

Thank you for the opportunity to read it.

I requested this book because I thought it would be a nuanced and novel take on white privilege and ignorance of BIPOC communities, in this case, First Nations peoples specifically. However, what I found was another white voice using POC to tell their own story.

I will not give you a summary because I think you can find that anywhere else. I will start by saying the writing is not bad, some issues with keeping track of thoughts and feelings because the FMC reveals information after the fact sometimes. However, the writing is of no importance when the content is so problematic. This could’ve been written by a Pulitzer-winning author and I would not support it.

I always do my best to give the story/author the benefit of the doubt, that certain details are included is for advocacy or to prove some sort of point. The blatant racism, the misconceptions of indigenous peoples, and the stereotypes were obviously used to describe the community and the issues surrounding the FMCs surroundings. That did not bother me. What did bother me was that this seemed to be a character exploration of our white FMC and it used a very REAL very SENSITIVE topic that is NOT about white people/women. This feels like we are building on the backs of indigenous people’s pain…as usual.

To me, focusing on a white woman's perspective about her misguided attempts and her melancholy life feels completely disconnected from the realities faced by Indigenous peoples. This narrative prioritizes white women with a critical systemic issue as a backdrop. The book barely addresses the injustices and history Indigenous peoples have faced in North America (and all of the Americas) favoring the protagonist instead. I noticed another review pointed out that this is set to release a week before National Day of Recognition for Missing or Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit People (MMIWG2S) and that feels extra yucky.

I do not think we should avoid writing stories about other communities but I DO think it is very difficult to do so properly and respectfully, which is why I suggest you don’t write anything you are not fully versed in.

I requested an ARC of Fireweed hoping it would be a voice for the Indigenous community mixed with suspense, but unfortunately, it didn’t hit the mark. Before starting, I read a post from the publisher saying that the author, with great awareness, exposes the damage caused when we prioritize our own value system over others—but after finishing the book, I’m not quite sure that is what got delivered.

I get what the author was trying to do, but something didn’t click. The story felt like it was a character study about someone dwelling on past failures and trying to make up for them, instead of focusing on the larger systemic issues. I can't say we need books told from the perspective of someone removed from the real problem.

The audience for this book is a bit of a puzzle too. It's marketed as a read for fans of Tana French, but I didn’t see how a thriller fan would enjoy it. On the other hand, even someone looking for a thought-provoking take on social issues might find it frustrating, especially since the main character is so painfully uninformed that it’s hard to engage with.

Reflecting on the book, it gave me “white savior” vibes. It also leaned into some very distant and naive stereotypes, like suggesting Indigenous people wouldn’t know how to garden. Instead of diving deep into the real, systemic problems impacting Indigenous communities, the story spends too much time on the struggles of the lead, a white woman. What we need are more books focused on the injustices these communities face, along with real steps for making change, not ones centered on white guilt.

The timing of the book’s release, set for April 29, 2025, feels off to me too. It’s just a week before the National Day of Recognition for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, and it comes across as an attempt to capitalize on that important topic. I cannot wholeheartedly say that this book will contribute to the topic at hand.

On top of all that, the writing was hard to follow. It felt disjointed, more like a stream of consciousness or a rough draft than a finished novel. While I do appreciate books that aim to raise awareness about the crimes against Indigenous women and the failures of law enforcement, Fireweed just didn’t come together the way it needed to. I trust that the author had pure intentions, but perhaps got a bit lost along the way.

Thanks to NetGalley and Astra Publishing House for the ARC.

This is a whirlwind of a story taking place in Canada, where the industry is mining and paper production from trees. Life here can be uneasy. A young couple living here and struggling to make ends meet (she works in retail, he works in the mines) is suddenly confronted with an unimaginable event: Their neighbor, a single mom who is a native, has gone missing. Her children have been left behind. But is she really missing? And, do the neighbors or police even seem concerned? The descriptions of the rugged landscape (including fireweed plants), the reports of other missing persons, and the possibility of an unreliable narrator set up a story that feels ready to combust with tension and suspense. I kept returning to this eerie place and wondering what would happen next!

I wanted to like this book but was sort of disappointed! I'm left confused on who the audience is supposed to be. It's not for thrill-seekers, because the "missing person" plot is tangential to the main story, and because we never get resolution on it. It's not for the "woke" crowd because the main character is mind-bogglingly naive and uneducated, even more so than any average white citizen. It felt painful to get through the tedious writing and then unsatisfying by the end when the reader has invested so much time in hopes of a redemption arc or big finale.

I appreciated the character development and I do think some of the chapters are quite interesting. But overall, I did not look forward to pulling this book out to read every night, and that's why I wouldn't know who to recommend it to.

Fireweed follows a bored housewife named Jenny living in rural British Columbia. A young girl's disappearance sparks outrage in the news, and Jenny finds herself seeking companionship in her neighbor, an Indigenous woman named Rachelle with two young daughters. But when Rachelle herself goes missing right after the two women start to become friends, Jenny finds herself trying to discover what happened to her.

This book shines in its descriptions. The town of PG feels closer to a character than a setting; every plant, road, house, etc. is described in detail, but not in a way that feels tedious. Illustrations of everyday life are drawn out realistically and thoughtfully. However, the plot is a bit less meticulous, which I think is a fault of this novel. There are too many elements being juggled at once; Jenny's infertility, her relationship with her mother, the missing girls, Rachelle, her friends, her husband, her missing father. There is also a large cast of characters with similar jobs and names that I found hard to keep track of at times. An anecdote about one person is being told, and then suddenly the protagonist is talking with a completely different person without a clear segue. If the story had chosen a route, like focusing specifically on Jenny's struggle with motherhood and her trauma of being raised by an emotionally abusive mother, it could've been a lot stronger with its message. However, the mix between literary fiction and thriller doesn't totally work with all the elements involved. I felt as if I got an outside look of Indigenous people, but I don't feel as if the reader comes away learning much about their culture, besides Jenny's white woman view of it. And that could be the point, but personally I found that frustrating.

Jenny as a protagonist is also rather insufferable. She can't do anything right, doesn't speak up for herself, and waits too long to take action. There's also a slight element of an unreliable narrator, with Jenny's hallucinations of seeing Rachelle in public spaces and even deluding herself into thinking that she's half Native. This part felt like it wasn't fully committed to, so instead it just feels like Jenny being ridiculous for no reason. I think a lot of parts of the plot were not fully committed to, so at the conclusion of the story it feels a bit pointless to go on that entire journey for nothing to come of it. Every character's growth happened off page with a throwaway line in the epilogue. Jenny has no growth except maybe becoming slightly less racist, but that's not clear either. I understand the message is that the white woman gets her happy ending while the Native people continue suffering, and the unfairness of those circumstances. But as a reader, I felt that questions were asked in the story and readers are not able to come to a sufficient conclusion with the information provided.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this novel.

Jenny is a housewife with no children living in Prince George, Canada. She strikes up a terse friendship with her First Nations neighbor Rachelle, but when Rachelle goes missing Jenny does not know what to do. A white woman named Beth has also disappeared in the Prince George area recently, but when Jenny tries to report Rachelle missing nobody seems to be listening to her or want to help.

This book was truly a whirlwind. I enjoyed Hadded's writing style and the characters were nuanced but I will admit very unlikable. I read books to be transported somewhere else and I felt fully immersed in the western, Canadian small-town atmosphere.

In that same respect I also read books to experience other peoples hopes, faults, dreams. etc. In her plot summary of Fireweed, Haddad writes "what do we do with a person who isn’t bad, but who does no good?" This rings true in that Jenny is not necessarily a bad person, but she really does nothing productive for herself or others throughout the entirety of this novel. She has multiple self-revelations that are un-revolutionary as a reader who is well-versed in colonialism, residential schools, Indigenous cultures, and socio-political issues among other things. Maybe that is the point though. Jenny is someone who is relatively uneducated (she did not attend college), lower-class, and a woman (albeit white). She lives a very sheltered life. This novel is about someone who has experience severe trauma but is still extremely privileged and misguided. Two things can be true at once.

I think if you are a fan of mystery/thriller novels, as well as the "weird girl" genre like Ottessa Moshfegh (in the sense that the plot takes you nowhere and there may be little to no character development by the end of the novel but it was an interesting ride) then you will enjoy this novel! The cover is also insanely beautiful and I liked the use of the fireweed throughout the novel as a metaphor.

Fireweed by Lauren Haddad is a captivating blend of emotion, mystery, and self-discovery. The novel follows characters caught in the complexities of grief and resilience, set against a vivid, almost poetic backdrop. Haddad's writing is evocative, painting rich emotional landscapes that draw the reader in from the start.

The strength of this book lies in its character development and the way it navigates loss and healing. The relationships feel raw and authentic, making the reader care deeply about the characters' journeys. However, some parts of the plot might feel a bit slow, as the story tends to linger in introspection. But the emotional depth compensates for the pacing, keeping you invested until the end.

Overall, Fireweed is a beautifully written novel that explores human connection, trauma, and growth with grace and nuance.

Rating: 4/5

A heartbreakingly tough read, but accurately human and so so very flawed. It hurts to get all the way through this narrative and see that it’s just a blip in the narrator’s life, a passing obsession but one that her privilege allows her try on and then abandon when her life trajectory picks back up. The mixed reviews reflect the profoundly mixed feelings this book evokes. With the exception of the prologue (which seems self-consciously worried that we won’t understand the premise of this flawed, unreliable narrator and so goes a bit over-the-top, to the point that it almost sounds like a different voice from the rest of the book), the book is really engaging with it's depth of characterization and the metaphor of the fireweed. It is gritty and raw and devastatingly offensive at times; the kind of book that makes you anxious about those readers who will encounter it without context or critical thinking, those who may take it a face value and find their prejudices underscored. But perhaps because it takes such risks, it is a hauntingly good novel. I could see this title making it's way onto literary syllabi in the future, where it could be properly contextualized alongside contemporary indigenous voices. Even though it is painful to look closely at the roots of the narrator's flawed motivations, this novel tells really important truths about slacktivism, romanticization of the indigenous "other," and the very particular danger of white women's fickle interest in native women and their children.

My thanks to Astra Publishing House for providing an advance digital copy for review.

Jenny is a housewife who always wanted to be a mom, living next door to an aboriginal widow with two young children. Her days are endlessly monotonous, and through the window, she watches the neighbour she has so many prejudices against living a simple and enjoyable life.

She takes it upon herself to try to befriend her, and when she disappears out of thin air, she springs into action. Her disappearance mirrors the one of a local caucasion woman who goes missing, yet Jenny finds no mirror of empathy and desperation to find her new friend Rachelle.

She decides to take matters into her own hands, in a clumsy, ignorant, and misguided attempt to do something, while in reality doing nothing at all.

*******

I'm someone who lives in British Columbia and has heard all about the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG). The Highway of Tears is horrifying, especially knowing those men who stole so many lives still haven't been caught, and our police chose and still choose to turn a blind eye. I was more than intrigued to read this book and see what the author would make of it. However, I was wary of someone not from this area, and not visibly Indigenous taking this on.

I had issues with some of the stereotypes and wording as they seemed more "American" than Canadian terms and ideals and had me scratching my head at the thought that anyone would think them. For example, thinking Indigenous people wouldn't know how to garden (this comes up a few times) and being shocked that they would have even a slight interest as they are "hunters or gatherers." The idea that Indigenous people wouldn't know how to grow crops is such an unrealistic stereotype, even from people born in the 50's and 60's, as the Indigenous people on and off reservations have always grown food, and we've always had that history taught in schools. We all know that the first people's were the cultivators of this land, so this was a very odd take, especially one to occur multiple times, and completely baffled me that the author would think to include a stereotype that was so unrealistic as such a touching point.

I didn't mind the slow build-up of understanding the female lead, her influences and life, her friends, and her getting to know her neighbour, despite her being a frustrating character. Unfortunately, I often felt confused and turned around during the scenes, events, and people, as the author seemed to ramble on and not really explain there had been a change. She'd go from talking about someone in a grocery store, to being in the house, to how the look of a yard had changed, but no actual context or travel between, or behind, the rambling thoughts. She also introduced characters (a sister, I think? Maybe an aunt?) without explaining the relationship, just giving the name and then describing them and their actions out of the blue, for no discernable reason. I had to constantly flip back to wonder how I got to where I was, or who they were referencing, and not finding anything, which made getting into the book confusing and disjointed. Its like the author imagined scenes changing and shifting, but never describes them, just gave narration to the leads' thoughts. Within the first 20% of the book I had to reread passages so often to try to parse out where on earth a transition occurred, that I ended up needing to put the book down and read something else that night, just so I wouldn't burn out on the novel.

As the book progressed, I couldn't help but to be more and more baffled over why the author thought this was an appropriate book to write. The MMIWG is a travesty that still continues to this day. Centering a white woman's voice and perspective about how useless and misguided her leads attempts are isn't a surprise to Indigenous peoples whatsoever. This just reads as a book that centers white women ahead of a serious, systemic issue that has nothing to do with them and does so for personal profit. The actual injustices and history of the Highway of Tears is barely even touched on in order to favour the lead, and it baffled me that that would even be a choice to make. I also can't help but to notice that the release date is scheduled a week before the National Day of Recognition for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, and assume this is another way to prioritize white voices to prosper off of Indigenous tragedy. It left me feeling an off taste in my mouth, knowing that the author was this out of touch with the people affected by the Highway of Tears to think her novel was appropriate or necessary. We don't need a novel that talks about how white women try and fail and to deep dive into that. We need MORE education on the injustices and racist systems surrounding Indigenous peoples and how to force reparations to be made to them, and bring their families home, not white-centered books like this that explore white failure and feelings.

In writing this book, the author is doing what her character is doing. Blindly centering herself in an issue that is greater than her, and making her own faults the main identity, over actually supporting the cause and bringing education and understanding to light. In attempting to create a critique of a woman that does no true harm but no true good, the author herself has taken that role by writing this book.

With all being said, I found this book to be distasteful and would not recommend it.

********

Thank you to NetGalley and Astra Publishing House for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Astra Publishing House for providing this ARC for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Fireweed is the story about a woman living in an isolated area of Canada living an increasingly suffocating life. When a national search for a missing young woman converges with the protagonist’s own neighbor’s disappearance, she becomes increasingly preoccupied with investigating. The story is complicated by the fraught race relationships between the First Nation and Indigenous people and the white Canadians in the town.

The things that I think the author did very successfully is create an atmosphere of claustrophobia and frustration in the main character. There’s a sense of voiceless ness and directionless that’s really highlighted by the brand names, store names, and clutter that are in so many scenes. The author highlights a very lonely middle class existence of a woman who is internalizing her problems.

The author does a wonderful job of showing that Jenny is using her past traumas, poor relationships, yearning connection, as the fuel for her investigation. At a certain point it’s clear that her search for Rachelle is much more about herself and her own identity and self esteem than a true closeness and concern.

What I do think was a little disappointing is that this book very much uses the missing and murdered indigenous women as a scaffold for a story of personal discovery of a white woman. While that may have been the aim for the author to show how white people can co-opt movements for their own reasons, it was disappointing that the storyline ends so abruptly at the end. I just felt like two paragraphs about Jenny feeling wistful in the last chapter wasn’t a fully fleshed ending for this storyline (even if she never ends up being found or getting justice.)

I really wanted to like this. The premise sounded so interesting, and when I saw that it was compared to Tana French I was sold. Unfortunately this was...nothing like Tana French, and I spent most of the book so god damn confused. I know this book is attempting to cover an important topic (the disappearance of indigineous women in Canada and how that has been largely ignored by law enforcement and public concern). My criticism is not about that topic and its importance. It's because the book was sloppy. The prose was EXTREMELY overwritten and at points BAD (ex: "Her and Missy were so fertile, it was almost offensive." -- Her and Missy? Seriously? This is Grammar 101, it should be SHE and Missy...). and the plot was utter chaos (and not in a good way). I felt like I was reading a stream of consciousness Word document first draft rather than a cohesive novel. I would try to come up with specific examples of where I was confused, but because the entire thing was so largely difficult to follow, I am unable to do so. I am not sure what this book is trying to be, but I think the author and editor have some serious cleanup to do before this will be on track for any rave reviews.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Astra Publishing House for the Advanced Reader Copy.*