Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Bouleley

Summary from Goodreads:

Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Best Debut Novel (2021), Winner for Best Young Adult Fiction (2021)
As a biracial, unenrolled tribal member and the product of a scandal, Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in—both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. When her family is struck by tragedy, Daunis puts her dreams on hold to care for her fragile mother. The only bright spot is meeting Jamie, the charming new recruit on her brother’s hockey team.

After Daunis witnesses a shocking murder that thrusts her into a criminal investigation, she agrees to go undercover. But the deceptions—and deaths—keep piling up and soon the threat strikes too close to home. How far will she go to protect her community if it means tearing apart the only world she’s ever known?

Review:

I really enjoyed reading this one. There were a couple of things I did not love, but overall, I had a hard time putting the book down. It was part Breaking Bad, part The Black List, part Nancy Drew, and part Veronica Mars all squished into one YA novel that also focused on an under-represented Ojibwe community in Northern Michigan. How could I not like this book?

I loved learning about the Ojibwe culture. I also found the Northern Michigan culture to be new and interesting. I even learned about hockey. It was awesome to read about a girl hockey player, or former hockey player. That all being said, this was a super dark book. Injustices against Native peoples are not sugarcoated. Daunis witnesses the violent death of her best friend. Drugs are slowly making their way through her community and more and more people appear to be dying as a result. This book has murder, drugs, sexual assault, kidnapping, and racial and social injustice. I can see young people eating this book up. I also loved how important tribal elders were in the book. She’s always driving them, and helping them. At one point they save Daunis’ life, and I found this intergenerational element to be so cool.

What didn’t I like? I didn’t love the romance. The FBI Agent is 22, and Daunis is 18…It just felt icky to me. And while I know she’s 18, her voice comes off as much younger…There’s a lot of things she doesn’t know. And I get that not all 18 year olds are in the know about the same things, it’s the way she phrases things like “secret squirrel” and “Call-Me-Grant” over and over that made me always visualize her as younger than 18, but maybe that was just me reacting now as an adult reader…

I was not too surprised by any of the “big” twists, but I’ve watched a lot of secret agent shows so I kind of feel like I know what to expect at this point. However, I still kept reading super fast, needing to know what would happen. So much happens in the last quarter of the book.  hope Boulley keeps writing more stories. I’m looking forward to seeing what she does next. I give this one an 8/10.