Review of Firekeeper’s Daughter

I love YA Mysteries, so I listened to the audiobook of Firekeeper’s Daughter. It took me a while to finish, but I enjoyed every minute. This might be my favorite YA book I’ve read in a while! Check out my review of Firekeeper’s Daughter and find a link to my review of book two, Warrior Girl Unearthed.

Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley

Published on March 16, 2021 by Henry Holt BYR.

Audiobook by Macmillan audio and read by Isabella Star LeBlanc.

14 hour length.

Thanks to LibroFM for the advance audiobook copy for review.

What is Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley About?

A biracial, unenrolled tribal member and the product of a scandal, eighteen-year-old Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in to her hometown or on the nearby Ojibwe reservation.

Daunis dreams of studying medicine, but when tragedy strikes, she puts her future on hold. The only bright spot is meeting Jamie, the charming new recruit on her brother Levi’s hockey team.

Yet even as Daunis falls for Jamie, certain details don’t add up. Everything comes to light when Daunis witnesses a shocking murder. 

Reluctantly, Daunis agrees to go undercover. But she secretly pursues her own investigation, tracking down the criminals with her knowledge of chemistry and traditional medicine.

But the deceptions—and deaths—keep piling up and soon the threat strikes too close to home. Now, Daunis must learn what it means to be a strong Anishinaabe kwe (Ojibwe woman).

She’ll also learn and how far she’ll go to protect her community, even if it tears apart the only world she’s ever known.

Review of Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley

I was dying to read Firekeeper’s Daughter from the moment I heard about it.

First, I love mysteries and I’m always rooting for YA mysteries to succeed.

Second, there are not a lot of Native American YA books written by tribal citizens, so I was excited about that aspect of the story.

Then I heard that Higher Ground, the Obamas’ production company, had optioned the book for Netflix. This article from the Lakota Times has more details on the book and the upcoming adaptation. I’m waiting very impatiently!!

Why I loved Firekeeper’s Daughter:

• It was a mystery.
• It had a sweet romance.
• The story felt deeply feminist.
• It tackled numerous social issues, from substance abuse to racism to the historic mistreatment of Native Americans to rape culture to the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women and more.
• The Firekeeper’s Daughter was a story about grief and loss.
• The book tackled the complexity of family relationships.
• It had classic YA themes of finding yourself as a young woman, and especially as a biracial young woman.
• Finally, it was so deeply and movingly rooted in the customs, practices, beliefs and traditions of the Ojibwe/Anishinaabe  people.

Daunis is the child of a teenage romance. Her mom was the daughter of a rich white family, while her Anishinaabe dad was a hockey prodigy.

While Daunis is very connected to her Native American roots, she’s not formally enrolled as Anishinaabe. Some Native Americans see her as a half-white trust fund baby, while some white people see her in terms of BIPOC stereotypes.

She is also part of the hockey community of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula as a former player and the half-sister and daughter of hockey players. When the death of someone close to her shatters Daunis’s world, she agrees to go undercover to help the FBI investigate.

By far my favorite aspect of the story was Daunis.

She was an amazing protagonist. She was smart, brave, resourceful, outspoken, and passionate. Seeing all aspects of this story through her eyes made the book something really special.

Daunis’s birth to a white teenage mother and her father’s subsequent death prevented her from becoming formally enrolled. Still, she was brought up in Anishinaabe ways by her father’s mother and sister and time spent with tribal elders. She has a deep love and respect for her culture, and explains many things in the book, from funeral customs to getting her period, in terms of Anishinaabe beliefs and practices.

While this book does have mystery elements, for the most part it is a bit slower-paced than a typical mystery … until the end, which was really suspenseful. It’s also a long book, at nearly 500 pages.

Daunis is a reluctant participant in the investigation. Her decision to go undercover weighs on her. It forces her to lie and to spy on people she’s fond of, to keep secrets from her friends and family, and to put her life in danger. There’s also a romance that develops during this middle part of the book. I think it’s possible that some people who expected a typical fast-paced mystery might feel impatient reading Firekeeper’s Daughter, but I was never for a minute bored with the story.

The suspense aspect of the book really picked up again at the end.

Daunis starts to unravel a conspiracy, and realize that people she thought she could trust had betrayed her. The ending felt both unexpected and completely perfect for the story.

Notes on the Audiobook of Firekeeper’s Daughter:

I thought Isabella Star LeBlanc (a Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota actor and writer from Minnesota) was a great narrator. She read at a measured pace and differentiated the different characters in a natural and engaging way. This book was long (nearly 500 pages) so it was a 14-hour audiobook and I eventually put it to 1.25 speed so I could finish.

Update on the Firekeeper’s Daughter Netflix Series: November 2023

No news 🙁 According to a Deadline article, Mickey Fisher will serve as showrunner and co-write with Wenonah Wilms, who is Ojibwe and will also act as executive producer.

Book two is out!

Warrior Girl Unearthed is a companion book set in the same story world. Check out my thoughts on the book on my sister site!

Have you read this? Are you going to? Talk to me in comments!