Reviews with content warning for Sexual harassment - Warrior Girl Unearthed

This was an excellent book with just a couple of flaws that in no way detracted from the overall sense of enjoyment I got from reading it.

Warrior Girl Unearthed deals with a couple of subjects that a lot of young people, especially young white people, might not know much about. The secondary topic is the issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit (MMIWG2S, or sometimes just MMIW when being used less inclusively), which some young readers may know about depending on the online circles they hang out in. The primary topic is the Native American Graves Repatriation Act, which I personally only learned about earlier this year, so I was very interested to read a novel with that as a focus.

This is a story about how our country cares very little about Indigenous people, whether they are alive or long-deceased. Despite this heavy material, it's not an overwhelmingly gloomy book. Our main character Perry has a loving family, good friends, and mentors who want to see her succeed. She also has a good dog on her side. I'd say overall it's a hopeful book, a book that shows us what young people are capable of and that there is hope for the future.

That said, there is some very heavy material. I think it's presented in an appropriate way for readers of a similar age to our 16-year-old protagonist, but younger teens and precocious tweens reading in the YA category may be a bit overwhelmed. Consider pre-reading before sharing this with younger or more sensitive readers, and be prepared to have some difficult but important conversations with them.

What I really appreciated about this book was how realistic the teenage characters felt. Perry makes some foolish, impulsive decisions, but she's been established as a character who is impulsive, so they feel natural for her. She has strong relationships with her twin sister, her mother, her Auntie, and her friend Shense, who is a teen mom. I especially appreciated that Shense's motherhood was just treated as part of who she was. She wasn't shamed or judged by Perry or their friend group. She also has non-romantic male relationships, and the romantic relationship wasn't as over-the-top as some all-consuming YA romances can be.

My only real complaint about this book was that the thriller aspect felt a little tacked on and the ending felt rushed. But overall, I enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone looking for a well-written, enjoyable read by and about Indigenous women.

Content Warnings