Reviews with content warning for Alcoholism - Firekeeper's Daughter

A great introduction to Native culture and a bone gripping story about community and what tears it apart. This story brought tears and fury, as you follow the same path as Daunis- keeping you on your toes as much as she is- and feeling the same betrayal she does. It gave great insight to what tribal communities are like- both as an insider and as an outsider, as well as the injustice of the world even when you try your best to protect yourself. There were many times I just wanted to hug Daunis. Highly recommend listening to the audiobook version (I switched 100 pages in) to get the impact of language.

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amanda02143's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.5

Sometimes when I read a book I have a super unpopular opinion on, I have to wonder if either I or everyone else got a bugged copy of some kind (or if I'm just that much of a hater). Because no matter how hard I try, I just really, genuinely cannot understand the average/majority rating of this book?

The writing ranges from dry to pointedly (in other words, unnaturally) quotable, and the dialogue is somehow even more stilted and unrealistically grammatically flawless than the narration. A few spoken lines toward the end literally go on uninterrupted and with no stuttering or backtracking for 100+ words; virtually no one, let alone who's suffered recent repeated physical trauma, is that eloquent. Information is revealed in stilted blocks and repeated ten times over. I don't think any teenager -- or person at all -- in the history of cell phones has ever texted like the teenagers in this book are written as doing.

In terms of substance, there's a lot left to be desired as well. All of the individual narrative threads -- or at least most of them -- would make interesting stories, but here they're all kind of crammed into one unbalanced mess. Is the central plot supposed to be Daunis's complex relationship with her family members and community? Her desire to pursue a career in medicine/science and unite traditional and more modern "scientific" practices? Her recovering from and learning about the factors leading up to her best friend's sudden, tragic death? Her role as an undercover informant in an FBI investigation involving meth and her community (as much suspension of disbelief as that requires)? Her and Jamie's relationship? A general critical overview of the treatment of Indigenous women in American and Canadian society? It's never really decided, and so we jump awkwardly from one to the other without more natural transitions or better multitasking, leading to really overall odd pacing.

The general emotional pacing never quite hits either. A significant medical detail about the protagonist is made explicit for the first time 70% in and never serves any real relevance (and is outright contradicted or ignored at other times). Major traumatic events like the murder of Daunis's best friend and

her being raped by a friend's father

are brushed off like minor hindrances -- there's no "right" way to react to trauma, but it feels so strange for the plot to just trudge on with no in-depth reflection, as though these things (particularly the latter) have been carelessly thrown in just to add to Daunis's hardships.

The characters -- including, perhaps especially Daunis -- lack depth, whittled down to one trait (not even one that is shown, but told... multiple times). The supporting cast especially kind of blends together as a result of that weird pacing and unrealistic, stilted dialogue. I couldn't get a real sense of any of their motivations, so the culprit reveal and relationships all feel more than lackluster. In that regard, the romance is particularly egregious, even putting aside the core issues with

a relationship between a 22-year-old government agent (as much questionable as that is in and of itself) and an 18-year-old college student he's directly supervising in an investigation

.

Overall, quite disappointing execution of multiple interesting premises, and I remain bewildered by the overwhelmingly positive response. Perhaps it was a great book for many others, but nothing about it ended up clicking or sitting well with me.

(Also, urine, even your own, is not actually sterile! Please do not use it as a substitute for hydrogen peroxide. I know this is set in 2004 -- as little as there is to solidly ground it there -- and a lot of people believe that myth even today, but it just feels... irresponsible to include in a book like this, especially framed as an objective valuable fact.)

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skudiklier's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

I enjoyed this book on a lot of levels--the plot, the characters, the mystery, what I learned about Ojibwe culture and traditions--and definitely found it suspenseful and engaging. I wouldn't say the writing itself is my favorite (I felt like it did a lot of telling rather than showing), but it wasn't bad by any means and didn't distract from the story. I couldn't tell how it was going to end and I felt pretty satisfied with the ending

(especially that it didn't force a HEA for the romance when that would have been unhealthy)

. Overall I'd definitely recommend this.

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fleetylou's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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mels_reading_log's review against another edition

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adventurous dark informative medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book tells about a meth operation that is taking over a Native American community and killing teens. It is told from on female teen’s point of view as she tries to figure out what is going on in her community and who she can trust. She helps to show the readers the difficulties of not only being a female, but being Native American and of mixed race and how the discrimination makes life so much harder. I learned a lot about some of the history of these communities and why they do not trust outsiders and the government, they have been hurt and forgotten so many times.

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lazy_reader42's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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galexy_brain's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

What a page-turner! I needed to know more. I appreciated the story's invitation into the lives of indigenous folks on a reservation and learning more about Anishnaabe language and culture. I found

her brother being involved in the drug ring predictable because Daunis idolized him the whole time, even when he was evidently shitty in some ways. I also found Daunis's experience of grief to fall flat partially, but I'm no expert on how people process grief. It's just that as a reader I didn't really feel her grief very strongly, or find it particularly sad when Lily died, since we barely got to know her beforehand. I also really wanted to find out what was going on with the Little People but they never reappeared.

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