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A review by aksmith92
Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
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
5.0
Wow. Just, wow. Angeline Boulley – what an incredible author. Firekeeper’s Daughter is honestly one of the best books I’ve read in a long time.
It felt like such an honor to read this book. Our brilliant main character and narrator is Daunis Fontaine – a biracial tribal member in Michigan, bordering Canada. We follow her life in this small town and the nearby Ojibwe reservation and soon learn of a horrible and traumatic event. Suddenly, Daunis finds herself involved with a federal investigation, trying to balance the well-being of her community and figuring out the details of a crime.
I’m unsure of how to put this review into words. Learning about Daunis’s character, friends, and family was incredible. It was also riveting to hear about her balance between her Anishinaabe culture and her white/French culture on her mom’s side. There is a beautiful yet heartbreaking theme of whether you can still love someone even though not every part of them is good. This book has many themes: culture, coming of age, identity, and love, and Boulley meshed all of them together brilliantly.
This novel was nearly flawless to me in many ways, even when I was a bit wary of reading another YA book. However, even after page one, I could already see how remarkably Boulley gives the typically voiceless in literature a voice.
While a YA novel, Firekeeper’s Daughter is still quite heavy. Many pages are filled with violence, drug addiction, and a mention of sexual assault. This was a HARD novel to read, but so necessary. The writing and prose were excellent, the characters were incredibly developed, and the pacing was fantastic. This is one of the few books I wish I could give more than five stars – I will read ANYTHING Angeline Boulley writes.
It felt like such an honor to read this book. Our brilliant main character and narrator is Daunis Fontaine – a biracial tribal member in Michigan, bordering Canada. We follow her life in this small town and the nearby Ojibwe reservation and soon learn of a horrible and traumatic event. Suddenly, Daunis finds herself involved with a federal investigation, trying to balance the well-being of her community and figuring out the details of a crime.
I’m unsure of how to put this review into words. Learning about Daunis’s character, friends, and family was incredible. It was also riveting to hear about her balance between her Anishinaabe culture and her white/French culture on her mom’s side. There is a beautiful yet heartbreaking theme of whether you can still love someone even though not every part of them is good. This book has many themes: culture, coming of age, identity, and love, and Boulley meshed all of them together brilliantly.
This novel was nearly flawless to me in many ways, even when I was a bit wary of reading another YA book. However, even after page one, I could already see how remarkably Boulley gives the typically voiceless in literature a voice.
While a YA novel, Firekeeper’s Daughter is still quite heavy. Many pages are filled with violence, drug addiction, and a mention of sexual assault. This was a HARD novel to read, but so necessary. The writing and prose were excellent, the characters were incredibly developed, and the pacing was fantastic. This is one of the few books I wish I could give more than five stars – I will read ANYTHING Angeline Boulley writes.