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A review by jessikeenan
Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley
1.5
Truly where to begin with this book. Maybe let’s start with the few good things. First, it is a mystery and I enjoyed trying to figure out the mystery and who was behind it. (Of course, one of the culprits was incredibly obvious and it was clear that the hockey team was involved.) Second, I enjoyed the community aspects of the books, especially the relationships between Lily and Duanis and Teddy and Duanis.
That’s basically where it ends. The overall idea of the book was great but I hated the execution a LOT. In part this could be because it is a YA and I am for sure not the intended audience. However, even with this disclaimer, I was really frustrated with a lot of this book. The tone was completely uneven. The book opens with a significant tragedy, centers around drugs, has a ton of violence (sexual and other) and yet every other page has a description of how hot Jamie is????? Like?????? Pretty much the tone was: the tribe is great, Jamie is hot, VIOLENCE/DRUGS/TRAGEDY. This compounded with the extremely shallow way that the tragedies/trauma is discussed, made it feel like trauma porn. Especially therape scene by Grant. This scene totally did NOT need to be included and was definitely only there as trauma porn, to drive home (NOT SUBTLY) that violence is everywhere, especially against women of color and Native Women. My issue with this is that it’s already clear from the book (at this point THREE WOMEN HAVE DIED ) and then the trauma is totally not dealt with, and seemingly thrown is as a side note. It comes up but really feels like trauma porn. I had already felt this (because again, at this point three women, including Duanis’ best friend, have already died and more ink has been spilled about Jamie’s hot bod than the sadness about losing Lily but this totally pushed me over the edge. Additionally I don’t like it when rapes in books are cartoonishly black and white and then trauma is discussed in a totally superficial way. If this is because the book is YA then WHY IS THIS RAPE INCLUDED IN THE FIRST PLACE?? Either make something that traumatic the WHOLE FUCKING SUBJECT OF THE BOOK OR LEAVE IT OUT. It felt like the author just felt like she needed to tick the box of “Native Women are raped at higher rates!!”
I also got annoyed with the main characters decisions, and the superficiality of how the tribe is described. Like, you have tribe members dealing drugs and tearing apart your community but you’re withholding evidence from the FBI??? Everything Native American was really romanticized, which I understand why, but could have still been dealt with better. This is at least slightly more excusable because it is a YA book and intended for a less mature audience. (I think the subject matter totally doesn’t fit with this, but whatever.)
Finally, the writing style. If you took a shot every time the narrator or a character “points their lips at/in the direction of” you would die from alcohol poisoning. What does this phrase even mean??????? Why is it used so often???? We may never know. The characters are also extremely shallow (again, YA) but our MC is for sure a bit of a Mary Sue. Overall would have rated it lower but it is a YA book and not intended for me so I’m leaving it at 1.5 stars because the first half was intriguing but the decisions at the end made me SO MAD.
That’s basically where it ends. The overall idea of the book was great but I hated the execution a LOT. In part this could be because it is a YA and I am for sure not the intended audience. However, even with this disclaimer, I was really frustrated with a lot of this book. The tone was completely uneven. The book opens with a significant tragedy, centers around drugs, has a ton of violence (sexual and other) and yet every other page has a description of how hot Jamie is????? Like?????? Pretty much the tone was: the tribe is great, Jamie is hot, VIOLENCE/DRUGS/TRAGEDY. This compounded with the extremely shallow way that the tragedies/trauma is discussed, made it feel like trauma porn. Especially the
I also got annoyed with the main characters decisions, and the superficiality of how the tribe is described. Like, you have tribe members dealing drugs and tearing apart your community but you’re withholding evidence from the FBI??? Everything Native American was really romanticized, which I understand why, but could have still been dealt with better. This is at least slightly more excusable because it is a YA book and intended for a less mature audience. (I think the subject matter totally doesn’t fit with this, but whatever.)
Finally, the writing style. If you took a shot every time the narrator or a character “points their lips at/in the direction of” you would die from alcohol poisoning. What does this phrase even mean??????? Why is it used so often???? We may never know. The characters are also extremely shallow (again, YA) but our MC is for sure a bit of a Mary Sue. Overall would have rated it lower but it is a YA book and not intended for me so I’m leaving it at 1.5 stars because the first half was intriguing but the decisions at the end made me SO MAD.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Drug abuse, Rape, and Murder