Angeline Boulley’s debut YA novel FIREKEEPER’S DAUGHTER is without a doubt worth every ounce of the hype that it’s receiving. A contemporary thriller set in Sault Ste. Marie, MI amongst the Ojibwe community, FIREKEEPER’S DAUGHTER is a gripping, immersive exploration of the modern Native experience, generational trauma, tensions between the US government and Indigenous communities, and what it means to be a strong Anishinaabe kwe (Ojibwe woman).
Eighteen-year-old Daunis Fontaine is biracial, born to a wealthy white mother and an Ojibwe father. While she is deeply connected to her Native heritage, she is an unenrolled member of her tribe and has never felt like she quite fits in in either world. When a family tragedy puts her college plans on hold, Daunis stays home to help care for her emotionally fragile mother. To get by, she relies on her best friend Lily and her Ojibwe community. That is, until a charming but mysterious new recruit on her brother’s hockey team arrives and ushers in a change to life as she knows it.
After witnessing a horrific act of violence, Daunis reluctantly agrees to help the FBI investigate a series of drug-related deaths in order to help protect her community. Secretly pursing her own investigation, she quickly realizes that the lines between loyalty, truth, and deception aren’t as clear as she’d once thought.
FIREKEEPER’S DAUGHTER is a necessary story with all-too-real reflections of violence against Native people — Native women in particular. FIREKEEPER’S DAUGHTER is about trauma, and loss, and injustice. But it is also a celebration of family, friendship, Ojibwe culture, and the strength that can be found in community.
CW: racism, addiction, substance abuse, gun violence, sexual assault, murder, suicide
Eighteen-year-old Daunis Fontaine is biracial, born to a wealthy white mother and an Ojibwe father. While she is deeply connected to her Native heritage, she is an unenrolled member of her tribe and has never felt like she quite fits in in either world. When a family tragedy puts her college plans on hold, Daunis stays home to help care for her emotionally fragile mother. To get by, she relies on her best friend Lily and her Ojibwe community. That is, until a charming but mysterious new recruit on her brother’s hockey team arrives and ushers in a change to life as she knows it.
After witnessing a horrific act of violence, Daunis reluctantly agrees to help the FBI investigate a series of drug-related deaths in order to help protect her community. Secretly pursing her own investigation, she quickly realizes that the lines between loyalty, truth, and deception aren’t as clear as she’d once thought.
FIREKEEPER’S DAUGHTER is a necessary story with all-too-real reflections of violence against Native people — Native women in particular. FIREKEEPER’S DAUGHTER is about trauma, and loss, and injustice. But it is also a celebration of family, friendship, Ojibwe culture, and the strength that can be found in community.
CW: racism, addiction, substance abuse, gun violence, sexual assault, murder, suicide