Amazing

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I am left speechless at how good this book was. As the author's note states, it fills a gap in YA literature by depicting the life of a present-day Native American girl. That's great, but this book goes for beyond this. For one thing, it really addresses a lot of the complexities of living in a Native American community, both the good and the bad. I was particularly taken with Boulley's depiction of Daunis as mixed race. She has supportive family and a supportive community, but there are still things that don't line up, moments of unspoken awkwardness, and microaggressions. And everything in the book was complicated like this: drug use, law enforcement, small town life versus the draw of life in a bigger city.

It can be easy to fall into cliches or to depict things as one-dimensional, either all bad or all good, but Boulley continually reveals complexities and lets the reader (and Daunis) make up their own minds. And, ultimately, despite the dark subject matter, this also ends up being a very positive book.

Highly recommended.