I had mixed feelings about this one. While I loved the Native American aspect of it, I didn't like the story and really disliked the characters. We need more diverse YA books and this one should be a reference point for other authors with regards to incorporating BIPOC characters into its plot.
Daunis Firekeeper's best friend is killed by her meth head boyfriend. This shakes the Ojibwe culture in Northern Michigan, and Daunis is determined to put an end to her community's addiction to hard drug. The FBI show up one day and ask her if she wants to go undercover for them, and she must decide if she wants to give up her carefree teen life and risk everything to bring justice to her community.
Pros:
Highlights the Ojibwe culture, particularly their beliefs, traditions, and medicinal healing.
An ownvoices novel with diverse characters.
A great debut book, with the author having potential for many more great novels.
Talks about medicinal plants and how they play a role in Indigenous culture, which was SO cool.
Cons:
The plot was subpar. The ending was pretty predictable and I felt like the minor characters were very one dimensional.
A plot example: The FBI enlist an 18 year old girl to help them track down dangerous meth distributers. They also teach her how to make meth in their lab. Her partner, who is conveniently a young hot agent, has to pose as her boyfriend so they can get access to school events and such. Shocker, they fall for each other and we have a completely unnecessary romantic subplot.
It was super long, especially for a YA book. The sweet spot for YA book length seems to be 340 pages, and this was close to 500.
Daunis is incredibly judgey. She is concerned about drug abuse and harm to her tribe as a whole, but the individuals, especially the girls, she is quick to despise and view them as trashy. For example, she assumes all the hockey players girlfriends are prissy and only care about sex. When they do something nice, she is temporarily touched, but then goes back to assuming they're just trophy girlfriends without a spine.
Diverse, Educational, but also Entertaining at times, 5 stars for the Indigenous aspect, and two for the plot.
Daunis Firekeeper's best friend is killed by her meth head boyfriend. This shakes the Ojibwe culture in Northern Michigan, and Daunis is determined to put an end to her community's addiction to hard drug. The FBI show up one day and ask her if she wants to go undercover for them, and she must decide if she wants to give up her carefree teen life and risk everything to bring justice to her community.
Pros:
Highlights the Ojibwe culture, particularly their beliefs, traditions, and medicinal healing.
An ownvoices novel with diverse characters.
A great debut book, with the author having potential for many more great novels.
Talks about medicinal plants and how they play a role in Indigenous culture, which was SO cool.
Cons:
The plot was subpar. The ending was pretty predictable and I felt like the minor characters were very one dimensional.
A plot example: The FBI enlist an 18 year old girl to help them track down dangerous meth distributers. They also teach her how to make meth in their lab. Her partner, who is conveniently a young hot agent, has to pose as her boyfriend so they can get access to school events and such. Shocker, they fall for each other and we have a completely unnecessary romantic subplot.
It was super long, especially for a YA book. The sweet spot for YA book length seems to be 340 pages, and this was close to 500.
Daunis is incredibly judgey. She is concerned about drug abuse and harm to her tribe as a whole, but the individuals, especially the girls, she is quick to despise and view them as trashy. For example, she assumes all the hockey players girlfriends are prissy and only care about sex. When they do something nice, she is temporarily touched, but then goes back to assuming they're just trophy girlfriends without a spine.
Diverse, Educational, but also Entertaining at times, 5 stars for the Indigenous aspect, and two for the plot.