Review: Firekeeper's Daughter

Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. 

It’s hard to explain what it’s like being so connected to everyone and everything here … yet feeling that no one ever sees the whole me. 

Daunis Fontaine is eighteen years old the year her uncle dies from an apparent drug overdose and her GrandMary Fontaine has a stroke. Daunis has decided to go to a local college that is closer to help her mother through the grief of it all. Jamie Johnson is the new senior transfer and hot new hockey player but while Daunis is drawn to him, he never answers questions and always asks them. Daunis has always felt the divide between her Zhaaganaash and Anishinaabe parentage sides, especially now more than ever as she must decide if she is helping or betraying. 

To know zoongidewin is to face your fears with a strong heart. 

Firekeeper's Daughter is a slice of life fictional story that is told solely in first person point-of-view from our main character Daunis. It was an absorbing tale that had me knowing Daunis inside and out but left some other characters feeling a little vague. When Daunis' mother was sixteen, she got pregnant by Levi Firekeeper, it was the tale of rich white girl who's family looked down on the Anishinaabe boy, even though he was an elite hockey player for the local team. More angst follows when Daunis' mom catches Levi cheating, he crashes his car breaking his legs and ending his hockey career and Daunis' grandparents do their best to keep Levi away. Levi ends up dying when Daunis is seven but she has a half-brother, Levi Jr, that she is close with and her Aunt Teddie from her dad's side keep Daunis connected to the Firekeepers. Daunis also has a bestfriend Lily who has a similar background and they bond over how they are descendants but not enrolled members of the Sugar Island Ojibwe Tribe. This push and pull Danuis experiences, sometimes from her own family members, was a big part of the fabric of the story and I thought the author did a great job portraying the emotions that Daunis had to learn to deal with when the racism came from strangers and her own family members. 

Jamie Johnson is not who he says he is. And this is not a dream. 

With this slice of life story, we get a little bit of romance, mystery, and some thriller. There's an immediate attraction between Daunis and the new guy Jamie. As Daunis is wary but trying to get to know Jamie, we see her friend Lily dealing with her ex-boyfriend Travis, who was also friends with Daunis. Travis is dealing with an addiction to Meth and we learn that the community has been dealing with an uptick of this. When Daunis witnesses a traumatic event, she sees Jamie and it finally clicks that he's an undercover cop. This is where the mystery comes in and Daunis is now acting as a confidential informant for the FBI and the task force investigating where a batch of meth that severely sickened kids in Minnesota came from and who is selling it. Daunis' activeness and the whole investigation, especially Jamie and his pretend Uncle, is very slow moving and not always front and center. It's a slow burn investigation that focuses more on how drugs come into this community and affects them through Daunis' eyes. There were times I wanted the investigation to be taken more seriously or more action but the focus here is more on Daunis learning how to honor both sides of her heritage and help without betraying her Anishinaabe family. 

In this Newer New Normal I am living a lie as a confidential informant for the meth investigation connected to the deaths of my uncle and my best friend. 

Daunis' newer new normal begins about 20% into the story, so Daunis working in the investigation encompasses most of the book. The book is also broken up into five parts and I saw Part One as the intro to Daunis and into the community and sets up Part Two where Daunis is a confidential informant, Part Three we know the investigated players and get a little bit of thriller, and then Part Four is the aftermath of what the investigation revealed. This takes place in 2004 and in a town in Michigan that rests on the border with Canada and I thought the author did a great job setting the time, place, and feel for the community. As I said earlier, Daunis is the standout character and I would have liked some others to be filled out more. I'm not sure we ever really got to know Jamie as much as I would have liked, Danuis' Aunt Teddie deserves to have her story written, and if this gets another book for a series, I want it to be about Daunis' ex-boyfriend T.J. Kewadin. 

Wisdom is not bestowed. In its raw state, it is the heartbreak of knowing things you wish you didn’t. 

I thought the ending was rushed and there's a little bit of info dump when players are revealed and motivations explained. There was also a rape scene that I'm not sure was handled as carefully as it could and should have been; it ended up feeling abruptly put in for some heaviness. I think this might read a little slow for young adults but has elements that will work to keep their attention, reading it as an adult, it kept me locked in. This window into Daunis' life was an affecting slice of life story and strong debut, I will definitely be on the lookout for future works by this author.

View all my reviews