When my friend, Holly, started raving about this new YA book she was reading, I wasn’t so sure I wanted to jump into a YA read. I’d read a lot of YA when I was teaching middle and high school, but I haven’t had the itch to read much of it in a long time. However, I kept seeing the book pop up places, so I got on the library waiting list. And within a few pages of starting Angeline Boulley’s Firekeeper’s Daughter, I knew that Holly was right–this was a special one.
Firekeeper’s Daughter tells the story of Daunis Fontaine, an 18-year-old ready for a fresh start at college after years of never fully fitting in with her white mother’s community in her hometown or with her late father’s Ojibwe community on the nearby reservation. However, tragedy strikes, and Daunis decides to forego her first year of college to take care of her mother. After witnessing a shocking murder, Daunis gets caught up in an FBI investigation of a lethal new drug devastating the indigenous communities of the Upper Peninsula. As the investigation becomes more complicated and dangerous, inching closer and closer to home, Daunis begins to understand what it means to be a strong Anishinaabe woman as she fights for her community, even as events threaten to tear it apart.
Boulley’s debut novel received a ton of buzz last year and deservedly so. She shows herself to be a skilled mystery writer as well as a talented YA author. Her style and prose grab you from the first pages of the book, and her evocative descriptions make you feel like you are truly in Sault Saint Marie, Sugar Island, and the surrounding environs of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The mystery is tight and propulsive. (I fiished the last 150 pages in a day.) Boulley stealthily weaves a web of clues, directing our attention here and there, occasionally dropping a juicy red herring, and slowly building up to the climax when the multiple revelations both surprise and satisfy. I found myself actively trying to solve the mystery along with Daunis, trying to keep track of clues and making my own guesses. The mystery that prompts a reader to do their own investigation is the best kind of mystery.
However, this is not a context-free mystery with no stakes set in an idealized world. The is a story based on the real experiences of indigenous communities with drug running between the US and Canada and the devestating effect the drugs and associated “businesses” have on those communities. Boulley does not shy away from sharing the realities of drug use, murder, violence, sexual violence against women, the lack of justice for indigenous communities navigating a white justice system, and the damage to and strength of the relationships between the people who live through this. The characters that Boulley draws are real and whole, inspired from her own life and her desire to see a role model for indigenous teens in the YA genre. (In fact, the seeds of the story were planted in high school when a friend of hers wanted to connect her to a new guy at school who turned out to be an undercover narcotics agent.) Boulley’s love for her culture and heritage rise from the page especially through Daunis, who represents her tribal culture, her white culture, and the experience of being an 18-year-old trying to figure out the right path in a remarkably real and honest way. There is some heightened teenage emotion, but Boulley writes it in a way that is believable and honors the experience of navigating two different cultures when you don’t really fit into either.
As a character, Daunis invests herself in honoring the Anishinaabe community and traditions of her father, and Boulley takes the time to delve into those traditions. She peppers her writing with words and phrases in Anishinaabemowin, the Ojibwe language, and though she does not include a glossary for readers, her context clues and in-text translations skillfully explain the meaning of these words without disrupting the flow of her prose. In fact, Boulley intentionally excludes a glossary in order to show the use of Anishinaabemowin in real-life context. (My friend, Ellie, recommends the audio book so that readers can hear Anishinaabemowin spoken in context as well.) She also integrates traditional and spiritual practices throughout the story, sometimes offering a quick explanation in Daunis’ narration and sometimes going deeper into the meaning or importance of the practice through dialog. While these explanations and context clues are elucidating for all readers, it is very important as a reader to remember that this book is not written for me, a 30-something white woman. It is written for young indigenous teens, some who are very connected to their tribal cultures and some who are searching for that understanding and connection, to see a powerful version of themselves in literature written for their age range. Even those moments when Daunis explains a legend or practice or a prayer, she explains them to Jamie, a fellow indigenous person who has no knowledge of his culture and its teachings, and not the white people in her community. In essence, Boulley has created a guidebook, an entry for young indigenous readers to start learning about indigenous traditions through Daunis. It’s pretty awesome.
The book is not perfect. There are plenty of moments that could be tighter. Boulley has a tendency to linger too long on a particular description, drawing it out unnecessarily, and to revisit a repeated action or daily habit with the same level of detail as when she first introduced it. These overly involved descriptions and repetitions can bog down the pace, a challenge for readers in a book that is both already long and dense (though usually well-paced and quite thrilling). And personally, I do tend to find YA romances a bit over the top and dramatic at times, but that’s more of a me thing. It doesn’t really detract from the book as a whole.
Overall, I really loved Firekeeper’s Daughter. Boulley has certainly accomplished her goal of creating a strong, indigenous heroine who honors her culture, and I hope that she will continue in her mission to write indigenous stories for indigenous readers and increase indigenous representation in YA literature.