Firekeeper's Daughter

I couldn't put this down as I was reading it–I loved Daunis as narrator and I was fully engaged with her world and ongoing investigation. It did fall apart a little bit toward the end and as I think about it I think maybe this book ultimately bit off a little more than it could chew, but it's still an amazing debut novel and I definitely look forward to seeing what Angeline Boulley writes next.

Like for example why was it a late-book reveal that Daunis has nerve damage in her shoulder? It's from her POV, why was she keeping it a secret from...herself...and then why did that reveal have very little to do with anything going forward? And I suspect the writing around the Little People was out of a respect to not wanting to write too much about Ojibwe lore but it was also kind of like..."here's hundreds of pages of mystery about meth and also there are magical creatures that are literally real and talk to you when you're high but we can't tell the FBI about it so anyway, my shoulder hurts. like I respect that maybe you don't want to write about this lore and I know some other Native American writers have gotten some backlash for putting too much sacred lore into writing but then like, IDK, maybe don't write about it at all instead of just the smallest, wildest tease of a plot element?!?! Also I'm just speculating that that might be the reasoning for it but it just seemed like...a weird level of buildup for extremely little follow through on this plot element that seemed very interesting to me!

Also hey, great to have another hockey novel for my teen hockey enthusiasts! (It's a hockey B-plot for sure but still a good amount of hockey content I think.)

Also content warning for sexual assault, drug use/overdose, murder, etc...like PG-13 but heavy for a younger teen or anyone with specific triggers.