A review by tigger89
Firekeeper's Daughter, by Angeline Boulley
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
There were a lot of things I really liked about this book, and a lot of things that I really didn't. I felt that the mystery was fairly obvious from early on, but I don't necessarily think that it was a bad thing. Even though I as the reader had a pretty good idea of who the culprit was, I still wanted to see Daunis work it out for herself. It fit nicely with the themes of deception present throughout the novel. What didn't work for me was the culprit's ultimate motivation, and how the character seemed to change like a switch had been flipped and now evil mode is activated.
The pacing in this book is weird, I'm gonna warn you. Again, I think that it worked, but if you're going into this expecting a fast-paced FBI thriller, you're not going to be happy. To give you an idea what I mean, it's about 85 pages(out of 494) before the incident that propels the plot forward even goes down. Now that's not to say that the early pages are wasted. To the contrary, they build the world and establish the relationships that truly make us care about Daunis and her community. They're very necessary to carry the rest of the book. But they're slow, and you're going to spend about 75% of your reading time on the first 25% of the book. The pace picks up as the story goes on though, with a final action sequence that I loved and a 40-ish page denouement, which I also loved, but I'm weird like that.
Something that I'm very conflicted about is how the early 2000s were represented. The time period feels very accurate to me in terms of character values and how they approach things. This, however, leads directly to my biggest beef with this book: the central romance is questionable at best and predatory at worst. An 18-22 age gap is already on the edge of being a bad idea. Throw in the power dynamics, and those red flags are waving so hard they're about to fly off the pole. However, this is looking at it from a 2021(the publication year) perspective. In the 00s, when the novel is set, this would have been seen as thrilling and romantic(source: I was there). I wasn't surprised at all to read in the author's note that Boulley started work on this idea back in the 00s. And yes, the relationship did have to be romantic in nature; a platonic relationship wouldn't have hit the same notes that were necessary to drive the plot and themes, and I say this as someone who's notorious for deeming romantic subplots unnecessary. I guess I'll chalk this one up as points for historical accuracy, and be thankful that the kids seem to be doing better these days.
Continuing in the theme of "things from the 00s I'd rather see left behind," I want to note that the only gay in this book had been buried even before the first page. Again, there's period accuracy in this, because it was a rough time to be out in high school so many students simply didn't, especially if there wasn't already an established gay-straight alliance. But this novel was published in 2021, and today's readers expect better. I can understand not wanting to dive into the issues, but don't bury the only gay and call it good, because it's not!
The last thing I was conflicted about was the representation of Ojibwe culture and values. Boulley shares a lot, which is a good thing, but at times it felt repetitive. Rather than merely showing something she would explain it, and rather than explaining it just the once she'd often explain it several times, as if to make sure the reader had understood. To end on a high note, one of my favorite things about this book was the elders, especially how the relationships seeded over the course of the story came back into play at the end. That was a good example of showing Daunis's devotion to the elders in her community with a minimum of telling us that it's important to her culture, and I wish the other aspects of Ojibwe culture had been explored in the same manner.
The pacing in this book is weird, I'm gonna warn you. Again, I think that it worked, but if you're going into this expecting a fast-paced FBI thriller, you're not going to be happy. To give you an idea what I mean, it's about 85 pages(out of 494) before the incident that propels the plot forward even goes down. Now that's not to say that the early pages are wasted. To the contrary, they build the world and establish the relationships that truly make us care about Daunis and her community. They're very necessary to carry the rest of the book. But they're slow, and you're going to spend about 75% of your reading time on the first 25% of the book. The pace picks up as the story goes on though, with a final action sequence that I loved and a 40-ish page denouement, which I also loved, but I'm weird like that.
Something that I'm very conflicted about is how the early 2000s were represented. The time period feels very accurate to me in terms of character values and how they approach things. This, however, leads directly to my biggest beef with this book: the central romance is questionable at best and predatory at worst. An 18-22 age gap is already on the edge of being a bad idea. Throw in the power dynamics, and those red flags are waving so hard they're about to fly off the pole. However, this is looking at it from a 2021(the publication year) perspective. In the 00s, when the novel is set, this would have been seen as thrilling and romantic(source: I was there). I wasn't surprised at all to read in the author's note that Boulley started work on this idea back in the 00s. And yes, the relationship did have to be romantic in nature; a platonic relationship wouldn't have hit the same notes that were necessary to drive the plot and themes, and I say this as someone who's notorious for deeming romantic subplots unnecessary. I guess I'll chalk this one up as points for historical accuracy, and be thankful that the kids seem to be doing better these days.
Continuing in the theme of "things from the 00s I'd rather see left behind," I want to note that the only gay in this book had been buried even before the first page. Again, there's period accuracy in this, because it was a rough time to be out in high school so many students simply didn't, especially if there wasn't already an established gay-straight alliance. But this novel was published in 2021, and today's readers expect better. I can understand not wanting to dive into the issues, but don't bury the only gay and call it good, because it's not!
The last thing I was conflicted about was the representation of Ojibwe culture and values. Boulley shares a lot, which is a good thing, but at times it felt repetitive. Rather than merely showing something she would explain it, and rather than explaining it just the once she'd often explain it several times, as if to make sure the reader had understood. To end on a high note, one of my favorite things about this book was the elders, especially how the relationships seeded over the course of the story came back into play at the end. That was a good example of showing Daunis's devotion to the elders in her community with a minimum of telling us that it's important to her culture, and I wish the other aspects of Ojibwe culture had been explored in the same manner.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Death, and Dementia
Moderate: Addiction, Drug use, Rape, Car accident, Drug abuse, Cultural appropriation, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Sexual violence, Colonisation, Grief, Sexual assault, Alcohol, and Injury/injury detail
Minor: Alcoholism and Infidelity