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A review by caseythereader
Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
- Whew, what a ride! FIREKEEPER'S DAUGHTER takes a little bit to get rolling, but once it does, you won't be able to leave Daunis' side for a second.
- Love seeing a book that places Indigenous lives firmly in the present. This book covers everything from white friends being casually racist to addiction problems and from saying prayers throughout the day to the importance of respecting elders.
- So many of the characters in this book exist somewhere in a morally gray area, and a lot of that muddling has to do with how Indigenous peoples are treated (or ignored) in the United States.
- This may be a spoiler but I'm going to talk about it precisely because I think it shouldn't be treated as such. About 100 pages from the end of the book, there is a rape. It comes at a climactic moment and is kind of treated as a shocking plot twist. I know the intent was to illustrate how poorly Indigenous women are treated, but that was dealt with elsewhere in the book and given that the perpetrator is the most comically evil character when so many other characters had a gray morality (like, um, the cop love interest) it left a bad taste in my mouth at the end of an otherwise gripping book.
- Love seeing a book that places Indigenous lives firmly in the present. This book covers everything from white friends being casually racist to addiction problems and from saying prayers throughout the day to the importance of respecting elders.
- So many of the characters in this book exist somewhere in a morally gray area, and a lot of that muddling has to do with how Indigenous peoples are treated (or ignored) in the United States.
- This may be a spoiler but I'm going to talk about it precisely because I think it shouldn't be treated as such. About 100 pages from the end of the book, there is a rape. It comes at a climactic moment and is kind of treated as a shocking plot twist. I know the intent was to illustrate how poorly Indigenous women are treated, but that was dealt with elsewhere in the book and given that the perpetrator is the most comically evil character when so many other characters had a gray morality (like, um, the cop love interest) it left a bad taste in my mouth at the end of an otherwise gripping book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, and Murder