Firekeeper's Daughter

4.6 | 14,016 ratings

Price: 17.71

Last update: 09-18-2024

About this item

"Isabella Star LaBlanc brings an authentic-sounding narration to this powerful audiobook.... Dialogue, including words in other languages, is handled with effortless transitions and clear depictions between characters. This audiobook should not be missed." (AudioFile magazine, Earphones Award winner)

A Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club YA Pick

An Instant Number One New York Times Best Seller

Soon to be adapted at Netflix for TV with President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama's production company, Higher Ground.

“One of this year's most buzzed about young adult novels.” (Good Morning America)

For fans of Angie Thomas and Tommy Orange, Angeline Boulley's debut novel, Firekeeper's Daughter, is a groundbreaking YA thriller about a Native teen who must root out the corruption in her community.

Eighteen-year-old Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in, both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. She dreams of a fresh start at college, but when family tragedy strikes, Daunis puts her future on hold to look after her fragile mother. The only bright spot is meeting Jamie, the charming new recruit on her brother Levi’s hockey team.

Yet even as Daunis falls for Jamie, she senses the dashing hockey star is hiding something. Everything comes to light when Daunis witnesses a shocking murder, thrusting her into an FBI investigation of a lethal new drug.

Reluctantly, Daunis agrees to go undercover, drawing on her knowledge of chemistry and Ojibwe traditional medicine to track down the source. But the search for truth is more complicated than Daunis imagined, exposing secrets and old scars. At the same time, she grows concerned with an investigation that seems more focused on punishing the offenders than protecting the victims.

Now, as the deceptions - and deaths - keep growing, Daunis must learn what it means to be a strong Anishinaabe kwe (Ojibwe woman) and how far she’ll go for her community, even if it tears apart the only world she’s ever known.

A 2021 Kids' Indie Next List Selection

An Amazon Best Book of the Month for March Selection

An Entertainment Weekly Most Anticipated Books of 2021 Selection

A PopSugar Best March 2021 YA Book Selection

A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt and Company

"The text is filled with Ojibwe phrases and traditions that Native American reader LaBlanc (Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota) handles with ease. Her voice is young and earnest and her fluency adds to the portrayal of Daunis.... It’s a tale filled with suspense, and LaBlanc’s sensitive reading will keep listeners plugged in." (Booklist, starred review)

"Expert narration from Isabella Star LeBlanc, a Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota, brings authenticity to Daunis’s joy, anger, fear, and grief while providing distinct voices for the supporting cast, including the tribal elders. LeBlanc’s captivating voice draws readers in, expressing every mundane, sweet, heartbreaking, and life-threatening moment." (School Library Journal, starred review)

ylmpastmidnight

Fantastic and Powerful

Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2021

Likes:
*What drew me to this book was the cover first, the description second because I love that it was a young adult story about a native teen. I haven’t read many books about Native Americans in all the decades I’ve been reading and it’s about time, or more like overdue. We need more books like these.

*I’m not a big fan of mysteries and didn’t realize this story was a mystery at first. But I was sucked into Daunis’ history, and her story of owning her identity. We learn Ojibwe tribe history, customs and current issues natives go through in their communities. We get to see them experience discrimination, racism, drugs, the role of the elderly, and just how their communities are so tight. I learned about the casinos on reservations and how enrolled tribal members earn per cap and how someone can even be enrolled as a member ~ I learned so much from this story.

*Daunis’ life is complicated but she navigates her life using her tribe teachings and it really centers her when things get rough. And things get dark and sinister in this story which I didn’t expect. Another thing about Daunis which I adored was her intellect and scientific mind. Her western science knowledge and tribe healing practices collide in this story to help her with the investigation and I thought that was really cool to see.

*I love all the family aspects in this book, as complicated and as hurtful as they are, Daunis stays very strong in the face of criticism and hate. I also loved so much how this story features the elderly community because they really should be honored and taken care of. It reminds me of how in my filipino culture the elderly are taken care of by family members, young and old, and I loved that. It made me realize how fortunate I was to be able to grow up with one set of grandparents and help take care of them before they passed. Daunis reveres the elders in her family and community and it is beautiful.

*I thought the ending was beautiful and bittersweet. ❤️ Daunis is the best of her community, she embodies all the complications that natives and half natives live and feel day in and out. And no matter what challenges come, she deals with them with intellect, grace, strength, bravery, respect and knowledge from her Anishinaabe kwe upbringing.

Random Notes:
Triggers: drug use, suicide, homicide, sexual assault, rape, kidnapping

*Everything about this story is complicated including Daunis’ love life which is a fake relationship with blurred lines. I think it ended realistically since in reality she didn’t even know Jamie’s real name ~ I LOVE how Daunis was so mature enough to know that both of them needed time to grow a but before maybe pursuing something. And I adore the dream prophecy about her future as well.

*This story is full of trauma. There are family scandals, tribal scandals, drug use/abuse, suicide murder, sexual assault, the history of native kids being taken to boarding schools without their parents consent, stories of women being abused, so much grief and trying to just heal from the injustices native people have endured for so, so long.

*There is mention about Hawaii (a James Michener book I read in high school), and then UH Hawaii at Manoa and I loved seeing our state college get mentioned!

Final Thoughts:
Everything about Daunis’ story in the Firekeeper’s Daughter drew me in and I cared about her and her family, no matter how complicated it was because the love is real. I love that we get to experience life through Daunis, a half white/half native young adult who wants the best for all the people she loves and the best for her community. I learned a lot about native life, some of the cultural aspects like pow wows and tribal council votes, casinos and per cap payouts. But underneath all that information you feel the struggle native americans feel to try and exist on the land their people had stolen from them with violence and oppression. I hope we get more native stories in books, tv and movies because their stories are important and need to be told. This is an honest and powerful story that is multi-layered, and must be read.

Jonathan Pongratz

True Crime and Native American culture

Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2024

3.5/5

Daunis Fontaine has always struggled to fit into her Native American community, being part of two opposing factions. But when a tragedy hits too close to home and an opportunity to right it and better the lives of her community presents itself, she can't help but become involved. Daunis' investigative journey takes her on a deep dive into her own community, where she learns dark truths and the struggles and threats her neighbors face on a daily basis.

While I enjoyed this novel, it had its highs and lows.

What really kept me going was Daunis herself. She's the main character and has a lot of great virtues about her that make her very admirable. She wants the best for her community and is willing to risk everything to make an impact. She's intelligent, resourceful, and most of all, she's got the heart to back it up. She had a lot of depth to her character that was revealed throughout the book, and to me she felt like a real person.

Native American culture was a central theme to this story. Not knowing much, I learned a lot along the way, though I did wish the pacing was spread out a bit more evenly. In the beginning there was an abundance of terms I didn't understand, and though I did come to comprehend them, it was more difficult to get into the story because of that. I also regret not having listened to the audiobook, as pronunciation of Native American terms is left to the reader and I would've connected to it more strongly if I had gone that route.

The plot started off slow(a bit too slow for my liking personally), but picked up drastically about a quarter of the way through. From that point on, things were much faster paced and had a consistent element of mystery that kept me on the edge of my seat. Fair warning, this novel does have some dark themes present like rape and addiction, but it paints a realistic story that I could see happening in the real world today with ample twists and turns that will leave you guessing.

If you enjoy true-crime and want it served with some culture, then this book is definitely for you!

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