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Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley

Young adult

Firekeeper's Daughter

Debut

We love supporting debut authors. Congrats, Angeline Boulley, on your first book!

by Angeline Boulley

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Quick take

The gripping story of an Ojibwe girl who risks all to go undercover and stop those trying to tear her community apart.

Good to know

  • Illustrated icon, 400

    400+ pages

  • Illustrated icon, Family_Drama

    Family drama

  • Illustrated icon, Murder

    Murder

  • Illustrated icon, Quest

    Quest

Synopsis

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.

Free sample

Get an early look from the first pages of Firekeeper's Daughter.

Firekeeper's Daughter

I am a frozen statue of a girl in the woods. Only my eyes move, darting from the gun to their startled expression.

Gun. Shock. Gun. Disbelief. Gun. Fear.

THA-THUM-THA-THUM-THA-THUM.

The snub-nosed revolver shakes with tiny tremors from the jittery hand aiming at my face.

I’m gonna die.

My nose twitches at a greasy sweetness. Familiar. Vanilla and mineral oil. WD-40. Someone used it to clean the gun. More scents: pine, damp moss, skunky sweat, and cat pee.

THA-THUM-THA-THUM-THA-THUM.

The jittery hand makes a hacking motion with the gun, as if wielding a machete instead. Each diagonal slice toward the ground gives me hope. Better a random target than me.

But then terror grips my heart again. The gun. Back at my face.

Mom. She won’t survive my death. One bullet will kill us both.

A brave hand reaches for the gun. Fingers outstretched.

Demanding. Give it. Now.

THA-THUM-THA—

I am thinking of my mother when the blast changes everything.

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Why I love it

I read a lot: for work and for pleasure, and when I pick up a new book I’m looking for an engrossing story that helps expand my cultural and literary horizons. Angeline Boulley’s young adult thriller Firekeeper’s Daughter, about a biracial Anishinaabe teen who confronts the darkest corners of her community in order to save it, ticks both those boxes.

Daunis Fontaine, a college freshman trying to reconcile both halves of her identity, is the hero of this story and a typical teen. She hangs out with her half-brother Levi’s hockey team, helps to look after the women in her family, crushes on a handsome new student, and supports her friends in their own love lives. But when an unspeakable tragedy occurs, her world is shattered. As Daunis struggles with the senseless violence that has made its way into her life, she takes on the harrowing task of working undercover with the FBI to discover the source of a dangerous new strain of meth on the local reservation and to help protect her community from further harm.

Firekeeper’s Daughter is a nail-biting thriller, but it’s also a vital testament to the everyday courage, humor, and resilience of Native women: in her author’s note, Boulley cites the heartbreaking fact that 84% of Native women experience violence in their lifetime. I tore through this book: I laughed, cried, stayed up too late finishing it, and I came out on the other side moved and inspired by Daunis and the fierce constellation of sisters, mothers, daughters, and ancestors who make up her community.

Member ratings (10,725)

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Young adult
View all
The Wild Huntress
Ruthless Vows
As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow
Dragonfruit
The Thirteenth Child
The Reappearance of Rachel Price
Gwen & Art Are Not in Love
Check & Mate
Divine Rivals
Foul Lady Fortune
Anna K Away
I Must Betray You
A Wilderness of Stars
Warrior Girl Unearthed
Bloodmarked
Instructions for Dancing
The Boy in the Red Dress
Color Me In
Not So Pure and Simple
Throw Like a Girl
Frankly in Love
Wayward Son
The Stars and the Blackness Between Them
Anna K
Patron Saints of Nothing
The Kingdom of Back
Yes No Maybe So
Permanent Record
Full Disclosure
Oasis
Where the World Ends
I Have No Secrets
When the Stars Lead to You
All the Bright Places
Saving Zoë
Symptoms of a Heartbreak
All of Us with Wings
The Boy and Girl Who Broke the World
Past Perfect Life
There's Something About Sweetie
Again, But Better
Sky Without Stars
How (Not) to Ask a Boy to Prom
Night Music
Shout
The Deceivers
Top Ten
A Million Junes
And We're Off
Salt to the Sea