Firekeeper’s Daughter

Angeline Boulley spent years writing Firekeeper’s Daughter while working in tribal education, and the result is a YA mystery that doesn’t read like a YA mystery in any of the usual ways. Daunis Fontaine is eighteen, biracial, an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians on her father’s side. After a death close to her, she gets pulled into an FBI investigation into a new drug moving through the local Native community.

The book is long for YA. Boulley uses the room to give the world real specificity. Ojibwe language, family relationships, and ceremonial knowledge sit on the page without explanation, which trusts the reader to catch up.

The mystery is sharp. The romance is complicated in ways the genre usually shies away from.

This became a best seller for good reason. Readers who follow Erika L. Sanchez or Elizabeth Acevedo will find Boulley adjacent.