Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley

I read this as part of my "librarian" book club, in that we are all librarians but this was a for-fun read. It had been on my TBR for a little while.

Content/trigger warnings - murder/suicide, drugs, rape, loss of family members

Ah, the memories this book evoked! Firekeeper's Daughter takes place around 2002, which is the year I graduated from high school and started college. Despite not growing up/being familiar with Sault St. Marie, it felt immediately familiar in the sense of that transitional period between youth and adulthood. To me at least, this seems representative of Daunis's identity on the margins of both her communities--being not white enough and not Ojibwe enough. One thing I absolutely adored was her mother's (Grace) commitment to her. Despite being unplanned, Daunis is the light of her mother's life--something the readily shares with Daunis at one point. She goes on to say that "[c]hildren are never to blame for their parents' lives. Parents are the adults; we are the ones responsible for our choices and how we handle things." This resonated heavily with me as both the child of a parent who wasn't the person I thought they were and as an educator. Daunis's mother very obviously treasures her daughter while living with the pain of losing the man she loves twice (once to another woman and then when he passes away) on top of the treatment she receives from her mother (GrandMary). Overcoming generational trauma is an important theme in Firekeeper's Daughter and again, I really loved how Grace dotes on Daunis. The stories that Daunis received from her Aunt Teddie also show how strongly Grace believes in giving Daunis the opportunity to know her Firekeeper family.

The beginning is a little tough to get through, though that might be my state of mind. It took me almost a month to finish, with the last half being read over the past three days. It is an easily relatable book, even from a non-indigenous perspective. Daunis struggles to fit into any world she resides in. She has multiple sets of worlds, the Before and After, hockey and non-hockey, white and Indigenous, and normal versus secret squirrel. Her navigation of grief coincides with her cultural practices and I envied the concept of good medicine being actions grounded in love, like her mother's forehead kisses.

The concept of identity is a prevalent theme that is thoroughly explored with every character, no matter how minor. Without spoiling the ending, I really enjoyed how identity is an anchor for all of the relationships Daunis has, most importantly her relationship with herself. She is a strong female character that behaves in a realistic manner even when dealing with things that aren't typical for the average reader. 

I would absolutely read another book by Boulley. She writes beautifully and I thoroughly enjoyed this window into Ojibwe culture and traditions. She does an amazing job of engaging and entertaining the reader while simultaneously educating them. If the reader wasn't already familiar with the hardships, microaggressions, erasure, and issues that Indigenous people face today.

I read a number of reviews that cited repetitiveness as a reason for not liking the book. There are some repetitive instances of Daunis waking up and going through her day--for anyone who has grieved the loss of a loved one, whether that was a family member or a close friend, they probably distinctly recall the feelings you wake up with. I recently lost my mother and the first few weeks were a blur of repetitive actions and behaviors that I used to cope. I literally told myself to do things and how to do them inside my head. Perhaps these people aren't chronic overthinkers, which Daunis seems to be.