Content warning: gun death, drug use, addiction, violent sexual assault with disassociation
Oooh I am TORN on the review for this one–I feel like this book has so much promise, but at the end of the day there’s just too much going on for the length and reader’s ability to keep up with plot points.
This is a beautiful ownvoices story of Daunis, a half-Ojibwe half-French Canadian high school senior living in Sault Ste Marie. From her French Canadian side, she’s the daughter of a wealthy local family whose name is all over the local college. On her Ojibwe side, she’s part of the Firekeeper family, cultural keepers and key members of the local tribe. The cover is beautiful in this regard–two faces, looking at each other nose to nose and with similar features. Daunis is forever caught between two worlds, always reminded by her French Canadian side how she’s not “like those other Indian” but also not a fully enrolled member of her tribe due to her father not being on her birth certificate (a story in and of itself). It’s a complicated web that she feels unavoidably drawn to–perhaps why she’s not leaving for college as originally planned.
Or maybe not? There’s a lot to keep Daunis in Sault Ste Marie, not in the least of which is the ease and comfort with which she prays and follows Ojibwe teachings. I absolutely loved how Boulley weaves in Daunis’ traditional practices–sure, Daunis might explain what’s going on once or twice, but the book isn’t written entirely to teach you. The laying down of sema, in that sense, is no more “exotic” than a Catholic making the sign of the cross or a Hindu taking blessings from an accidentally kicked book.
Side note: if your name is Lily, and you are a best friend, I think your days are numbered (sorry Lily Kane).
Boulley talks at the end of the book how she wanted to address the complexity of life as a modern day Ojibwe–the ups and downs, highest highs to lowest lows. In doing so, though, I felt like Daunis’ story got lost. There’s enough content here to have fed an entire series of novels of her life, and I for one would have welcomed it.