Podcast

The book "Firekeeper's Daughter" by Angeline Dooley is a mystery set in an indigenous community. The main character, Donna Fontaine, faces family issues and gets caught up in a murder investigation. The story explores her struggle with her biracial identity and finding her voice. Donna moves away to college but has to return home due to a death in the family and her uncle's involvement in meth dealing. Through the investigation, Donna discovers herself and her purpose. The book also emphasizes the importance of elders in preserving culture and traditions. Overall, it's recommended but it's a long read. Hi guys, I'm Sophia and today we're going to be talking about Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Dooley. This book was published in 2021 and it's a very cool mystery set in the OG boy community and it follows the main character Donna Fontaine and throughout this book she goes through many family issues and hard times and she ends up getting caught in a murder investigation um but to her it's more than a mystery it's a story about her identity her culture and justice so Donna is biracial and growing up for her was really hard because her mom was a part of like a more traditional white family and her dad was a part of an indigenous community and indigenous culture and she never felt like she fit in with either and both of her parents kind of forced her to go on their side and so she never felt like she had a voice of her own and she never felt like she was really a part of her family and her community so the basic plot of this book is Donna moves away to college she's finally starting to live her own life and find her own way there was a death in the family and so she had to come home and she had to leave this new life she had created for herself behind so she came home and on top of there being a death in the family her uncle had just been caught dealing meth and taking meth and authorities believed that this is what led to her grandma dying so she was put on this mystery case and she was now a detective and throughout this whole investigation she really felt like she found herself as a person and she found her purpose in life and so I'm from this girl who was so mad that she had to come home because she was finally finding herself and she turned into this person that no one had ever met before no one had ever seen before and she finally felt like she not only had a purpose but that she was meant to be there and that she finally found who she really was I'm reminded that our elders are our greatest resource embodying culture and community their stories connect us to our language medicines land clans songs and traditions they are a bridge between the before and the now guiding those of us who will carry on in the future while I was reading this I saw some family issues and I also saw her struggling to connect with her family and this little paragraph really stood out to me because to me it was like her saying that she knows that she has a family past and that there are certain things that in a family you have to do but you don't have to follow by the rules and you don't have to do things to make other people happy overall I would recommend this book to people um I will warn you that it is a very long book so if you don't like reading I wouldn't read it but I give it like a four out of five stars