Daunis Fontaine wanted to start fresh in college and study medicine. The biracial 18-year-old never felt like she quite fit in, either in her town or on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. But in Angeline Boulley’s twisting novel, a family tragedy unexpectedly keeps Daunis home for a year—and she unintentionally witnesses a crime. Soon, the teen is pulled into a whirlwind of secrets and mystery as she helps the FBI with a high-stakes investigation that hits close to home. Part thriller, part romance and part examination of Indigenous identity, Boulley’s forceful and thought-provoking debut questions many of the tropes around policing that often appear in the crime genre. Boulley—herself an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians—delivers a riveting page turner with a remarkable heroine. An immediate hit upon its March 2021 publication, Firekeeper’s Daughter was a Reese’s Book Club selection and a No. 1 New York Times best seller, and it has been optioned by the Obamas’ production company to be adapted into a Netflix series. —Madeleine Carlisle
Buy Now: Firekeeper’s Daughter on Bookshop | Amazon
- How Donald Trump Won
- The Best Inventions of 2024
- Why Sleep Is the Key to Living Longer
- How to Break 8 Toxic Communication Habits
- Nicola Coughlan Bet on Herself—And Won
- What It’s Like to Have Long COVID As a Kid
- 22 Essential Works of Indigenous Cinema
- Meet TIME's Newest Class of Next Generation Leaders