Two Very Different YA Books

Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley

Firekeeper's Daughter is an #ownvoices book and as a young adult mystery/thriller, it also qualifies as  "a genre novel by an Indigenous, First Nations, or Native American author" in the Read Harder Challenge. This book does a great job of immersing the reader in Ojibwe culture and community, and I loved our protagonist Daunis, who is biracial and straddles both her father's Ojibwe culture and her mother's white family.  I loved her choices and the ending especially is powerful. I highly recommend this one as a deep dive into present-day (well as of 2004, when it's set) Native culture.

A couple of caveats with spoilers, so skip this paragraph if you don't want to know. Firstly, the romance element is pretty squicky because of how utterly unethical her romantic interest is.  I liked him as a character in many ways but it's reallllly hard to get past that.  And secondly, although the sexual assault storyline is ultimately handled well, it really seems put in there just to make a point about the lack of justice for Native women. I loved the scene with the pansies though so ultimately I was on board with it. 

I guess the other thing is that consider it's a thriller, it's a bit slow going. The ultimate bad guy is telegraphed very obviously very early, although there is a lot more to the twists that I did not see coming. And the pacing is pretty slow.  Still, it's worth it for the exploration of culture and for Daunis as a character.  

Kate in Waiting by Becky Albertalli 

Of course I'm always going to read a Becky Albertalli novel! This one also has some problems, although maybe I'm feeling picky this weeekend. This is about a girl and her gay BFF, theater kids who tend to have "communal crushes" on the same guy.  I mean, any of us former nerdy teenagers with gay BFFs (and we are legion) can relate to this unhealthy level of enmeshment, I'm sure.

Some issues: the side characters are not explored well at all. I got no sense of Matt as a character, Raina and Brandie are just kind of there, Harold might as well not exist. I appreciate the efforts at representation a lot, but it did seem a bit like Glee: throwing in the token trans character or token girl in a wheelchair, just kind of ticking off boxes rather than writing them as fully three-dimensional characters. (Some characters are great though, including Anderson, Noah, Ryan, and Kate herself.) 

Another issue: the Anderson and Kate relationship. It turns incredibly toxic and is really repetitive. I especially had issues with Anderson and how he kept having these "I love you more than anything!" talks and then giving Kate the silent treatment over nothing in the next scene.  I think the idea is good (and I like the reveal of his motivations) but the balance here is off.  I was not really rooting for their friendship as much as I think I was supposed to.

Still, did I stay up late finishing this one? Did I love the musical theater setting? Did I love Kate unreservedly? I sure did.