Quick Synopsis

#1 New York Times bestselling author of Firekeeper’s Daughter Angeline Boulley takes us back to Sugar Island in this high-stakes mystery about the power of discovering your stolen history.

Publisher’s Synopsis

Perry Firekeeper-Birch has always known who she is – the laidback twin, the troublemaker, the best fisher on Sugar Island. Her aspirations won’t ever take her far from home, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. But as the rising number of missing Indigenous women starts circling closer to home, as her family becomes embroiled in a high-profile murder investigation, and as greedy grave robbers seek to profit off of what belongs to her Anishinaabe tribe, Perry begins to question everything.

In order to reclaim this inheritance for her people, Perry has no choice but to take matters into her own hands. She can only count on her friends and allies, including her overachieving twin and a charming new boy in town with unwavering morals. Old rivalries, sister secrets, and botched heists cannot – will not – stop her from uncovering the mystery before the ancestors and missing women are lost forever.

Sometimes, the truth shouldn’t stay buried.

Book Review

I adored Angeline Boulley’s debut novel, Firekeeper’s Daughter. I was super excited to find out that she decided to write a sequel and jumped at the opportunity to read Warrior Girl Unearthed.

Warrior Girl Unearthed is a young adult mystery about an Anishinaabe teen who tries to find a way to bring a stolen ancestor back to her tribe. The book begins ten years after Firekeeper’s Daughter with Daunis’s niece, Perry. All Perry wants to do this summer is fish, but an accident forces Perry to work a local summer internship at the local tribal museum, where she learns of ancestral remains and sacred objects at a nearby university.

Voiced through Perry, Warrior Girl Unearthed felt a bit more YA than Firekeeper’s Daughter – in both writing and plot. As someone who does not typically read YA novels, I was not dissuaded from reading it despite this shift in tone. The story still has depth and nuance despite the more reckless and less thought out actions the characters take.

My only other critique is that the mystery in Warrior Girl Unearthed was a bit less compelling than that in Boulley’s debut. Still, I found the overall plot to be interesting and engaging enough that the lack of tension (from mystery) did not dampen my enjoyment.

Boulley included so much information and knowledge in this book; yet, I never felt like I was being taught or on the receiving end of an info dump. Instead, I learned right along with Perry about reparations and Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). I also loved that Boulley wove in a subplot about missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIW). (It was especially fitting that I read this after Searching for Savannah.) I am so happy to have learned so much from Warrior Girl Unearthed while reading a great story.

I adored the characters in this book. They were all well-developed and came to feel like people I knew. I especially loved Perry as the strong female protagonist who is rebellious, blunt, and still a passionate advocate for her people.

Overall, Warrior Girl Unearthed is a well-realized novel that honors the Ojibwe community, history, and practices. I really enjoyed reading it and highly recommend it. While this book can be read as a stand alone, I assure you that you do not want to miss out on the fun of Firekeeper’s Daughter and seeing this community of characters grow over time.

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