2021: THIS BOOK IS SOOOO GOOD.

I was immediately attracted to this book, not only because of its extremely topical themes, but also its instant praise and acclaim. It instantly became a selection of Reese's Book Club, in addition to being optioned as an original series on Netflix, produced by none other than THE OBAMA'S. And if Michelle says that something is good, I'm here to read it. The cherry on top was that Boulley is the same race as her main character. YES.

I went into it with high expectations, and it did not disappoint. The characters are all well flushed out and complex. I could immediately identify with her discussion of small town life, but it was Boulley's descriptions of Daunis not feeling white enough OR Native enough that really sold me on this book. There are some pretty adult themes going on here for this book to be considered YA! Daunis is 19 in the book, and I would keep this for high schoolers and up.

If you've heard about the Indigenous boarding schools that stole children away from their parents in order to "raise them white" in recent news stories and want to learn more about that, this is a good resource. However, it's a very small subplot in comparison to the shenanigans that are also going on, so maybe take a peek towards a nonfiction option there.

The pace of the book was awesome, considering it's pretty hefty overall. I thought Daunis's inner monologue and her external experiences were pretty well balanced. A lot of the police work and the kidnapping seemed a little farfetched, but the feelings were genuine. I really enjoyed this read and would highly recommend it if you're looking for more Native authors to read!