Book where a girl has some sort of Shrunken Head from her Father. Read around 2017-2018.

[Riza]

I'm looking for a book that I read in probably 2017-2018. I'm starting to question if it was even a real book. In the book there was a girl who had this box from her father, who I think was some kind of an adventurer. Inside the box there was like a human head with its mouth sewed shut and I think it might have been a shrunken head. The girl was really scared of it but also enticed by it and I think it was cursed or something. I think she also had a friend who was an abolitionist and there was a big fire from a protest at some point in the book. Such a fever dream of a book, I never finished it and I really want to read it again and finish it.

[Liz]

Could you be thinking of the golden compass?

Spoilers

In the beginning Lyra is scared but intrigued by a skull with a hole bored through it that her father who is an explorer brings to the college where she lives.

There’s also a fire nearer the end of the book when Lyra and the other kids escape from the Gobblers.

[Riza]

Liz wrote: "Could you be thinking of the golden compass?

Spoilers

In the beginning Lyra is scared but intrigued by a skull with a hole bored through it that her father who is an explorer brings to the coll..."

Sorry, I am so late in responding to this.

What you describe sounds really similar to what I'm talking about. Though, I did take a quick look at the book and skimmed some of its contents and my first impression is that it's not the book I read. Though, I'll try taking a better look through the book now that I don't have midterms to worry about.