I was very excited to read "Wandering Stars," Tommy Orange's follow-up to his Pulitzer Prize-finalist "There There." It took me a bit to get used to the writing style; it's a bit disjointed, more like a stream-of-conscious conversation than a cohesive novel. Told through multiple points of view (and who is speaking is not always obvious at first, nor is it indicated in the chapter heading), this story follows multiple generations of a Native American family, through the Sandy Creek Massacre (about which I had no previous knowledge-thank you white-washed American education system), boarding schools (again, I was taught nothing about this in high school, even though I grew up a mere hour's drive from Carlisle), loss of identity and connection to other Native people, mental illness, and alcohol and drug abuse. These are stories that deserve to be told-that need to be told. "Wandering Stars" is not a light-hearted, read-for-entertainment kind of book. It is a painful and eye-opening book that shines a light on how the horrors of the past still influence the present, especially when most of those horrors were so completely swept under the rug for everyone but those who directly experienced them. Both heart-breaking and hopeful, this book should grace the shelves of all Americans.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the privilege of reading this extraordinary book.

Wandering Stars is a story about generational trauma, addition, and family. It tells the story of a Native American family through the generations, although they aren't always aware of their history. The first section of the book is set in the past, beginning with the Sand Creek Massacre in 1864. This section felt like it quickly travelled through the generations up until the 1970s, so I didn't always have a grasp on who the characters were. The second section of the book is set in the present and is concerned with three sons and their grandmothers. This section of the book felt like it had more meat to it and we got to know the characters a lot better. The writing of the book was very lyrical and beautiful, but I wasn't always totally clear on what was going on in the story. It was also overall very sad. The happy moments were very touching, but there were not a lot of them. I would recommend this book to people who enjoy stories told over generations.

This book was both a prequel and a sequel to There There by Tommy Orange. The writing is beautiful and important. This should be mandatory reading for everyone. It highlights the horrors of colonization for the Native American People. It’s raw, real, visceral and tragic. It does feel like a collection of short stories though rather than one whole cohesive story which made it less successful for me. I would have liked to stay on one storyline but that’s just a personal preference.

There There was my favorite book of the year, whichever year that was it came out. It was so strong and ripped my heart apart, So I was really excited for his follow-up.
Maybe too much time has lapsed. I don't remember the details of There There or who or what happened past the ending. Not that that really matters as the first part of the book is the story of the family leading up to Orville. It lacks cohesion and even though you have an idea where it is leading, you're still trying to figure out why the pieces matter. I kept waiting for things to meet. The characters are engaging, but just as you hooked, they're gone. Once we get to Orvil, you're like "now the lines are connected and we'll start moving." But it focuses so much on getting high and Orvils difficulties. I know that is the point of the book, to show the effects of the family history on a modern man, but for a character as wonderful as Orville, it's not what I want (I know I'm getting what I need, not what I want).

This is not a book to read for jollies or relaxation. It tells the difficult story of the effect of colonialism on our indigenous people. It's necessary and in Orange's beautiful writing, it is almost beautiful It's not my favorite book of the year and I would tell someone approach with caution. It's well worth the read. And now I wait for Orange's next book, hoping now that he has gotten this story out of his system, he can focus on one next time.

“Wandering Stars” is both a prequel and sequel to “There, There,” for which Orange won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2018 and the PEN/Hemingway Award for a Debut Novel, among other honors, including Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2019. “There, There” was indeed astonishing, and “Wandering Stars” even more so.

This is an unforgettable story, a multi-generational epic with multiple points of view. It begins in 1864 with Jude Star, a young Cheyenne, who survived the Sand Creek Massacre, one of the most brutal and controversial events in American history. This is an important book about a part of American history that we should all know better.

The trauma and consequences reverberate through six generations of Jude Star’s descendants. No life is untouched by the devastating events of the past and there seems no escape from crime, addiction, illness, and almost unbearable sadness in the present. As Orvil says, “A bad thing doesn’t stop happening to you just because it stops happening to you.” And yet, a spirit of resilience also runs in the family. People can change. Having a future means you have hope. Opal maintains that a person can rise above the bad things that happened, that these are opportunities, “ways to find out who you were, find out what else couldn’t keep you down, and were the only way you could find out how strong you really were.” Jude Star’s descendants never stop trying to understand themselves and their place in the world, how to live, how to survive. And each must do it in their own way.

Orange, a brilliant and lyrical writer, has given us a powerful story about the horrors and long-lasting effects of genocide, as well as the resilience of the human spirit in the face of the most slender odds of carrying on. A blending of myth and history, of heartache and hopefulness, vulnerability and persistence. What it means to be “Native,” what it means to be outsiders, wanderers.

It’s also very much a story about the power of words, of language — how a name, a thought, a sentence can change everything — and most of all, the power of stories. The book is full of stories passed down from generation to generation. Very early Jude Star, himself a storyteller, tells his son Charles that “Stories do more than comfort. They take you away and bring you back better made.” Several generations later, Orvil tells us that he had to create a “secret temple. The one I made inside, The one I created in order to understand myself better . . . some inside version of me I’d made who understood me. Who was me.”

Stories are for making sense of the past as well as our lives in the present. Stories remind us both of who we are and who we can be. Stories bind us together. We have to invent and reinvent ourselves. We have to learn to tell ourselves the stories that will save us. Tommy Orange tells it beautifully.

I was a bit perplexed by the last chapter (and can’t really discuss this because of spoilers). However, when I thought about the title of the book, that last chapter suddenly made complete sense to me and felt both right and satisfying.

Sincere thanks to Alfred A. Knopf, Publisher, and NetGalley for an advance digital copy of this marvelous book.

#WanderingStars #NetGalley

I feel like this book had so much to live up to as a follow up to Tommy Orange's amazing novel THERE THERE. Both a sequel AND a prequel, which is a massive, ambitious feat in itself! Comparatively, the plot in this book is definitely not as tense and immediately engaging as his previous work, especially to start. Also worth noting, if you haven't read THERE THERE, I think it will be hard for many readers to enjoy this book because there might be confusion about who certain characters are. It's almost as if this book can be split into 2 parts - and for readers who loved THERE THERE, this book takes off in the second half, where THERE THERE left off. Overall, I didn't love this one as much as I'd hoped, but Tommy Orange is a truly incredible writer, and the way he writes about addiction, the overall human condition and the Native American community.is a stunning experience.

After having read the authors' previous book, I knew for sure that I will read this one. It is far from a light read, in fact, it is extremely emotional as we see what the Native Americans have had to deal with for generations. How this generational trauma has continued to shape their lives. But my concern was with loss of focus in the book especially after the first half. It is a very necessary topic and was definitely heart-wrenching!

WANDERING STARS envelops you in the lives of the characters and their ancestors. Although there is time spent in the past, learning about the ancestors of the Redfeather and Bear Shield families, a lot of the story is spent examining the aftermath of THERE, THERE (Orange's debut novel). The book itself wanders through perspectives, sometimes returning to someone, while we might only get one chapter to spend with others. It takes a bit of time to get comfortable with the ambling nature of the story, especially if you are used to a more linear narrative, but once you let go of your notions, it is an immersive experience. Orange created some of the most poignant lines I have read in a long time- lines that linger and morph the more time they spend in your brain, the best kinds of lines that a story can offer, in my opinion.
WANDERING STARS could be read without reading THERE, THERE, but having a familiarity with the characters really enhanced my entire reading experience.


A big thank you to Net Galley and Knopf for the advanced copy!

Thank you net gallery for the advanced copy of this book. Wow. So, the story starts with over 100years of family history and intergenerational trauma before going back to where the first book ended. This provides the context for how this particular family views the world. There is a lot of drugs in the second part, a makes you want to stock up on Narcan amount of drugs. The end is quieter, hard work and recovery often are.

4 stars

The writing in this book is excellent, but it is often difficult to read the content, as it shows the awful treatment Native Americans received. The book follows multiple generations of a Cheyenne family.

An early storyline puts us in the mind of a survivor of the Sand Creek Massacre, and a later storyline is a survivor of a shooting at a pow-wow. This book is filled with characters that have to be resilient to survive. There’s quite a bit of drug and alcohol misuse.

We have a terrible history in the US that is only recently being acknowledged. Stories like this give us some insight. The Carlisle Indian School is the focus of one storyline, and it was hard to read that the mission of the school was to eradicate an entire culture.

This is a book to read slowly. I still need to read “There There” by this author, as this is a companion story.

Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange is a beautifully and brutally written novel about Native Americans that was an emotionally challenging read for me. I did not read his Pulitzer nominated book, There There. I enjoy books with a historical slant and part one takes place in 1928. The forced attendance at residential schools was honestly horribly abusive to the children and their families. Part two is set in 2018 and follows the ruined lives of a group of friends, young Native Americans, whose lives are headed for grim and hopeless futures. There is no rainbow and certainly no pot of gold.
Thanks so much to NetGalley and Knoff for the eARC and the opportunity to read and review Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange.
3 stars – Pub.Date: February 27, 2024

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc, I'm providing an honest review of my own accord <3

"The word family will never feel the same as it once did, or maybe it never quite fit. Like we need new words for what we become, how much we change, how we wear words and names out, especially when your heart breaks about going from being a kid to being an adult because you have to, because the world isn't made for kids."

At first, I was nervous about this falling into the same issues I encountered when reading There, There, and though I think others may feel differently, I really enjoyed this follow up and think TO's writing has only improved (who am I, I'm a peasant, but I adored his prose and I personally appreciate a bit of heavy-handedness so whatever!) and drew me in even more with this sequel.

The narratives that pulled me in the most were those of Sean Price, an adoptee living in Oakland with his white family, and Orvil Red Feather, who we revisit in the aftermath of his school shooting, and he meets Sean via the world wide internet! I was so intrigued by Sean's journey of discovering his ethnicity through 23andMe, and learning he was part indigenous (but unfortunately does not know which tribe), part Black, and part white. He grew up with a white family, and once he finds out his background, he begins to question and challenge so much about his family and society as a whole.

I think the reason that narrative stood out to me was because of my own bias, since I live in the SF Bay Area and the following the narrative of someone in 2018 in Oakland felt familiar to read about. Though there are a multiple people we follow in this book, I didn't feel it was too hard to follow because we had met some of them in There, There, and I had a better handle on the family tree this time around.

Overall, the underlying themes of addiction, colonization, and familial generational trauma were clearly a bit grim, but ultimately it was powerful (in quiet, validating sort of way for me) and provided direct and tough commentary.

I had such high hopes for Tommy Orange's second book, Wandering Stars., It is beautifully written and the story is absorbing, but only through the first third of the book. It then deteriorates noticeably. Readers of his first book, There there, will recognize and be grateful - at least for a while - for the continuation of the story started in the previous work. for others, though, interest will soon wane. Orange has such promise, such potential. I hope to see them realized in his next work.

Gorgeous at the sentence level, but meandering, slow, and somewhat underwhelming ending made it a forgettable read overall.

Wandering Stars serves as both a precursor and a follow-up to Orange's acclaimed 2018 debut, There There. The novel unfolds as two distinct pieces of fiction, delving into the theme of addiction across generations in a Cheyenne family that survived the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre and endured re-education in early 20th-century government schools. The second half of the novel focuses on the protagonists of There, There. The story picks up after Orvil Red Feather’s shooting at a powwow and his own struggle with addiction. While Orange's undeniable talent shines through, with a storyline that has immeasurable potential, the actual delivery lacks a clear direction and focus. Orange bounces around from character to character and it is difficult to follow. The writing reads like a conscious stream of thought with glimmers of profound insight and beauty. Unfortunately, those glimmers are few and far between.

Thank you to Knopf and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my review.

This is a hard book to read - written beautifully and dealing with multiple generations of Native Americans. I struggled with the disjointed storytelling from so many points of view and wanted the book to delve deeper into some of them with less on others.

The substance abuse wasn't really dealt with other than it just seemed to be a fact of life. I think this was a missed opportunity.

The prose was well done and descriptive. The characters were easily identifiable with. The various points of view were sometimes difficult to follow. All told, this is a book I can recommend.

I was given this book by the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I give the book 3.5 stars. I wàs really excited to read this book. I did not read There There but I heard about the hype. I knew that Tommy Orange had won a Pulitzer prize for it. I really like fiction and reading about struggles and diverse characters.

It took me a long time to read this book. I thought I was going through a reading slump. I started and finished some other books after I started this book. It was hard for me to get into the book.

I found the book difficult to read. The chapters were various sizes. A lot of the sentences were run on sentences. It was strange to me that such a well known author didn't write well.

The book had a lot of characters. I felt attached to some. It seemed that the story would revolve around one character and then another. The characters didn't always mesh with the other ones.

I liked the themes of the book. Sometimes the book just didn't flow well for me. It would be in the past and then the present. It would be a story. Then it was more a commentary on society.

I have heard so much about this author. I want to see what others have seen and written about. I actually want to read the authors first book. I would read future books from the author. Maybe

There There was a book that got me back into reading, so you can imagine how excited I was to read Orange’s sophomore novel, Wandering Stars. As I expected, the writing was wonderful, crackling with life and humor and sorrow, distinct in voice and style.

The first third, the more historical fiction aspect to this novel, was a full 5 stars from me. I loved how the characters connected (and chronologically! Thank you!) and how distinct their voices felt while keeping a familial thread throughout. The themes here of historical trauma and resilience, of surviving and passing down stories, were so clear and well crafted. It is very impressive that this is both a prequel and a sequel at once, but I mostly think it should have just been the former. While I did enjoy coming back to these characters, adding a sequel to what felt like a wholly complete novel is perhaps too much of a good thing, a wonderful story to return to but also treading a lot of the same ground we have already covered. It didn’t feel fresh, I was unfairly comparing it to the 1st novel, and I found the wrap up at the end (“where are they now??”) to be a bit neat.

On the whole, there is so much to love here and I leave this knowing Tommy Orange is an instant-buy author, hoping more people will find and love his work. The first part worked much more for me, but I can’t say no to a compelling character-driven novel!

Thanks to Netgalley and Knopf for the eARC!

Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange (Southern Cheyenne of Oklahoma) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

My first personal read of 2024, and the bar is now set pretty high for the rest of the year. I do think it was helpful to have already read There, There, but I’m not sure it’s necessary.

The first half fed the historical fiction-loving part of me–I absolutely inhaled it. Being born and raised on a rural, northern rez, going to college in the Bay Area was my first introduction to the complexity of urban Native communities. The first question Natives living there asked was where I am from and who are my people. It’s good to know, but in this story it does more than just satisfy a fleeting curiosity. For me, it provides a depth, understanding, and fullness to the rest of the story.

The second half was what I needed after reading There, There all those years ago. It wasn’t a closure, but maybe a balm for the heart ache.

This one publishes later this month, Feb. 27, but is available for pre-order now.

Enjoy this one, let it heal you a little.

Tokšá aké, book friends 📚☕️

Pidámaya Tommy Orange for sharing this gift of a story, and Knopf and NetGalley for an eArc.

Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange is a poignant exploration of the enduring trauma faced by Native American families, spanning from the Sand Creek Massacre in 1864 to the present day. The novel's lyrical prose and impactful historical segments, especially those centered on Cheyenne warrior Star, create a captivating narrative. However, the extensive array of characters introduced in the latter half dilutes individual connections. The novel serves as a testament to the resilience of the Bear Shield-Red Feather family and delves into the dark history of the United States, emphasizing the ongoing impact of genocide on Native American communities. While challenging, the book is crucial for understanding history, highlighting the legacy of colonialism, and addressing the struggle for cultural identity. Tommy Orange's skillful storytelling navigates multi-generational complexities, making Wandering Stars an essential contribution to the understanding of Native American history and a poignant reminder of the enduring impact of brutality on communities.