This was a DNF at 30%. Orange’s writing is beautiful, but there just wasn’t enough story for me.
Thanks to #netgalley and #knopfpublishing for this #arc of #wanderingstars in exchange for an honest review.

Plot: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
In this sequel to There There, several generation of Cheyenne family members manage the aftermath of the previous novel’s conclusion.
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I read There There last year and loved it. I actually chose this book to read based on the author, and I went in NOT knowing that it actually follows up on the end of There There. To stay spoiler free for both novels, I’ll just say that this one follows multiple characters inflicted by violence, mental health, and, of course, living in a country that has fought to erase its original people.
The novel feels like literature yet without forgoing an engaging narrative. Orange pulls you into his story with wisdom and grips you with intrigue. Specifically, the family’s dynamics are spot on, and the depictions of being high and addicted, and of PTSD, are done incredibly well.
That being said, for me it doesn’t quite have the pizzazz or heart that There There has. Perhaps because it feels too much like a “sequel” with not enough novelty to it.

Characters: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Unlike There There, the characterization in this iteration is more focused, though it still focuses a bit more on quantity over quality like its predecessor. Opal and Sean are my favorite characters - the latter especially made me laugh.
Orvil’s friendship with Sean is a standout. And I love how you can really feel the raw energy of frustration, longing, etc., from characters like Orvil. His overall narrative beginning to end - his journey with physical and mental health - is equal parts inspiring and upsetting.
I do wish some of the connections between characters were made more explicit or were elaborated on (besides the family tree at the beginning). It took me longer than usual to straighten away who was who.
And though I think Jacquie’s character could’ve had more, Lony in the end has quite a nice full arc.

Writing: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Literary writing that feels accesible, digestible, and beautiful. I love how Orange writes with lengthy stream of consciousness sentences and indirect, poetic storytelling. His intentional usage of run-on sentences feels stylistically impressive and appealing. Though it might not be the most straightforward writing or palatable for everyone, it’s done wonderfully.
There’s also clever usage of POV: using first person POV for much of the time (Charles, Orvil, etc.), second for characters speaking “you” to another character (Opal, etc.), and third for other characters (Pratt, Lony, etc.).
I also like the little stylistic choices, like lengthy moments of dialogue/banter, not using quotation marks at times, etc.
And I appreciate Orange’s analysis of Native existence not in isolation, i.e. addressing past/present experiences, Native characters who are adopted or mixed or mirrored to Black Americans, and so on. It shows a meta and deep analysis of Orange’s community with an objective and broad view that includes multiple viewpoints.
Lastly, Orange has great references, like Donnie Darko, video games, and internet culture.

Recommended to fans of literary generational stories.

To have been born in the United States and to not be a direct member of a tribe or to insist on being part of some tribe based on personal oral history that a great grandparent, always maternally, was an indigenous person, is to live with delusions in order to live with historical absolution, what a character in Orange’s second novel refers as living as a pretendian. As a pretendian, one’s Indian history is whitewashed, there were no massacres, the buffalo as a food supply wasn’t decimated, boarding schools for Indian children weren’t detention centers where children were tortured into assimilation, and that Indians had always been citizens of the United States and the legislation in 1924 establishing them as citizens is something made up.

Wandering Stars sets the record straight, beginning with two Cheyenne survivors of the Sand Creek massacre in Colorado in 1864, charting their family history from the Indian industrial schools and its founder, Richard Henry Pratt, a name well worth googling, to 2018, Oakland, California, where the latter day descendants of Charles Star, after decades of intermarriage and forced assimilation, with no knowledge of their progenitor, hold on to their identity and culture, while coping with our societies all too common afflictions, depression and drug addiction.

It’s difficult to read this story and not to see it as a polemic and an indictment of what historically it meant to force a people to become ‘civilized’ but not so civilized as to interfere with the myths created in the past that must benignly be believed in the present because historical truth makes us feel uncomfortable. Along with truth telling there is Indian activism, but not belabored. As a work of literature, there are the tropes of family, well intentions, overcoming, and love, plus a good adventure story of the old west. Overall, the story triumphs. This is a great novel, destined for the Western canon.

My thanks to NetGalley and Knopf publishers for an advanced copy.

A fantastic read by the extraordinary author of the critically acclaimed novel There There.I was so engrossed in his latest story following some characters from his first novel.and other story lines.Will be recommending #netgalley #knopfdoubleday

I read There There so was curious as to what Orange would do next.

This multigenerational saga: "...traces the legacies of the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 and the Carlisle Indian Industrial School through to the shattering aftermath of Orvil Red Feather’s shooting in There There..." Enter "Richard Henry Pratt, an evangelical prison guard who ... found[s] the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, an institution dedicated to the eradication of Native history, culture, and identity. A generation later, Star’s son, Charles, is sent to the school, where he is brutalized by the man who was once his father’s jailer. Under Pratt’s harsh treatment, Charles clings to moments he shares with a young fellow student, Opal Viola, as the two envision a future away from the institutional violence that follows their bloodlines. Fast forward to Oakland, 2018 and Opal Viola VIctoria Bear Sheild, her nephew Orvil, his younger brother Lony, Loother, Jacquie, and a cast of other characters [the center of the book--to me].

Bits about Theodore Roosevelt and his racism against Native Americans. Richard Henry Pratt--a real person.

The book was concentrated in 2018. MUCH about drug addiction and trying to escape their reality. A family in tatters. Searching for--everything!

Some of the language I did enjoy:
"Pratt was stern and plain, with a nose that announced itself on his face like some stone monument on an otherwise unremarkable hill."
Chemotherapy: "The stuff felt more like deletion than depletion, like a part of me was being permanently erased or replaced with gray gray grary gray, grayness."

Learned:
hobo is "short for homeward bound, or homeless boy."
And of Pick's disease--a less common form of a type of dementia [frontotemporaral dementia].

An interesting, difficult read, made more so for me because of many long, run-on sentences which are a disconnect for me and which I often had to reread to follow the trajectory. I got lost in the riffs.

Too much on addiction to my liking, but...

Although it does not seem like it at first, this is a sequel of sorts to There, There. I really enjoyed both sections of this book and the deeper dive into some of the characters I came to know in the previous book. I look forward to more from Tommy Orange and hope that we get a chance to revisit other characters from his stunning debut.

Wandering Stars is certainly an appropriate name for this book, as the plot meandered and was difficult to pin down. This is a sequel of sorts to Tommy Orange's debut, There There, following the family of Orvil, Luther, and Lony, and their Grandmothers after the shooting at the Pow wow in Oakland, which happened in There There. It begins by tracing their ancestry and the lives of their great-great grandparents, including the survival of their ancestors from the Sand Creek Massacre, and escape from the Carlisle Indian School.

Those first 100ish pages are told from varying points of view, but also varying writing styles, and overall it meandered and felt almost aimless. This held true as the book delved more into the lives of Orvil, Luther, and Lony for the last 2/3rd of the book. At times I lost track of what exactly was happening and had a hard time maintaining interest in reading and finishing this book, which is a shame, because I do think the underlying premise is an important one. The overall execution of the writing detracted from my ability to read and enjoy this book.

Thank you to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor and NetGalley for the electronic ARC of this novel for review.

Wow, I loved this book. I flew through it because I was so deeply engrossed in following this family through their history and how they developed and changed over time. Although I agree with some of the other reviews that the book was, at times, a bit hard to follow, I was so enthralled in the character development and the way Orange would drop major details about each of their lives in the prose that, it didn't stop me from devouring it. The family lineage was helpful at the beginning and I used it throughout the book when I would get lost. Definitely going to recommend this one to everyone I know.

I so enjoyed Tommy Orange's voice in There There that when I heard he had a new book coming out, I rushed to read it. This new work is in some was a continuation of his first novel in that some of the characters reappear and it addresses the aftermath of the dramatic event that concluded it, but you don't have to have read it recently or at all to appreciate it. This book is even more sweeping in its scope of the story of a family and the heartbreaking story of how the white man sought to wipe out the Indigenous peoples, by destroying their identity when they couldn't entirely do it physically. That notion of destroying the native from the inside has reverberations throughout the novel, as all the characters struggle in some way with what it means to be Indigenous and how to connect to their ancestors. How much of one's identity is in one's ancestry? Do you need to be raised within a community to still identify as a member of it? The voices in this book are beautiful and distinctive, with the echoes of the past reverberating in the present.

Thank you to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor and NetGalley for providing me with a digital ARC in return for an honest review. This book will be published February 27, 2024.

Wandering Stars is another impressive, informative, and challenging addition to the world of indigenous American literature. Like his first novel There There, it follows many interconnected stories that span decades, but I felt the stories here were not as cohesive, nor told an overall story as clearly as his debut. At times I felt the language is a bit overly formal for my taste, but that may be a personal preference issue and not about his writing style. The book is not a quick read, and at times even feels like work, but the result is rewarding. Some of the historical context begins to sound almost nonfiction-y and out-of-place, but I also recognize that it may be essential background for readers not familiar with Native history.

I received an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley and want to thank the publisher and author for an opportunity to read and review this book. This book is a follow up to Tommy Orange’s debut, essentially a prequel taking us through the lineage and history of his beloved TT characters. It’s hard to say I enjoy a book so deeply rooted in dark and violent real history but Tommy Orange’s writing is beautiful and his character building is immaculate. I would love to continue to read about these characters and cannot wait to see what Tommy Orange works on next.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf publishing for the ARC of Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange in exchange for an honest review.

I read There, There last October and was deeply drawn into all the characters on the way to the powwow -- I remember when I got to the shooting part being absolutely terrified through Orange's prose. There, There left me feeling the same way as Louise Erdich's Round House ending -- absolutely beautifully written about the terror and reality of life.

In Wandering Stars we get to revisit Orville and Jacquie and Opal and Lony and Loother and see the aftermath of the powwow, and the history of their family. We see how the family has survived and endured over more than a century and how the freedom and the history of native tribes in the US has grown and contracted in a myriad of ways both painful and hopeful. You don't need to have read There, There to read Wandering Stars, but it definitely gives you a lot more background - and to a point I was relieved to know the outcome of Jacquie carrying Orville to her car/the hospital.

Only about 1/3 of the book is spent in the past, and I was a bit worried about the rest of the book knowing it was going to talk about the aftermath of a mass shooting and its effects on young people -- something far too many of us can identify with in 2023. Orange writes about Orville and his family with such care in the face of such a horrendous event. Orville's battle with addiction is heartbreaking when you compare him to There. There and now -- but it is Lony who truly broke my heart. Having had a family tragedy with some level of similarity and seeing ways family members are still trapped in the aftermath, I fully identified with his search for something, anything to make things better and to be seen. The family's return to Alcatraz is one of the most poignant chapters of the book. The ending of the story is one that again addresses the reality of life - that some times we continue on and never fully heal from our tragedies, and that we all interpret and react to the hardest parts of life in very different ways.

Orange has once again written a phenomenal book where he both lyrically tells facts about native culture and its place in the United States (and the hypocrisy and terribleness of that history with white settlers transcending over time), while also reminding us of who we all are as humans.

Firstly, Tommy Orange is a beautiful writer.
The stories that made up the beginning of this book were sad and sweet and tragic and hopeful.
I loved it.
Now, the second part of the book, I felt a bit like a fish out of water. I didn’t read There There and I feel like that was a mistake. I would almost like to go back and fix my mistake when I have more time.
I don’t think you have to read There There to enjoy this, but I was lost for a while and trying to figure out these characters I didn’t know.
All in all this was a hard book to read, but also important.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC

Wandering Stars is Tommy Orange’s follow up to the highly acclaimed There, There and it lived up to my expectations based off of the first book. Was thoroughly impressed with how Orange brought in the history of the family and then brought us to their present story and found myself highly invested in the family and their survival and recovery.

I enjoyed this book. The author immerses you within the lives of generations of a Native American family. You watch as the horror and trauma continue to affect each generation, and it is heart wrenching.

The Author builds the story in such a way, you feel immersed in it.

This was my first book by this author, but definitely not my last.

DNF at 43%

Tommy Orange’s writing is gorgeous. It just did not hold my attention in this book due to the many characters and time jumps.

The many characters and time jumps were too confusing for me. It also made it hard for me to care for and understand the plot.
I did not feel attached to any characters and therefore that made it hard to continue reading.

I wish that at the top of every chapter we could have a note on who the chapter is about. I also think a family tree of some sorts in the beginning would be nice to flip back to.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest feedback.

"Stories do more than comfort. They take you away and bring you back better made."

While I wish I would've reread THERE, THERE before reading this follow-up, the characters are so unforgettable, I was quick to remember everyone. Tommy Orange is such a spellbinding writer. I loved this novel.

Thank you Knopf and Netgalley for my copy of WANDERING STARS by Tommy Orange, out 2/27/24!

I loved Tommy Orange’s Pultizer Prize-finalist novel THERE THERE and so when I got an email from Netgalley to autodownload his follow-up novel, I’ve never sent a request so fast!!! Orange extends his constellation of narratives into the past and the future, tracing the legacies of the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 and the Carlisle Indian Industrial School through three generations of an Indigenous family.

The beginning of the novel takes place in Colorado with a young survivor of the massacre by the name of Star. He is forced to learn English and practice Christianity at an industrial school dedicated to the erasure of Native history, culture and identity. The next generation follows Charles, Star’s son, who is brutalized by a prison guard and meets Opal Viola. They dream of a future away from the violencde that follows their bloodlines.

In the future of 2018, we meet Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield who is barely holding her family together after a shooting that nearly took the life of her nephew Orvil. This section details opioid addiction, gun violence, depression, racism, self-harm, PTSD and struggling with identity, belonging and loneliness.

This book is rage-indusing, heartbreaking, devastating and will leave you feeling lost. The writing is gorgeous and mindbending, and a glorious collec tion of the devastating indictment of America’s war on its own people. This book is both a prequel and a sequel to THERE THERE so I would definitely start with that novel before digging into this one. I love that Orange is writing about the depths of addiction when it comes to modern Indigenous life because it is a very under-talked about topic.

Thank you Tommy Orange for writing this superb novel. I hope to see it reviewed, discussed and awarded many flowers.

I was very eager to read the latest Tommy Orange book. He writes beautifully about an indigenous family through the generations. However, the many characters and the time jumps made it a bit confusing for me. Some characters and their storylines grabbed me, but a few did not hold my interest. I give 3.5 stars, rounding up to 4.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange in exchange for an honest review.

Wandering Stars is a story about the addictions that play a huge part of the Native American culture. It's essentially the story of three Native American brothers and how they battled their addictions after losing their mom, and growing up with their grandmothers.

I had not read There, There, and so I was a little lost reading the first part of the book. I almost abandoned Wandering Stars because the introduction to the story, which is about a family of Native Americans through their history, just didn't capture my attention. But when the story came back to the present, I was intrigued by how the Native American deal with their addictions.

Wandering Stars is a hard book to read, for many reasons. The grammar is creative, and sometimes it's a little confusing. And being the mom of a son who lost his life to drugs made the story feel uncomfortable - a little too close to home. But, bottom line, Tommy Orange is an incredibly gift writer. And this book is unique and different from anything that I have ever read.

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read and review Wandering Stars.