This was a powerful historical fiction told through multiple stories. It is emotional and at times hard to read (also was confused at times!) There is not only physical trauma, emotional trauma, but family trauma and cultural trauma detailed as well. These are shown through the POV's of several characters.

I learned a lot and enjoyed the book!


Thank you to Knopf and Net Galley for a chance to read the ARC.

Wandering Stars is a beautiful story. I love that it spans such a wide timeline to show the true effects of how the government’s treatment of Native Americans has had such prolonged and traumatic consequences. Tommy Orange’s writing is when representation is done to the absolute best.

perfection. a master of his craft. it is clear that we will be seeing more of tommy orange for years to come. deserves all awards and more

I found this book to be very slow which was disappointing because there is a lot of history to the story that is largely unknown. I just had a really hard time getting into it until we got into the more present timeline.

This is another book that shines a bright light on white racism-under-the-guise-of-Christianity, and the heartbreaking impacts of taking religion/spirituality/agency away from others. I think of the sanctimonious Evangelical church that I grew up attending, and their missionary work on a reservation in South Dakota, and – for decades – have wondered, “Who were you to force your religion on an entire people”? As a kid, I didn’t ‘get’ that and was brainwashed along with everyone else. (I’m not knocking people’s faith; I’m sharing my personal experience in a particular church, and suggesting that a belief system that removes the humanity and voices of others should, indeed, be questioned).

But this book is about much more than that. It’s heavily thematic literary fiction, so some may be turned off by the lack of traditional plot. It covers generations, so there aren’t a ton of deep dives into character emotion, but there is enough, still, to make readers think. Really think. It’s a novel that examines various forms of drug addiction as a way, I think, to illustrate the reality and pain of the lasting impacts of colonialism on an entire people. It’s a thinking kind of book. And, in the end, a heart-tugger. The writing is sublime.

To say it is a book to enjoy may not be the right description, because of its heavy, painful topic. To say it is a book that should be read – and is one that is to be admired – is absolute truth. The ending is sweet, with calls to be better, with a message of familial love and redemption and perseverance. A few of the lines in this book stunned me:

Everyone thinks kids don’t get what a world is, what this world is. But we feel it all. We want nothing more than to make-believe belief can be enough, and when we realize it isn’t, when you make kids believe belief isn’t enough, we take it all in under hooded eyes.

We who inherit the mess, this loss, this deficit, this is my prayer, for forgiveness, we the inheritors of a world abandoned.

Courtesy of Netgalley I received the ARC of Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange. This generational saga of Native American's begins in 1864 on Cheyenne land and travels at different speeds to present day Oakland,California. Including the white colonists' attempts to eradicate an entire culture through forced assimilation, and introducing the legacy of addiction makes this an important story, though not easy to read. The chapters dealing with addiction and music are stream of consciousness writing and set the tone as this family story comes towards an awakening and awareness.
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Wandering Stars picks up where There, There left off - after the pow-wow and its aftermath, and also looks back at the history of the family. Tracing their history from the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 and the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, Orange creates a history of three generations of a family.
This story looks at the past, and current day, and all the problems that the Native Americans experience. It highlights drug use, single parenting, death, alcoholism, and other issues.
This book made me profoundly sad. The Native Americans have been treated so poorly, and have so many problems.
I did like revisiting the characters from the first book, but the sadness is overwhelming.

"Wandering Stars" by Tommy Orange is a profound exploration of contemporary Indigenous life in the United States, weaving together the stories of several characters who grapple with their cultural identity in an urban setting. Orange's prose is both poetic and raw, capturing the complexities and challenges faced by his characters with unflinching honesty. The narrative structure, with its multiple perspectives, allows readers to see the interconnectedness of the characters' lives and their shared heritage. Themes of resilience, loss, and the search for belonging are poignantly portrayed, making this a deeply moving and thought-provoking read.

Review can be found on the Chinook Indian Nation blog: https://chinooknation.org/review-of-wandering-stars/

There is no question that Orange is a talented writer, and that this book has a storyline that includes a number of important topics, but it all felt unfocused and, well, wandering, in its delivery. The individual segments bounce from character to character and it is very hard to follow, leaving me less than connected to any of them, and so the forward momentum felt minimal. There are some glimmering moments of profound insight, and some very beautiful and poetic prose, but I felt distanced from any emotion or connection to the characters or their stories.

A solid, multi-perspective follow-up to Tommy Orange's brilliant There, There. (Which is not necessary to have read before Wandering Stars--it can stand alone--but helpful in order to recognize narrative threads.) Like There, There, the story covers many aspects of American history from the Native point of view., including the fallout experienced by ensuing generation but is more sprawling. Themes of addiction,, cultural identity and belonging, and
family. ,

This was a nice compliment to the book There There. While I enjoyed this story, it didn't stick with me as well as There There. Tommy Orange definitely has an incredible storytelling style and I'll be interested to read whatever he puts out next.

This book was the long awaited companion to one of my favorites, There, There. This one is connected to There, There in that it follows generations from the 1860s from the Sand Creek Massacre up to the shooting in TT. While I still loved the writing in this one, I felt much less connected to these characters. I think part of it was the quick jump between characters which led to story to fell more like several, connected short stories. I enjoyed the portrayal of generational trauma and the emotional impacts that are ever lasting, the reminders of the tragedies of the past, and the gripping, raw, writing that Orange provides.

📖 Book Review 📖

📱🎧 "Wandering Stars" by Tommy Orange

 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
published February 27, 2024

Another well-written, heartbreaking story about America's war on its own people jumping from past to present. This novel is a standalone but also could be a sequel to Orange' s debut novel from 2018 as we meet relatives to Orvil Red Feather. The genocide, institutional violence, addictions and traumas the native Americans faced throughout history are very present and raw in this emotionally heavy read. Going back to 1864’s Sand Creek Massacre readers meet Star who after surviving a brutal slaughter of his family and friends is sent to Fort Marion Prison to learn English and Christianity, and eventually sent to the Carlisle Indian School where all native customs and culture will be removed. Star’s son Charles is also sent to this school where he meets Opal. They picture a future together, away from the rules and cruelty where they can be who they want to be.
The descriptions of the conditions and ways Native American children were taken from their families and forced to “become white” was horrible to read, especially since it is true.

Readers find Opal in 2018 in Oakland California. The matriarch of her small
family, 3 grand- nephews and her sister, all barely holding it together after her nephew Orvil is shot at a tribal
festival where he was dancing. He gets addicted to prescription pain meds to heal the wound, but also the mental trauma of this. Lony, Orvil’s younger brother witnessed the whole shooting and his grandmother picking Orvil up to get him to safety. Lony is cutting himself now to release the pain from his PTSD.

I felt the story bounced a lot in the beginning, telling the stories of previous generations and until I read of Opal as an old woman struggling to keep her family above water, does the whole story get put together. Parts of the novel read as fiction where others felt very non-fiction, historical and factual. The addiction, poverty and just plain survival of the Native American people, while also bringing up themes of identity, generational trauma, and the struggle of where you come from make this a heavy but worthwhile read.


#somanybooks #readsomemore #audiobooks #bookstagram #bookrecommendations #readersofinstagram #readmorebooks #booklover #bookishlove #readersgonnaread #bookishaf

In Part 1, we're introduced to people who survived the Sand Creek Massacre, boarding schools, being stolen, before we're introduced to their descendants in Part 2. Those descendants (and peripheral characters) pick up the story of Orvil Red Feather from when he was shot dancing at the Oakland powwow in Orange's earlier There There.

There are so many voices and character names it can be hard to track without very clear indication of date for each chapter. But honestly, this really just drives home how cyclical and repetitive the trauma of colonization is and how this inheritance is not diluted with time, only changed.

cw/ self-harm, suicide, suicidal ideation, addiction, alcoholism, murder, shooting, mass shooting

multi-generational, multi-POV literary fiction that depicts generational trauma and the weight of existing after trauma. It was a heavy read and I had to take lots of breaks in between because it was hard for me to read through some of the internal dialogues. There were aspects of the book that I could appreciate and I think that outweighed how difficult it was to get through.

I highly recommend you try this book, but def be warned that there’s heavy shit in here.

Actual Rating 2.5

Similar to the author’s debut, this is another work of literary fiction that follows many characters and looks at Indigenous peoples in the U.S., from 1864 to present.

I enjoyed how this work was set up, following the same family from the Sand Creek Massacre to the present day. The author did an excellent job keeping the whole thing cohesive with similar things that played out similarly (and differently) over the centuries. This was probably the aspect I enjoyed most. I also liked that the purpose of this work felt like it was to help readers consider the history of Indigenous folks in the U.S. and how they’ve had to endure and overcome hardships many of us don’t often see or consider.

But like the first book by this author, I had a difficult time connecting to the characters. I think it’s in large part due to the writing style. There are so many places where it’s pages and pages of introspection, and some characters’ POVs consisted almost solely of that. I could certainly see why the author chose to tell the story in this way, but it just didn’t work well for me to stay engaged or connected to the characters. Then there was the plot. There wasn’t really a plot and nothing cohesive aside from the family and themes to keep everything together. This isn’t totally unexpected for literary fiction, but in this case, it didn’t work for me.

If you like literary fiction following a family over time that focuses on generational trauma and identity, then you’ll probably like this one. I do recommend reading There, There before this one though, as there is overlap. While I didn’t love it, it was still a good read and I know many other folks loved this one.

WANDERING STARS by Tommy Orange serves as both a prequel and a sequel to the events in THERE THERE. Orange writes that "hiding doesn't always mean hidden away, out of sight, but could mean transformation," and in these pages, we see the complexity and nuance of the struggles in life, with a lens to the experiences of Indians in the United States. 

There is a family saga where addiction, trauma, and illness show the difficulty of existing and yet the beauty of surviving when everything is against you. Society can try so hard to stifle individuals and cultures, and there is a desperation when pieces are missing, but there is a richness when you keep going.

(I received a digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.)

I had a really hard time getting through this one. The narrative wanders (pun intended) and never really came together for me. 2.5 stars.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free review copy.

I agree with many other reviewers that this is simply a beautiful book! This story is so important and deserves to be out in the world. I am looking forward to reading anything else by Tommy Orange, such wonderful writing and prose.


Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the arc!