Wandering Stars brings readers right back to the characters from Tommy Orange's debut novel, There, There, but instead of picking up where the story ends, the novel begins with a more historical perspective into the character's ancestors and the generational trauma they endured. The second part of the book flashes forward to the aftermath of the mass shooting from There, There, and the effect it had not only on Orville, but his entire family.

Orange's writing style is so unique in how he's able to weave in so many perspectives that it feels like you're watching the story unfold in front of you, but it's also being retold simultaneously based on someone else's experience. This writing style helps capture how trauma presents itself differently for each character and across generations.

This is, yet again, another poignant novel by Tommy Orange. I cannot wait to read whatever he writes next.

Brilliant. Tragic. Inspiring. A harsh truth.
A family history consumed by addiction, continuing the family history from Orange's previous book, There There. The nonlinear narrative can be challenging at times - but stick with it.
This book gave me so many emotions. So much history not learned in a classroom. So rich with tragedy yet some stars of hope.
This book will stay with me.

Unpopular opinion alert!!

I read There There when it first came out, and if I’m being honest, I remember very little from that book. I remembered there was a shooting at a pow-wow, but that’s about it. None of it stayed with me.

So I was already had some trepidation to read this one, but really wanted to give Tommy Orange another try because there are so many that praised There There. I knew pretty quickly that Wandering Stars was going to end up much the same for me that There There did, but I pushed on. There was a lot of internal dialogue going back and forth about dnfing it, but I powered through and finished.

Wandering Stars has been said to be a prequel and a sequel to There There and I would agree with that statement. I don’t think you have to have read There There to read Wandering Stars, but I think it would be helpful to get more out of the story.

It’s clear Tommy Orange is beyond a talented writer. Unfortunately, something about his style just doesn’t work for me. I honestly think he’s too high brow for my taste. I have a hard time following his jumbled and messy writing. He has massive amounts of characters that are hard for me to keep track of, especially when we also jump around timelines like he tends to do. If he ever writes more of a character story, I’d totally be willing to give him another chance, but stories like this just aren’t for me.

Please seek out lots of other reviews because I have a feeling I’ll be alone in this. He’s much too beloved to base your opinion solely on my thoughts, so I would highly recommend you give it a try to see for yourself!

Tommy Orange is an extremely skilled writer. There are moments and sentences of emotional connection in this book that are so wonderful. Some great imagery. He also has some incredibly smart social commentary and biting observations and musings. I loved reading that. The pacing in the novel was a little slow in spots and too fast in others, it wasn't quite right. I also think the book moves into a preciousness that I really didn't care for. The middle third was really my favorite stuff.

I did not know this was a companion/continuation of this author's last book, There, There, when started it but I was happy that it was. This is heavy but in the best way just as is this author's last book. The way the author traced the history and generations of a family and then brought it into the present was masterful. Such a beautiful, important story. Read this book!!

I absolutely loved this book, and I give it my highest recommendation. Wandering Stars comes out next week on February 27, 2024, you can purchase HERE, and I hope you consider reading this one as well as There, There!

There were children, and then there were the children of Indians, because the merciless savage inhabitants of these American lands did not make children but nits, and nits make lice, or so it was said by the man who meant to make a massacre feel like killing bugs at Sand Creek, when seven hundred drunken men came at dawn with cannons, and then again four years later almost to the day the same way at the Washita River, where afterward, seven hundred Indian horses were rounded up and shot in the head.

These kinds of events were called battles, then later-sometimes-massacres, in America's longest war. More years at war with Indians than as a nation. Three hundred and thirteen. After all the killing and removing, scattering and rounding up of Indian people to put them on reservations, and after the buffalo population was reduced from about thirty million to a few hundred in the wild, the thinking being "Every buffalo dead is an Indian gone," there came another campaign-style slogan directed at the Indian problem: "Kill the Indian, Save the Man."

A good author writes an engaging story. A great writer makes you feeling emotions while writing an engaging story. A truly gifted writer is able to write beautifully about terrible difficult topics, teach you something new and paint a picture so vivid you can see it playing out in your head. Tommy Orange follows his debut, There, There, with another powerful book about an indigenous population. There were multiple times I found myself stopping to reread a sentence, not because I didn't understand it, but because it was crafted beautifully. I love reading multigenerational stories that show a family's heritage and complicated history. We need more authors like Tommy Orange to tell the important stories of Native Americans.

Very well written, but it just wasn’t the book for me. I know some people will love it because of the beautiful writing but I couldn’t get into it.

So this was not for me.

Wandering, yes lots of that. The first part I think was to show history of the Star family and the horrendous treatment the native Americans were put through. The writing, rambling, no flow, different perspective written in the same paragraphs. Just extremely hard to follow.

Second part, 2018, victim of school shooting, still think we are following the family line but very unclear. Adds in opioid crisis to the family list of misadventures.

Spent more than a reasonable amount of time rereading trying to figure out if I missed something or if it just wasn’t clear to begin with. Still not really sure of the entire purpose because again things were not clear, may be the intended purpose. Just was not enjoyable for myself.

Thanks to Netgalley for my electronic advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own

In Tommy Orange's follow up to his debut novel, There, There, we find ourselves going back in history to the origin story of one of the characters, Orvil Red Feather. Orange's novel is dedicated to "everyone surviving and not surviving this thing called and not called addiction" and the book begins with generations of Orvil's ancestors' stories passing down both their trauma and their addictions to the next generations. My biggest complaint with There, There was the non-linear timeline and multiple narrators making it pretty difficult to follow what was happening to whom and when. Part 1 of this book gave a bit of this vibe, but only because it covered a lot of time, fairly quickly. Once we get to Part 2, Orvil's story, it evens out a bit and becomes easier to follow. The way addictions follow this family in different ways and different outcomes is pretty heartbreaking and this is not a happily ever after kind of book. But I liked it much better than There, There and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in a fictionalized history of Native peoples in America and how things that happened at the beginning of the colonization of this country (massacres, "boarding" schools, etc.) are still having great effect on modern day Native people. I would not say you need to read There, There first, as the events of that book are addressed fully in this one, enough to not need the background information.

This book somewhat touched home. Not that I lived a tough life but I’ve seen it happening all around me from friends to family.

This book is about generations of trauma starting from natives forced into boarding schools. It describes how that trauma affected them which began their addictions. Every generation was built on past and present traumas.

They were losing their identities on how to be a native and what is a native. They were being adopted into white homes and did not know where they came from. Some were half white/half native and did not know what to identify as. I believe this to be a true struggle.

The last generation was affected the most by the opium epidemic. Orvil being shot at the pow wow (Read There, There for the back story).

Everyone in this story was going through their own trauma and were trying to cope with it on their own.

This book made me contemplate on the possible traumas my grandparents might’ve gone through going to boarding schools. It is now too late for me to ask those questions. Even so would they have been open to talking about it?

Tommy is a once in a lifetime writer . I didn't think anything could top " there there" but he outdid himself . This was such a gut wrenching and immersive read .
Thank you Netgalley for the eArc.

So was looking forward to book 2. Just knew it would be a culmination of everyone showing up at the pow wow and its aftermath. Didn’t expect a detailed “let me read you a story” approach to the past, a deeply depressing, extremely drawn out current, and a ho hum future. What a depressing book.

Breathtaking how Orange can put characters and situations together in these stories with multiple points of view and pull out so many emotions in readers. In this story, with connections to his first book [book:There There|36692478], we're introduced to several generations over a period of many years-- first in 1864 centered around the Fort Marion Prison Castle after the Sand Creek Massacre where two generations of Stars are focused and where the latter meets Opal and try to survive one day at a time.

Then there's 2018 with Opal's nephews reliving school shooting and drug addiction after an accident and in the same, but different kind of survival mode.

The commentary of Indigenous culture and the horrific abuses that have been enacted on them socially, politically, mentally, economically, and in every other way is highlighted in this deeply-felt fictionalized (but not) story.

It has similarities in style and vividness to [book:The Nickel Boys|42270835].

A fantastic follow-up to Orange's incredible debut THERE THERE. I loved the history of the book, spanning a generational Native American family from 1924 to the present. The book is profound, important, and timely. Orange is an incredible writer and we have so much more to look forward to from him.

In his new multigenerational saga, Orange explores epigenetic and generational trauma as they specifically impact a single family over five or six generations, it’s almost inconceivable how much he packs into just over 300 pages. A triumph.

Wandering Stars has garnered praise from many readers, but regrettably, I found myself among the dissenting voices. Serving as a prequel/sequel to Tommy Orange's earlier work, There, There, this novel came into my hands through an ARC exchange for an honest review. While my appreciation for There, There was lukewarm, my experience with Wandering Stars didn't fare any better.

The narrative of Wandering Stars traces the journey of a Native American family from 1924 to the present day. However, the storyline appears fragmented, offering only glimpses into each generation. With the passage of time spanning multiple generations, the inclusion of a family tree at the outset of the book became essential for tracking the narrative's timeline. Additionally, I couldn't help but notice the author's penchant for elongating sentences, seemingly testing the limits of their length.

This book expands the story of Jacquie Red Feather and her family, both before and after the shooting in There There. Orange’s writing is beautiful and poignant. However, I wish there had been better pacing and plot throughout the book, and the various points of view more distinct.

From the author of There, There. Well written but takes a minute to get used to the style. A young survivor of an Indian massacre is sent to prison and then a school to become white. His son is then sent to the same school decades later. Moving and hard to read.

Tommy Orange is a master at crafting generational stories. Whereas There, There revolved around one timeline in the Bay Area, Wandering Stars follows many generations of the same family leading up to the events at the end of There, There and how it effected a family. It's hard to say too much about Wandering Stars without giving much away. If you love generation stories, definitely pick up Wandering Stars. I'd make sure you've read There, There, not just because it's phenomenal, but to help lay the foundation for the second half of Wandering Stars.

Thank you to Knopf and Netgalley for a copy in exchange for review consideration.

I was thrilled to get an ARC of Wandering Stars. Orange's debut There There is one of my favorite books of the last few years and one that I've pressed into the hands of others. Wandering Stars continues the story of Orville and his family while also providing the story of their forebears. I wanted to love this book, and in many ways, I did. Tommy Orange creates fully dimensional characters that we might imagine as friends or people in our community while giving us an inside peak that helps us further understand their actions and our own. Wandering Stars displays this magnificent ability. However, in my estimation, it falls slightly short of the literary genius that is There There. It wasn't as tightly wound. Perhaps, the author only wanted to give us an update on these unforgettable character's lives, like we may see in a "where are they now" feature, and for that, I was grateful to reencounter them. After all, if you shoot for the moon and miss, you will still land among the stars, which is where this book exists.