I left this one on my shelf for quite a bit because a Tommy Orange book is a commitment. This is both a prequel and sequel to There There. First the back story to set the stage for the intergenerational trauma that reverberates throughout this book. A massacre, the schools, being raised white all traumas that followed the generations.

Then back to Orvil and his family. With the urban Native experience. It would have been easier for me to read a book with less people telling the story but this book is not about it being easy. It is showing the ramifications throughout the family. I would have loved more in depth character development and story however.

It’s not an easy book but it is a necessary one.

I wasn’t sure where this book was headed in the first few chapters. I felt like as soon as I got to know a character, they disappeared or died. The timing was a bit off, and I was worried I wasn’t going to enjoy the book. Boy, was I wrong.

Wandering Stars was such a beautiful portrait of family and ancestry. I loved how the stars referenced in the title could be associated with so many different entities in the book - Star and his ancestors, the star-shaped bullet fragments in Orvil’s body, the stars in the universe that are more numerous than the grains of sand on earth.

I had no idea this was connected to Orange’s debut novel There, There - I’ve learned it’s both a prequel and sequel to that story, but it stood on its own. I would love to go back and read There, There - see familiar characters and learn more about the events that changed the lives of Orvil and Lony, Opal and Jacquie.

I learned so much from this book. There are literal parts of history being shared in fictional works like this that are never taught to us in school and aren’t mainstream history. It’s absolutely absurd what we don’t learn. I’ve just recently learned about assimilation and residential schools in my adulthood. I had no idea about the Occupation of Alcatraz, and because of this book, I was able to learn more about that major historical event. I learned more about the different American tribes, including the sheer amount of them, which really further exacerbated the things I don’t know, but gave me enough information to do more research and learn. I really enjoy when a book can weave true events into a created story. It’s both educational and entertaining, bringing together the best of what books have to offer.

This book is poetic but modern. It’s beautiful and un-boring. It’s both fact and fiction, wrapped into a heartbreaking novel of despair and hope, understanding the past and looking toward the future. In short, I absolutely adored it and will certainly read more of whatever Tommy Orange writes.

I am convinced Tommy Orange is going to be considered one of THE greatest writers of my generation. Everyone should be reading his books and I hope he never stops writing and giving voice to the characters he creates. I will say I was hoping for a bit more about the older generations - more of the stories of not just the Sand Creek massacre, but also institutions like the Carlisle school. However, I appreciate the honesty of this narrative, that although this is a fiction account, Orange did not feel the need to use overdramatized imagery to tell these stories. I could go on and on, but ultimately, I want to recommend that everyone pay attention to Tommy Orange. Read his words.

2nd book from this Native American author. Happy to support. I bought a physical copy of this book to add to my library

In his second novel, Tommy Orange tells another powerful story of Native Americans life. This time he focuses on one family line, beginning several generations earlier. This book reads as two different stories; the first part traces the early generations of the Red Feather family. Through several characters, we get to experience the traumas of the Sand Creek Massacre, the forced assimilation of the Indian Industrial Schools and work programs, and then the Alcatraz community that was mentioned in There There. The second part of the book is an immersive story of the after effects of trauma on a contemporary Native American family in Oakland. Characters are given the time and space to deal with the consequences of violence in a variety of ways. It is a beautiful story of a family dealing with the most challenging experiences in a real way.

I strongly recommend this book, and I will continue to read Tommy Orange's work. He is an incredible writer and voice for the Indigenous experience.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for providing an eARC in return for an honest review.

Not as good or as memorable as the first book but still beautiful and worthwhile in its own right. Good follow up to the aftermath of the pow wow and the consequences of what happened during that tragedy

WANDERING STARS by Tommy Orange will stun you and keep you reliving the sordid events of this family history. Thank you to the author, @netgalley, and the publisher, @aaknopf for the e-ARC.

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

A family saga of the Cheyenne starting during the birth of settler colonial America, this story is told from multiple family members' POV as the generations go on. One of my favorite aspects of this book was the multiple types of voice (second person future, first person present, etc) that each family member told the stories in. That is a pretty difficult task to ensure narrative flow but it was a very unique way to show different voices.

The story follows themes of living under violence, addiction and suppression of grief and other negative feelings. There are discussions of forced integration, stolen land and culture, including residential schools. The family struggles through separation from their culture and finding their way back generations later.

This book is a slow, quiet, steady pierce to your heart followed by some wholesome mending. Highly recommended for anyone interested in reading an indigenous story set through multiple generations of living, trauma and survival.

Oof, what to say about this book? I loved it and i hated it. It was so long and too short. It was beautiful and ugly. Suggested for readers of Demon Copperfield, A Little Life, and Shuggie Bain. Will tear you apart and somewhat put you back together again. So many TWs - drug and alcohol abuse, death, suicidal ideation, illness, family drama, being a Native American, being alive during the pandemic...I could continue. Highly recommended but just know it's a hard book.

I could have easily highlighted this whole book, but here's some my favorite quotes:

Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame, wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.

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

Sean had basically shit on white liberals celebrating diversity without really addressing the white supremacist, systemic problems that made diversity so necessary feeling as to be celebrated by white people who want so bad to be on the right side of history they forget they’re inevitably on the white side of history.

A bad thing doesn’t stop happening to you just because it stops happening to you.

The past was the past and it had passed

We come from prisoners of a long war that didn’t stop even when it stopped.

I don’t trust people who just believe, like without knowing anything or because they need to believe what they want to believe in more than they care about whether the thing they’re believing in is worthy of believing in, but I wouldn’t ever want to become a nonbeliever.

People come in and out of your life in a way that feels wrong.

I’ll tell you one thing I learned, if you’re an addict and trying to drink or use like normal people you have to make rules for yourself and follow them.

Rules like don’t do anything until after you get all the shit you need to get done, done.

He just wants a break from being alive and to come back from that break with more life.

That’s what addiction had always felt like, like the best little thing you’d forget on the worst day possible, or the worst big thing on a day in a life you thought kept getting better because you kept getting high.

The hardest part about sobriety after all this time is still not getting high anymore. Which isn’t the same thing as staying sober.

The reality of getting high again is nothing but mess and regret.

I had a memory the weight of a body about you all and I carried it with me everywhere, slung over my shoulder.

What an excellent follow up to There There! Instead of all the characters making their way together, in Wandering Stars, they are drifting all drifting their separate ways. While they drift, their bonds and heritage are too strong to let them fully separate.

This book is a continuation of There, There. Readers see familiar characters who continue to navigate their lives amid their harsh realities. The book points out the harshness that native people in today's world.

Picking up from the ending of There, There, a young man has to heal from his wounds, both physically and spiritually. After the shooting at the Pow Wow, he is left with wounds that look like stars. We then travel back in time, where his perseverance and survival match the story of his people.

We find people who are constantly tested by history. The intent to eradicate the Indigenous people of the United States has a long history. Orange shares story after story. In some of these stories, it would seem like a bloodline would be lost, yet it still exists. The continuing to exist is the fight.

“Citizenship being granted will be a kind of victory too because you will not have died in any of the wars or massacres, you will have survived starvation and relocation, indoctrination and assimilation, you will have lasted long enough that they had to say that you too, our longtime, once mortal enemy, even you are one of us, even if its meaning, its rights, won’t come for decades, the seed will have begun there, in the year you were born.”

The book reminded me a great deal of Council of Dolls, which came out last year. I enjoyed the back-and-forth between the struggles of the present and the struggles of the past. It seems there is never freedom from struggle, but that struggle shows a people still alive and moving into the future despite these odds. This is the victory.

Favorite Passages:

“All the Indian children who were ever Indian children never stopped being Indian children, and went on to have not nits but Indian children, whose Indian children went on to have Indian children, whose Indian children became American Indians, whose American Indian children became Native Americans, whose Native American children would call themselves Natives, or Indigenous, or NDNS, or the names of their sovereign nations, or the names of their tribes, and all too often would be told they weren’t the right kind of Indians to be considered real ones by too many Americans taught in schools their whole lives that the only real kinds of Indians were those long-gone Thanksgiving Indians who loved the pilgrims as if to death.”

“he will recognize you as Indian and ask where you’re from. The question will throw you at first, because you’re from Oakland, so you want to say you’re from here, but you don’t know what here means for a moment, did it mean modern times, did it mean Oakland, did it mean America? And where would you be from if you were a real Indian? Oklahoma? You will know that’s not true, that Indians were from every single corner of the country—beyond the country. You will have read about hundreds of tribes, each with their own languages and customs and creation stories. You will want to tell him that you are Cheyenne, that that is where you are from, that Cheyennes once, up near the Great Lakes, were agricultural people, and then followed the buffalo before running for their lives like the buffalo, and that your people, they were Cheyenne wherever they went, but instead you just say the word Cheyenne, with your hand over your heart, to which he will say the word Lakota with his hand over his heart. You will laugh at each other’s hand-to-heart gestures.”

“Citizenship being granted will be a kind of victory too, because you will not have died in any of the wars or massacres, you will have survived starvation and relocation, indoctrination and assimilation, you will have lasted long enough that they had to say that you too, our longtime, once mortal enemy, even you are one of us, even if its meaning, its rights, won’t come for decades, the seed will have begun there, in the year you were born.”

“white people who want so bad to be on the right side of history they forget they’re inevitably on the white side of history.”

“I’m being asked to understand that with some people you love, they just won’t end up being a part of your life. I’m being asked a question that it seems I can answer only by living.”

Wandering Stars is a sweeping, multi-generational novel that delves into the deeply complicated history of Native American families in the United States. The story begins with the tragic Sand Creek Massacre in 1864 and moves through time to the present day. Some themes this book explores is the long-lasting impact of displacement, cultural erasure, and intergenerational trauma. The novel weaves together the lives of various characters, each grappling with the weight of their heritage and the scars of historical violence.

While the book is undeniably rich in content and historical significance, it wasn’t quite the right fit for me. I initially started with the e-book, but eventually switched to the audiobook in an effort to finish it. The narrative was complex and at times difficult to follow, especially with the large cast of characters and the jumping between different time periods. However, I can see how fans of historical fiction, particularly those interested in Native American history, would appreciate the depth and the important stories that Wandering Stars brings to light.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an e-copy of this book!

A perfectly average novel. I found it to be overly explanatory and descriptive, and I feel like Orange is a very straight male writer. Not in a toxic way, but I feel like he is interested in very straight man things or at least talks about them in a very straight man way.

I also understand thematically why they’re there, but I don’t think the early generations were fully necessary for the plot

I do think that There There is objectively better. There’s a kind of visceral tension driven by the explosive ending that keeps There There humming in a way that Wandering Stars does not

I also think Orange’s writing works best in the narrative non fiction pieces that start the books and that lead the parts in There There, and I almost wish he’d write an artfully constructed work of nonfiction instead

Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange is a poignant and powerful follow-up to There There. The novel delves into the intergenerational trauma experienced by the Bear Shield-Red Feather family, while also continuing the stories of characters from the previous book. With its searing exploration of the consequences of colonization and systemic oppression, Orange intricately weaves together past and present narratives of Native American survival, loss, and resilience.

The book begins with Jude Star’s story, set against the backdrop of the Sand Creek Massacre, moving through historical atrocities and leading up to the contemporary struggles faced by his descendants, including violence, addiction, and the weight of their fractured identities. Orange’s storytelling is both tender and harrowing, with moments of dark humor that balance the heavy themes. The novel’s pacing is deliberate, mirroring the fragmented lives of its characters who navigate the aftershocks of genocide while trying to reclaim their heritage.

Tommy Orange has a unique voice and narrative style that did not disappoint!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! No spoilers. Beyond amazing I enjoyed this book so very much. The characters and storyline were fantastic. The ending I did not see coming Could not put down nor did I want to. Truly Amazing and appreciated the whole story. This is going to be a must read for many many readers. Maybe even a book club pick.

This was so beautifully written and at times hard to read but also a very important story. I enjoyd the multiple points of view and the multigenerational stories of the native experience. This book covers so much history, trauma and important culture. This was excellent storytelling and I think it is deserving of the Booker prize.

*Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of "Wandering Stars" by Tommy Orange.

While I struggled to get into "There, There," the author's previous book, I did enjoy "Wandering Stars." The novel touches on a variety of themes, including the life and reality of American Indians, as well as cultural identity and addiction. Another reviewer summed up my feelings about the book quite well when they said, "The story is beautifully written; there were multiple phrases that made me stop and think. [...] but it feels like a scattergun approach, snippets of stories rather than a rock solid plot." All in all, it didn't feel cohesive enough to me, and despite the beautiful writing, there were spots that lost my interest completely. Maybe this book would have resonated more for me if I had actually read "There, There" in its entirety, but sadly, I could never get past the first chapter of that one.

DNF at 17%. This just wasn’t for me. While I normally love a multigenerational family saga, I do also expect a plot—not merely a wandering look at life passing by.

This is definitely literary fiction, and the author uses beautiful prose and melodic writing. For me, there were too many characters’ POV’s and way too much introspection by some of them—to the exclusion of activity or any action. I wish I could have gotten into this—I really do think the author has a lot of valuable prose to share.

Thank you NetGalley and Knopf for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This book follows some of the main characters from There, There in the aftermath of the book. It also follows a family line as they experience and cope with trauma, joy, and life. I'm going to put this here now: trigger warnings for addiction (alcohol, drugs), racism, residential schools, self harm, cancer, death of a parent (mentioned).

I really liked the themes of recovery and coping that this book explored. I also really liked the writing style of the book. I learned so much more about Native history.

Loved this. I really enjoyed everything about this. I loved the story completely. It will stay with me for a long time. I appreciate that the author has very strong voice - one I really enjoy. Heartbreaking.