I loved Tommy Orange's first novel, so I was excited to read "Wandering Stars." I would recommend this novel to anyone interested in Indigenous literary fiction, and those who have never read anything from an Indigenous author. If you live in the US, I think Orange's work is a great way to learn about this important history and culture. A significant part of the novel is historical fiction, so you have to get into that but if you do it's a rewarding reading experience. The strong connection between generations is one of the novel's strengths and most interesting qualities, so if you enjoy multigenerational family sagas you might love this. I read "There There" for a college course, and almost wish that I had a similar group with which to discuss this because there's a lot to unpack so to speak, and so I am excited for it to come out!

There are Consequences

We did inhumane things to Native Americans in the name of taking over (“settling”) our new property. This is not a news flash, you can look it up, there are facts and footnotes in your Wikipedia. Seems like a long time ago– what with cowboys and such…sepia picture images so far removed from life today. “Wandering Stars,” emerges with violence before author Tommy Orange depicts the ceaseless efforts to systematically eliminate any trace of Native culture. How this history effectively shackles today’s Native American is what we discover here.

In 1864, approximately 230 Cheyenne and Arapaho people, mostly women and children, were brutally murdered and mutilated in the Sand Creek massacre. “Wandering Stars” starts there, with a young Jude Star surviving the attack, only to be captured and sent to Carlisle Industrial Indian School, an infamous re-education institution tasked with assimilating Native Americans into civilized society. The school’s founder, Richard Henry Pratt, lived by the expression, “Kill the Indian, save the man.” He told students they were being taught to become Carlisle Indians, a new tribe belonging to the school and the U.S. government. The children were whitewashed, severed from any trace of their history or heritage.

This is only a portion of the book. The point is bridging the trauma of the past with today. We see subsequent generations orphaned from their past, only vaguely aware of their ancestors and their folklore. Here are people hurting today, not just mysterious tragic figures frozen in history. Drug addiction, alcoholism, depression, suicide… companions to the sustained dehumanization.

“Wandering Stars” is a prequel and sequel to Tommy Orange’s “There There,” a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2018. You do not have to have read the first book to follow the character or buy into their stories. It is a riveting read and provides an important bridge from history to what is being dealt with today. It is enlightening.

Thank you to Knopf and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

“The so-called Chivington or Sand Creek Massacre, in spite of certain most objectionable details, was on the whole as righteous and beneficial a deed as ever took place on the frontier.” – Theodore Roosevelt

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for the ARC copy in exchange for this review.

Tommy Orange's *Wandering Stars* beautifully tells a story of intergenerational trauma, culture, and identity. Since the release of Orange's debut novel, I have been waiting for more work from the author, and this is an amazing sophomore novel.

Tracing a family line from the Sand Creek Massacre to modern day Oakland, we see each generation deal with the pain of the previous and their attempts to maybe do better, but at the end of the day, we are shown flaws in their attempts. There is some disconnect that can seem a little jarring when we're moving from one character's story to another, but I think that that can help differentiate between the timelines.

There's a there there, but it also shows how it's shrinking and that there can be a loss of identity if it isn't fostered. We see each character reckon with what it means to be Native to them, and in the end, that's what matters. Not what the world sees, but how they see themselves.

Tommy Orange weaves Indigenous history along with his previous novel throughout the stories that come together to make up this novel. Having grown up near Carlisle where the infamous Carlisle Indian School was, I was drawn to this part of the book, and the connection back to There There, which I also read, was an interesting element as well. Despite the difficult, yet important, subject matter, the characters and their stories were interesting. The stories didn't all feel completely connected to me, but all were compelling, albeit difficult to read due to their subject matter. I know this was an anticipated book and while it's not a perfect novel I think it overall it delivers on its promise.

📚Book review📚 :: WANDERING STARS by Tommy Orange

Story premise: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Character development: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Writing style: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Ending: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Wandering Stars takes us back in order to move us forward. Tommy Orange first gave us the Pulitzer Prize finalist There, There, where we meet 12 characters in various stages of life, all from Native communities. They all converge at the Big Oakland Powwow, where 14 year old Orvil Red Feather finds himself clinging to life after a robbery goes awry.

But Wandering Stars doesn't start there. No, Tommy Orange carries us all the way back to 1864 to the Sand Creek Massacre where we meet a teenager named Jude Star. He escapes narrowly with his life but is captured and sent to prison where he is forced to shed his native culture by the man who would go on to found the Carlisle Indian Industrial School -- an infamous boarding school created to force the assimilation of Native children. This man and his school would go on to brutalize thousands of children, including Jude Star's son. And it is this history, this lineage of ancestral trauma and systematic violence that trickles down through the years and lands squarely on Orvil Red Feather, his grandmas and his brothers.

There, There was a groundbreaking novel but Wandering Stars is earth shattering.

I usually start a review with what I think the heart of the book is but for this one, the only place I can even think to start is with the writing. Orange is a master of his craft. There were sentences, single sentences, that drew tears from my eyes. The chapters of the book change perspective, narrator and even style. The structure, the voice -- everything -- changes in such a beautiful way depending on whose story is being told. Orange writes with equal brilliance as a high schooler in the throes of addiction as he does an elderly woman trying to wade through her regrets.

Orange uses his near perfect prose to provide insight into the struggles of a people who are not a monolith but who are all crawling out from under the weight of American history. Like in There, There, the characters of Wandering Stars are consumed by the day to day of their lives. But in Wandering Stars, we have been handed a road map to travel back in time to witness the pain that will be carried on in the blood of the Star, later Red Feather, family. In doing so, we as the readers can look at their lives from a unique perspective. It's this sweeping view and it's insight into breaking generational cycles that makes this book so powerful.

Wandering Stars is about what being Native means to Native people. It's about their constant search for an identity as identities are stripped away from them and then forced upon them. Where does the land fit into their identity? Community? Language? Feathers? Addiction? They're questions Orange doesn't have answers to but the questions in themselves and the characters' search for resolution provides a kind of healing.

I'm grateful that Orange has given the world this opportunity to better understand the lived experiences of some Native people. We are all better off because of books like Wandering Stars, not only because of the beauty it is made out of but for the knowledge it is willing to impart.

An absolute crushing story worthy of being the sequel to “There There”. It should be no surprise when Tommy Orange finds himself yet again on the Pulitzer list with this stunning novel.

Tommy Orange returns with a new book release that is both a prequel and a sequel to his bestselling novel, There There. In 2018, Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield struggles to hold her family together in the aftermath of her grandson Orvil's shooting at the Oakland Powwow. In Wandering Stars, Tommy Orange takes you through Opal's family history, as each generation faces discrimination and addiction.

Although I enjoyed There There, I had a difficult time reading Tommy Orange's sequel/prequel, Wandering Stars. The first third of the novel showcased disjointed snippets of Opal's ancestors which are told as reflections on their memories. Then the novel settles into the present day, following Opal and her grandchildren in the aftermath of the shooting at the end of There There. Overall, Wandering Stars was too disjointed and high brow for my taste, mainly focusing on each character's internal thoughts.

Rounded up from 4.5 stars
Tommy Orange is a master of stream-of-consciousness narration. Writing through the thoughts of multiple individuals, not to mention multiple generations, and giving them their own personalities, their own distinct voice, is truly incredible.
Wandering Stars is also a shining example of "learn the rules so you can break them". Switching POV's, page-long run-on sentences, introducing characters abruptly, etc. Orange does it all with grace, his writing reading like a breath you can't quite catch.
Only not five stars because the novel did feel very heavy for me, and at times I found it hard to want to pick it up. This book has a gravity all it's own and some days it pulled me in and some days I was rocketed out of it's orbit.

Hate to say, but this book felt like a bit of a sophomore slump. Maybe I just had too high expectations after There There, but while that book was propulsive and gripping, this one felt a little unmoored and meandering, and I found myself not itching to pick it up. That said, the book still had moments of real heartbreak and insight (particularly in the modern day chapters), and some sentences knocked me out. So while this one fell a little short for me, I’ll still be first in line to read his next one.

This is an amazing book with an almost kaleidoscopic feel. The swirls and turnings of plot, the hunger for things that seem real but mostly are not. The family and culture that is behind and beyond everything. A powerful and sobering experience. Thank you Tommy Orange.

A beautiful breathtaking book. I waited so long for another book and this did not disappoint. Descriptive, mind blowing details and an unputdownable book.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

Tommy Orange is one of the most compelling authors I've ever read. He takes the tragic and makes it beautiful; he takes what's specific and makes it universal. It's impossible to read his work and not feel it sink inside you and inevitably change you.

Wandering Stars picks up after the shocking end of There There, and traces the way the world continues to test, break, and offer the chance to heal to the Red Feather family. Orvil is struggling to recover physically and mentally, Loother disconnects from them all, and Lony is trying to find what he believes in and what to do with it. It's a dark journey through unhealthy coping mechanisms, addiction, identity, and ultimately that with enough time everything comes back.

The beginning may seem a little off putting at first as it's hard to stay in the past when you want to rush to find out what's happening in the present, but seeing the thread of history and intergenerational trauma that leads to the Red Feathers of the present gives the story and their struggles even more weight. Fans of Stephen Graham Jones will connect with the characters from the past, although they lack the overtly supernatural aspect of his work. The horror remains the same though.

This is a difficult book to read in terms of the content and the emotional core - it felt like a string was being wound tightly inside me until the very, very end when I felt something let go. I don't know if it broke, or if it was freed, but I felt it all the same.

A truly phenomenal writer telling modern stories that don't forget their history, Tommy Orange is an absolute genius.

Thanks #NetGalley for the eARC of #WanderingStars by #TommyOrange out tomorrow, 2/27/24!

It is so easy to get lost in the world of THERE THERE and WANDERING STARS. At times I felt like I was in the room with each character, listening to them speak. While other times I felt quiet, focused on a single plot point or character. Tommy Orange weaves such intricacies into his stories.

You know the moment you’re on a roller coaster, when everything in your mind falls away and you’re simply in the moment. Or when you’re taking a bite of your favorite food and the senses take over. That’s how it feels to read Tommy Orange. It’s an incredible experience.

WANDERING STARS is a prequel/sequel to THERE THERE. It’s not required to have read THERE THERE beforehand, but I would recommend it! WANDERING STARS is a generational story following one indigenous family, with a few other characters too. It’s also set in Oakland, CA like THERE THERE was. I really don’t want to say anymore. It’s best to go in without knowing more.

I keep thinking about these books, and I’m already thinking about a reread even though it’s only been several weeks since I finished these. I’ll read anything Tommy Orange writes, and I urge you to give his books a chance.

Have you read anything by Tommy Orange? Let me know your thoughts!

I can’t wait for the world to read WANDERING STARS, out tomorrow 2/27/2024!!

Tommy Orange shows that there isn’t a sophomore slump. His second book is as poetic and important, maybe more historically important than “There There”, his first book. It is filled with rage, addiction, sadness, and tells the devastating story of America’s war on its indigenous people. It is an important book that people should read to understand what was done or to remind us of what was done. When reading this book, I kept thinking of Madeline Sayet’s play, “Where We belong” as a lot of the same themes run through both her play and Orange’s novel. I highly recommend both.

“Assimilation was one of the words they used for Indians becoming white in order to survive, in order that they might not be killed for being Indians.”

Wow, this book is intense and deep.

The story moves so quickly that the anxiousness and foreboding of the characters is passed to the reader. Once the forward starts, there is an intense ominous feeling that does not subside until the end. The writing moves quickly and then slows down for an interesting pacing.

The historical facts about how the Native American Indians were treated mixed with the stories of these characters is incredibly raw and honest.

It is kind of a mix between Killers of the Flower Moon and Homegoing.

So many amazing quotes, feelings and truths are woven into the story of this family.

I liked There There by Tommy Orange more, and I appreciated how some of those characters, and their experiences, transferred to this book. You don’t have to read them in order but I would start with There There.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for the ARC! I read THERE THERE when it came out a few years ago, and found it to be very powerful and enlightening. I was very excited to read WANDERING. STARS for a similar experience, but didn’t realize that it was a sequel of sorts, detailing the aftermath of the incident in Orange’s first novel. Though I enjoyed this sequel (and also prequel?), it didn’t hit its mark in quite the same way for me.

The first section details the lives of several generations of a family and their struggles as Native Americans. I found much of this section difficult to read, with odd sentence structure that made thoughts difficult to follow and interrupted the flow. Parts of this first section read like nonfiction, and there were events that seemed out of nowhere to me; I went back several times to see if I had missed something. However, all of this improves with Opal’s perspective, when the writing drastically changes for the better, and that improvement was continued in the second section, which focused on the three brothers (Orvil, Loother, and Lony, who I believe were all introduced in THERE THERE). This second section deals primarily with addiction — how a person becomes addicted, the lies they tell themselves, and the profound impact on the people around them. I found this section to be honest, powerful, and excellently done.

However, the third section lost me again. It was shorter than the other two, but read like an end-of-movie wrap-up (where are they now?), and didn’t fit the tone of the rest of the novel. It seemed very preachy and a little too saccharine for my liking, although I will absolutely admit that might just be my cynicism, as I’m approaching the anniversary of losing someone to addiction.

Overall, much of this novel is extremely well done, but the beginning and the end were weaker for me. Three stars.

I have waited years for another book to come from the mind of Tommy Orange, and that wait was well worth it with Wandering Stars. This book was incredible and will stay with you long after you close it.

When reading There, There I was immediately taken with so many of it's multitude of characters. I loved watching a story unfold through interconnected perspectives and when I finished I was left with so many thoughts as to how the characters got to where they were at the Big Oakland Pow Wow. Wandering Stars answers those questions and then some. It follows your favorite characters back in time to show how each of their ancestors impacted them present day. Seeing how their lives were in some ways determined all the way back to the Sand Creek Massacre was an eye opening view of how trauma is passed down and stored through generations. It was incredible to see how each character reacted, dealt with and worked with the trauma they'd been given and experienced.

This book follow more than just the stories of a few native people and how they navigate their world. It intricately shows how they were ripped from their lands and cultures and how they find ways to come home to their culture and their ancestors way of life. It's more than passing down names, it's passing down culture. How they come home physically and mentally. How they define being native and what it means for them.

This book maps out history, trauma and highlights how we deal with those things. The characters show immense strength and perseverance even though they didn't start life with privilege. It is eye opening, heartbreaking and awe-inspiring to see its characters develop and experience life with what they're dealt. Through massacre, abuse, removal from their land and culture, addiction and mental health crisis they all rise above their circumstances in individual ways.

One thing I love about Tommy Orange is that he gives you so much accurate information about native peoples and history. When I finish one of his books I immediately find myself googling and researching things I didn't know about previously. His books ignite a hunger to learn more and be better and that's commendable in an author.

A must read and a five star!

Thanks to Net Galley for allowing me the honor of reading this book. All opinions are my own.

Wandering Stars is a beautifully written tale of generational trauma and cultural genocide spanning from the Sand Creek Massacre to modern day. Mixing historical and contemporary fiction while showing the trickledown effects of the horrors the Indigenous population has endured throughout history. It showcases the loss of cultural practices, language and identity many community members are still facing today. Wandering Stars had me reflecting on the pain of my ancestors and connecting to the characters of today as they navigate through a world that views their heritage as something of the past.

I absolutely loved There, There and Wandering Stars and whole-heartedly recommend this series.

Thank you so much to Knopf for the ARC.

As always, please protect your peace and check TW prior to reading. 🖤

We meet Jude Star as he's remembering the events and aftermath of the Sand Creek massacre of 1864. Violently separated from his family, he winds up at a prison "castle" in Florida under the cruel watch of (a very real) Richard Henry Pratt, who went on to start the Carlisle Indian School and epitomized the white man's goal of Indian assimilation, "to control people better, to extend adolescence and create more complacent citizens using models they used to domesticate animals". There's a lot of trauma, along with a lot of resilience, and connection through the generations.

"Walking around Lake Merritt you see all kinds of people in Oakland, the hipster, the homeless, the homeless hipster, the mixtape mixed-race CD-pushing rapper , the serious runners and the casual runners, the joggers, the stoners, the casual blunt smokers, the power walkers, the slow walkers that talk endlessly, the stroller pushers, and then just so many young people with blankets on the grass. It didn’t used to be like this around the lake, people always walked it, but now it is a kind of scene, with food trucks in tow."

Ultimately we end up in Oakland, after the powwow from There There. I love the world building, the authenticity. We care about the characters, their decisions, their fate. Their inner turmoil, outer struggles (with each other, racism, injustice, you name it). Wandering Stars is a prequel and a sequel and revisiting the characters alongside the stories of their ancestors (there's a helpful family tree at the beginning) and depictions of systemic cultural erasure (of customs, rituals and language while families were separated) was a strong framing that resonated. If Orange continues adding to this story I'm here for it.

My thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for the ARC.

Tommy Orange's fantastic novel about Native communities in There There is continued in his new novel Wandering Stars. While you do not have to read the first book to enjoy this one, it does provide context to characters' actions (disclaimer that I had read it, but had been years, and so I read a summary to re-familiarize myself with the characters). Wandering Stars hinges on the shooting that takes place in There There, with the first section of this book being about earlier Native ancestors, while the second section focuses on events post-shooting. He provided a helpful family tree at the beginning of the book to align how individuals were related. Jude Star lives through the 1864 San Creek Massacre, and is eventually put on a train to Florida to be jailed, and he meets the overseer Pratt who believes he can "reform" the Natives. Jude leans into religion and a particular Bible verse resonates with him- Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame, wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Pratt's vision is unfortunately carried through to Jude's son Charles who attends Pratt's Carlisle Industrial School for Indians.

Orvil, many generations removed from his relative Jude recovers physically from the bullet wound sustained at the Powwow. He finds comfort in reading how fellow survivors of mass shootings dealt with the aftermath. He also starts taking more of his prescribed painkillers than he should and makes friends with a fellow student who also takes painkillers after sustaining an accident. Orvil's brothers Loother and Lony are both dealing with difficulties in their family in unique ways. Lony wants to connect to Native practices and attempts to use folklore in a way to protect his family, especially Orvil whom he is very worried about.

This book is very much one of generational trauma and how individuals cope (or do not). We see early signs of drug use in earlier generations, family separation, mental health challenges, transracial adoption, and self-discovery. As in There There, different characters are approaching their relationship with their Native identities in different ways- some leaning into, some running away from. Orange is a fantastic writer, and he tamps into cultures that are not highlighted enough in literature. I found the first section of this book very fast-paced, and wish I could have spent more time with the earlier generations, while at times, some of the second section dragged. I really enjoyed some of the secondary characters, especially Lony, who says in a letter- may we learn to forgive ourselves, so that we lose the weight, so that we may fly, not as birds but as people, get above the weight and carry on, for the next generations, so that we might keep living, stop doing all this dying. Well said, Lony.

Thank you to Knopf via NetGalley for the advance reader copy in exchange for honest review.