Tommy Orange did it again, wrote another masterpiece. Living most of my life in the Bay Area, I find his books a fresh perspective to the area. It makes me mad that as a society we are taught very little about the various native cultures and their uniqueness and similarities of different tribes. It like his other work, is most eye opening.

I read There, There last year with one of my book club and really enjoyed it, so I was thrilled to be approved for this ARC. I really enjoy Tommy Orange’s writing style and characters, both of which opinions were reaffirmed by Wandering Stars. This is not an easy book to read. It tackles tough topics and realities, and is largely character driven.

Wandering Stars follows the many generations of the Red Feather family, especially as they seek to understand their relationship to their Cheyenne heritage and each struggles with various levels of addiction. I really enjoyed how each of the narratives in Wandering Stars connected to the Red Feather family, which made it a little easier to connect to each of the characters, knowing how they were all intertwined. However, I found that the novel was maybe a bit too focused on the characters - I kept waiting for something to happen, but since it largely focused on their lives and their struggles, it just felt like it was constantly building without there being a real climax to the story. However, I think many will enjoy this aspect - it just was not what I was expected, especially after reading There, There.

Overall, I think this is an important book and think many will enjoy Orange’s style.

3.5/5 stars

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. These opinions are my own.

In a followup to his wonderful debut novel, There There, Tommy Orange covers some of the bloody and cruel treatment of Native Americans through the history of branches of two families, the Stars and the Bear Shields, beginning with the Sand Creek Massacre of Cheyenne and Arapaho people by the U.S. Army on November 29, 1864.

In Part Two, the story catches up to the current day with Orvil Red Feather and his family who were the main characters of There There. Jude Star, Orvil's great-great-something-grandfather, survived the Sand Creek Massacre, and his son, Charles, survived boarding schools designed to 'assimilate' Native kids into white culture. Orvil's two grandmothers, Jacquie Red Feather and Opal Bear Shield, raised Orvil and his brothers after their mother died from an overdose.

Their family history is a story of addiction in its many forms. As Orvil says, their family was 'weakened by the effects of history, colonization and historical trauma...not strong enough to pass down the traditions or language successfully.' With the violent destruction of their tribes, these people became 'wandering stars.' Quite a powerful story, if a bit sad and depressing.

Many thanks to the author and publisher for providing me with an arc via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.

The story of a Native American family spanning from Colorado in 1864 to present day Oakland, CA. Heavy themes of addiction, trauma, displacement and how those things impact future generations. A tough, but beautiful written and extremely informative read.

A multi-generational story of a Native American family. I was fascinated by the first half of the book and learned some things I knew nothing about. Once the book took place in the 21st century I was not as invested and had some trouble keeping characters straight. Still an interesting read from a talented author.

I found Wandering Stars to be beautifully written but at times hard to follow and connect to the characters. Tommy Orange is a masterful storyteller and takes the reader on a journey like no other. Wandering Stars is a prequel and sequel of sort to There There. The first half of the novel intrigued me more with its historical fiction aspect. The second half, with its focus more on contemporary life, felt more meandering in thought, and I lost a bit of connection to the characters. Those interested in the complexities of Native American heritage and impact of generational trauma will find Wandering Stars a powerful and exploratory narrative.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4 stars for writing style and content
⭐️⭐️ 2 stars for enjoyment and characters
Overall, ⭐️⭐️⭐️ a 3 star book for me.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read and review honestly an advanced digital copy.

This was a great book with an interesting story line and fun/exciting characters. The story keep you wanting more and was a quick read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for the ARC!

"Wandering Stars" is an apt title for Tommy Orange’s sprawling, often meandering second book, a triumph of polyvocality.

Books with multiple narrators often struggle to justify the device, but Orange uses it to evoke oral storytelling in a powerful way. Every sentence feels fully inhabited. Every voice feels completely distinct. It also exemplifies the way he treats his characters with dignity and compassion, allowing them to naturally follow any preoccupations or digressions that fit with their personalities.

The writing style lends itself to the kind of familial myth-making that we all naturally do, and some sections are abstracted to the point of weightlessness, which I can see being frustrating to a certain kind of reader. There are entire chapters where readers must surrender to the narrator and float through their story. It’s a uniquely empathetic approach because Orange requires us to set aside our presuppositions if we are going to engage.

Similarly, this is a compassionate book in the way it explores trauma without the voyeurism often associated with books “about trauma,” as Orange refuses to make it the defining characteristic of his characters’ lives. We read about some pretty bleak situations, including recursive struggles with substance misuse, but we never see didactic simplifications. Instead, there’s a palpable sense that these characters are in an emotional pressure cooker, and they are all seeking some form of cathartic release.

I will say—I did not realize this was a direct follow-up to "There There," a book which I have not read, and I’m not sure whether that impacted my reading experience. The modern sections feel a little slack compared to the book’s historical opening, and maybe that’s because they are building out storytelling that began in the prior book, or maybe it’s because Orange is resisting the impulse to turn his characters into object lessons. I’m guessing it’s a mix of both, as a character notes at one point that everyone thinks Native American are in the past. This is a book concerned with erasure—that even now, our cultural lexicon is largely limited to the violent iconography of “Cowboys and Indians.”

Real, modern lives are a little aimless. It makes sense that modern storytelling would feel a little aimless at points too.

By the end of the book, I had slightly conflicted feelings. On the one hand, I feel it overstays its welcome, with the final third not quite coming together. On the other hand, however, I immediately wanted to go read "There There," and I also hoped that these characters would appear in a third and fourth book. There’s a unique ambition behind "Wandering Stars," and I think it may continue to be clarified with even more space to wander.

This is a difficult book, no getting around it. There is a very strong thread of addiction throughout the generations of this family, along with trauma, grief, and family dynamics. Beautiful writing, realistic, lovable, complicated characters. I didn't realize the connection to 'There There' until I got to that section of the book, and it was a nice surprise.

This book was not an easy read, but it was an engrossing one. Tommy Orange has woven multiple stories, multiple characters, multiple generations into a harrowing tale of theft of life and land, strength of character and loyalty, and the torment of addiction. Because of the clarity and beauty of the writing, I felt a tiny step closer to understanding the generational trauma inflicted on the indigenous peoples of this country, and marveled at the strength of Orange's characters as they dealt with it, and with the heartbreak the modern world brings with it. A haunting tale brought into the stark light through the characters of Opal and her family. It will stay with me for a very long time.

Thank you Net Galley for the advanced copy!

I loved Orange's novel There There and was so grateful to receive this arc. this novel was truly special and I continue to absolutely adore his writing style. if you loved There There, you will not regret preordering this one. I hope that this is a signifier of Tommy Orange have a long and successful career in writing!

Since I heard years ago that Tommy Orange was writing a sequel to There There, I’ve eagerly awaited this book. It was what I expected in that Orange’s prose is absolutely gleaming, it returns to some of the same characters, and thinks about the city of Oakland. It also wasn’t what I expected in its broader geographical and historical scope and its slower speed, but both of those things made me love this novel more. Orange doesn’t try to replicate There There—he extends it.

After a prologue as stirring as There There’s, the first section, “Before,” opens in 1864 and ends in the early twentieth century. Orange writes from the perspective of several different characters, who survive the Sand Creek Massacre, imprisonment at Fort Marion, and the Carlisle Indian School. It becomes clear that these are largely the ancestors of the Bear Shield-Red Feather family who featured prominently in There There (We also get the perspective of Richard Henry Pratt, mastermind of the boarding school system). While I was reading this first section, I decided I would continue reading during work hours—Orange’s insights about schooling, settler colonialism, and identity formation were just too relevant to my work.

We see these characters fall in love, explore spirituality, meditate on Native identity, and think about what they would like to pass down. Yet violence and genocide complicate inheritance. It’s unsettling to realize that, as readers, we have access to aspects of the family’s history that their contemporary descendants do not. This history lives implicitly in Orange’s contemporary characters, though. The remainder of the book focuses on the three Red Feather brothers, especially Orvil, in the aftermath of the powwow shooting and into the pandemic.

Various themes run throughout history. Most prominent may be addiction, which plagues both historical and contemporary characters. Orvil’s addiction introduces a new contemporary character who maybe doesn’t quite work, but I admired what Orange was working for. The residential school system has ended, but school is still the site of fraught encounters. Their grandmothers’ time on Alcatraz reappears at various points, and readers who’ve recently spent time with There There will notice a lot of complementary details.

Throughout the book, there is a recurring question of what it means to represent your tribe, or all of Native America, or to be a “real Indian,” a phrase that appears often. Orange probes the tension of his Native Oakland characters not actually being indigenous to Oakland. Inheritance and recovery—of history, and from addictions—can be complicated and imperfect, Orange shows, but his characters never stop trying. What a novel. What a writer.

This was stunning and so emotive and one of the best collections I’ve ever read. Tommy has such a gift! There There was so powerful but this was another level. I loved it.

Tommy Orange is phenomenal. He paints a canvas of two stories that are deeply moving on their own, and distinct and powerful when woven together. I cannot recommend this more highly. A must-read.

I haven’t read There There, so was interested to find out if this book would make sense without that background. For the most part, it did. I did get lost sometimes, but I don’t think that was an issue of not having more context – it was just a kind of hard to follow book, given that it’s following 7 generations and the POV moves between characters. I was grateful to learn about the history of indigenous people. It’s a hard read, but worth it.

In Wandering Stars, Tommy Orange enlarges the scope of There, There to other generations before and after. It enriches the story of the difficult and traumatic history that Native Americans have faced for centuries in the United States. The novel starts with the Sand Creek Massacre in 1864 and continues through the present day. It weaves together the stories of many different characters who struggle with the repercussions of colonialism, forced assimilation, and intergenerational trauma. It's a sometimes challenging but always emotionally affecting story for the patient reader..

Often, I prefer to go into books completely blind, and in this case I saw "Tommy Orange" and requested this from NetGalley basically sight unseen (or, at least, if I did skim the publisher's plot synopsis, I had no memory of it by the time I read the book). Not that I particularly liked his debut <i>There There</i>, but I did acknowledge the craft and understood him to be an author to follow. The problem with that is, I thereby was unaware that (aside from a series of opening chapters walking us generation-by-generation from the Sand Creek Massacre to the modern day) this is a <i>direct follow-up</i> to <i>There There</i>, checking in on its characters through the subsequent years. Consequently my appreciation for the historically-minded chapters fizzled out once we hit the modern day; I don't remember much of <i>There There</i>, and have no lingering attachment to its characters, and didn't particularly care about their continuing stories (much of which is spent on an addiction-and-recovery plot arc of the kind I have zero patience with these days). It boiled down to a book that I appreciated for the perspective, but not the plot and story itself, which is a pretty thin limb to sit on. I do acknowledge that many people will hold it in higher regard.

This book is hard to think about as a whole, because going from chapter you're getting different characters and time periods. The beginning is unrecognizable from the end. The writing is admirable and the characters are classic. Definitely worth a read.

Someone else said it best: Beautifully written, difficult to read. Through long winding run-on sentences, time jumps across multiple generations and characters, I had a tough time finding my place and keeping up. The language is beautiful. The story important and should not be forgotten. Unfortunately, the style in which the story is told makes this a DNF for me at 38%.

Thank you @prhaudio for the #gifted audiobook and @netgalley for the ebook!

This book is nothing short of a masterpiece written by one of the most powerful and compelling authors of our times, in my opinion.

Just like its predecessor, There, There, this book is no light read and will at times, make you very uncomfortable of our American history, as it should. Where it differs from the first book, however, is that this book flows throughout like a stream of consciousness even though it’s divided into chapters. The timeline spans multiple generations beginning with the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre leading up to the evils of our modern society which includes gun violence, alcoholism, drug addiction, mental health issues and how institutionalized colonialism compound the effects of the aforementioned evils on Native American populations so much more.

Reading There, There is not required to read Wandering Stars but the family genealogy will make more sense if you follow the order of both books, especially since there are a lot of characters to keep up with. For this reason, I highly recommend the audiobook that has a stellar, full cast of characters and will tremendously help in keeping everything streamlined in the reader’s mind.

I stated this in my review for There, There that it was a must-read book and I’m echoing the same sentiments for this book as well.