3 stars. The first half of this novel reminded me much of Homegoing; it follows several generations of descendants of a survivor of the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 in a way that felt like reading through history, in a good way. The second half skips ahead to the aftermath of the shooting that occurs in the author's first novel, There There, which I have not read and did not know was a direct precursor to this one. If I had, I probably would not have picked up Wandering Stars (first, at least) - although the second half still retains Tommy Orange's poetic prose, which, as someone who has been criticized for run-on sentences quite often in my writing myself, I genuinely enjoyed, I think I lacked critical context (both informational and emotional) for the story to resonate with me as much it perhaps intended to. Wandering Stars felt, in some way, like two different books, which were not quite tied together well enough to make the novel a coherent reading experience for me. (But for what it's worth, it has made me really want to read There There.)

Multi-generational saga about a Cheyanne family from the Sand Creek massacre to current day. The struggles they have faced and moments of joy as well.
Such an amazing story. Full of ups and downs which will tug at your heart.
The only reason this didn’t get a 5 from me is because there were so many characters in the first half of the book it was kind of confusing. A strong 4.5 for sure.

I received a digital ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I loved THERE, THERE by Tommy Orange so I was really excited about his second novel. I didn’t realize the sequel would be so connected to the first book, and it’s been a while since I read it (had to jog my memory). WANDERING STARS tells the story of characters before and after THERE, THERE with a strong thru line of addiction.

Some vignettes of the family line are just a couple of chapters while others are longer sections. We see with each generation the lingering loss from colonialism and assimilation but also recovery, with some surprising ways that characters learn about their family and ancestors.

I think I liked the first book more bc it was one of my first contemporary Indig books so it holds a special place for me. But def recommend the sequel esp if you read the first book.

I enjoyed There, There but I loved Wandering Stars from the first sentence to the every last. Orange picked me up and immersed me in the lives of Indigenous Americans... it was at times overflowing with joy, at times the most painful thing ever... and all the "feels" in-between. I laughed and I cried and I just could not stop. The story of the Star family is not one I will soon forget.

My only hope is that Orange continues to write... he is brilliant and masterful! I highly recommend this must read book!

I would like to thank Netgalley, Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for the advanced copy of this book. It will be published February 27, 2024.

This is a story of a family's journey through generations-from the Sand Creek massacre in 1864, to present day Oakland, California in 2018. The author delves into generational trauma. Is the current generation doomed to repeat the mistakes of their ancestors?
We first meet Orvil's grandfather, Charles Star, as he's forced into a camp to eradicate his Indian ways and learn the religion and language of the white man. There he meets Opal and they begin the family that comprises the 2nd half of this book. There are long, meandering passages here with each characters inner narrative which was sometimes hard to get past. However, the author's writing style is poetic and cerebral. Of course it's disturbing hearing what happened to the American Indians back then, and what is still happening now. Most of the book is focused on Orvil, and his brother Lony, being raised by two different grandmothers, due to their mothers' death, and father's disappearance. I agree with many reviewers that it feels like two different books, with the beginning covering so many different characters they were hard to keep track of. Once we get introduced to Orvil's present day family in Oakland things settle down as these characters now comprise the majority of the book. It's heartbreaking to see Orville and his friends struggle with drug addiction, PTSD, and other tramaus. But they just need to find themselves, or find an outlet to deal with repressed emotions, guilt, and trauma. It makes me wonder how many Indian families struggle with this today. Just learning some of the statistics at the end of the book when Orvil dives deep into his own heritage in order to understand himself was fasinating. The vast number of Indian tribes in the state of CA alone was surprising. And that 26 of our 50 states were named after Indian words or have Indian origin. Orvil is a character that was in this authors' first book, 'There, There'. I didn't read that, but now would be interested in going back and diving into more of Orvil's experience and see what happens to him. He's a character you want to see survive and be happy in life, despite his family's past history.

"Wandering Stars" is a book about four generations of Native Americans. It starts with Star who is a survivor of the Sand Creek Massacre. It goes from imprisonment to the Indian school in Carlisle to present day. The writing style is stream of consciousness. You are in the head of each generation and feel their pain and alienation. It also shows how extreme trauma in one generation flows through succeeding generations. The reader will get a greater understanding about how Native Americans feel about the government and society which tried to stomp out their identities. It is an interesting read.

Thank you to #NetGalley, #TommyOrange, and #Knopf for a copy of this book.
#WanderingStars

Thank you Netgalley for the arc of this book. I read this without reading “there, there”, and according to certain sources, this can be read as a follow up? Although I didn’t read his debut, I felt like this was a solid novel that stood on its own two feet. At times it was hard to digest but it is history and not all history, if any, is nice to look at

"I always felt like we didn't do good enough. That our family line was in some way weak. And yes, weakened by the effects of history, colonization, historical trauma. But also not strong enough to pass down the traditions or language successfully. Because we lacked something. I hadn't considered everything that had happened. How far back it'd been happening to us. We come from prisoners of a long war that didn't stop even when it stopped. … Simply lasting was great for a wall, for a fortress but not for a person."

A multi-generational saga about a Cheyanne family from an ancestor that had survived the Sand Creek massacre to descendants living during our time of the pandemic.

I found some of the earlier stories to be more interesting - of Jude Star and the Buffalo wars, of being broken and angry about what was done to him and his people. This anger trickles down in the form of exasperation, exhaustion and feelings of inadequacy and powerlessness. We see throughout multiple generations a turning to numbness in the form of alcohol and drugs, to cutting oneself, to bury the pain but also to harken back to some emotion where one feels alive and needed and worthy. As the above quote so beautifully says, the war never ended even when history marked its demarcation. The Cheyenne people are still wounded and dying, the last of their kind and they are but one tribe of many who were marked invisible, federations never formally recognized as if they never existed. But they did exist.

One of the grandchildren in the modern generation asks what superpowers the Cheyenne would have - flying is first, and invisibility is second in a list of seven. Flying is a recurrent theme - to be lifted to the high skies, to be able to escape, to have ultimate power, to not get bogged down by the weight of the past and all of history that seems to want to bury you with itself.

I found some parts more moving than others. There was a lot of repetition in some places towards the middle that I think could have been edited down. I also think the first third was the strongest part. But I excited to see what Orange writes next.

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

Tommy Orange's literary prowess traverses the ordinary, transcending conventional boundaries with a rare finesse. His narrative artistry, characterized by an infusion of poetic lyricism and unfiltered contemplations, propels this work into the echelons of literary excellence. While the narrative weaves characters from his antecedent opus, "There There," a magnum opus in its own right, one need not have traversed its pages to grasp the profound depth of Orange's latest novel.

A pantheon of characters, vast and intricate, unfolds within the pages, occasionally presenting a labyrinth that may bewilder the reader. A prudent recommendation from me is to transcribe the familial lineage delineated at the outset onto a separate paper, particularly if the reader embarks upon this journey via electronic means.

This superlative contribution to the canon of American Indian literature delves into ancestral epochs, tracing familial trajectories from the harrowing Sand Creek Massacre through the tumultuous annals of the Carlisle School in Pennsylvania, culminating in the reverberations of a climactic shooting denouement from "There There." Orange navigates the pernicious currents of generational trauma, addiction, alcoholism, violence, and self-harm with a deftness that interlaces the characters' vignettes, constructing a complex tapestry that binds each generation in a delicate yet intricate spider's web of interconnectivity.

Within the pages of this narrative tapestry, contemplation burgeons as Orange invites readers to immerse themselves in the intricate layers of the human condition. This literary odyssey demands a reflective sojourn, as the reader is urged to traverse the recesses of societal malaise and personal tribulations. Prepare to linger, for in the resonance of Orange's prose lies a trove of introspective riches waiting to be unearthed.

Difficult yet serious story of American Indian destruction by US govt and resulting in segregation, assimilation, and attempts at reclamation. I found it a bit disjointed, “telling” important events (Jude Star’s drinking, marriage, and son’s birth are all done over a few pages) instead if “showing” the narrative. This continues throughout the book, making it rather disjointed and fractured, and kept me at a distance from the characters, though I think I grasped what the author was attempting. Was still happy I got a chance to read, but cannot really recommend it.
I received an Advanced Reader Copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This was a hard read. It follows the characters from There There, a book I loved. It’s starts with back story of some of the characters then jumps to the events after There, There. It’s a tragic story of how Native Americans have been abused and forgotten mixed with the travails of addiction. I did appreciate that not everything got a happy bow tied at the end but you also really got to see the characters work through their demons and preservere

4.25 stars

I was so happy to receive an ARC of this book because I have been trying to expand my literary horizons, especially when it comes to multicultural voices and stories. Orange’s writing in this book is a true gift. Wandering Stars explores the plight of an Indigenous family and the generations of trauma that they could not escape. The hardships endured and the lives celebrated in this book allow for a poetic blend of tragedy and hope.

I have not read any other book by Orange, however, I immediately added There There to my wishlist after finishing this book!

Tommy Orange has created a remarkable, haunting sequel to There, There. The looming question is how did the characters in his award-winning book get to where they were and how do they move forward. Orange has us look at the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864, in addition to the horrific devastation, he shows us the trauma faced by the survivors. Just as ancestors pass down genes, it appears trauma is passed down in collective memories.

Jude Star, a child, escaped the massacre, but lost his voice. He found a friend in Victor Bird Shield. They traveled, were arrested, were subjected to deprogramming of their Native ways, eventually released and married. Their children were sent to a school to erase all remnants of a Native’s essence. Jude’s son who was was subject to torture by his father’ prior warden, escaped to Oakland where Victor’s daughter Opal, with child, joined him.

Opal had a daughter who then had two daughters, Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield and Jacquie Red Feather by two fathers. Men never seemed to stay around for long with the women in this ancestral line. It was this last Opal who was raising Jacquie’s grandsons at the time of the powwow mass shooting in There, There.

It is at this point that we find Orvil, the eldest grandson, in the hospital with a bullet lodged in him. He becomes obsessed with mass shootings and seeks comfort in drugs. Unfortunately, drug addiction took his mother and dug its tentacles into his grandmother. His youngest brother, unable to express his trauma after witnessing the events, resorts to cutting himself and performing ceremonies in the hopes of finding peace in his Native roots. Loother, the middle child uses writing as a release.

There is not a person who escapes from the past and present traumas of being an indigenous person in America. The brilliant writing takes you into their world, their pain, their hopes. It is an important read not because it is a great book but because we should not forget our brutal past and hopefully learn from it. Thank you Tommy Orange. And thank you NetGalley.

Lyrical. Poetic. I can’t stop thinking about this book! The story begins in 1864 at the Sand Creek Massacre, and traces one family’s bloodline through the pandemic. The accurate historical elements of Indian boarding schools, prisons, and abuse add a level of interest (and heartbreak).

Deeply moving and heartfelt, if you’re looking for a book on identity or addiction, family or loss, then this book is for you. The pacing, tone, and point of view are brilliant. Shout out to #NetGalley for the ARC! #Wandering Stars

Very well written follow up to There There. It was nice to revisit characters and see how the y fared after the pow wow.

First off, I want to thank Knopf and NetGalley for my ARC in exchange for my review. Wandering Stars is Tommy Orange’s follow up to his first novel, There, There. Looking back, I probably would have preferred to read the debut first, but regardless, I feel as though I was able to understand the stories in Wandering Stars without the background from There, There.

Yes, stories (plural)! It is split into three parts. Part one being historical fiction dating back to the early 1900s, part two taking place around 2018, and a very short part three taking place in the future. The characters are all related to one another; many share the same names. It’s not an easy read by any means, but I do enjoy the writing style of the author.

I’m giving Wandering Stars a 3.5/5 star review. The author writes beautifully, he’s very talented and definitely did his research when completing his novel. I did find myself distracted at times and skipping details in order to find out what happens next.

Many thanks to Netgalley for providing me with advance copy ♥️

Wandering Stars, a heart-wrenching collection of short stories by Tommy Orange, left me tearful and reflective. As a Native American author, Orange masterfully weaves together tales that resonated with my soul. His poignant portrayal of indigenous characters’ raw emotions and profound connections to their heritage echoed my own struggles with cultural identity.

I felt seen and heard in these pages, reliving my own journey of grappling with the tension between cultural traditions and modernity’s allure. The characters’ heart-wrenching struggles with disconnection and their triumphant rediscovery of ancestral roots mirrored my own story, leaving me emotionally raw.

Orange’s poetic prose captures the complex essence of urban indigenous life, shattering stereotypes and redefining what it means to be indigenous today. His writing resonated with me, evoking a deep sense of belonging and connection to my heritage.

Wandering Stars is more than a book – it’s a shared experience, a testament to indigenous resilience, and a reminder of our shared humanity. It’s a powerful tribute to the diversity and strength of indigenous communities, offering hope and inspiration to those seeking a deeper understanding of their cultural heritage.

Through Wandering Stars, Orange reminds us that storytelling is a powerful tool for healing, connection, and growth. His writing has left an indelible mark on my heart, inspiring me to embrace my heritage with renewed pride and to continue sharing my story with the world.

Wandering Stars is a heartfelt portrayal of the indigenous experience, an emotional journey that challenges and inspires. It’s a testament to the power of storytelling and the resilience of indigenous communities, leaving a lasting impact on readers like me.

Tommy Orange is masterful with language. This eye-opening read is a must! With its sharp poignant prose and unforgettable characters, it’s sure to be a top read of 2024!

This felt like a very important book with a great historical background. But jumping through so many generations made it hard to hold my attention. But valuable reading!

I received an early copy through Netgalley but all opinions are my own.

I was excited to see this book by this author. Certainly not a happy tale, but a well-written and compelling one. His previous book was great as well.

I really appreciate the free copy for review!