First a big thank you to Net Galley for the DRC of “Wandering Stars”.

I’m almost at a loss on how to describe this beauty of a book. It is clear Tommy Orange has done it again! No sophomore slump for Mr. Orange. Orange’s writing is masterful. He is oh so effective in getting his point across. From page one he pulls you right in as he further educates his readers on the atrocities perpetrated on the indigenous peoples. From there he proceeds to show what leads to addiction in families living with generational trauma. Each chapter is a quick look into the descendant’s lives, the traumas, the addictions, the challenges they each face.

Orange starts the book off with character Jude Star remembering his experience in the 1864 Colorado Sand Creek Massacre. We proceed to follow him and his descendants down to “There There” characters Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield, Jacquie Red Feather and Orvil Red Feather in present day Oakland, CA.

“Wandering Stars” is not an easy read, one that might, rather should make you uncomfortable at the continual injustices our Native population endure daily.

I will surely be sitting with it, letting it sink in, absorbing the powerful story line.

This book was a bit of a challenge for me to get through as it spanned many generations. In terms of providing a connective path between them, it accomplished quite a lot and was very comprehensive. The writing style didn't agree with me, in that it didn't provide enough momentum between the generations and I had to urge myself to keep reading. There are parts where the writing and character development is beautiful though, so I bet others will have an easier time with this than I did.

Thank you NetGalley and Knopf for the ARC! Wandering Stars continues the story (or stories) that began in There, There. We follow the line from Star, a survivor of the Sand Creek Massacre down each generation down to Orvil and his brothers and the impact of the shooting. There are interconnected, constellation stories scattered throughout the narrative as well, but the core of the book is injustice, loss, recollection, healing and recovery. It's as beautiful and lyrical as There, There with the same deep emotional impact.

My bookish new year is off to a great start with Tommy Orange's highly anticipated follow up to "There There"!
"Wandering Stars" absolutely lives up to the well deserved hype. It's more than just a sequel. We get a prequel story giving us the origins of the family roots, and moves beyond the events of "There There". There is a lot of heartbreaking and quite frankly infuriating events in this family's history, and they are so resilient. What Orange does best with giving us a big cast of characters is making sure they each have a distinctive voice and get their moment to shine. Nobody is lost in the shuffle here.
Was I prepared for the trajectories these characters took? Absolutely not. Was it the follow up we needed? One hundred percent. The thing we readers often don't get was achieved with this novel...resolution.
This releases at the end of February, so you all have time to read "There There" if you haven't already done so before this hits the shelves. I highly encourage it!

Tommy Orange is a treasure. His writing has a way of making you feel exactly what his characters are going through while opening your eyes to the true plight of Native Americans. While Wandering Stars is technically a sequel to his outrageous debut There There, this second novel attempts so much more than the first's direct narrative did (ever so well, in my opinion.

Wandering Stars is an epic family saga that takes our well-known characters Orvil Red Feather and Opal Bear Shield and pushes back several generations to see where their inherited trauma may have been born. We spend a bit of time with Orvil's great-great grandfather Jude Star, who escapes the Sand Creek Massacre only to wander America until he's captured and sent to Indian school in Florida. His son, Charles Star, is left alone at a young age and also goes to Indian school before escaping west to Oakland. Then we meet to the two generations before Orvil's before catching up with him in the aftermath of the pow-wow shooting.

The lion's share of the story is how Orvil is coping as he heals from his wound, which is to say, he isn't, really. I don't want to go into any further detail on the story, but here is where we can see all the damage outlined in the prior generations play out alongside Orvil's very real current traumas. Overall, I really loved this take on the family and how the treatment of Native Americans throughout history is very much affecting those living today. It's heartbreaking yet inspiring to watch individuals struggle and persist despite all they are up against day to day.

Thank you to Tommy Orange for this beautiful story, and to Alfred A Knopf and Net Galley for the ARC. I can't recommend enough that we continue to read and support stories of this caliber to continue to better understand each other.

This book kick-started my heart and other insides for the 2024 reading year. The story was told from the perspective of one family and the discovery of its origins seemingly passed down through dreams and voices. Tommy Orange's prose through the first third of this book was mesmorizing, jumping sometimes fairly quickly from perspective to perspective, following the bloodline to where Orange's first book appeared to abruptly end. We got to know Orvil and his siblings better, and I have to say that I preferred this second book to There, There. The second installment is powerful and incredibly painful, much like our collective history in this country. Even so, the message is clear: do you know who used to live on the land you are living on now?

I received an e-arc from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I didn't love this one, but I think it's a mismatch for me as a reader, and I can imagine other people enjoying it.

On the positive side, it's a quick read on a poignant topic. That's really hard to do, especially when the history you're working with is so heavy. Orange did a superb job in striking a balance with narration, especially over such a sweeping breadth of time.

Yet sometimes I found the prose a bit too vague when I wanted specificity. It's very possible that readers like myself who haven't read There There won't connect with the stories in this book as strongly as those who have. Wandering Stars seems more like a continuation of that novel than I originally imagined. I say stories, because to me this reads more like a collection of connected short stories than a novel. Some people love that. I am not one of those people.

Still, I hope this book finds its audience. Maybe you will like the things I didn't.

This book does a great job illustrating how generation trauma affects a family over time. And the consequences of it. A backdoor sequel to "There, There," - trauma is the root of addiction and you see its effects in the novel as well.

I was so happy to see a follow up to There, There - a book that shocked me by the suddenness of the ending. Wandering Stars both picks up where we left off - with Opal, Jacquie, Orvil, Loother and Lony after the events of the powwow - and takes us back to trace their family through generations.

The historical sections - which were about a third of the book - quickly traced the family from the Sand Creek Massacre in Colorado through prisons and residential schools that forced Native folks to assimilate. I wish this section of the book had lasted longer and had more detail - it was a story I’ve never seen told before and told really well.

Once we return to the modern contingent of the family, we see the effect of trauma play out in as many ways as there are characters. We see the choices and impacts of addiction, and how addiction can feel like not a choice at all. Characters throughout both sections make choices that make you want to jump into the story to stop them, they’re that bad. And usually you can see their why, see what made them choose their path. It’s a tough read and a good read.

I loved Opal. I think she will stick with me the most.

Wandering Stars mixes awful, realistic, depressing events and character development with just the smallest bit of hope.

I’m definitely gonna reread this when it officially releases. It’s more paced out than it’s predecessor, and the writing is still strong. I like how it moves around in time, but maintains the same universe. It’s a worthy sequel, but There There will always hold a solid place in my heart.

This novel was a wonderful follow up to "There There." It treated generations of characters going through the most traumatic of circumstances with compassion and resilience. The ending felt earned with endurance and relief.

Tommy Orange returns with a heartbreaking but powerful family saga that ranges from the Sand Creek Massacre, to the Carlisle School, through the lives of the ancestors of Lony, Loother, and Orville Red Feather, and on through the aftermath of the tragedy that ends his award-winning debut "There There". Fans of Jesmyn Ward, Yaa Gyasi or Louise Erdrich should take note.

Wandering Stars picks up where There There left us, only generations back; it begins with a massacre. This story begins with the Bear Shield, Star and Red Feather families following the Sand Creek Massacre.

Tommy Orange lays out the family tree and events in a compelling road map that answers the question, “How did we get here?” That roadmap takes us from that massacre to Carlisle Indian Industrial School, to indentured servitude, illegal adoption, generational trauma, substance abuse and families trying to hold themselves together. Glimpses into the darkest parts of American history and the horrible things people do to each other. This novel is part history lesson, part current affairs and part family saga, all wrapped in a beautifully written package,

The Orvil that we came to worry about in There There becomes one of the central characters in Wandering Stars as he recovers from the shooting and then recovers from the aftermath of the shooting. I felt for him, wanted to shake him, was so angry at him and then so hopeful for him.

I love Opal Bear Shield, her quiet matter-of-factness, her big, quiet heart. Her character is the supporting role that every novel needs; she is the rock-solid center of a family that is struggling to know who they are, yet it is her character that allows the other storylines to blossom.

This isn't a happily ever after story, but it does end with these beautifully imperfect characters moving forward.

Although some of the characters from this novel first appear There There, this work can be read as a stand-alone. Perfect for a book club read as it covers a variety of topics including history, generational trauma, current affairs and family life.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for this Advance Reader Copy in exchange for my honest review.

What a novel! What a story!
Go back in time via the The Pulitzer Prize-finalist author There There. in his new story. Using historical tragedies such as the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 and the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, Orange tells the story of many via three generations of the Stars family.

This is a wondrous work that you will not forget.

Every character is sharply real and as you root for them every tragedy is heartbreaking.Still, this novel is filled with hope and family love even as each generation battles the demons of addiction. How Orange is able to include so much history without diluting the events is a miracle of writing. Read this book and truly live with a family for generations.
#Knopf #Pantheon #Vintage #Anchor #KnopfPantheonVintage,andAnchor #tommyorange #wanderingstars #knopf

There, There was a book that seemed to come out of nowhere. It told the tale of a disparate group of people and their convergence on the Oakland Powwow, and the disastrous effects of that convergence. Wandering Stars, a continuation more than a sequel, carries the story of some of these characters to more of a conclusion.
This is a vivid tale of an underserved segment of Americans, and it's struggle to survive amid the general apathy of the population at large. The story becomes more hopeful than the original, as these strong people come into there own. Some plotlines are resolved, but not all, which is the way life is.

It's hard to overstate how excited I was for this book; There There has been one of my favorites ever since I read it, and I've been checking for news of its sequel for so long now. When I found out I could read it on Netgalley it was the highlight of my week.

That said, this didn't disappoint at all. I will admit it took me a bit to get into it, given how different the first third or so is from There There. But I trusted Tommy Orange and his process, and I found the entirety of the book engaging, even if it took me longer to read the beginning.

I read the last two thirds of this book all in one day, and basically couldn't put it down. I love the way it balances hard depressing real-world shit with love and hope for the future. The characters here go through so much, and at times it can be really hard to read, but I don't think it should have been written any other way. It's a great sequel and I'd recommend it to anyone.

Thank you to Knopf and Netgalley for the chance to read and review this ARC.

Orange's second novel is a stunning achievement, depicting over a century's worth of atrocities against the indigenous people of America while also being a multigenerational family story full of richly drawn, fascinating characters.

Highly anticipated after There There, this book definitely hits the spot! At times it is an emotional read but one that is needed. I love Orange’s skill to bring Native issues to the forefront through fantastic fiction. The writing and pace of the good is good. Part 1 almost felt like a different book from 2/3 but overall I enjoyed it. It did provided the familial trauma issues that occur throughout society! Such a great book!

I received a free advanced copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is my first book by this author and a very different kind of book for me. I feel that maybe if I had read the first one, I might have enjoyed it more. It was a difficult read but I made it and will probably read the first book and re-read this one. Thank you for the opportunity to read this book.

Emotions laid bare following generational trauma inflicted on Native peoples is how I felt at the conclusion of this amazing book. The author doesn’t shy away from brutal descriptions of addiction and its toll on families. His writing is poetic, insightful, and raw. I love his writing style and the love/heart he pours into this story.

Thanks to NetGalley and Alfred A Knopf Publishing for the ARC to read and review.