Tommy Orange once again delivers a powerful and evocative story in Wandering Stars, highlighting the complexities and heartbreak of Native experiences. I wanted to spend more time with the early chapters, which delve into five generations of the Redfeather family, and left me wishing for even more depth to these historical segments.

The second half, set after the events of There There, addresses more familiar themes of addiction and recovery. Orange’s talent for presenting a variety of authentic voices kept the narrative fresh and engaging. Having read There There first might provide additional context, but Wandering Stars absolutely stands strongly on its own as a poignant and thought-provoking read.

This was such an interesting novel! It read at first like short stories, then the characters were connected. It's important for me to read about the experiences of modern-day Native Americans and own voices, so I really appreciate the novel for that.

What a stunning prequel from Tommy Orange. I liked it even better than There There. Wandering Stars gives the backstory of the characters in There, Tehre but you don’t need to have read it before reading this. Tommy Orange’s writing really shines through here as he flashes these characters out. This time I fell in love with them and felt their heartaches acutely. I read this right after reading Betty, just by coincidence and if you loved one, I recommend the other.

This was great, another excellent book from Tommy Orange! As a Native american myself, I find Tommy Orange's stories about the struggles and experiences native americans face in the modern world to be excellent representations of reality, I know many who have had experiences in the same vein.

Tommy Orange's writing is beautiful and cutting, he manages to convey the realities of natives and their situations and perspectives while still writing something truly stunning and poignant. The juxtaposition between the devastating subject matter and the exquisite writing makes it all the more wonderous. This book will break your heart into a million pieces, and I cannot wait for another book from Tommy.

This book was a difficult read for me. It felt like a title that needed to be written, and needed to be read, but rather than be a number of different characters, it felt like all of the characters had the same thought patterns and the same motivations and ways of thinking. It was a book driven by a statement that the author needed to make, not driven by plot or character, and that really showed in a number of places. I was glad to have read this book, but it was a long book, and I was also glad when it was over.

While this is a follow-up to There, There, I would not call it a sequel and you could read them in any order.

Tommy Orange again delves into the lives of modern Native Americans and their inherited trauma. The present and past are woven together as we see the loss of innocence and idealism and the drive to carry on. Beautifully written.

I really loved this one and think it deserves all the love it's getting. Orange has such a distinct and poetic voice. Would recommend!

Felt a lot like there, there to me. Read a lot like short stories that were lightly linked vs a novel and those are always hard for me to digest. I wanted to love but didn’t.

I enjoyed the book There, There by the author and thought I would pick this one up.
It was a very well written book but the subject matter was tough to read about.
Recommended for fans of fiction with a message.

This is a follow-up to Orange’s novel There There. It starts out in Colorado in 1864 with Star who’s a young survivor of the Sand Creek Massacre. Star is sent to Fort Henry Prison School where he will be taught English and Christianity. A guard from the prison later starts the Carlisle Indian Industrial School where Native children are indoctrinated into Western life, negating their Indian heritage. Star’s son Charles will attend this school and it is where the boy meets Opal Viola and the two look to a future, far away from the institution.

In 2018 Oakland, CA, a Star descendant, Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield, worries about Orvil, her nephew, who survived a shooting. Orvil and his brother Lony both face the stress and strain of the post-shooting ordeal.

All the characters undergo trauma and all seek means of soothing their damaged psyches. This is a sad tale of tragic events and consequences. It covers many decades and follows the lineage of the Star family. Each generation has their own adversities and gets further embroiled in tragic circumstances.

This is a powerful tale. The vileness of America’s treatment of Native people is disturbing. The reliance on drugs to deal with trauma adds to the tragic nature of the story. Orange points to one family’s attempts to survive attacks and ordeals that are crushing and cruel. With many years covered, some characters get greater attention than others. This focus on particular descendants highlights the more dramatic stories of survival, but also leaves some holes in the timeline.

Orange’s characters demonstrate the repeated injustices the Star family endures. They struggle to cope and this results in reliance on drugs. As history repeats itself, one senses the poignancy and also the bleakness of the Star family’s legacy.

This was a powerful historical fiction told through multiple stories. It is emotional and at times hard to read (also was confused at times!) There is not only physical trauma, emotional trauma, but family trauma and cultural trauma detailed as well. These are shown through the POV's of several characters.

I learned a lot and enjoyed the book!


Thank you to Knopf and Net Galley for a chance to read the ARC.

Wandering Stars is a beautiful story. I love that it spans such a wide timeline to show the true effects of how the government’s treatment of Native Americans has had such prolonged and traumatic consequences. Tommy Orange’s writing is when representation is done to the absolute best.

perfection. a master of his craft. it is clear that we will be seeing more of tommy orange for years to come. deserves all awards and more

I found this book to be very slow which was disappointing because there is a lot of history to the story that is largely unknown. I just had a really hard time getting into it until we got into the more present timeline.

This is another book that shines a bright light on white racism-under-the-guise-of-Christianity, and the heartbreaking impacts of taking religion/spirituality/agency away from others. I think of the sanctimonious Evangelical church that I grew up attending, and their missionary work on a reservation in South Dakota, and – for decades – have wondered, “Who were you to force your religion on an entire people”? As a kid, I didn’t ‘get’ that and was brainwashed along with everyone else. (I’m not knocking people’s faith; I’m sharing my personal experience in a particular church, and suggesting that a belief system that removes the humanity and voices of others should, indeed, be questioned).

But this book is about much more than that. It’s heavily thematic literary fiction, so some may be turned off by the lack of traditional plot. It covers generations, so there aren’t a ton of deep dives into character emotion, but there is enough, still, to make readers think. Really think. It’s a novel that examines various forms of drug addiction as a way, I think, to illustrate the reality and pain of the lasting impacts of colonialism on an entire people. It’s a thinking kind of book. And, in the end, a heart-tugger. The writing is sublime.

To say it is a book to enjoy may not be the right description, because of its heavy, painful topic. To say it is a book that should be read – and is one that is to be admired – is absolute truth. The ending is sweet, with calls to be better, with a message of familial love and redemption and perseverance. A few of the lines in this book stunned me:

Everyone thinks kids don’t get what a world is, what this world is. But we feel it all. We want nothing more than to make-believe belief can be enough, and when we realize it isn’t, when you make kids believe belief isn’t enough, we take it all in under hooded eyes.

We who inherit the mess, this loss, this deficit, this is my prayer, for forgiveness, we the inheritors of a world abandoned.

Courtesy of Netgalley I received the ARC of Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange. This generational saga of Native American's begins in 1864 on Cheyenne land and travels at different speeds to present day Oakland,California. Including the white colonists' attempts to eradicate an entire culture through forced assimilation, and introducing the legacy of addiction makes this an important story, though not easy to read. The chapters dealing with addiction and music are stream of consciousness writing and set the tone as this family story comes towards an awakening and awareness.
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Wandering Stars picks up where There, There left off - after the pow-wow and its aftermath, and also looks back at the history of the family. Tracing their history from the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 and the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, Orange creates a history of three generations of a family.
This story looks at the past, and current day, and all the problems that the Native Americans experience. It highlights drug use, single parenting, death, alcoholism, and other issues.
This book made me profoundly sad. The Native Americans have been treated so poorly, and have so many problems.
I did like revisiting the characters from the first book, but the sadness is overwhelming.

"Wandering Stars" by Tommy Orange is a profound exploration of contemporary Indigenous life in the United States, weaving together the stories of several characters who grapple with their cultural identity in an urban setting. Orange's prose is both poetic and raw, capturing the complexities and challenges faced by his characters with unflinching honesty. The narrative structure, with its multiple perspectives, allows readers to see the interconnectedness of the characters' lives and their shared heritage. Themes of resilience, loss, and the search for belonging are poignantly portrayed, making this a deeply moving and thought-provoking read.

Review can be found on the Chinook Indian Nation blog: https://chinooknation.org/review-of-wandering-stars/

There is no question that Orange is a talented writer, and that this book has a storyline that includes a number of important topics, but it all felt unfocused and, well, wandering, in its delivery. The individual segments bounce from character to character and it is very hard to follow, leaving me less than connected to any of them, and so the forward momentum felt minimal. There are some glimmering moments of profound insight, and some very beautiful and poetic prose, but I felt distanced from any emotion or connection to the characters or their stories.