A review by knkoch
Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was a strong, hard second novel from Tommy Orange, and I had no idea going in (my own fault for avoiding blurbs) that it was partially a direct continuation of the characters and story he began in There There. It’s been quite some time since I read that, and I worried at times that remembering only a loose sense of the details of the first book held me back in the second.

I'm sure they work really well read consecutively, but even if I had attempted that, I’m not sure I would have been successful. This was a really hard story to stick with and absorb, and at times I dreaded it. It’s the sort of book I had to sit with for several uninterrupted hours, as it just felt too heavy to dip in and out of. I think I liked this better than There There, if possible, because it examines the aftermath of the pivotal events at the end of the first book. Wandering Stars is all about aftermath: how do people survive after trauma, massacres, and violence? How do Native people, especially, recover and rebuild after each new wave of institutional erasure and attempted destruction? And how do they draw strength not just from their own resilience but the passed-down stories of those who came before?

This is a detailed and heartfelt examination of one family line, and it was satisfying to see their stories meaningfully summed up by the end. The characters Orange returns to felt well-realized, and he has a strong, distinctive prose style. 
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