Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange

15 reviews

readingwithkaitlyn's review

reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Blood, Murder, Racism, Death, Addiction, Drug use, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Mental illness, Grief, Child abuse, Colonisation, Hate crime, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Terminal illness, Alcoholism, Toxic friendship, Medical content, Animal death, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy, Ableism, Cancer, War, and Alcohol

Minor: Slavery, Domestic abuse, Confinement, Animal cruelty, Cultural appropriation, Suicide, Fire/Fire injury, Pedophilia, Antisemitism, Car accident, Pandemic/Epidemic, Ableism, Sexual assault, Bullying, Transphobia, Vomit, Body shaming, Rape, Racial slurs, Child death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Dementia, Misogyny, Excrement, and Abandonment

sssnoo's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Tommy Orange's words often stop me in my tracks. He is a master of evocative sentences, paragraphs, and pages. And for that, I loved his new release, Wandering Stars. Orange's books are word artistry. Plots, though, are more elusive in his writing. There is structure, but it is ephemeral and involves many intersecting people and events. His characters are some of the most genuine people I've encountered in literature. Broken but healing.

If you love words, if you are looking for a book where the words will take you deep into another's universe, you should give this book a read. Tommy Orange is probably not your author if you want a linear story with a clear-cut plot. 

The first part of this book details the multigenerational past of Orvil's family (Orval was a shooting victim from There There). The second half of the book deals with Orvil and his extended family. It goes deep into drug abuse and other mental health crises - it is dark reading at times. 

This would be a good pick for a book club with many discussion topics.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for a review.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Self harm, Drug abuse, Suicide, Gun violence, and Mental illness

ktdakotareads's review against another edition

dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Drug use, Grief, Cancer, Classism, Suicidal thoughts, Confinement, Abandonment, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Self harm, Toxic friendship, Drug abuse, Racism, Addiction, and Blood

Minor: Mass/school shootings and Gun violence

caseythereader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Thanks to AA Knopf for the free copy of this book.

 - I knew Orange would break my heart with WANDERING STARS, and he sure did.
- Orange expands on the legacy of colonization and the generational traumas that stem from it, showing different ways they manifested throughout the decades.
- Orange’s writing is so gorgeous, the kind of writing that you can’t imagine being done any other way.
- I reread THERE THERE immediately before this one, and am happy to report that the anti-fat bias in the first book is almost entirely gone. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcoholism, Blood, Colonisation, Cursing, Medical content, Addiction, Drug use, Alcohol, Death, Genocide, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Cancer, Mass/school shootings, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Racism, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Rape

skudiklier's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Drug abuse, Violence, Death of parent, Racism, Alcoholism, Gun violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Colonisation, Animal death, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, and Self harm

Moderate: Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, and Sexual assault

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Rape, and Child death

graphic: child abduction, drug overdose, generational trauma moderate: Native boarding schools