Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange

11 reviews

kmcfall's review

dark sad tense medium-paced

3.0

This book, like There, There, was really bad for my mental health. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Addiction, Cancer, Drug abuse, and Drug use

nerp's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

WOW. I really enjoyed There There but Wandering Stars was INCREDIBLE. Prose, themes, structure, tone—truly incredible. I love Orange’s prose and how he structures his books. It so deeply impacts your experience with it. 

This isn’t a plot heavy book, particularly in part one, but the telling of the ancestors was vital to the telling and the whole point. It’s about intergenerational trauma and the lineage of addiction as a coping mechanism for experiencing unbelievable violence. Each story reinforces those. You can read it without There There, although it’s technically a sequel. 

Also, the audio is a delight!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Abandonment, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Colonisation, and Grief

Moderate: Dementia, Blood, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, Genocide, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Medical content, Dysphoria, and Gun violence

ninjamuse's review

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, and Drug use

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Self harm, Genocide, and Racism

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Rape

lvleggett's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

Wandering Stars picks up where There, There left off - in terms of characters and themes. But you can enjoy as a standalone book.

First, Orange takes us back a few generations to when things initially shifted for the family. A massacre of a Shawnee village sends Jude Star on the run. He and the generations that follow are wandering through the world, separated from who they once were and unsure how or if they can get back to it. 

As with There, There, the narrative takes on the POVs of the different characters. Wandering Stars is a more reflective book. Plenty of plot, centered on the newest generation of Stars in modern-day America, but with a strong internal dialogue that brings us deep into the experiences of these characters. This book explores how you figure out who you are in a world that has sought to eradicate your family, history and culture across hundreds of years. Yet you exist. We meet characters across the generations who are striving to hold onto what's been lost, to reclaim & rediscover, and to define the future for themselves. 

Orange writes young men especially with such precision and care. I can see many generations of readers connecting with their struggles and joys.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Racism, Alcoholism, Addiction, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Colonisation, Death, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Cancer and Death of parent

faduma's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Abandonment, Alcohol, Racism, Torture, Violence, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Physical abuse, Addiction, Alcoholism, Gaslighting, Gore, and Racial slurs

ecn's review against another edition

4.5

So so good, excellent mesh of prequel and sequel, and an absolute KNOCK out ending

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Medical content, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Racism, Mental illness, War, Pregnancy, Police brutality, Slavery, Murder, Cancer, Violence, Genocide, Drug use, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Toxic friendship, Torture, Drug abuse, Racial slurs, Suicide attempt, Physical abuse, Hate crime, Grief, Death, Colonisation, Blood, Self harm, Medical trauma, Mass/school shootings, Injury/Injury detail, Dementia, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Car accident, and Gun violence

serena_storybook's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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

I liked Wandering Stars more than There There and appreciated the

closure and healing

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Addiction, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Mental illness, Colonisation, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, and Alcohol

Moderate: Genocide, Grief, and Mass/school shootings

Minor: Death of parent, Car accident, and Abandonment

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

mandaant1's review

dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

This book is about generations of trauma starting from natives forced into boarding schools. It describes how that trauma affected them which began their addictions. Every generation was built on past and present traumas. 

They were losing their identities on how to be a native and what is a native. They were being adopted into white homes and did not know where they came from. Some were half white/half native and did not know what to identify as. I believe this to be a true struggle. 

The last generation was affected the most by the opium epidemic. Orvil being shot at the pow wow (Read There, There for the back story). 

Everyone in this story was going through their own trauma and were trying to cope with it on their own. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Addiction, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Drug use, and Drug abuse

Minor: Cancer

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