This book, and in particular, the audiobook, had me FIRED UP! Xochitl Gonzalez is an absolute master of writing complex and brilliant characters who inspire and challenge, endear and endure.

It's the 1980s and Anita de Monte's star is rising in the art world. But the world -- and her husband, Jack Martin -- aren't ready to see her soar. When her life is "mysteriously" cut short, the mark she was in the process of leaving, starts to fade. More than a decade later, a young art history major is searching for her place in the world of academia and art. Raquel is fed a white-washed version of the past and to her great shame, she eats it up. Anita and Raquel's stories are told in parallel until they intersect. It is at this intersection that they both find themselves and their place in the world and in history.

In Anita de Monte Laughs Last, Gonzalez tells a fictionalized story of the real life and death of Cuban artist, Ana Mendieta. Let me tell you, the very second I finished this book, I went down a very long, incredibly fascinating rabbit hole into the life and works of Mendieta. I highly recommend you do, as well.

While Raquel's quest and de Monte's rise and tragic fall both drive the plot, it's all in service of a larger story. It's the story of women, particularly women of color, fighting for a seat at the table. It's the story of women fighting against being seen and treated like the art they love -- as commodities to be consumed, possessed, controlled. It's the story of the complicated and painful swim against a racist and patriarchal current. It's the story of the shame that follows when we fail our sisters, our selves.

Gonzalez' use of narration allows for the most striking alternating perspectives. Anita's personality is captivating, her laugh rumbles off the page (and thunders with the INCOMPARABLE audiobook narration by Jessica Pimental). Raquel is finding her voice, her power. Gonzalez dabbles into magical realism that feels less like magic and more like the only possible reality! While this is one of my absolute favorite genres, I can say absolutely anyone who loves a touch of the unbelievable will fall in love with this story and Gonzalez' writing.

I am in awe of what Gonzalez created in this novel. Gonzalez captured me with Olga Dies Dreaming and she's keeping me, a forever fan, with Anita de Monte Laughs Last.

Seven Days in June by Tia Williams

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emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

3.5

Good Material by Dolly Alderton

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lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

📚Book review📚 :: WANDERING STARS by Tommy Orange
Story premise: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Character development: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Writing style: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Ending: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Wandering Stars takes us back in order to move us forward. Tommy Orange first gave us the Pulitzer Prize finalist There, There, where we meet 12 characters in various stages of life, all from Native communities. They all converge at the Big Oakland Powwow, where 14 year old Orvil Red Feather finds himself clinging to life after a robbery goes awry.

But Wandering Stars doesn't start there. No, Tommy Orange carries us all the way back to 1864 to the Sand Creek Massacre where we meet a teenager named Jude Star. He escapes narrowly with his life but is captured and sent to prison where he is forced to shed his native culture by the man who would go on to found the Carlisle Indian Industrial School -- an infamous boarding school created to force the assimilation of Native children. This man and his school would go on to brutalize thousands of children, including Jude Star's son. And it is this history, this lineage of ancestral trauma and systematic violence that trickles down through the years and lands squarely on Orvil Red Feather, his grandmas and his brothers.

There, There was a groundbreaking novel but Wandering Stars is earth shattering.

I usually start a review with what I think the heart of the book is but for this one, the only place I can even think to start is with the writing. Orange is a master of his craft. There were sentences, single sentences, that drew tears from my eyes. The chapters of the book change perspective, narrator and even style. The structure, the voice -- everything -- changes in such a beautiful way depending on whose story is being told. Orange writes with equal brilliance as a high schooler in the throes of addiction as he does an elderly woman trying to wade through her regrets.

Orange uses his near perfect prose to provide insight into the struggles of a people who are not a monolith but who are all crawling out from under the weight of American history. Like in There, There, the characters of Wandering Stars are consumed by the day to day of their lives. But in Wandering Stars, we have been handed a road map to travel back in time to witness the pain that will be carried on in the blood of the Star, later Red Feather, family. In doing so, we as the readers can look at their lives from a unique perspective. It's this sweeping view and it's insight into breaking generational cycles that makes this book so powerful.

Wandering Stars is about what being Native means to Native people. It's about their constant search for an identity as identities are stripped away from them and then forced upon them. Where does the land fit into their identity? Community? Language? Feathers? Addiction? They're questions Orange doesn't have answers to but the questions in themselves and the characters' search for resolution provides a kind of healing.

I'm grateful that Orange has given the world this opportunity to better understand the lived experiences of some Native people. We are all better off because of books like Wandering Stars, not only because of the beauty it is made out of but for the knowledge it is willing to impart.

The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters

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dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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bookishwithbug's reviews 231 reviews

bookishwithbug's reviews
231 reviews