There is no doubt in my mind that Tommy Orange is an incredible writer. I was overwhelmed by the vivid prose in the first part of the book and the storytelling that weaved together a narrative of such depth with the painful history of Native Americans. Wandering Stars spans across generations and tells a story of Native American identity and heritage, what it even is after so much violence and erasure; addiction; and the fight for survival -- for something more than survival. I found out too late that this was a sort of prequel and sequel to Tommy Orange's debut, There, There. Reading other reviews, it seems that Wandering Stars is much better in the context of that first book, and thus this review ultimately is incomplete. Perhaps that is why I felt a bit lost at times when it came to the characters, emotionally, and that the book was doing too much of that wandering.