This book did for me one of the coolest things a book can do - make me care about something I honestly thought I'd never care about. I'm not a video game person and have never put any thought into what goes into making one, and so I wouldn't think a book about two gamers would be something that would hold my attention. This book proved me wrong. A beautiful portrait of a friendship and the complexities of human relationships over time, with characters I cared about - it was genuinely enjoyable to get to know them and watch their lives unfold.

I REALLY wanted to like this one. Truly. I had heard such wonderful things about it and as a videogame lover, I thought it would be a natural fit for me. Unfortunately, this was just not the book for me.

I found it underwhelming and tedious and couldn’t connect with either of the main characters at all. The only part of the story that I found to be told well happened about ¾ of the way through, and I was already uninvested by that point.

I also didn’t love the whole “it’s a love story but not a love story thing”. It just felt like two people who didn’t trust each other argue for the majority of their lives. I’m weirdly feeling guilty about my extreme dislike for this book, especially considering the people in my life who rated it so highly, but I just can’t bring myself to give this anything past a 1 star.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Knopf for sharing a digital reviewer copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts.

one of the best books I read in 2022! Kept me engaged from page one--the character development was wonderful!

This was outside of my normal go-to reads, but I’m pleasantly surprised by it. Super glad I took a chance and read it. Highly recommend.

There was something so pure and heartbreaking about the depiction of friendship & love in this. Even the slow points remind me of the slow points in our own lives. Really well done and would recommend. Also, kinda sad and sad to read and so not my normal chipper review even though it is so good! Maybe I should revisit this review after some time passes...

I think I’m very much alone on this opinion but I thought this was just ok?! The story was definitely engaging and heartbreaking and beautiful at times but certain parts just lost me a bit. I enjoyed it but it didn’t really stand out for me like it did for so many others. Bummer!

I received this book complimentary from NetGalley but all opinions are my own.
I had high expectations for this one. It’s not my usual genre. I got this one because Ashley Spivey recommended and then I saw it on NetGalley. It’s not bad. The writing is great. It was just not my subject area. It felt like it dragged for ages and ages. I didn’t love the characters.

This book is brilliant. It was fully immersive right from the beginning. I feel in love with these complicated characters and longed to spend time with them.

I adored this book! It’s the story of two childhood friends who grew up playing video games together in the 80s/90s (hellooo Oregon Trail)! They part ways but later reconnect in college and start developing video games of their own. It’s so unique and beautifully written. I highly recommend this one!

This book was brilliant. I have never read anything else quite like this! It follows the friendship between Sadie and Sam from their first meeting as children in a hospital through a lifetime of working together and being together through some of life's hardest moments. Although there were times I wanted to scream at both of them to get over themselves and remember how much they love each other, I thought this portrayal of friendship was beautiful. I loved that it never turned romantic, even though they love each other their entire lives. I think Sadie's explanation near the end that what she has with Sam is harder to find than a romance and is more special to her in many ways was so refreshing. The Marx storyline broke me. I absolutely loved him. It kind of snuck up on me because I was so focused on Sam and Sadie, I didn't see Marx's importance in their friendship until it was too late. Very character driven, but I also loved getting to experience different elements of the games they work on throughout the story. I am not a gamer, but this made me appreciate game creators so much. I will not forget this book, and I may need to get a copy for my forever shelves!

I feel... really disappointed by this. I've loved Zevin's books in the past and I was lured in by some of the early starred reviews that promised I would be enchanted by this book. I can see the many interesting themes the author is juggling here and have highlighted a few passages I thought were noteworthy, yet a few moments of brilliance just couldn't make this book any less tedious for me.

The story is essentially about gamers and video games, throwing up constant references to the history of gaming and gaming culture. The two main characters, Sadie and Sam, bond over playing video games when the pair meet in the children's ward of a hospital and later conceive of, and program, games of their own. Their own personal stories-- involving family, friends, sexism in the industry, and abusive relationships (contains emotional manipulation and sexual assault) play out alongside this.

I will confess that maybe it is just my disinterest in the world of gaming that drives my apathy toward this story. I have played my fair share of certain games-- caught them all in Pokemon, explored the worlds of Final Fantasy VII onwards, built a fabulous neighborhood in Sims, employed some questionable antics in Grand Theft Auto, and, to a lesser extent, tried my hand at Tomb Raider, Resident Evil and The Last of Us.

That being said, I do not consider "gamer" to be a defining term for me. I would always rather read. And my interest in games does not extend beyond the games to the culture surrounding them.

Kirkus assured me that even those who "have never played a video game in their lives" will love this book, but I feel like that probably isn't true. I found it a struggle just to make it through and I kept finding excuses to check my email, google something random that occurred to me, or just do household chores instead of reading this.

Some people have commented on it being a long book, but 400 pages aren't all that long. It feels much longer.

Sadie, Sam and Marx welcomed me into their lives and had me engrossed in this wonderful novel entwining love, work and gaming.
Not being a gamer myself I was not expecting to be so whole heartedly pulled into their lives. This book is the first I had heard or read from Gabrielle Zevin and I cannot wait to read more.

Highly recommended.

Thank you Knopf Doubleday and NetGalley for this ARC.

I know everyone's raving about this book, but I just could not get into it. I'll just chalk it up to wrong book wrong time. I've enjoyed other books by this author before though. I will definitely try her again.

Thank you Netgalley for the review copy.

4.5!
I loved how flawed and authentic each character was.
I also really enjoyed all of the different settings and time periods in the character's lives.
The plot was totally not what I was expecting at all but I felt connected to Mazer and Sadie's lives and was mad, sad, happy, and rooting for them throughout!
Beautiful prose and many many quotes I have highlighted! Thank you for sharing your work with us!

I've already recommended this book to multiple friends. While I thought it was slow toward the end--it still felt so fresh and so exciting to be reading. I love the characters, I love the gameplay within the story, I loved the choices the characters were making and how "happy" felt like something so fluid and true to life in this book.

"How did you find me?"
"Find you? I built this place for you."

This book is immensely creative and beautiful, particularly the last four sections. Also through this book, I honestly started to understand the restorative power of video games. Like, gaming as a form of escape for our minds to heal. And I guess you can insert gaming with another activity like reading, but still it made a lot of sense to me! Think of how Animal Crossing blew up during the pandemic - sometimes we as humans want something easy and calm to counterbalance when life gets tough.

I found the writing to be wistful, creative and nostalgic. I especially appreciate Gabrielle Zevin's ability to talk about the programming and science behind gaming without getting bogged down in the details of it. I never felt I was an idiot for not understanding the gaming engines and I think that was expert writing on her part. I will say one of the reasons I didn't think this was a five-star read to me is I sometimes felt her stylistic writing choices took me out of the story. Zevin loves an exclamation point lol.

I love this book. It surpassed any expectations I had. I thought its about a couple who met as kids and grew up and became successful game developers. Maybe similar to Mythic Quest? Instead it was truly all about love. Between friends, soulmates, business partners, frienemies, children and their parents and grandparents. Who are we alone in our head but also through someone else’s eyes. But all love and all the complexities involved with love- trust, vulnerability, selfishness, confidence or lack of, how much we sacrifice for people we love. AND living the game development process was pretty cool. LOVE.

One of my favorite books of 2022, and one that stuck with me for a long time after. Terrific character-driven story that really spans decades and oof, did it hit with nostalgia, too. Fantastic writing that made me care about the characters. Loved it.

This was easily the best book I read in 2022. I have little to no interest in video games or tech culture, but that did not affect my enjoyment, so don’t let that stand in your way. There’s a reason this book is on everyone’s best of 2022 list.

This book has received tremendous acclaim in recent months, and I was thrilled to see that the publisher was still offering galleys through NetGalley.

<i>Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow</i> consists of a deep dive into two characters, Sam and Sadie, childhood friends long-separated who reunite during their Boston college days in the 1990s. They begin making video games--and a company--as they love and hate each other in turns. This book is a deep-dive into their characters, and they are realistic, unlikeably so at times.

As someone about their age, who also grew up loving video games, I was left craving more of that aspect and less of the literary fiction tiresome sex-and-sniping tropes, but the story was compelling enough that I kept reading. Zevin can write, that's for sure. There were some intense, heart-breaking scenes in here, and the ending carries just the right note. I can see why this book has garnered such attention.