I didn't expect to love this book quite so much, but I'm a sucker for novels about people who were young in the 1990s/2000s, who matured alongside the growth of modern technology. This is the story of two friends, Sadie and Sam, gamers and then game designers, from middle school through middle age.

Sadie and Sam first met over videogames at a children's hospital at the ages of eleven and twelve. But after a big falling out, they didn't speak again until running into each other on a train platform as college students. Over decades, no matter how far they grow apart, they're drawn together again by their desire to play and create videogames together.

This is a book about videogames, but it's really a book about friendship, creativity, grief, and life itself. It's breathtakingly beautiful in a way I didn't anticipate. (Warning: have tissues nearby while reading.) I will never look at games or play the same way after this book.

"Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow" by Gabrielle Zevin is Absolutely Perfect!! Sadie and Sam meet as children and they love playing video games together. Sadie and Sam first used video games as an escape from what they are dealing with in their lives but as time goes on Sadie and Sam need each other as much as they need to develop new games. Sadie and Sam's friendship will last their whole lives thru many challenges, sickness, death, failure, success birth, love, disappointment and everything in between! Sadie and Sam's Love and Friendship stay with you long after you finish the book, you still think of them and wonder if they are working on a new game!!

*THANK YOU to the Author, Publisher and Netgalley for the ebook in exchange for an Honest review!!

#Tomorrow,and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
#Netgalley

"Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" is an absolutely beautiful story about a life-long friendship between Sam, a boy with a tragic past, and Sadie a young, awkward girl who bond due to their love of video games. Ultimately, the story depicts the ebbs and flows of their relationship as they first play and then design video games; and as it does, video games, in and of itself, becomes one of the main characters.

I would recommend it highly for a host of course catalogues and book clubs.

Than you Net Galley for the Arc!

Utterly brilliant, realistic whilst being escapist, wonderful, 3D characters, fascinating subject matter and beautiful arcs. Will definitely be recommending this to everyone!

DNF at 20%

“Designing a game that has a little boy or little girl…. Lets design the character so they don’t have a gender… at that age, gender barely matters…and that way, every gamer will be able to see themselves in him/her.”

Just no. Not only am I bored to death, I feel Sam and Sadie’s relationship is toxic. I just wanted to see what the hype was about and unfortunately I’m in the minority.

4.5 Stars...This book was a beast for me to get through, and I procrastinated in reading it for MONTHS (I received an ARC back in May 2022). Even though it took me almost a month to read it, I really did enjoy it.

Gabrielle Zevin's 'Elsewhere' is one of my favorite books ever, so I didn't want to be disappointed with this book, especially since it's about gaming, something I only mildly enjoy (like old-school Nintendo games and games on my phone), but don't really care about overall.

The characters were really well fleshed out, and she sets the gaming scene and the tone of the '90s perfectly. Sam wasn't someone I could really connect with, and he had some major Sheldon Cooper vibes going on, but Gabrielle did a fantastic job with the growth of each character. Life experience tends to change us over time, and I really appreciate it when an author captures that realistically.

I found Sadie to be irritatingly dramatic and incredibly selfish, and while it took her character a bit longer than it should have for her to grow, she gets there eventually.

Marx was my favorite by far, which made things all the sadder.

Overall, even though I didn't love two of the three main characters, and even though I don't really care about the world of '90s gaming, I really did enjoy this book, and I looked forward to picking it up each night before bed, which says a LOT about Ms. Zevin's writing abilities.

I'm glad I finally got around to reading this, and as usual, I look forward to whatever comes next from one of my favorite authors.

This book was beyond beautiful. I absolutely adored the prose and the way the author told this story. I loved the time jumps so we could see the development in the relationships between the characters. I’ve recommended this book to everyone I know.

~ ARC provided through NetGalley ~

Where do I even begin? I have been seeing this book everywhere since before it's release, but I didn't go out of my way to get a copy. When I was granted a digital edition from the publisher, I decided to give it a try on a whim. Within the first 100 pages, I literally had to stop mid-sentence to go buy my own copy, because I had stumbled upon something magic.

If you would have told me that one of my favorite books this year was a 400-page epic about video game designers, I wouldn't have believed you--but it's true. The emotional depths that this book reaches and the gorgeous ways it explores romantic, platonic, and familial relationships were so devastatingly beautiful. I felt like it asked and answered every big question I have been losing my mind over this past year. I could not put it down for more than a few hours.

This is a new favorite of mine. Literally everyone should read this.

After seeing so many positive reviews, I knew I had to read Tomorrow, And Tomorrow, And Tomorrow before the year was over. Needless to say, this one did not disappoint!

This was such an incredibly unique story, spanning several decades, that portrayed the complicated relationship between friends Samson and Sadie. Beginning as kids, the story starts with them meeting and quickly realizing their love for video games. Soon after they have a falling out, until they reconnect in college. There they begin to realize their commonalities may translate to creating video games, not just playing them.

It was easy to be enveloped in this story and become attached to all of the characters throughout. Sam and Sadie were far from perfect characters, but you begin to feel deeply for each of them, flaws and all. I also thought that the author did an incredible job of creating strong, supporting characters that you also felt for throughout the book. For me, it was the characters and the complicated relationships that really made this an incredible book.

Overall I really loved this book and thought it was really different from anything else I’ve read this year.

4 stars. Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.

This is ultimately a love story. Two childhood friends who end up creating the world's most popular video game. We then follow them over thirty years. Sometimes I got very frustrated with the characters, but I still really wanted to follow them to the end. These are will written characters set in a really fun world.

I was given a copy of this book for review by the publisher. My opinion is my own.

I received this for free from NetGalley in exchange for a true and honest review. And truly.... this was one of my Top 5 books for the year. This novel was unlike anything I have read before and I so enjoyed it. I was never bored once and honestly feel I learned a lot about the efforts that go into building video games. This book will be a top recommendation for me going forward.

Not something that I'd normally pick up but this ended up being a surprise hit for me. A story that follows two friends through trials, tribulations, video game designs, tragedy, joy, fun and just kinda makes you appreciate life a little extra. You do not need to be a fan of video games to appreciate this story!

I've loved novels by Gabrielle Zevin since I was a child, starting with Elsewhere, and her latest Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow continues building on themes from her earlier novels--family, partnership, love. Tomorrow spans decades and tells the story of Sadie and Sam's friendship and partnership, which leads to the development of several popular video games.

There were moments in Tomorrow where I wanted to shake both Sadie and Sam, but I think that speaks to Zevin's abilities to write flawed characters who act as humans really do. No one is perfect, and we shouldn't hold characters to a threshold we wouldn't be able to meet. (This is also why I loved Normal People by Sally Rooney.) At numerous points in the book, I didn't like either of them, but I continued rooting for their friendship and successes.

Some of my favorite parts of the book were the characters of Marx and Sam's grandparents; Zevin's prose and the way she chose to tell this story; and the chapter that took place entirely in a video game (and I don't even particularly love video games!).

I cried, I laughed, and I didn't want this book to end. Though this wasn't my favorite book of the year (that honor goes to Lessons in Chemistry), it was up there. Go read this and Zevin's other works.

I don't play video games. I know next to nothing about video games. And yet this story utterly captivated me. I fell in love with the characters, their lives, and yes, even video games. I think it's Zevin's best book.

Love, friendships, disability, relationships, identity, childhood, traumas, betrayals... this one has it all.

The story of Sam and Sadie, and how they ebb and flow from each other's lives over the years, is one that will stay with you. With the addition of Marx, they create a video game together and face the challenges thrown at them through life and fame. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow spans thirty years and multiple states... and you'll want to be there for all of it.

This book was a shining example of how character development should go. I do not play video games and have very limited knowledge on them, and I had no problem becoming so connected with these characters. I felt like I was part of their happiness, pain, joy, and agony. When I say I cried, I mean I cried. I enjoyed the nonlinear timeline and thought it aided to keeping you guessing what was coming. This book shows how messy, complicated, disgusting and beautiful humans can be. This is a book that I won't forget soon and will continue to recommend to anyone who will listen.

Thanks to netgalley and Knopf for this digital copy in exchange for my honest review. All opinions here are solely my own.

This book is interesting. I will say I did get confused at times because her style of writing seems to be all over the place. There was one chapter I read THREE times. She bounces around with her POV and timelines without warning. There were phrases I have never seen. I found myself not loving the characters but being very drawn to their stories anyway. It feel a bit slow at times but held my attention. This is an incredibly deep story about friendship with ups and downs. My husband and I are both gamers. I grew up with Mario. That aspect of this book was great. I do recommend this book!

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for the gifted e-book! ❤️

This book- like many other readers- will be in my top 5 books of the year. It’s about so much more than video games. It’s about friendship and growing up and everything in between. It was an absolute blast to read.

Absolutely amazing. I don’t have the words to tell you how much I enjoyed this novel. A master piece from beginning to end.

This was a solid read and clearly adored by others. I loved some parts and got totally lost for other parts. I'm going to let this one sit with me for a bit before I try to analyze it.

Later review -
The story was really good. We follow Sam and Sadie throughout their lives. Sam is sickly from a young age and Sadie’s first volunteer project is to socialize with him at the hospital. They pass the time playing video games.

This starts the beginning of a dramatic and twisting on and off again friendship that is tightly connected by gaming. Sam and Sadie both grow up to be game designers and when their stories twist back together again, they become business partners.

Other reviews I’ve read always shied away from summarizing too much of the storyline and after reading it I know why. In part, anything that I explain will spoil some aspect of the book. There is no driving problem that gets solved and wrapped up neatly. There is no major overarching theme to reflect on. This is a solid, well written story of two friends who navigate the unfairness and complexity of real life and find escape and success in games.

While I really liked the characters and enjoyed the video game connections, I am a plot lover. This book fell flat to me in that department because it mirrored real life so well. There were no satisfying endings. There were few well paced problem/solutions. There was frustration, grief, sickness, death, marriage, break ups, pregnancies, and friendship… but it was all told over decades of time with natural (and sometimes boring) rhythms. This book will be perfect for those who love character studies or who just enjoy meandering contemplative stories. It was really good. It just wasn’t for me.


SPOILERS - I also didn't really "get" the two sections that were written as if told from a character in a video game. I felt like we went to very metaphorical writing and I was missing something. That may be because I was listening to the audiobook at these points.