It's taken me a while to do this review because I still don't know how to articulate how deeply I love this book. I read the ARC and immediately pre-ordered a physical copy along with the audiobook. The last time I read a book several times in a row across different formats was The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is a beautiful coming of age novel in which you experience every emotion and see so many aspects of human connection and relationships all centered around the passion of video games. Gabrielle Zevin knows how to write characters. I feel like I could perfectly picture every character, even if they were briefly mentioned and I could feel every experience of the main characters. This story depicts, loss, success, passion, failure, and love in such a real and raw way that I'm going to be thinking about this book for years to come.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is an intricate story through decades and video games. This story takes the reader on a journey of friendship, love, loss, failure, and success. Our main characters Sadie and Sam, are best friends, or enemies, depending on the era, but always wanting the best for each other. I still can’t decide if I liked either one of them to be honest.

I found this story to be original and intriguing. I loved all the video games and reading about the process of building games and coming up with those ideas. Some of it was way over my head but that was expected. Something that I loved about this book was that the characters' storylines were so realistic and believable. They didn’t all get happy endings, they had really sad and hard things happen to them, they were quite unlikable at some points, but it all felt so genuine. I loved the time period it was written in, spanning the 80’s, 90’, 00’s, it was nostalgic and enjoyable. 4 Stars.

The hype I have been seeing over this book is definitely real and also deserved!

I loved this book. The writing was superb. I loved the scenes from the past, they brought back many childhood memories!! This was a book with an extremely well developed plot, perfectly written characters, and so much more. I would absolutely recommend this book to others!! Thank you very much to the publisher and to NetGalley for the ARC. This book is having tons of success, and after reading the book myself; I can certainly see why.

If you love gaming, you should read Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. If you don’t love gaming, you should read Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin.

This book is about two friends who’ve had a deep connection since childhood that embark upon the world of designing a video game together. This might sound like a simple enough plot, but (I swear) each chapter brought a new and unexpected storyline. A flip of the page could be funny, tragic, exciting, emotional; you really follow the characters through an expanse of emotions and situations.

Sam, Sadie and Marx–our main characters–are all incredibly well developed and even though the novel spans 30 years, it’s easy to stay afloat no matter where we come up for air in time, because these characters are our guiding light. We know them, so we are able to navigate the story through their eyes.

If you grew up in the 90s, this book will hit you with the nostalgia even if you weren’t a gamer. If you were a gamer of any kind, this book will have you googling where to buy a tamagotchi and a gameboy.

This book is a deep, almost poetic story of the human desire to express our story in whatever medium speaks to us. To Sadie and Sam, the medium is games.

It’s going to seem oddly specific but this book was written for you if:
-you loved the A Dark Quiet Death episode of Mythic Quest
-You’ve ever been a gamer of any kind
-You want to read a story about the complex, wonderful, sometimes painful relationship of having a best friend that you love unconditionally

I was very invested in this book from the start. Seeing games that I grew up playing was epic. The plot started to lose my interest about 30% in though.

Update! Picked this one up again and here is my full review:

🎮 Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow 🕹

This was a good one! It was pretty slow, but like an enjoyable slow. There was a lot of backstory to these characters and I can appreciate that when the writing is done well.

And video games are a huge part of my life so I always enjoy reading about them. Especially the 90’s ones (Oregon Trail anyone?).

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book was not for me and I know it is one of the top books of the summer. It was really drawn out about some friends that create video games together. I did enjoy the world of game development.

I know I’m in the minority.

Like, I get it. But the book was just not for me. I found the characters annoying, too much miscommunication was going on, or too many things left unsaid. I went in thinking it was about video games and somewhat of a love story, which it is, however…..it’s extremely slow paced. This story DRAGGED. I did enjoy the author’s writing, it’s beautiful, but the actual plot…..???? I also don’t think Sam and Sadie have a good friendship. They were so mean to each other, and barely even communicated. It seemed like they stayed “friends” just for the sake of being friends since they met when they were young.

Also why was Dov in so much of this book? I hated him. Sadie and Sam were willing to really throw their friendship away because they couldn’t communicate like adults but Dov is still friends with Sadie? *insert eye roll*


For being a character driven book, I really disliked the characters.


The references to gaming were cool AF though.

I enjoyed the multiple perspectives of this story but at times I worried this was overhyped by marketing campaigns. Was it good? Yes. Did I enjoy it? Yes. Would I recommend it? I'm not sure. I felt that at times the style required the reader to be in a specific mood, but I did enjoy it immensely! (As someone who loves video games, I did enjoy many aspects of this story tied to that!)

I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own

I have truly not read a book like this one. It was multilayered, but I found myself a little bored with the video game aspect of the story. Still an interesting read, I just may not be the target audience!

3.5 strs

I am grateful to the publisher Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for sending me an advanced copy of this book for review.

This book was not what I expected even though I had read the description beforehand. I expected a story that was more along the lines of The Nix by Nathan Hill but this story was less literary fiction and more adult contemporary about a friendship between two people who have known each other since they were children. While I enjoyed the character work and the explorations of friendship, codependency, and of what it's like to grow up together and have your relationship evolve as you change, I felt like the author depended a little too heavily upon certain tropes that I do not find remotely interesting.

Miscommunication is something that is natural and happens on a regular basis between human beings; however, this story seemed to hinge upon a big miscommunication or more accurately the reluctance of these characters to communicate with each other at all. This bothered me because these characters have known each other since they were children, and they seem to be having the same problem over and over. This is an issue I usually have with contemporary and more specifically with the romance genre. This is not a romance This meant that while I generally enjoyed the story, I did have certain portions of the book that just irritated me. I will not judge this book too harshly for this however because it is down to personal preference.

I thought the writing style was appropriate for the story being told (simple and emotional), the pacing however I did have an issue with. I found the book to be too long. I feel like the author had many ideas and did not edit any of them out, so we got a book that felt like it was stretched beyond what was necessary and at the halfway point I was ready for things to start winding down. So, while I did enjoy the themes and the idea is explored in this book very much, it really felt like a debut from this author ...which it isn't.

I recommend this book to fans of contemporary free novels that explore relationships and friendships, love and loss.

gabrielle zevin absolutely wrecked me as a teenager with elsewhere and memoirs of a teenage amnesiac (apparently i’m the only one who’s read them instead of aj fikry??) — so glad to know she’s still got it oh MAN it’s gonna take me a bit to recover from this.

I'm so sorry for how long it's taken me to provide feedback! I also received an ALC of the audiobook of this novel, which was phenomenal (save the one of the stranger pronunciation of "bubbe" I've heard). I'm a video game person myself, which added a lot to my experience, although I do think this is mostly enjoyable without the context! I appreciated how rich and flawed every character was, and although I generally hate the type of book that could solve all its conflict if the two main characters just talked to each other (hi, Normal People, I really did try!), this worked for me. The problems were complex enough, the relationships strange enough, and I loved Zevin's approach to a deep sort of love between two people that was never romantic. It's an underexplored dynamic, and it meant a lot to me. I also really appreciated how formally creative this book is; the floating through time, the unexpected section narrated by Marx (and a different audiobook narrator), the section set entirely in a video game, the chapter titles adapting to fit the section content. It was intricate and lovely, and it all worked for me. I'm excited to see what's next.

This book grabbed my attention right away with the scene on the train platform and the sweet, tentative reunion between Sam and Sadie. Their characters felt quirky and distinct, and I immediately wondered what their backstory was. The early introduction of video games piqued my interest. When we get to the history of their meeting at the hospital, it felt important and endearing. I was ready for a certain kind of depth and focus in this book that unfortunately started to unravel the more I read.

For as far back as their history goes, and as deep as their relationship is supposed to be - greater than love, they both keep saying - Sam and Sadie are frustratingly petty with each other. Their story is laced with miscommunication, assumptions, hurt feelings, grudges, and long periods of not talking to each other. It felt juvenile and made it hard for me to like them for most of the book. For supposed geniuses, they act awfully stupid a lot of the time.

Also - and this is just a personal thing - almost everyone in this book is super young, talented, and leading fascinating lives. Where are all these young 20-somethings in the real world? This peer group includes wildly successful video game designers, an opera singer in Italy, a lead singer in a touring rock band, and even the "old" guy (at 30!) is a Harvard professor. Zevin writes some beautifully honest, powerful passages in the book, but it's packaged in the bubble of a world that is hard to relate to.

I was also distracted by what felt like a frequent change of "voice." Sometimes the book felt written in standard 3rd person omniscient, sometimes it felt like a magazine article (complete with quotes from interviews), there was a section of supernatural "out of body" narration and a much longer section of video game playthrough. There were also jumps in the timeline, but those didn't seem nearly as jarring to me, and definitely helped to give clarity to the characters. Overall, I would have preferred much more cohesion in *how* this story had been told.

In her acknowledgments, Zevin mentions this book is about work and love. For some readers, it might be *too* much about work. There is A LOT of discussion about video games, how they're made, the technical requirements, what makes a good game, what makes a bad one, how to promote it, how it's received, etc etc. I skimmed through a lot of these sections.

And the parts of the book about love are...difficult to digest. I can only think of one example of a healthy relationship in this book, and it's Sam's grandparents. All of the main characters, though - ooof. There is one relationship that is downright abusive and disturbing. One relationship might seem sweet but is still a bit disconnected (one partner seems totally flawless, and the other refuses to marry when asked). Even the relationships between parents and kids are mostly stilted. I felt a strangely depressing overtone to most human connections in this book.

Actually, "strangely depressed" is how I felt as I finished the book. I really wanted to love it - and there is a lot to love. Some of the ideas and the writing are just beautiful. But the book folds in on itself in too many places, and where I wanted to invest in something that was full and round and whole, I feel like I got something more like waves - up and down, up and down. I do ultimately feel like this might be a great book club book, though, because there is enough to unpack on the themes of friendship, work, love, creativity, loyalty, family, pain, and more that readers would have a lot to discuss.

This book amazed me. I had received an ARC of it, but when I read the description that it was all about gaming (a subject I know little about), I almost didn’t read it. Then I started to see Instagram posts saying TomorrowX3 is a favorite book of the summer or year and I decided to try it. So happy I did! Even if you don’t care about gaming, you will still love this. The main characters Sam, Sadie and Marx - and so many of the supporting ones - are the kind you will keep thinking about long after you turn the last page. Love the 90s Cambridge/LA setting too. The author did a ton of research and is obviously crazy smart just like the characters. Would highly recommend this to anyone!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC! Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is available now. It will be on my list of favorites this year.

A in-depth depiction and analysis of a platonic friendship throughout a variety of stages of life. This had some odd pacing at times and didn't have much of a plot beyond the natural progression of the characters' intertwined lives and careers, but it is very deeply character-driven and you can't help but fall in love with them. There were moments of beautiful reflection from Zevin that will likely stick with me for a long time and definitely found this worth the hype.

This is not just a book about video games. This is a book about trauma, disability, abusive relationships, falling in love, loss, and ultimately the value of friendship. This is a story about life.

I thought the a lot of the writing choices were interesting and often crafty writing takes me out of a story but this proved the opposite, all of the choices were perfectly executed to make the story more impactful. I was never lost or confused, merely pulled into the creativity of the writing and the narrative.

The characters are where this book truly shines. Sadie and Sam are so utterly human, so full of fault and heart, that you can't help but fall in love with them. Their lives are filled with three decades worth of friendship, creativity, romance, love, jealousy, isolation, tragedy, miscommunication, genius, and more. We learn that love and connection doesn't have to be romantic to be worth a lifetime. That people come and go but true friendship is a worthy endeavor always. We watch these two fight and make up over and over but eventually they mature enough to learn that they are meant to be in each others lives.

Although this is also a love story to video games, you don't have to love video games to love this book. You only have to want to experience the true depth of these characters.

This book is what it means to be human.

Also the title is based off of my favorite solioquy from Macbeth:
"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."

“And this is the truth of any game—it can only exist at the moment that it is being played. It’s the same thing with being an actor. In the end, all we can ever know is the game that was played, in the only world that we know.”

CW: homophobia, gun violence associated with homophobia, miscarriage, suicide, car accidents, mental health struggles, violence, death of a loved one, disability discrimination, PTSD, night terrors

Sam and Sadie meet as kids in a childrens hospital. Both are gamers are their friendship saves and shapes their lives in different ways but is the foundation of what gets them through their respective traumas. Throughout their years, they torment and build each other up, as gaming, programming remain what keeps their relationship alive. Marx is the balance in their misunderstood relationship and saves both Sam and Sadie while helping them to build a successful business and help them personally manage their lives. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is about the different types of relationships one can have. Whether it is romantic, working or just friendship, relationships are what keeps us grounded in life through the hardships, loss and love.

I really didn’t think I was the target for this book- a millennial. I picked it up anyway, and I’m glad I did! This book was about so much more than tech! A must read for everyone!

One of the best books I've read in a long time. This novel is so emotionally rich, exploring the complexities of friendship, love, loss and collabroation

Sam and Sadie meet when they're tweens in California. Both lonely, they connect but unfortunately their friendship ends. When Sam sees Sadie years later in Boston, kismet means they need to reconnect. This book tells their story as they go from friends to coders to business partners.

Trigger warning: loss of parent, suicide, illness, abusive relationship

“No, you’ll never die and if you ever died, I’d just start the game again.”

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"The boredom you speak of... It is what most of us call happiness."

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"Sometimes, I would be in so much pain. The only thing that kept me from wanting to die was the fact that I could leave my body and be in a body that worked perfectly for a while - better than perfectly, actually- with a set of problems that were not my own.”

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Imperfectly perfect.That's how I'd describe Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Sam and Sadie start out as two imperfect teens and live messy lives both just hoping to get it "right." Their journey through friendship and video games teaches them that there is no "right" path, just the one you took.

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"Lovers are... common... true collaborators in this life are rare."

This book will probe your heart deeply. You will feel so many feelings for Sadie and Sam, both dealing with sadness, pain and tragedy - trying to escape their lives in fantasy worlds of their own making. Their games sound so fun and entertaining while their lives sound like exactly what you'd want to escape. And yet, you can see so clearly the ways they could change their path and choose not to. This was one of those books I didn't want to end. I want a sequel or a TV series or something that lets me live with these characters a little longer.

Thanks to Knopf Publishing via Netgalley and Libro.FM for advanced access to this novel. I did go on to purchase a copy. All opinions above are my own.