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.

I’m not even sure how to rate this book. I think I enjoyed it but it took me a whole freaking lot of time to read.

I really enjoyed the gaming aspect. I don’t know much about video games but I appreciated the research of them that probably went into this book. I felt like enough information went into the writing that I felt like I could follow along with the science of it- even if I didn’t really know what the terms meant. I enjoyed how much the gaming world became metaphors for their real life. Almost like little inside jokes you became apart of because you now understood from the gaming descriptions throughout the book.

Unfortunately, as a whole the book felt really slow. The beginning was a great pick up but then it just drug on for me. About 75% through it started getting interesting again. The chapters just felt so long at times- I had to put it down. Mainly why it took me so long to finish. All in all I’m glad I read it- I’m thankful for the free copy for sure and would definitely read another book by this author. It wasn’t terrible- just slow moving.

This is a truly unpopular opinion, but I almost did not finish this book. While there were some sweet parts, I was not really invested in the characters. I pushed through until about 40% and it was a struggle for me. I did enjoy the references to the 90's and early Era of video games, but it wasn't for me.

I don’t usually like coming of age novels, and I have absolutely no interest in gaming (or at least I didn’t, until I started to read…), and yet I thoroughly enjoyed this. The characters were wholly believable, complicated and relatable. (Even the one incredibly unlikable character was fully fleshed out and somewhat understandable.) I felt so fond of Sam and Sadie as I read, and I enjoyed following the ins and outs of their relationship, the love/hate/jealousy/misunderstandings made the relationship between them a character in itself.

I also was so impressed by Zevin’s ability to conceptualize the games they created, ideas emerging based on events in these characters’ lives and ideas they wanted to explore. (I want to play these games!)

I did think some sections were too drawn out, this could have been 100 pages shorter, the misogyny Sadie faced was sometimes too heavy handed for my tastes, there was some cringey writing, and there were a few tropes that annoyed me…I would have given this 3 stars, till I got to a certain scene told in the 2nd person (as if we’re living through and trying to win a video game!) That scene pushed it to 4, and the characters' reactions to the events of that chapter, pushed it up to 4.5, finally rounding up because I got so much satisfaction from the ending, and loved the ingenuity of the title. Zevin’s deep understanding of this world and her characters, her creativity and play with form were so fun to enter, I just enjoyed this read so much. (Now someone needs to create these games as tie-ins...)

Wow, what a fantastic book! The story details decades of friendship between the two protagonists and how their lives are interwoven. I really liked how the narrative is told throughout each character’s life, as it really give the reader insight into their character development.

This is a book that is happy, sad, touching, and beautiful. It’s a story about friendship, love, and how people who are important to us become entwined in our souls.

I’m seeing Tomorrow x 3 EVERYWHERE lately and it seems to be widely beloved. So I’m here to be a party pooper, because I didn’t love it. But you might.

When I started this, I thought it was going to be 5 stars for me, like a more relatable Ready Player One with less misogyny. I think this book has my favorite cover this year (John Gall is a god. Fight me.) Early on, I loved the 90s references, and even though I’ve never been a big gamer, I was into the descriptions of Sadie’s early games. I had hope for Sam and Sadie’s friendship.

And here’s where people are going to be torn,because I think I understand why people love this book. And that might be exactly the reason why I don’t.

I think we’re at an age in literature where readers kind of expect characters' lives to have been informed by their trauma, myself included. But there are two ways to do this. One is to show the trauma on the page, to use it as a plot device, and a way to elicit an emotional reaction from the reader. Zevin does this skillfully. It’s twisty and at times shocking. And maybe I’m desentized from a decade of hearing trauma stories 250 days/year, but it’s not that bad or scary thing that makes me feel. For a story to elicit a big emotional response from me, I need to see how those kinds of events fundamentally change characters. How they hurt, and grow, and heal. And that’s where this book is lacking. There’s plenty of trauma on the page, but the impact that it has on the characters here doesn’t always feel fully fleshed out or consistent with the other things we know about them as characters. It’s the psychology here that doesn’t really work. So while other people were sobbing their way through this one, I left it feeling “meh.”

And it’s about 100 pages too long. I think I get what Zevin was trying to do with the pioneers portion of this book, but my god did that part drag.

If Kristin Hannah gives you big feelings, this book probably will too. Otherwise, maybe just play Oregon Trail for the nostalgia?

Thanks to Knopf via NetGalley for a DRC to review. All opinions are mine.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
4.5/5

I’m going to get right into it with what made this book brilliant for me:
The characters. I loved them all so much for how unique and raw they were, how they embodied the nuances of what it is to be human, the importance of play, of failure.

The acknowledgment that the real world can be a violent dumpster fire, which presents gaming as a means of escape and self-development.
Gaming is layered and filled with possibility, and the perspectives of people of all ages, genders, abilities and socio-economic backgrounds being accepted and given a world to roam freely was a huge takeaway.

The writing I found to be brilliant, if not sometimes dense and clunky (this was a large part of our BR discussion), but overall I didn’t find it impacted my time with it

Suggestion to read this book with your most brutally booksta friends! People who can share differences in opinions and make you laugh all at once.
Was I the only person (out of 5!) who loved this book? Yes.
Was it also one of the most interesting buddy reads I’ve been in? Also yessss