This book is beautiful and perfect and brilliant. I want to read everything Gabrielle Zevin ever writes. I adored Sadie, I ADORED Marx, and I feel like the author did a perfect job of writing such a nuanced version of Sam.

What. A. Book.

Sam Masur and Sadie Green have been on and off again friends since childhood. Their friendship was formed in an unlikely way and their bond grew over video games. Their love of gaming would bring them back together as adults where they would form a partnership in a lucrative business. This book spans 30 years and follows the two as they navigate love and loss, highs and lows, and everything in between. The relationships in the story were beautifully crafted and I fell in love with every character.

There was a lot of gaming talk, but it wasn't too difficult to follow and shouldn't deter anyone from picking this book up!

Set in the world of video game design, this novel pulls from 1980s, '90s, and early 2000's pop culture. It does this really fluidly. But the novel's greatest strengths are its character development and the ups and downs of those characters' relationships over the course of the story.

I went into this book with ALL OF THE HYPE, I was really excited to read something different. And different it was! This tale of three friends who build video games together spans multiple decades and as many life changes. The relationship, both personal and creative, of Sam and Sadie is at the core. Some interesting literary devices pop up as well, flashbacks and parallels and even straight gameplay keep the reader on their toes. It’s not what I would call a warm story, and it took me a minute to get into it, but it certainly compelled me through.

Really, it’s a story about partnerships and about grief, which doesn’t sound light, but the underlying plot lines of the games they and their company create keep it from getting too dark. I could have kept reading about what Sam and Sadie will make next and next and next.

CW: Gun Violence, Sexual Harassment, Grief

I received a reviewer copy of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin from the publisher Knopf Publishing Group from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

What It’s About: Sadie and Sam are connected to one another over a love of video games, but have become exchanged. Then one day Sam and Sadie run into each other at a subway station and reconnect and endeavor on a path that takes them from creative partners to video games execs.

What I Loved: I don't know that there is a book quite like this. I heard a lot of people say that they didn't want to read this book because it's about video games. It's not. It's about two friends and how they handle relationships and continue moving on. This book is the story of how far you will go for your friend. The book explores disability and how it impacts a character and how they are seen in the world. The book explores being a woman in a field dominated by men (especially in the 90's where the book is set). This book It is an intricate novel, well plotted with fantastic storylines. Somehow Zevin manages to make this feel quiet and fast at the same time. Just a really good first book.

What I didn’t like so much: There are elements that I didn't love, for one there is a section that is kind of video game heavy that felt strange to me until the end of the chapter. But I think its still worth a read.

Who Should Read It: If you loved The Start Up Wife, I think you will love this. People who love character driven novels. People who love books that celebratge

Summary: A story of two friends and their connection to each other and video games.

I *loved* this book! Knowing it was about two friends and video games, I was a little hesitant going into it. I found myself really drawn to the world created by Zevin and very attached to the characters. My husband and I read this together and we both really loved it and keep discussing it weeks after finishing. A sign of a great read. If you like friendship stories, pick this one up.

I didn’t finish this one.

I adored The Storied Life of AJ Fikry, so I had high hopes going into this story. I am not a gamer, so I found the design aspects of the game very dull. It didn’t hold my attention at all.

I think gamers would really appreciate this novel, but it just wasn’t for me.

Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC of this terrific book, in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I was completely sucked in to this book from the very beginning - that feeling that I sometimes get of "oh, I'm going to really like this one" - and I was right. The basic premise is that Sam and Sadie met as kids, were good friends for awhile, until Sam realized that Sadie's friendship wasn't totally pure and he shut her off. They meet again later, in college, and begin working together on designing a video game. It's a hit, they make a lot of money, and together with Sam's roommate Marx and Sadie's exboyfriend and former teacher, Dov, form a company. This book follows their lives for the next 15 or so years.

There's no point outlining the whole book - life happens, and the characters have to deal with it. There's love, success and failure, misunderstandings and mistakes, and some tragedy thrown in. Parents and grandparents are involved in their lives, and in good, supporting ways. We see the characters growing and maturing. Sometimes you feel like smacking them, but you can always empathize with what's going on, and see the potential for growth and development. I loved the characters, and even the very tangential characters are so well drawn that they feel real.

And, just a note for those who might worry about it - while it's all about gaming and designing games, you really don't need to be a gamer or have more than a passing familiarity with them. The games are important, as a counterpoint to real life, a theme that shows up more than once, but the story and the characters work even if you don't know anything much about gaming.

5 enthusiastic stars for this one!

This book made my nerdy heart happy! I absolutely loved it! The characters and the story were perfect! Highly recommend!!

TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW by Gabrielle Zevin (The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry) is a LibraryReads selection for July. This novel deals with … video games: "and this is the truth of any game – it can only exist at the moment it is being played. It’s the same 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." Sadie Green, and Sam Masur are the designers and programmers, Marx is the producer. They are all college students (Harvard and MIT) who eventually make it big with a successful game, but find their objectives diverging as they grow older. Plenty of questions here about identity and belonging, too. Sam (who is disabled due to a childhood accident) and Marx are biracial Asian Americans "and as any mixed-race person will tell you – to be half of two things is to be whole of nothing." Sadie struggles with self-worth and the anti-female culture of video-gaming. I still find my favorite Zevin novel to be Elsewhere and this latest is certainly more adult-oriented, particularly the sections where undergraduate Sadie becomes involved with an older, married professor. Called "a love letter to the Literary Gamer" by The New York Times reviewer, TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW received starred reviews from Kirkus, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly.

Such a well-written book with characters that feel like real people, even if they’re like people I’ve never met. I can see why this book is so beloved, and I really enjoyed it as well.
Sam and Sadie each go on their own very human, very realistic journey as they navigate their identities, their friendship with each other, and their partnership creating video games in the 90s.
It was a heavier book than I’d anticipated, but very effective, and while gaming fans will appreciate all the details, non-gamers will not be put off. I found the whole world of video game design fascinating, though I rarely play them myself. I love learning about various industries, and the book doesn’t overwhelm the reader with information. It’s truly a book about relationships.
The book made me sad, but not sad enough to stop reading. It took something out of me, and I’m choosing to see that as a success for the writer.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

Sadie and Sam meet in a hospital as children. They spend many hours engaged in video games but a misunderstanding leads to their estrangement. A chance encounter, while they in college, reunites them. Now instead of playing video games they are designing them. I don’t follow or play video games but I really enjoyed this book. It is a love story but not a romance. I sometimes got bogged down in the details of the games but overall I thought this was a great read. It’s original but will appeal to a mass audience. I thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this ARC.

This is a friendship love story, which is quite unique between a male and female. It was a little too long - the video game stalking seemed strange and unnecessary. It was a really good first half, but fell off in the second half for me. You definitely don't need to be a video game lover to enjoy this book - it is much more about the characters than the video games itself.

Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for honest opinions.

“To allow yourself to play with another person is no small risk. It means allowing yourself to be open, to be exposed, to be hurt.” Gabrielle Zevin // Tomorrow & Tomorrow & Tomorrow

I’ve found that when a book is *really* good—when it manages to sweep me out of this world and into its own—I have a hard time writing a review. It feels a bit like trying to review a friendship that has just ended, a heavy dose of nostalgia mixed with a bit of sadness and confusion over the break.

There’s no doubt that this book leaves a lasting impression. It isn’t particularly long, but it reads like an epic (maybe because we get to watch a couple decades of the characters’ lives play out across the pages?). It’s also an absolute roller coaster of emotion—soaring successes mixed with pits of pain and self-deprecation.

Sam & Sadie were somewhat falsely branded as ‘two friends—often in love, but never lovers’. Aside from their origin story, which flared up and fizzled out in spectacular fashion, I don’t think they even liked each other for most of the book. They walked parallel paths due in part to their mutual love of game design (but mostly because Sam kept insisting it was ‘a good idea’). There was love between them, sure, but the failures of their friendship left far bigger footprints.

The writing in this book was absolutely masterful. I loved the dual perspectives of ‘Both Sides’, was heartbroken to read ‘The NPC’, and fascinated to witness the slow reveal nested within ‘Pioneers’. The author also wrote about each game (real and imagined) with such detail and devotion that it made me want to play.

I’m sure that this book will be on most of booksta’s #bestbooksof2022 lists, and it absolutely deserves that honor. @gabriellezevin has done something truly special with this work, even if I can’t quite articulate it.

This book was a lot of fun! I read my first Gabrielle Zevin book when I was in high school and I was super excited when I saw that she was coming out with a new book. This book centers around two people who were childhood friends but had a falling out only to cross paths again in their 20s. They reconnect and start building video games together. I live in Boston and I'm in Cambridge, where the book is set, nearly every day so it was a lot of fun seeing places that are so familiar to me in a book. I loved hearing about all the video games and I wish I could play them! I really enjoyed seeing the relationships between all the characters grow and change throughout all the years.

I heard a lot of buzz about Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow from my book people so I was honestly nervous it wouldn’t live up to the hype. Spoiler alert, it did. I started it and finished it in about 2 sittings. There is so much packed into this book that it’s hard to believe it isn’t 1000 pages. I loved the character dynamics and development across the story. I truly can’t compare this book to any other book, but it will surely be added to my list of book recommendations for anyone looking for something different. I also think that it’s a book for a variety of readers since it crosses genres.

Thank you to Gabrielle Zevin, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I can see why this book is buzz worthy! It’s character driven, it’s complicated, it an unlikely story of friendship, love, loss and the complexity of human relationships all wrapped up in the world of game design.

I almost cried at the end. At this exact moment in time it's hard for me to imagine a book that could speak to me more. There are so many parallels to my own life that reading this story was as personal of an experience to me as writing it would have been. Is it a perfect novel? No. Is anything?

I have not read The Storied Life of AJ Fikry, but I will definitely be picking it up.

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow is the story of Sam Masur and Sadie Green. They met as kids while Sam was in the hospital after a car accident and Sadie’s sister was there for cancer treatment. Sam and Sadie meet one day in the game room and a lifelong friendship begins.

Fast forward to Junior year at Harvard and Sam spots Sadie on a subway platform. They rekindle their friendship and turn it into an amazing video game design partnership. Before even graduating college, they have their first big hit…Ichigo. Their company grows from there but problems between Sam and Sadie endanger their friendship and eventually their company.

This was a love story like no other. I loved Sam and Sadie and I hated them…they broke my heart and pissed me off. Just an all around great book about love and friendship and life.

I received this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Don't be fooled by the "gamer" sterotype present in this book. You do have to play, enjoy or know anything about video games to appreciate the art that is TMRWx3.

What made me fall in love with novel (honestly my fav book of 2022 so far) was the artistic nature of the story. The characters are phenomenal, the human connection and romance was superbly done, but the art sent it home for me. This is not a thriller or a quick read. It is meant to be savored and consumed slowly.

This book will stay on my mind for days, months and years to come, which is the mark of a timeless story. I adored it!