5 dazzling stars
“If you keep playing, you could win.”

I am not a gamer. I am about Sam’s and Sadie’s age at the end - added together. I loved this book. I knew Zevin was an excellent writer from The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry and expected good things. What I got was a glimpse into another world (gaming) and the true pleasure of reading someone who crafts words into characters with all the emotions.

Zevin leads us through a children’s hospital and theatre and games and helps us understand the world a little better. Games offer a chance to forget one’s troubles, to ‘save the princess’ even if you can’t get out of bed, to work together, to start a new life. Tragedy is a part of our protagonists’ lives, but so is the possibility of Hope and Better. “It felt as if the universe was capable of being ordered. It felt as if it were possible to achieve a perfect timing.” Music is this for me, games for some, knitting, theater or sports for others.

Besides the deeply nuanced characters, I enjoyed the subtle humor/ irony throughout. Dialog rings true and is never clumsy or forced. Even chapter titles are clever. Zevin wields metaphors like an artist, surprises with unusual vocabulary (occasionally, never too much), foreshadows with expertise, flirts with political situations, and even puts a game in the book and on her website. Creative, tender, philosophical. Brilliant.

“Maybe it was the willingness to play that hinted at a tender, eternally newborn part in all humans.”

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I am not a gamer, but still loved this book. The characters were interesting and truly likable. I felt like I needed to read it more slowly than I usually read, both to savor it and to look up the many obscure words peppered throughout. :)

Thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher for early access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

Sweet, surprising, and deeply relatable. This book is an exploration of a friendship over the span of decades. It would be very easy to make it superficial without ever pulling out the insides of these characters but what Zevin has (once again) achieved, is achingly human characters. Her writing makes you feel like you KNOW Sadie and Sam, like you're living right along side them. I will continue to read everything Zevin writes.

I know I am one of the very few left who has not read a book by Gabrielle Zevin. All I can say now is better late than never. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is not the type of book that I would typically read. You do not have to be a gamer to enjoy this book. I knew very few of the gaming references mentioned.

Sadie Green and Sam Masur meet when young while Sam is in the hospital recovering from a horrific car crash that took the life of his mom and mangled his foot. At the time of meeting, Sam had not uttered a word in weeks. Sadie was at the hospital because her sister had cancer. The two struck up a conversation which was the start of a friendship that would span over twenty years in the book. I would like to think that the friendship continued the rest of their lives.

There were parts of this book that I absolutely hated. I wanted to shake Sadie and Sam. But there were parts that I absolutely loved. The characters have a depth in them that I found to be deeply moving. Sam and Sadie's friendship is one that we would all be blessed to experience once in our lives.

4.5 stars rounded up to 5. I really did enjoy this book much more than I was expecting. This story blooms. It is a story of layers upon layers.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts & opinions are my own.

While I found Gabrielle Zevin's writing genuinely beautiful I ultimately found myself underwhelmed by the story in this novel. Part of my issue stems from the total unlikability of Sam, the male half of the hero/heroine team. There's a lack of character growth there that makes it impossible to ever find him anything but an arrogant, vaguely sociopathic asshole so stymied by his own pain that he can't even conceive of anyone elses.

I did find the descriptions of video game development and structure hypnotic and fairy taleseque. It was seriously disappointing to have to remember they weren't really games.

Run, don't walk, to pick up Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow! I was so excited when I received the eARC from NetGalley. I loved some of the games mentioned in this book, like Oregon Trail, The Sims, Harvest Moon, and I have a degree in Computer Science but I have read several raving reviews that you don't need to be interested in games at all to adore this book. It's much more about relationships. I did not want this book to end. I wanted to stay in Sam and Sadie's world forever. This book is for literally everyone. You will not regret diving into this book.

I loooooved loved loved this book! Such a stunning reflection on friendship, love, and the creative life. Cannot recommend enough!

All the stars for this one! I’m declaring Tomorrow x3 my book of the summer.

There’s so much to love here - 90s nostalgia (Oregon trail, the sims), pop culture references, a slightly unconventional love story. Those things aside, there’s a lot to unpack with this one - gun violence, disability, racism, homophobia, the creation of art, loss, friendship and love. Gabrielle Zevin really packs a lot into this story about three friends who as college students set out to create a video game, their initial success and subsequent events after their game takes off.

If you enjoy character driven novels, video game references, grew up in the 90s and 00s, I think you’ll enjoy this one. I loved it.

I absolutely loved Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin! This is a story about two friends, Sadie and Sam, and spans 30 years of friendship. You will see the highs and lows of their relationship. They are creative partners and they plan, create and promote video games. I am not a gamer at all but this really brought me back to my childhood. I remember playing games mentioned throughout the book like Donkey Kong, Leisure Suit Larry, King's Quest and The Oregon Trail. I was so invested in their friendship. I laughed and I definitely cried. You will see their failures and successes. You will even be immersed in a video game. I thought it was beautifully written and really loved it. I will definitely be purchasing for my library and promoting to my book club. Thank you so much to NetGalley for the ARC.

Something seemed off about the gaming in this book, maybe it’s that the author is younger than the main characters are. Maybe it’s that I’m near the same age as the main characters is I remember this time in gaming differently. I can’t put my finger on it.

Sadie was a complete narcissistic nightmare throughout the book really. Sam was downtrodden from the start and never really gained any traction. Marx (really, Marx as a first name?) seemed to be some kpop idol dream. For me the characters just never meshed. No one seemed to fit together. The tragedy plot seemed unnecessary and my brain was confused by Mapletown/Maplestory and Sadie’s gaming choices.

The whole Pioneers section was long winded and written in a very strange way. It didn’t seem to fit the book. If this was going for a feel of in game text or such it missed the mark for me. As a lifelong Oregon Trail (and Yukon trail) player the weirdness of the Pioneers game was just annoying.

I wanted to like this. I’m a gamer. I’m old. I still game. It seemed like the author referenced I Am a Strange Loop only after someone else told them about it, not having been influenced by it. So adding that reference after writing the story seemed wrong somehow. .

This is one of the best books I've read this year! The synopsis doesn't make is sound as good as the book is. I don't care for videogames but I was obsessed with this book. I will think about these characters for a long time.

Wow, did I seriously love this book. This book just hit me at all the right spots. Completely engrossing, I could not stop reading this. Zevin is a masterful storyteller and she created a story with no stone left unturned.
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This story spans 30 years from a childhood hospital, to Cambridge to California telling the tale of one of the most beautiful platonic love stories. This is not a story of Romantic love. This is a story of video games, business and above all friendship. This gave me all the #MythicQuest backstory vibes.
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Maybe this book hit so hard with me because I’m of the same age and I grew up with Mario. Also, there is no game I love more than #OregonTrail which becomes a large component in their friendship. Either way this is in the running for one of my favorite books of the year.
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Huge thank you to #knopfdoubleday and #netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow follows the story of video game creators Sadie and Sam (childhood best friends), and Marx, who create a popular video game and then launch their own video game company. But it's so much more than that. The story is complex, sad, romantic, and horrifying. It's an exploration of friendship, love, and dealing with loss and grief. It's a very moving book.

I'm not a gamer, but I certainly played my fair share of The Oregon Trail, The Sims, Maniac Mansion, among other games. I had a Sega, I used to play my cousin's Nintendo with the original Mario, I used to visit a friend's house to play Donkey Kong Country on her Super Nintendo. I loved all the old-school game references too. While gaming is the central theme of the book, it's not the main theme. Even if you're not a gamer, you will find a way to relate to this book.

The three main characters, Sadie, Sam, and Marx, are so incredibly well developed and each relatable in their own ways.

Major trigger warnings here: Grief, Suicide, Death, Mental Illness, Gun Violence, Abortion, and more.

Overall, I feel like I went back and forth with the story. The writing was lyrical, the story was interesting and powerful, but there were times I felt myself losing interest, but then something major would happen and I would get sucked back in.

I'm still thinking about it.
4/5 stars

Thank you Knopf Publishing and NetGalley for the #gifted eARC!

This was fantastic! When I saw this was about videogames, I knew I was either going to love or hate this, and I must say it was the former by far. Only towards the end was the more videogame-ish part incorporated, and I liked that it didn’t take up the whole book.
This book was just about characters that are beautiful, messy, perfectly flawed and the most real and raw and the relationships between them was heartwarming to read about.

If you love stories with emphasis on friendship, love, starting over and trying again with the importance of communication- this is one 100% absolutely for you. And with the bonus of video games, this is a book I think basically anyone would enjoy! Absolutely recommended.

This is absolutely fantastic, I don’t think I have ever read such a beautiful depiction of a friendship before not without it being overly sentimental. I loved the pop culture references as someone who grew up in the 90s this was a nostalgia trip for me and and brought up so many memories. This coming-of-age story is one of the best books I have read this year. I highly recommend it and you don’t have to be into gaming, I haven’t been since the 90s and I was obsessed with this story. If you’ve ever felt lost, alone or out of place this book is for you.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free copy in return for an honest opinion

Video game design is the setting for the story of Sam and Sadie, but it's so much more than that. This is a story about the friendship between the two, beginning in childhood when they spending hours gaming together in a hospital ward where Sam was recuperating from an injury and Sadie was visiting her sick older sister. They just had a lot in common even though their backgrounds were quite different.

Their friendship felt very real, hard-earned, warts and all. We follow their story over time, meeting boyfriends and girlfriends, roommates, professors (she's at MIT, he's at Harvard). In their collaboration over gaming they both thrive. They're wildly creative and successful together against the backdrop of the gaming community and technology of the 90s.

Life is a game, fits and starts, infinite possibilities, consequences, tricks and tools, companions. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow has a depth, a sweetness, playfulness. Five enthusiastic stars.

My thanks to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing for the ARC in exchange for this review.

Would you wish to live in a world of infinite restarts?

🎮

These days, it is not uncommon to hear people long for yesterday and yesterday and yesterday. Faded and frightening, the present demands all our attention. That's why Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, is the present we need.

🎮

If literature were to be a natural phenomenon, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow would be the Northern Lights: Luminous, lush, lyrical, literary, but unlike the Northern Lights, easily accessible.

🎮

This book, to quote the book, who quotes Whitman, contains multitudes. The primary plot follows the friendship of Sadie Green and Sam Masur, brilliant kids who win the birth lottery with regard to living in their perfect era. Their relationship grows and struggles as they collaborate on a video game company which, whether or not you can spell MIT or know Mario from Luigi, is fascinating to be steeped in. Why? Aside from a glimpse into the creative process (comp sci is just one factor in game design) and the symphonic sensory detail, it reveals how the heart and soul of the non-sentinent screen cosmos are the children of humans whose experiences are universal and their creations are their interpretations, corrections, and restarts.

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Immediate emotional investment in the characters, whose flaws are familiar and forgivable, is the fuel that propels the decades spanning tale that toggles from second person present tense narration (which even novice gamers recognize as reflective of the immersive standard) and third person
past tense. Also toggled are the game plots - extended metaphors for the primary narrative, and they masterfully puppeteer the heartstrings.

🎮

You will be rooting for these characters as they become universal avatars for all of us who never quite get what we want, wonder what wild success looks and feels like, ponder the price of dreams that come true, and dreams that never quite will.

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Put it on the top of your TBR and then immediately take it off and read it.

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Thanks to @netgalley and @gabriellezevin for this treasure.

I was excited for the opportunity to read this book after I fell in love with The Storied Life of AJ Fikry, and this book was not at all what I was expecting in the best way possible. Sam and Sadie... I loved both of them and was so frustrated by both of them at different times as well. Without giving anything away, I was so emotionally tied to all of the characters and was devastated towards the end. 10000% recommend!

Tomorrow, And Tomorrow, And Tomorrow is a life journey of two video game creators.

Sam Masur and Sadie Green have been friends since childhood-Mostly. As college students they reunite and borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first game Ichigo. The game is a Best Seller and gives Unfair Games (the company the two set up with their producer Marx Lee) lots of attention. This begins a repeat of their childhood cycle, someone miscommunications or assumes the wrong thing and Sadie and Sam are on the outs again. Will they become friends again, and make more games? When tragedies strike do they come together pr pull apart? The readers are given insight into thirty years of the relationship as friends and partners and how everything, as Ichago will tell you, in life comes in waves.

The most apparent thing I loved was the pop culture. As a gamer, moving through the land of gaming from the 90s to the present was nostalgic and kicked up memories from those games. This aspect reminds me of Ready Player One: the games they play (the games they create), and the characters they create show what these characters are deep down. The name drop of Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy, and Donkey Kong actually mean something to Sadie and Sam, and favorites said a lot about their personalities.

Once you get past the pop culture trapping, you really get to delve into the story. This is a story about love but it's not romantic love. Gabrielle Zevin wrote this book about friendship, showing that love is vital to our being. Too often these books lead to a cliche romance but Zevin lets Sam and Sadie just be. We need more books about friendships and how they undulate throughout the years. The honesty in Sam and Sadie's fights honesty gets homes and makes you think about our own friendships.

The novel gets 4.5 stars. I wanted to give it a five but the ending left me wanting. Two days later, I felt like I had to go back and finish it. It just wasn't satisfying; with the grandness of the plot, I expected a bigger and more emotional ending.

Delving into friendship and how important it is to our life, this novel is touching, deep, and fun with all its pop culture.

I was a little wary about this book, as I adored AJ Fikry but didn’t love Zevin’s next book, Young Jane Young. Well, this one I loved. Gamers Sam and Sadie coming together in their childhood then bouncing off one another through life is just marvelous. It’s a beautiful depiction of a friendship without becoming maudlin or overly sentimental. I was a little worried as the end was coming that Zevin was about to take it somewhere I really didn’t want her to, but thankfully she did not. I highly recommend this book and you don’t have to be a gamer to enjoy it (I’m not). Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.