Best friends work together and fight with each other as they aim for the highest standards in the world of video games. Over the course of their lives and careers, they will lose and find one another several times by the strength of their friendship. Author Gabrielle Zevin offers readers a deep dive into the world of gaming and the people who populate it in the somewhat enjoyable book Tomorrow, And Tomorrow, And Tomorrow.

Sam Masur is in his junior year at Harvard, and he’s lonely. He hasn’t spoken to his only friend, Sadie Green, since he was 12 and she was 11 years old because of a disagreement. Well, for Sadie it was a disagreement. At the time, Sam thought of it as a betrayal. Now he’s old enough to understand that it wasn’t that big of a deal, but there’s not much he can do about it.

He does know, though, that Sadie is attending MIT, not too far from him, so when they run into each other at the train station it feels like a gift from the universe. Once again they fall into the familiar routine of their friendship, which includes one key factor: video games.

Video games kicked off their friendship in Los Angeles when Sam was recovering in the hospital from an accident and Sadie was keeping her sister company through cancer treatments. Now games bring them back together again, and Sam has an idea. He wants to design a game with Sadie.

Sadie has missed her friendship with Sam and falls headlong into it once again. Sam’s roommate, Marx, a gaming enthusiast himself, volunteers his apartment as gaming central. Marx doesn’t have the creative and technological chops to create the games, but he believes in Sam and agrees to become the producer for the games Sadie and Sam create. Just like that their company, Unfair Games, is born.

The first game Unfair releases makes a huge splash, and the gaming world and its fans start to expect great things from the team. Behind the scenes, things are a little murky. Sadie tries to deal with Sam’s brilliance while also standing up for her own contributions to their creations. Sam does his best to handle the awkwardness of social interactions and what he sees as Sadie’s occasional tantrums. Through it all, Marx is a true friend to them both.

As the years pass and the century turns, Sam and Sadie deal with changing technology as well as their personal lives. Sam knows he loves Sadie but doesn’t know how else to express that love other than collaborating with her on everything. Yet their creative differences drive them crazy and also apart at various points in time.

Author Gabrielle Zevin gives readers a deep look into the world of video game creation without overwhelming readers. Although many of the technical points aren’t included, readers will find themselves armed with just enough information to follow some of the bigger ideas behind creating video games. The passion and patience of Sam, Sadie, and Marx feel organic and dynamic.

The book is less successful in creating a narrative with a clear beginning, middle, and end. At times it feels more like a collection of incidents. Characters and plot devices that seem vital early in the book either disappear or become obsolete by the end (particularly when it comes to Sam’s disability or Sadie’s family members.) It’s unclear whether these minor characters and devices were forgotten or are just no longer relevant to the story. Either way, they end up feeling like missed opportunities.

Zevin allows Sam and Sadie to fall out on what feels like contrived reasons at times, and occasionally the dialogue stutters in terms of realism. The earlier portions of the book when Sam, Sadie, and Marx are just hitting their stride as professionals feel more cohesive and purposeful. Once the three move to California, the book starts to meander, wandering from one set of circumstances to another until the end where it more or less just stops.

Some of the more obvious plot points play out in inevitable ways; others might feel less natural to the story world Zevin has created. Those interested in a broad look behind the scenes at the gaming world might want to check this one out.

A tale of friendship, of love, of disability, of misunderstanding, of gaming, and more love

Sam Masur meets Sadie Green in the hospital when he's young and needs her friendship terribly. They play video games for hours and, because of a misunderstanding, go their separate ways.

Sam ends up going to Harvard. Sadie goes to MIT. They meet again and combine forces, along with Marx, Sam's college roommate, to develop games.

This is a simple concept that develops into an extraordinary book. I am not a video game player, at least not much of one, but I'm familiar with the culture and that was enough for me to appreciate this story.

I loved all the in-depth character development in this tale, learning about especially Sam but Sadie and Marx also through the story and through the games.

This was just a beautifully thought out plot and story within a story. I just loved it. I highly recommend this book.

I received this advanced reading copy from AA Knopf through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.

I am absolutely in awe of this book upon completing it. Honestly when I first requested this book via Netgalley, I had no idea that I would love it this much. A book about the making of video games? Sure I’ve played video games over the years but not enough to call myself an actual fan of them… this book though, completely changed my perspective as I realized that there is so much more to video games. Like books, they have their own storyline that can be just as intriguing and characters that you get invested in.

This book didn’t just span a couple months, it spanned years as the main characters grew into adults, as they suffered loss and trauma and through it all they had video games. Games that either created or grew up with.

All the compliments that this book has received are above and beyond well deserved. I am so grateful to the author and publisher for sending me an e-galley of this book that thoroughly opened my eyes to just how wonderfully complex video games truly are. I am absolutely in awe of this book upon completing it. Honestly when I first requested this book via Netgalley, I had no idea that I would love it this much. A book about the making of video games? Sure I’ve played video games over the years but not enough to call myself an actual fan of them… this book though, completely changed my perspective as I realized that there is so much more to video games. Like books, they have their own storyline that can be just as intriguing and characters that you get invested in.

This book didn’t just span a couple months, it spanned years as the main characters grew into adults, as they suffered loss and trauma and through it all they had video games. Games that either created or grew up with.

All the compliments that this book has received are above and beyond well deserved. I am so grateful to the author and publisher for sending me an e-galley of this book that thoroughly opened my eyes to just how wonderfully complex video games truly are.

4.5 friendship stars

This book is a wonderful tale of a lifetime of friendship with a backdrop of gaming. The characters were realistic and flawed and I didn’t want this book to end. I am dreaming up my own ending to this one!

Sam Masur and Sadie Green meet in the children’s hospital lounge and play a video game together. In fact, Sadie returns many times to play with Sam as he recovers from a car crash. They have a falling out however and don’t see each other for years. A chance crossing of paths in Boston reunites Sam and Sadie. They eventually work together to create a video and start a company together. Marx, Sam’s roommate, ends up producing the games and the trio spends countless hours together. They end up wildly successful but not always happy.

I don’t really understand all the gaming part of this book, but I still really enjoyed this one. It was interesting to read about all that goes into putting a game together. As with any friends who work together, things don’t always work out. Sam has ongoing health issues to deal with and they are each ambitious in their own way. I really grew to care about all three of them and they are memorable characters!

At times this was a bit of a slow read, but I kept returning to it and the writing was terrific. It felt good to take my time with this one.

How is it possible that I feel late to the party when this book hasn’t even been in the wild a week yet? From the moment I first heard about TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW it has been on my (overstuffed, more than slightly terrifying) To Read list and when I received an early copy I was thrilled! This book has already received so much praise from so many readers — and it’s completely deserving of every single one.

If THE STORIED LIKFE OF AJ FIKRY was a love letter to bookstores, to readers (& here I am adding my voice to the already massive chorus of champions for this novel — if you haven’t already read it, please do so), then TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW is a love letter to nostalgia, to video games, to family (biological and found, romantic love and platonic). Not gonna lie, kind of weeping at the thought of a late’90s setting being considered historical, but here we are 👵🏻

TOMORROW follows two college students, former friends who first met in a children’s hospital: one a patient, the other a sibling of a patient. A fast bond over a video game spectacularly crashes and burns over a misunderstanding, the kind that can only exist between tweens. A handful of years later, a chance encounter brings the pair together once more — this time with friends, lovers, and young adult aspirations in tow — and they dive headfirst into the video game industry. As the years progress, they (& their company) experience a meteoric rise, the weight of expectations for follow-up games, the burden of failure. Neither Sam nor Sadie are strangers to trauma and pain and the blows continue to come, culminating in a scene that left me stunned.

To discuss anything further would be to give it all away, but TOMORROW is very much a character-driven novel. Anyone hesitant to pick it up due to the gamer angle shouldn’t worry: though it’s a long read, it’s extremely accessible, much more about people and their relationships than the jargon-y mechanics of video game design.

I’m already seeing TOMORROW featured on Best Of lists and I’m not in the least bit surprised. This truly is a wonderful read and one I’m grateful for having picked up. A huge, huge thank you to @aaknopf!

Initially I wanted to read this because of the cover. I knew this was about gamers and I wasn’t sure I would like it because, well, I don’t game. The only games I play are sudoku, chess and like bejeweled or fruit ninja on my phone. 🤣

Anyway, while gaming is at the core of this storyline…it’s more. A journey of friendship, life, how relationships change over time. Where does life go? This was surprisingly deep and thought provoking.

A coming of age journey with friends that meet as children and end up in the gaming world. Not only do they like games but they end up creating a game together.

I absolutely adored this one. I was surprised to be so into this gaming world.

Five Key Feels

-Sam, Sadie, and Marx are the perfect trio.

-I loved the throwback to the time period (floppy disks, anyone)?

-Even though I am not a huge gamer, it was fun to learn about the different games they were making.

-There is so much emotion between these characters, and you really feel their experiences.

-This book was a thought provoking look at life, love, friendship, and work.

——

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow was such an interesting book. It weaves the stories of Sam and Sadie, who meet in the children’s ward at a hospital, and how their love of video games unites them. The book follows this love, and shows them building successful games and businesses, and their evolution as people. Add in Marx, Sam’s college roommate, and his encouragement to do something great, and you have a really powerful story.

Each character goes through their highs and lows, and I love how Zevin reminds us that life is not always just ups or downs. Sometimes, unexpected things happen, and sometimes, you get lucky in life.

I found myself thinking about this book for several days after I finished it. This is such a great book. Even if you aren’t a video game person, you will find something to connect with here.

Sam Masur and Sadie Green were childhood friends who had a falling out and lost touch. When they encounter each other in college, they decide to team up and design a video game together. And so begins (or re-begins) their long friendship. This is a love story, but a platonic one. It has its ups and downs and many lovely and well drawn-out side characters. I didn't always (or even sometimes) like the main characters or have one single interest in video games but still loved this book.

It made me love, hate, put it down in anger, be slightly confused by one totally unnecessary chapter, and find the ending and the book as a whole very satisfying. It was both a challenge to read and also very easy. Basically, it would be a great one to discuss, so everyone please go read it!

This is by the author of The Storied Life of AJ Fikry and Young Jane Young (both books I adored) but this one is VERY different for her. I can't imagine where she will go next.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance copy for review. This one felt like a whole experience (and I love the cover and grew to love the title.)

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is the story of two childhood friends, Sam and Sadie. After being estranged for six years, they meet again when both are enrolled in nearby colleges. They decide to make a video game one summer that changes their lives.

The plot, as stated above, doesn’t seem as compelling as the work itself. This look into Sam and Sadie’s lives is totally character driven. You can’t help but like them and be curious what happens to them by the end. And when that end arrives, you’ll be sad to see them go.

There are multiple subtexts in the book. How games are made, how disability impacts people and how it feels to be Asian are all explored within Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. Best of all the types and nature of friendship are fully probed.

I loved this book. It helps a bit to have an interest in gaming, but the book would be enjoyable for most readers. 5 stars and a favorite!

Thanks to Knopf and NetGalley for a digital review copy of the book.

TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW is a heart-wrenching and beautifully written story about friendship, art, creativity, love and loss that’ll fuel your 90s nostalgia.

Love love love love love love love love love.
This book did everything I wanted it to do and more. It inspired me, introduced me to new things, made me fall in love with its characters, made me root for the romance, made me open my mind to twists and turns. I was always surprised and delighted and devastated all at once. What a special book.

4.5 Stars

This book surprised me in a good way! I wasn’t sure how I was going to like a book about gamers and the gaming industry, but it was so so good. I loved the writing, the characters and the friendship. It’s basically a story of the long-term friendship of Sam and Sadie – their good times, the bad times and all the in between. It was such a nostalgic story with Sadie playing Oregon Trail on the computer in the 90’s and Sam playing Donkey Kong. There was a lot about the world of gaming, but I didn’t mind it at all. All I have to say is that Gabrielle Zevin is a phenomenal storyteller and I want to read more of her books!

Thank you Knopf for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Knopf Publishing Group for gifting me a digital ARC of the latest novel by Gabrielle Zevin - 4.5 stars!

Sam Masur and Sadie Green met by chance in their childhoods, when both were in the hospital for different reasons. They bonded and healed by playing video games until a misunderstanding caused a rift. Years later, when both were in college at different schools in Cambridge, they meet by chance once again. This time, they forge a new relationship and partnership as they develop their own video game. But the road ahead is not smooth for them.

If you would have told me that I would love a book that centers around video games, I wouldn't have believed you. But besides from those weird chapters about Pioneer that I must admit I kind of skimmed, this book is about much more than games. It's about friendship and love, hard work and dreams, grief and reinvention. I loved the explanation of the title - that a game is "the possibility of infinite rebirth, infinite redemption. The idea that if you keep playing, you could win. No loss is permanent, because nothing is permanent, ever." Kind of like life. This is a must read!

I really struggled with how to rate this book. If thinking in terms of sheer talent of the writer, definitely 5 stars. The overall friendship arc of the story? 5 stars. My enjoyment of the book as a whole? Probably 3-3.5 stars. And that's the difficulty with star ratings.Many reviewers have said that you don't need to be a gamer to read this book. And while that's technically true, I would absolutely say that if you do enjoy video games, this book is going to read much more smoothly for you. I am not a gamer and although I loved the storyline of the deep friendships among the 3 primary characters, the gaming piece is heavily woven into the majority of this book making it tedious and difficult to trudge through at times. It's a roughly 400 page book but it took me around 5 days to get through it.One aspect I didn't particularly like was the redemption of the friendship between Dov and Sadie. As a therapist, it was disturbing to me to see that the abusive relationship she was in later reconciled into some casual, "let's grab lunch while you're in town" kind of relationship. No.I did love the overall story of the friendship and relationships in this novel. I think I would recommend this read but be aware of the heavy gaming dialogue throughout the book.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin is a complex story about friendship and love over time. Sam and Sadie meet as kids and this story follows them through highs and lows of their lives and friendship. Each of their stories is deep and emotional. Don’t let the video game plot fool you- while an important part of the story- this story is about friendship and presented in a new and beautiful way. Zevin’s writing in Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is dense, but also provokes deep feelings. Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

One thing I will say, the video games mentioned in this book brought back so much amazing memories, since I had a Nintendo and I played all of those games. I was able to connect on that way when it comes to the book, but we meet two characters, Sam and Sadie. They meet when she was visiting her sister who is really sick and he was recovering from an accident, ever since then there was this weird connection, and as the story follows along to when they are adults and working together on a video game. This book is VERY long, and it gets in deep into their relationship as friends, which is what we call in the social media world “complicated.” That’s the same relationship I had with them while reading, Its not only a book about gaming.

An absolutely engrossing story. I'm not a gamer of any stripe, but I found the characters and their journeys so compelling. There were so many layers woven through their stories that gave them depth and complexity. Their broken-up timeline and occasional break from traditional narrative structure propels the reader through so much empathy for each of our three main characters, Sam, Sadie and Marx, and makes us love each of them deeply.

It's a coming of age story that really captures the way that achievement and motivation and complexity and knowledge (lack of knowledge) of oneeself and of others are all part of a strange and irreversible course that life carries us through. Set against the structure of video games, where there is always a cheat or a reset or optimal way to play, there is much to be considered.

I loved this story so much even though it was at times heartbreaking. I think it will stick with me and will be one of my favorites for a very long time. An absolutely stunning achievement by Gabrielle Zevin.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for the ARC. I'll be buying copies for myself and for others with reckless abandon.

This book felt like that person who rubs you the wrong way the very first time you meet, but you’re thrown in together and have to figure out a way of working out your differences. As time goes by, they still annoy you out of your mind, but you start to see the chinks in their armor. You start to see the broken person behind the mask. You start understand where they come from and why they act the way they do. They’re still pretentious sometimes, but now you care about them, even when you wish you didn’t.
I can appreciate this story even when it lost me many times (I could care less about video games and virtual reality). But maybe books are my “alternative reality” when life is just too much to handle. I get it!
Ms. Zevin stylistic choices in the narrative makes it hard to connect with the MCs way beyond halfway through the book. Then I either got used to the style or the narrator improved, or both, and the second half of the book made me feel… something. It was then I knew I’d stick around until the end out of sheer stubbornness. I wanted this book to change my mind about my first impression. And although I wasn’t 100% convinced and “converted”, I could get to end in the basis of “let’s agree to disagree”. I didn’t love it and wasn’t blown out of my mind like some of other reviews said I’d be, but I also didn’t dislike it completely. And I think this is where I found the beauty in reading this book. It was a messy affair just like these characters’ lives are a mess.
Miscommunication, or better: non-communication is at the core of Sam and Sadie’s friendship. They were as bad as any romantic relationship, and maybe that was the point. At times it was hard to root for Sadie and her lack of empathy for Sam. I was glad when she recognized some of her selfishness at the end.
The plot twist caught me by surprise which was refreshing. The end was hopeful just like life is when we’re faced with our personal tragedies and traumas (Yep, I said what I said, Sadie).

Thank you NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a stunningly well written book that will stay with me for a very long time. It tells the story of Sadie and Sam who met in a hospital waiting room and bonded over video games. It traverses decades and follows the ups and downs of their friendship from childhood, to college students, to adulthood. The two become super successful video game creators which is not always easy on them. There is friendship, love and loss throughout the book. Family is at its core...both the family they are born with and the family they become. I loved the nostalgia of the book and the depth to the characters. They are perfectly imperfect. Their friend and partner, Marx, is another favorite. He is just beautiful throughout the book. I laughed and cried several times while reading. The book did not read fast for me, but it's truly difficult to say which parts I would lose to speed up the story. I would recommend this one to anyone, whether they are a gamer or not, looking for a story about the love found in true friendship. 4.5 stars!

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin is one of the most unique books I’ve ever read. Here’s the thing, I don’t game, it’s not my thing. The closest thing I’ve done to gaming is to ask (yell at) my son to get off it and do his homework, albeit many moons ago. I do understand the appeal and even the addiction of games because they offer you the opportunity to try again, do better and get another chance at success.

Obviously, you now know the book is about gaming, but at its crux it’s about friendship, love and connection. It’s about pain, disability, healing, growing apart and together again, building something as a team, loss and heartbreak.

I was completely engrossed in this book. The characters were fleshed out and we readers got to watch their development as the book went on. I know some readers may get stuck behind the tediousness of the gaming in certain scenes, but I urge to you to move past it. Sadie, Sam and Marx will stick with you, long after you’ve finished.

Zevin has created an outstanding work of fiction. It’s entirely different than her best-selling The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry or Young Jane Young. The varied breadth of her work in both her YA and adult fiction is astounding and should be commended. All her books are innovative and fresh.