Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin is very highly recommended literary fiction and a gamer's uncommon love story that spans thirty years. This is a novel written for the generation who grew up gaming that can be appreciated by anyone who enjoys excellent literary fiction.

Sam was in his junior year at Harvard when he saw and called out to Sadie. Sam Masur hadn't seen Sadie Green since 1986 when they were 12 and 11. They met at a children’s hospital where Sadie's sister was recovering from cancer and Sam was undergoing surgeries to repair a badly injured foot. Their bond and friendship started when they started playing games together. Then they had a falling out but they both intensely felt the loss of their friendship. Now, meeting again as young adults, they reconnect and become creative partners, collaborating on the design of a video game. Marx, Sam's roommate and friend helps facilitate their work as does Dov, a game designer, lover, and professor of Sadie's. Before either of them graduate from college, they have created their first game, Ichigo, which becomes a blockbuster.

The narrative alternates between the point-of-view of Sam and Sadie, allowing you to experience the inner thoughts of two of the most fully realized characters I've encountered in a long time. Sam and Sadie live in their heads, are deeply flawed, and make many assumptions about the thoughts and motives of the other person. Over the thirty years the plot covers their friendship, grief, arguments, disabilities, fame, resentments, deceit, tragedies, and creative processes. Each character is not always likable, perhaps with the exception of Marx, but always portrayed in a realistic manner.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is truly an epic, brilliant, remarkable novel and a love story to a generation and to the creative process itself. Additionally the well-plotted narrative tells an engrossing story that will hold your attention throughout. I'm not a gamer, but have some insight and understanding of games and the work, collaboration, and determination required to make them. Zevin has made this is an intricate part of her exceptional novel while also delving deep into Sam and Sadie's inner thoughts and personal experiences.

This is an epic novel that will likely become a classic depiction of it's characters but also as a reflection of a generation. Even if you are not a gamer, this is literary fiction at it's finest.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Knopf Doubleday via NetGalley.
The review will be published on Barnes & Noble, Google Books, Edelweiss, and Amazon.

One of the best reads of the year!

I fell in love with this book and I can't wait to purchase a copy so I can reread it.

Sam, Sadie, and Marx are complex, heartfelt, honest characters and their relationships are relatable. As a gamer, the references to classic games made my heart happy. The way that the author uses gaming to enhance the story was genius.

I highly recommend this read to both gamers and non-gamers.

Be right back, going to start creating video games. As someone who plays the occasional video game but not fully immersed in the lifestyle I still found this book incredibly relatable and intriguing. We follow fellow video game enthusiasts Sam Masur and Sadie Green as they navigate life, love, friendship, partnerships, and everything in between. We learn so much from these two about how life can get in the way of friendships and perception is not always reality.

I would definitely recommend people checking out Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. Even if you do not know much about video games.

Thank you for the ARC! It was a pleasure to read.

Thank you, Knopf and NetGalley for the ARC. A truly five-star read. Transportive and transformative. I LOVE that this is a love story of friendship. Recommending to every one I know.

I absolutely loved this book. First, we need to talk about how gorgeous the cover is! Second, the words in between are just as beautiful. This story is a masterpiece. I loved the writing style and the nonlinear timeline. I simultaneously wanted to read this as fast as I could while wanting to read it as slow as I could so I could savor it. I loved The Storied Life of AJ Fikry so I was really excited when I first heard of this book. I didn't really know how I was going to like this one though because I'm not a huge video game person. But, that didn't matter at all. Also, while this story centers around video game creators, it also has a ton of art and literature references which I loved. Zevin masterfully weaves together a story that makes these characters feel like friends. It reminded me a lot of Taylor Jenkins Reid books. The characters feel so realistic that I found myself wanting to google them and the video games and the events described in the story. And then I remembered this is fiction. It's beautiful and haunting and devastating and hopeful all at once. It's a wonderful story about friendship and love, touching on what it is to be a human in this world as well as what it is to be a woman in this world. I already want to reread it. Definitely making it into one of my favorite books of this year.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me a copy of this book for review. Now I am a huge fan of Ready Player One so I was kinda hoping this book was going to be similar in that situation using gaming in the story but this one was quite the opposite. This one was creative and unique but wasnt quite up my alley that I was hoping for to come out of reading this one. It was cool learning about the two main characters in this and how they created their own game but maybe I felt it was too much? I dont know. The pacing was a bit slow so that didn't help too for me to get through the story quicker. But if your a reader and like books about gaming, creating games, friendship and a slow burn then this book would be a good choice for you.

I dont know if words can do justice over how amazing this book was. It was AN ABSOLUTE JOY TO READ. Im so sorry to have screamed that. I think this book is going down as my favorite book of 2022. I am in love with Sam, Sadie and Marx. Also there were so many quotable moments and phrases that I want to freeze in time! It was perfection!
I loved all the gaming references and pop culture references, they really got me excited and breathed life into this world. The whole thing reads so real, that I sometimes forgot I was reading!
I already ordered not one but 2 physical copies right after I was done reading this. Because YES, I love it that much. One for my favorite shelf and one to gift to a friend who needs these characters in their life.
I will be revisiting this world again and again and again for sure.

Thank you so much Netgalley for this opportunity to read my new favorite book!

Sadie and Sam, Sam and Sadie. Childhood friends who drifted apart only to be reconnected years later through their love for video gaming.

Not going to lie, I didn't understand every single technical aspect about gaming that was mentioned in this book, however, I did enjoy the nostalgia of it. Set in the 90s all the mentions of retro games was great.
Set on the challenges and meaning of friendship, heartbreak, expectations, love, loss and much more. If we were to take the gaming aspect away, this book is about 2 people who we follow as they navigate through life. So all in all, you don't need to be a gaming enthusiast to be able to dive into this read. It's just something that fuels Sadie and Sam. This read is far more greater and deeper than what it seems to be.
This book is my first read by Gabrielle Zevin and I really enjoyed it.

Thank you NetGalley and Knopf for my digital arc.

I love everything about this. There is so much about love and friendship, pain and loss, racism and sexism. All of it with the backdrop of the gaming world. The metaphors are beautiful. I do not play video games, but I understood how these characters felt every step of the way. Also, the NPC chapter? It's fantastic. So many feelings. This will definitely be one of my favorites for this year.

This is a story about gaming, which I know absolutely nothing about, but more than that this is a story about friendship, hardship, disability, lust, hurt, love, grief and loss.
This book is moving, heartfelt and emotional with a huge highlight on gaming.
Even though I am not a gamer and cannot relate to those references within the book, I truly enjoyed the 90's and 2000's references and the overall story line which is way more than gaming.
Sam and Sadie are so real I feel like I want to go play some games and run into them in their created worlds. The emotions are heartfelt and real throughout this book.
Wish it ended differently but I enjoyed the ride.

A unique story of platonic love and video games are at the heart of it. However you don't need to be a video game lover to appreciate this story

Wowowowowowow.

This book changed me in such a good way. I love it. I want to reread it already. As a teenager, I despised video games. My knowledge of them was limited to the friends I had who were “addicted” to them, and I was very much in the camp of “violent video games are making us violent.” I have long since vacated the second camp, but I still believed that video games were for fighting, which I had no interest in.

Well, turns out not all video games are Halo and Madden, and that many of them are ART in the same way that books and movies are art. I’m going to use this review as my public apology for not understanding that until now.

And my favorite thing about it is that this is a platonic love story. Sam and Sadie 4Evr. And if I make a teddy bear with the likeness of Marx, don’t be surprised. This book is messy and real and my current book of the year. I love love loved it. 5/5, Gabrielle. Never stop writing!

I absolutely loved this unique platonic love story. You don't need to love and understand video games to adore these characters.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Randomhouse for an advanced copy of this novel. All opinions are my own.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is unlike anything else I've read. It is a literary fiction triumph that explores loss, friendship, gaming, art, and time. I don't play video games and while I might have understood more references if I did, this book was still understandable and relatable. There were also many pop culture references.

This novel follows the friendship of Sam and Sadie over 3 decades that encompasses several tragedies. Sam and Sadie both love to game and this story examines their trajectories from childhood to adulthood. There are many successes, failures, and average days.

Overall this a very well written and thought provoking novel.

Two things I don’t like: Shakespeare and Video Games. But somehow I loved this unique novel that is titled after Macbeth’s soliloquy and is about friends who form a video game company while they are in college.

Sam Masur and Sadie Green met when they were 11 and 10 years old at a Los Angeles hospital. Sam is there due to a tragic car accident that damaged his foot. Sadie is there because her older sister has cancer. These two incredibly brilliant children spend over 600 hours together, bonding over their love of video games. After an argument occurs, they do not speak for six years until they run into each other in Boston. Sam is a student at Harvard and Sadie is at MIT, when Sam convinces Sadie that they should build a video game together. Sam’s wealthy roommate, Marx, agrees to let them use his apartment over the summer to do the work. In exchange, Marx is made a producer. The game is an overnight success, plunging these three young adults into business together. Sam and Sadie love each other as friends only but have great difficulty getting along. They again go through years of not speaking to each other. Marx is always the peace-maker, holding the business together.

This is a character-driven story about friendship, love, work, and finding balance in life. Sam, Sadie, and Marx will stay in my heart for a long time.

5-Stars. Many thanks to #NetGalley for my advanced reader copy of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. This novel was published on July 5, 2022.

I agree with the myriad of readers who've raved about this depiction of a lifelong friendship between Sam and Sadie. Just a wonderful book whose company you'll love being in. I have never been a fan of videogames, but the fact that this is about people who develop them didn't bother me at all. It's about creative people creating and it offers a wonderful perspective on that process.

The raves are well deserved.

Thanks to Netgalley which provided me with a free egalley of this book in return for this review.

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.