I have read a bunch of books by this author. I would categorize this book as general fiction or literary fiction.

This book is about Sadie and Sam. It's about their lives and the ups and downs of their friendship over the years.. Video games are an integral part of the story.

The story takes place over different decades from the 1980s to the 2000s. Sam and Sadie meet as children. They bond over video games. They become friends. But there are times when they don't speak. Their friendship was the main focus of this book. It was fascinating but definitely unusual.

The book does spend a lot of time on the characters playing video games, and making video games. I don't really know anything about video games. So I wasn't overly interested in the topic. But it was still interesting.

This book is Sam's story. And Sadie's story. It's definitely not a romance book. But I wasn't sure if it would end up being a love story. Or only about friendship.

There was a part of the story that was very unexpected. And that did keep my attention. But unfortunately there was definitely a part in the middle that just dragged a bit.

This was a very different type of book. And a difficult book to rate. I'm sort of in the middle in terms of how much I liked this book. It was definitely unique. Sam and Sadie are definitely characters that I won't forget. But literary fiction is a genre that I struggle with. I'm happy that I read the book. But overall it was just okay for me.

First, let me start by saying that a day later I’m still not sure what I think of this book. There were many things that I liked, but there were just as many things that we’re boring to me.

The story is not just about video games, but yet it feels like it is. However, I did appreciate the Oregon Trail references. I even liked the characters, but something was just off for me.

I’m quite positive that I am not the intended audience for this book.

Absolutely amazing read. Beautifully written and clever. I felt so attached to the characters, which I haven’t had in a long time with the books I have been reading. Full of nostalgia, heartache, laughter and tears. Thank you for this gem of a book

Shaun Manning already said this, but he’s right; this book is the Ready Player One for people who didn’t like Ready Player One. (And gosh, did I hate Ready Player One). This is a complicated story of a friendship between two characters, whose lives interwin in hopeless and hopeful ways, and also about video games as a medium and as an art form. 

What is a game? It’s tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. It’s the possibility of infinite rebirth, infinite redemption.

It’s about video games and coding and computer science and math but it’s also about grief and growing up and how your life changes and friendship and romance and misunderstandings. And it’s always interesting to read. Five stars.

Sam and Sadie are childhood friends, who meet under unusual circumstances but then develop a close connection. But when Sam learns the truth of why Sadie first decided to spend time with him, he feels betrays and the two stop speaking. Several years later, the two run into each other in the subway and find out they are both attending college within miles of each other. From that surreptitious meeting, the two find themselves spending more and more time together and ultimately decide to spend a summer on a dream they've both long held -- designing their own videogame. They turn out to be a brilliant team, and the video game they create, Ichigo, becomes a blockbuster.

The two now have the world at their feet and, over the next decades, find more success than they could have imagined, while also seeing their relationship tested by the pressures of success and fame, their often competing visions, and feelings of a lack of appreciation and even betrayal.

This is a powerful and perceptive story about the role of friendship and family, the nature of identities, and the meaning of success.

Highly recommended!

Gabrielle Zevin can write characters like no other. While this book wasn't my favorite of hers - tbh, I don't know if anything will ever top AJ Fikry - I still liked listening to it and being immersed into the world of creating video games.

This book was a beautiful story of friendship with it's ups and it's downs and all the lovely and not so lovely things life likes to throw at you.

This book was so compulsively readable. The characters were compelling and lovable even with their flaws, and the video game concept was unique but not overdone or contrite. I’m already enjoying selling this at my store!

This is easily my favorite book of the year (wild because I’ve read so many books I’ve loved this year!!!!) and possibly my favorite book ever.

I went into it almost entirely blind, and I recommend that. I normally at least read the back cover, but I barely skimmed it. It doesn’t matter what the blurb says this is about because it’s very simply what this book is about: love, creativity, friendship, and growing up.

I cried multiple times reading this. I am not a crier!!! But the way Zevin perfectly captured the intensity of a powerful friendship, one that exists almost outside the bonds of regular friendship, was so moving. The dynamic between Sadie and Sam, and the relationships that extend outward from them, somehow encapsulated so many different experiences I’ve had in my life. It is a beautiful, emotional piece of art.

Not to mention the creative risks Zevin takes in a few parts, and the legitimately fascinating storyline. As a writer, she conducts one hell of an orchestra. I cannot imagine reading this book and not being blown away.

I finished the book on my Kindle and immediately went to the bookstore to buy a physical copy. When I saw it on the shelf, I felt like I was reaching for an old friend.

Thank you to the publisher for providing a free e-copy in exchange for an honest review. This review is also posted on my Instagram page (bookish.901.)

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is one of those books that will forever have a place on my treasured books shelf. It makes no difference if you are a gamer or not but if you are I think you will love this book even more. This is a novel about life, coming of age, loyalty, creativity and so much more. It brought back memories for me of my children playing The Oregon Trail and so many other games we played together. I still enjoy playing video games and will forever be partial to Mario and Luigi. This is not a book to rush through but one to be savored, page by page.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow was one of my most anticipated books of 2022. This was probably too much pressure.
While it’s true this is story that is told around video games, that’s not what it’s about. This is about two young people who find each other at a very vulnerable time and bond. There is a betrayal, years apart, and a reconciliation. The structure is told around a small group who design a game that becomes a viral hit. The story however is about the relationships. It’s about found family, a community, common language and history. It’s a story of misunderstanding, grieving, and forgiveness.
Gabrielle Zevin is a uniquely gifted writer that never tells the same story twice, there’s no formula, genre, often talking what feels like a hard pivot between books. The single constant is her ability to craft a rich, engaging story with deeply human characters. She is the character actor of writers, immersive, method, and a beat all her own. There’s so much I deeply loved about these characters, their journey, the very honest and raw nature of their connection. Ultimately, for me, the story ended up feeling uneven in the second half, almost overloaded.
I think Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a highly discussable book, an excellent pick for a buddy read. I recommend for fans of Robin Slone. Paramount has the movie rights to this so keep an eye out!
I received a digital copy from Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

I remember reading Gabrielle Zevin when I was a kid. I picked up Elsewhere from a Scholastic book fair years ago. I requested this book at first purely because of the cover but then realized I recognized the author. I also read The Storied Life of AJ Fikry, so I knew Zevin could pack quite a punch with the angst.

Sam was my favorite character. His determination and quiet skill, as well as the various traumas he’d overcome by the time we first meet him, make him a relatable character. He’s far from perfect, with a massive chip on his shoulder and his own shortcomings holding him back, when others don’t view them as detriments. He’s very self critical and doesn’t fit the same mold as other people. He’s likely asexual and aromantic, or at least I read him that way, valuing Sadie as a partner, but not of the romantic variety, necessarily. Perhaps he would even be considered demi-sexual? It’s hard to say because, for most of the novel, he focused so strongly on the work and Sadie’s relationships, rather than his own internal feelings about romantic relationships.

The pure love of video games is so clear and pure. If I hadn’t wanted to keep reading so much, I would have picked up my Switch and started playing Mario. I want to play all of the games Sam and Sadie created, from the very beginning. Zevin explained them like they were real games and I could picture them so vividly

I loved the format and non-linear storytelling. How little snippets of interviews popped up in the more linear, traditional chapters. Sadie and Sam kept falling apart and then getting back together. They were inextricably drawn to one another and worked well together, even when they would implode from misunderstandings and lack of communication. Marx held them together, Sam emulating him and looking to him for inspiration when he wanted to lash out.

The voice is very unique, taking a few dozen pages to get used to. The vocabulary is definitely elevated, but not too much so as to make it inaccessible. Every time I picked the book up, I felt like I was inserting myself into a very specific mindset, akin to the same mindset I get into when I read classic literature. It made immersing myself in the book easier because it was so different compared to real life and the other books I was reading at the time.


Though I know this book is based in the real world, it felt like it could turn into a fantasy at any moment. The first half, especially, reminded me of The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. Perhaps it was the New England college setting, but also the writing matches up well in a way I can’t explain without comparing the two texts more directly. I absolutely loved The Starless Sea, just as I absolutely loved this book.

I would recommend this book to fans of Ready Player One, The Starless Sea, and of video games in general. If you’ve watched and enjoyed High Score on Netflix, you will enjoy this book. There’s the same nostalgia and reverence present here, as well as hope for the growing gaming industry of now and the future.

I don’t think I enjoyed this quite as much as many reviewers seemed to have done, but it’s a well-written character story with some fun 90s nostalgia.

I didn’t love that this book veered sharply into something resembling tragedy porn (it’s been a while since I read AJ Fikry and I had forgotten that Gabrielle Zevin likes to this), but if you’re into that kind of thing, it is, at least, well scripted.

Sadie and Sam are both lovable and irritating beyond belief, which makes them hard to like at times, but also makes them more realistic and interesting than more one-dimensional characters.

I enjoyed the video game aspect of this even though I’m certainly not anything close to a gamer, and I absolutely loved how well Zevin stuck to the friendship story instead of allowing the story to devolve Into he more predictable romance-driven plot.

The writing is great, as is the character development, and the story had just enough humor to not qualify as a depressing read despite the incessant (and quite frankly, unlikely) series of tragic events. I felt a little jerked around by this because of that, but there’s enough good stuff here that it’s still worth a read.

This novel took my breath away! I know nothing nor do I care to know about video games or gaming culture, but because of the very literary (Shakespeare!!!) writing and characterization - I was immediately captivated and couldn’t stop turning those @amazonkindle pages. I loved the “game” subplots. So much life verisimilitude! Maybe I’d like gaming- but I’d need Sam and Sadie and Marx to play with. Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow is Beautiful, and beautiful, and beautiful. (posted on @novels_with_narci)

*Content Warnings are at the end of the review*

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is love letter to video games and if you are both a bookworm and Gamer such as myself I think you would enjoy this.

The story follows Sadie and Sam who after a falling out when they were kids reconnect in their early twenties and decide to spend a summer building their own video game and the story takes off from there. Much like Gabrielle Zevin's novel The Storied Life of AJ Fikry there is something cozy about her writing, and how she tells a story that has the ability to be re read for many years to come.

I really like this book, though Sadie and Sam were both unlikable at times you couldn't help but love and root for them and their friendship. I also felt the side characters were fleshed out really well, especially Marx, Sam's roommate and later business partner. To be honest he probably was my favourite character,

Overall, I think if you enjoyed Daisy Jones and the Six you will enjoy this. The only thing is I wish I could have played

CW/ Suicide, death of a parent, death, grief, depression, car accident, racism, gun violence

Tomorrow, And Tomorrow, And Tomorrow was the first book I have read by author Gabrielle Zevin. This was a fantastic story about friendship, love and life that spans over years. The author brings us from past to present and back again following the lives of Sam and Sadie- friends since childhood. This is a great book that will get you right in the feels. The characters were all amazing and well written. As someone who grew up playing video games I also loved all of the references and it created a bit of nostalgia. Thank you #NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This is a fabulous book that is not just for the "gamers" of the world! I absolutely adored this book and all the things that came along with it, game design, friendship, love, heartbreak, grief. This book has it all!!

I was really looking forward to this title but could not make it past 20%.

Sam's character was beginning to grow on me...until his idealization of whatever-her-name-is. The mention of this game that makes them famous is culturally-inappropiate. So it's just some white chick (who befriended this guy and used him as a charity case) and a white identifying Asian guy whom are inspired by Japanese culture but won't give them credit. I am sooo happy I canceled my preorder from waterstones. This would have been a waste😒😒😒

Marx is the only characteri like but not enough to continue this book.

3.5*
Zevin is a skilled writer and this time she sets her sights on the world of gaming. Sam and Sadie have been friends since childhood. Sam spent months in a hospital recuperating after his foot was almost destroyed in a car accident. Sadie befriends the lonely, quiet boy as they bond over video games. Years later they renew their friendship and create a best-selling game that makes them famous.

Though the two are attracted to each other, they haven’t yet managed to become a couple. Their friendship is strained by rifts that periodically keep them estranged. Yet the gaming world has made them icons and this gives them the chance to create different gaming worlds.

While the story centers on gaming, it’s the interpersonal story that is key to the plot. Sam and Sadie are like magnets that attract and repel, depending on their direction. While not as strong as The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry this book offers an intriguing look at two very different characters who are brilliant and flourish together in business yet their relationship with each other is complicated.

One doesn’t need to love gaming to find this a fascinating read but it will have more appeal to gamers who will enjoy the back story of the creative process that ends with a successful gaming world.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow gives its readers a perfectly flawed group of central characters to both root for and against. As they muse about mortality – the nature of partnership and the Big Stuff Of Life – a partnership forms and anchors the novel.

California native Samson Masur is a game-lover with a dream. Half-Korean, half-white, he doesn’t know who his biological father is (though he does come to suspect the truth), and his maternal grandparents often take over the raising of him while he mother pursues acting work. She finally became a big star on a network television game show, but tragedy struck in the form of a fatal car accident.

Sadie Green has been programming her own games for years. Her first, EmilyShooter, is centered around shooting your way through the poetry of Emily Dickinson to combine verses and earn your way into decorating a room in the recluse’s Amherst house. Coding became a respite from her sister Alice’s cancer treatment, and it’s because of Alice that Sadie meets Sam, who is in the hospital following the car accident that severely injured his foot and killed his mother. A misunderstanding separated them as teenagers, but a chance meeting in a busy Boston train station sparks off a conversation that turns into a partnership when Sadie hands Sam a copy of her latest RPG game.

Sam is impressed, and they sit down over a school break (he’s at Harvard; she’s at MIT) to co-create the game Ichigo: Child of the Sea. While Sam concentrates on level design, story, quality and character quality are important to Sadie; the two of them perch upon two totally different but complimentary spectrums when it comes to what they want for the game. Sam’s friend Marx Watanabe comes aboard to offer them business-related assistance and space to code in. None of them know that they’re about to change their lives, creating a hit game that will spawn a series, make them rich, open professional doors for them and complicate the romantic friendship that has colored their lives since they were children.

Throughout the years, Sam and Sadie struggle with their pasts, find love, lose love, build lives, shatter their lives, and try to cope with those old childhood hurts. Sam becomes the face of the company while dealing with having his foot amputated; Sadie deals with a relationship that goes south and another that thrives and ends tragically. All the while, Sam becomes the showboating center of their company, making Sadie resentful. Estrangement settles in, and it will take several tragic deaths to bring them back together again.

Don’t go into this one expecting Sadie and Sam to actually end up together; this is a move that Zevin wisely avoids. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is too busy obsessing about the Bitch of Living to stop for their romance, though another, effective relationship does take place.

The book provides rich opportunity for representation. Sadie is proudly Jewish and Sam’s amputation, phantom limb pain and various trips to rehab are big parts of the book. The landscape shifts from Boston to California back to Boston again, with a stop in New York thrown in for good measure. The west coast settings in particular are portrayed with loving grace. Sadie grows from being a fully introverted coder to a mentor who finally sheds the image of being the brains behind Sam’s showy beauty; Sam has to learn how to grow up and think beyond gaming to relate to others.

And yet the book is imperfect. Some passages feelings almost fetishizing of Sam’s fragility, though he grows beyond these early assessments of his character. I was kind of disappointed by its treatment of bondage – it’s another way for Sadie’s boyfriend to exert control over her in the end, and something she’s not comfortable with. There are ways to portray kink, and the book completely misses the point to turn it into a way for one character to express his ‘dark side’ and abuse another.

You won’t necessarily need to be a gamer to enjoy the richness of the character work and the deep dive into Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.

Buy it at: Amazon, Audible or your local independent retailer
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This book was fantastic!

This book is a story of two friends from childhood to adulthood. They create together, live together, and grow together. Through life perils and turbulence these two are there for each other.

It’s hard to give a synopsis of this book without giving things away. I would definitely recommend this book to all the Taylor Jenkins Reid fans out there. The storytelling is so visual and dramatic. I felt so connected to Sadie and Sam, like I was right there with them. This book is about video games, and even though I really do not like video games, I appreciated this work of art. Much like I don’t like tennis but loved Carrie Soto is Back!

I happily give this book 5/5 stars! Many thanks to @netgalley and the publisher for my gifted copy in return for an honest review.