What a special book! I have zero interest in video games but that did not matter at all. These characters and their stories are so unique - flawed & damaged, love interests & friends, struggling with issues of identity, loyalty & belonging - I loved each of them so much. This book is so smart and the worlds created here, both in and out of the game, are fantastic.

Wow, this book was unlike anything I have ever read before. It masterfully alternates between POV, first and third person, as well as format. I was enthralled and enraptured by every word, every character, and every video game created.

I love stories in which the main characters are introduced earlier in their lives, and then we get to see them grow up together. I really enjoyed that aspect of this book, it is a great coming of age story. I also enjoyed the video game aspect of it, which was something different than I have ever read before. The older Sadie got though, the more she rubbed me the wrong way. I can see why she would think the way she did, working in a male dominated field, but she never even tried to understand or ask Sam about a lot of the assumptions she made when they were adults. There were parts of the story that made it feel super long, but for the most part it flowed well and was interesting.

For the first few days, I had no idea how to feel about this book. It's so different from what I usually read. But I found that it was beautifully layered. I loved the 90s nostalgia throughout as well! Go into it with an open mind and forget what you know about the genre.

Two friends, Sadie and Sam, often in love but never lovers, pair up to design video games that make them successful - but success isn't everything...
Gabrielle Zevin is one of my favorite authors, and I have read everything she wrote so far (my favorite was the first I read from her, Elsewhere). But this one was not for me. I enjoyed the nostalgia from the '80s-'90s, and I wanted to love this, but I'm not much into video games and this book was very much video-game-oriented and full of the sphere's lingo that lost me. I also found the relationship between a married teacher and his student very cringey. Also, the character development took a long time (this is a long book, but I didn't see much character development until the very end). I'm sure if you are into video games, you will enjoy this story about friendship over time!
I received an advance review copy for free from NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

A gaming friendship spans 30 years in this novel. This platonic friendship is built in their youth through adulthood. These characters experience hardship, love, loss and the renewal to start again together. Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow is a love story that explores what is love across friends. It does contain a lot gaming references which helps to frame the bond between the characters.

This novel took me by surprise - it is truly an original novel.

Thank you Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for the advance reader copy.

Everyone go read this book!!! It is amazing!!!

At first I was worried that the video game aspect would be over my head. But it’s so well written and really just provides a backdrop for the characters story. I actually found it really interesting to read about.

This is a story about friendship and how the love of friends changes overtime. I loved the main characters and found them relatable in their strengths and their flaws. Even when the characters were being frustrating they felt real and their stories resonated with me. There is just so much love and heartbreak in this story I couldn’t put it down.

This is one of my new favorites and I definitely recommend!

I was really excited about this one as I’ve seen so many people recommending it and I’ve got to say it didn’t land for me. I was already on the fence with a story about video games but a lot of people said the 90s and pop culture references made it so much more. I disagree.

There were moments that I liked and a plot twist two-thirds the way through that got me in my feels but overall I felt very underwhelmed with it. There was a lot of video game jargon and references to games I didn’t know. The characters were likeable and I was rooting for their friendship. After the plot twist, I really lost interest with the writing style and story line.

Overall, I was just really ready for the book to be over.

✨ Review ✨ Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

CW: this has a pretty serious moment of gun violence and if you want to know more, please feel free to message me.

This book is absolutely brilliant. The storytelling was immersive and the style evolved throughout the book, leaving me struggling to put this down. The book starts with Sam and Sadie, childhood friends, now crossing paths during their college years at MIT and Harvard. They join together with Sam's roommate and best friend Marx to create a video game together. The book moves from present to past and back again, contextualizing throughout the book, in a way that feels so beautifully written, to tell the story of these friends and their journey to make video games together.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: literary fiction
Location: Boston and Los Angeles
Pub Date: Out now

This book celebrates video games, and might be a bit over the top if gaming isn't your jam, but with that said, I think anyone can get into this book whether you're a gamer or not. I loved how it reflected on storytelling innovation in games, and how this was mirrored back in the text of the story -- it felt very meta but not in an overbearing way.

While the characters were born before me, the pop culture references really resonated with me, as well as the feelings characters explored like loneliness, perfectionism, etc. I'm probably in the peak target audience for this book, and I'm not sure that it will be a hit with all readers, but I really loved it, and can't wait to pick it up again someday!

I listened to much of this as an audiobook and really liked the narration. It worked well on audio, I thought, and recommend this as an option!

Read this if you like:
⭕️ video games and creative narrative storytelling
⭕️ 80s/90s/00s nostalgia and nerdy pop culture
⭕️ platonic love stories

Thanks to Knopf and #netgalley for an e-copy of this book!

I have to admit, I did not think a book about video games would make me cry as much as it did. Sadie and Sam go through so much together and I love their friendship. I’m glad that they never become a romantic couple because it makes their friendship so much more special and real.

There are moments where I hated Sam, and moments where I hated Sadie. But that’s life, isn’t it? People learn from their mistakes and grow as people. This book is tragic and beautiful, and non-gamers and gamers alike will find something to love.

I feel like the author ripped out my heart and absolutely stomped on it, and for that, Gabrielle Zevin, I thank you.

“‘What is a game?’ Marx said. ‘It’s tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. It’s 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.’”

I requested this book from Netgalley on a whim. I read the description and thought the idea of a non-love story about best friends sounded good. Then it dropped to the bottom of my TBR pile. The publication date was suddenly upon me and I hadn't read the book! I started this on the night before publication and if I was not a grown up with obligations then I would have read this through the night. Sadie, Sam, and Marx came alive on the page and I was in their world.

Their world is one of play. Who doesn't love to play? It starts with Sadie and Sam playing Oregon Trail and we watch them learn, grow, play, and love over thirty years. The characters are fully three dimensional and you feel like you are there in the hospital with Sam as he mourns a loss and Sadie festers about missing Space Camp due to her sister's cancer. Then you're in Boston attending Harvard and MIT. They meet Marx. They meet Dov. They learn to create games they love.

There are horrible things that happen to these characters because it's a story about life so of course horrible things happen. And they are terrible to each other, but through it all there is an under current of love. The affection each feels for the other is palpable on the page. They can be infuriating, but you want the best for all of them.

This book is perfection to me. I already don't know how I can move on to the next book. The references to all things Gen X, the games, the friendships, the play, and all the many other things in this book are wonderful. The change in POV is seamless and daring at times - the portion within a game is well written and you find yourself caring about avatars. I cannot recommend this book enough to anyone who has ever had a group of friends who were your world. There is something for everyone to take away from this novel. Pick up a copy, find a comfortable place to read it in one sitting, and enjoy!

The cover is what draws you in.
The writing keeps you reading.

Gaming experience is not required.

What a unique and artfully crafted novel! This is a book about video games, but really about love. And not even romance, but deep care that can withstand the most brutal curveballs the universe throws. The characters are exceptionally well-developed and the story moves at a nice pace. I'll be recommending this to all the book lovers I know!

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin is one of the most beautiful books I’ve read so far this year. With strongly written characters, as well as numerous themes and symbols to unpack, this is a great novel for bookclub discussions. This is a carefully crafted book with passages begging to be highlighted on every page. Zevin’s writing has evolved since A.J. Fickry and Young Jane Young. I enjoyed both, but Tomorrow has more intricate plotting and more sophisticated writing than those earlier works.

The book, in large part, explores how we show love for each other when saying the words “I love you” don’t feel grand enough. The character of Marx shows his love simply by easing life’s journey for others, and I think that is one of the most amazing definitions of love I have ever read. If we were all capable of that kind of love, how wonderful this world would be.

Another dominate theme is the question of how do you want to spend “the limited time of our very finite lives?” Do you devour the world - moving from each new thing to the next - in an attempt to experience it all? Or is happiness found by settling into a comfortable groove, choosing one course and keeping to the path?

This is also a book about failure. Or rather, moving forward after failing. The video game analogy of multiple lives is used to great effect to illustrate the importance of failing upward. It’s ok to fail, just make sure to fail better the next time you try - get a little farther in the game than the last time. Move through failure like a gate and use the moment to pause and reinvent yourself as needed.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf Publishing for permission to read this ARC. This review and other musings can be found on Instagram @wellreadwyvern.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this story. Despite not being a gamer myself and probably being younger than the target audience, I was easily swept up in Gabrielle Zevin's unique writing style and found myself able to be fully immersed in the story throughout. Sam, Sadie, and Marx are incredibly complex and well-developed characters, and I loved how the author gave the reader the space to decide how they felt about each person. I also appreciated the diversity in the characters, especially the inclusion of a disabled protagonist. The book is such a beautiful exploration of love, loyalty, labor, loss, and everything in between with extensive worldbuilding and a structure unlike anything I've seen in my recent reads. Overall, I really do recommend that everyone reads this book, and am excited to pick up Zevin's other works!

content warnings: multiple deaths of loved one, violence (including gun violence), infidelity

DNF @15%

This was one book I was really looking forward to - I had loved A.J. Fikry [and I know the dangers of comparing books, so that is not what is happening here - I just knew I loved that writing and figured I'd love ALL her writing and in seeing the reviews, I am not the only one] and so, without reading the blurb [I never look at book descriptions to closely because often the WHOLE FREAKING BOOK gets told to you there and it is such a disappointment to be spoilered this way], I requested this. It is rare, but I am really sorry I did [and hope that someone who'd love this book didn't miss out because of my acceptance].

First, I am not a gamer. Not even remotely. I have played three video games in my whole life [I am 55], with one of them being PONG. ;-) I didn't grow up with video games and even when they started being big, there was no way my mother was going to invest in something that cost that much money when eating was more important. So when they became main stream, I was older and so not interested. I would have rather read a book than play something on the TV [THIS is in no way a critisism of those who do game - what some people can do with games, and how their minds work just blows MY mind and well done you IMO]. All that to say, all the stuff they talk about in the book goes completely over my head. I am not into math. I don't know [or even remotely understand] code and coding. I can barely run my computer, much less design a game that PLAYS on it. I was really lost in a lot of what I was reading. Add in that I didn't really like the characters, and some of the language was just not my cup of tea, and I knew this just wasn't going to be for me.

I will be recommending it to several people though - people that I know that game and write code and do all that stuff. They will love this book and I think there IS A good audience out there for this. I am just not part of it.

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

“𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘦?" 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘹 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥. "𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘸, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘸, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘸. 𝘐𝘵'𝘴 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.”

𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖: after years of not talking sam runs into sadie at T station in boston. one is attending harvard & the other MIT when they decide to take a semester off to build ichigo - the game that will launch their careers in video game design.

𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒: this book was truly something so special. i can’t stop thinking about it days later. it was the most unique book i have ever read. three people bonding over creating video games, yet it was about so much more than that: grief, love, friendship, failure, disability. the depth the author gave to these characters and all of their experiences was just amazing. and i especially loved that we followed them across decades. i would read this book a thousand times over just to be with these characters again. also, as someone who isn’t a gamer at all i loved how detailed the author was when describing the complexities and different elements to the games. it made me feel like i was inside a game - and in some chapters we even were which was so cool. i recommend this book to everyone. if at times it feels a little slow (it did to me) definitely keep pushing through because it is SO worth it.

𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆: i loved it!

thank you so much to gabrielle zevin, netgalley and knopf for an ARC of this book on exchange for an honest review!

I have very mixed feelings about this book. I’m going to start by saying it was a really good book, but it just wasn’t the right one for me. I’m sure that a lot of people are going to love this book, unfortunately I’m just not one of those people.

I adored the characters and I really liked reading about them. Their individual lives, their friendships, and the journeys they went on both individually and together. This is definitely a character-focused book, and in my opinion it doesn’t have much of a storyline. It was hard not to love these characters. However I found this book to be quite hard to read and I was reading really slowly. I’m not entirely sure why, but it took a long time for me to read it. I was enjoying this book, but at the same time I couldn’t wait to finish it.

Although this book focuses heavily on gaming and the gaming industry, this book can definitely be enjoyed by those who don’t love games. The language was sometimes hard to understand because there’s a lot of gaming terms, but most of the time it was explained well or irrelevant to the main story.

Overall this was a good book, and this isn’t a completely negative two star rating. I was just hoping to love it more. There’s a lot of real-world problems that are talked about in this book, so some people may want to check the trigger warnings. This is one that I’ll be recommending as I’m sure many people will love it.

I had no clue if I would like this or not, as video games aren't really my thing, but the book stole my heart. I honestly recommend it to everyone, the characters themselves make it worthwile, but the writing and storytelling are incredibly strong, too.

I really enjoyed this book and I loved how well the writing just flowed. The writing was really well done. The characters were so easy to fall in love with.