4.5 starts
A story that spans the lifetime of two friends - from young childhood through middle-age, adulthood. Sadie and Sam's stories are at times uplifting and at other times utterly sad and devastating. But throughout the entire book, Zevin keeps it real! No sugar coating, no sappy unbelievable moments, no tidy red bows.
I thought the story of the lives of the characters and the world of gaming was masterfully woven....especially in THE PIONEERS. Full of moments of nostalgia - most readers will be taken back to a time that existed in their own childhoods. The characters and the story are relatable on so many levels. A love based on a true friendship with someone is truly a rare thing.

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion/review.

This book took me back to my early twenties when my friends were more my family than my birth family. It's a story about love, friendship, creativity, tragedy, pain, sacrifice and betrayal. This is a book that has to be read and re-read in order to really understand it. It needs to be read carefully since it moves back and forth between past and present.

At the root of it, there are three friends who are obsessed with playing, analyzing, and creating games. Two of the friends meet in their early teens - one is a boy recovering from an accident that required extensive surgery on his foot and ankle and the other is a girl who visits him but who also keeps a log of her visits for school credit - something that he doesn't know about until much later. The fact that she kept the log makes him re-examine their past. Was she really his friend back then? She came from a rich family and he didn't.

When they went to different colleges, they meet another boy obsessed with games and game making and the three of them end up forming their own company. I fell in love with Sam, Sadie and Marx. This is one of the best books I've ever read, and I recommend it to anyone who struggled with identify, growing up, feeling accepted, or who experienced jealousy and unrequited love.

I received a review copy of this book from the publisher Knopf through NetGalley, and voluntarily read and reviewed this book. All opinions expressed here are mine.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a brilliant homage to not only the world of gaming but of life-changing friendships and different types of love experienced throughout one's life. It's a creative, artistic, captivating character-driven gem of a novel that I can honestly say is one of the best books that I've read all year. I adore Gabrielle Zevin's writings--The Storied Life of AJ Fikry is one of my most beloved reads and I really enjoyed Young Jane Young--so I had a feeling going into this book that I would love it.

I'm not a gamer other than several months spent relentlessly playing Sims 3 while stuck on strict pregnancy bedrest a decade ago, but my husband and sons are huge gamers, so I've been around while they play and talk nonstop to each other about the gaming world (cluelessly listening all the while). Yet you don't need to have anything in common with Sam and Sadie, the two childhood friends and gamers who grow up and become colleagues and designers of several famous, groundbreaking games, to fall in love with Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. The characters and the issues they face are completely relatable--we've all dealt with growing up, friendship, losses of some kind or another, grief, pain, family relationships, dreams, ambition, misunderstanding, and sacrifice; Zevin layers these issues throughout the novel effortlessly, with references to gaming intertwined.

References to Macbeth, starting with the allusion to Macbeth's famous "tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow..." soliloquy found in the title, were also magically, tragically sprinkled throughout the book, and once I realized that, especially once a tragedy happened towards the end of the book that had me weeping, I appreciated, even more, the sheer artistry and talent of Zevin in creating this oh so special book. I expected to love it, but I didn't expect to fall in love with it as much as I did--I'm not sure if any book I'll read in 2022 will top its place in my heart. Highly, highly recommended.

Thank you, NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow starts our with 2 kids meeting in a children’s hospital bonding over Mario Brothers.
They reconnect in college and begin a life-long friendship/collaboration designing video games.

I loved the beginning of this book, but my interest waned by the middle. It’s possible that if I was more interested in video games I would have found the plot more absorbing. Although the plot picked up again towards the end, I couldn’t find my way back into this one.

TL;DR REVIEW:

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is definitely going to be one of my favorite books of 2022. Alternating between heartwarming and heartbreaking, it’s a beautiful book about friendship and the messiness (and hope) of life.

For you if: You like books that follow characters and their relationships across decades.

FULL REVIEW:

When John Green (who may not write in my usual genres, but is an incredible person) says an upcoming novel is “one of the best books [he’s] ever read,” you read it. I did not know this was a rule in my life before I heard about Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, but I’m glad I followed it nonetheless; it’s absolutely going to be one of my favorites of the year and a book I recommend to everyone.

You will hear this about T&T&T many times: that while the plot involves video games, it’s not really about video games. (Although if you do like video games, you’ll probably love this even more than I did.) It’s one of those novels that follows a handful of characters (two friends, Sam and Sadie, childhood best friends who go into business making video games together) and their relationship across decades (30 years, in this case). It’s about friendship and love and loss and hope and coming of age and the way life hurts but also gives us so much.

This book is alternatively heartwarming and heartbreaking, with two main (and several secondary) characters who are both deeply lovable and also very flawed and frustrating. You know how sometimes characters are so good that they stay in the back of your mind 24/7, even after you’ve put a book down or finished it? Sam, Sadie, and Sam’s college roommate Marx did that to me. I laughed and cried (def cried) and cheered for them and wanted to shake them and by the end, found that I loved them very much.

I won’t tell you how the book gets its title, because I think it arrives at exactly the right moment and makes everything this book is about just click. But take my word for it: it’s a perfect title. And you’ll be glad you read this book.



CONTENT AND TRIGGER WARNINGS:
Gun violence (explicit); Death and grief; Homophobia; Drug use and alcohol; Toxic/borderline abusive relationship; Abortion (minor); Suicide (minor)

Oh, how Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin captured my heart - a story of love, friendships, video games, and the power of time. Sam and Sadie meet at a young age when they discover their passion for video games. Eventually they decide to turn their passion into profit and begin to create games of their own. As their success grows, their passion for creating these new worlds becomes the thing that keeps them together while also driving them apart. I loved the evolution of Sam and Sadie's friendship; that it wasn't just a straight line of progression; it took steps forwards, backwards, and sideways which made it feel authentic and three-dimensional. It's a tale spanning decades, offering the perspective of each character with such emotional intimacy and vulnerability I felt as if I was walking alongside them. I loved this book. It will easily be one of my favorites of the year.

TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, the latest novel by Gabrielle Zevin is a beautifully-written, original and emotional story of friendship, love and the families you choose. Spanning three decades of the lives of Sam Masur and Sadie Green, from meeting when they were children to their present day adult lives, the reader is drawn into their creative partnership in the world of video game development. I am not a gamer, nor did I know anything about the complexities of video game design, but that did not in any way take away from my enjoyment of this heart-wrenching and engrossing book. The main characters were brilliantly portrayed and even the secondary characters captured my attention. The story takes you through all the ups and downs of Sam and Sadie’s enduring relationship, from love, betrayal, tragedy and joy. I felt fully immersed in their story and didn’t want the book to end even though it was over 400 pages long. There are so many messages to be taken away from this tale. I truly enjoyed this imaginative and thought-provoking book and I know it will stay on my mind for a long time to come. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read and review an early copy.

Reviewed for NetGalley:

This was an incredibly slow read for me. Try as I did, I often got bored and lost in the plot.

What to say about this book?! Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow was unique, heartfelt, devestating and wonderful. Such a beautiful story of friendship, hard time, fighting for what you want your life to me and learning from your mistakes. I think the disability rep in this book was very interesting and although I think certain aspects of it could have been handled different I think the author did an incredible job of highlighting the internal struggle that people can face when trying to cope with trauma while settling into a new normal and reconciling that with their previous habits, relationships and work. Very excited to see how much everyone loves this book when it comes out!

A friendship that begins because of the love of video games. A friendship that lasts over three decades. Sadie and Sam’s friendship has endured conflicts, relationships, and trials and tribulations. The story surrounds around the two main characters, video games, and the world of gamers. Most the video game’s references I understood, only because I am a mother of gamers. The character development throughout the book is cleverly written and it felt like it was a love letter to the gaming world. This is a must read for people who enjoy a wonderfully written story, but also for people who love video games.

“Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for this ARC, in exchange for an honest review”

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin, follows the highs and lows of a deep friendship. Over decades, Sam and Sadie connect and disconnect. First as children, and then back and forth as adults. I loved that this story touched on so many themes, from love and friendships, to becoming adults, to what it means to be a woman in the gaming industry. It all fits elegantly together to form a tapestry of an unforgettable story.

What I Liked:

Story Structure:

The story is structured as interviews that Sam and Sophie give to media outlets, and as flashbacks. I loved the style. It gave the reader clues to future events in the story, putting together different puzzle pieces. When the pieces fell into place, it was extremely satisfying.

Characters:

Sam and Sadie are very much alike. Both are genius-level intelligent, and awkward with others. When they find each other as children, they feel an immediate connection. But one of the problems that each of them has is that they often read social signals incorrectly. This often creates friction between them, and leads to them "breaking up" for years on end. They have a pattern of connecting and then having terrible misunderstandings that leaves both of them exhausted with each other. Deep down, each of them know they bring out the best, and worst, in each other.

I also enjoyed many other characters in this book, especially Sam's grandparents, who raised him, and Sam's roommate, Marx. At first, Marx seems insignificant to the story. He is Sam's long-suffering roommate and protector. But Marx becomes an important bridge between Sam and Sadie, as well as their business partner. I loved how Marx sort of snuck up on the reader and became a pivotal character for both Sam and Sadie.

Themes:

Friendship is the major theme of the book. Do you have a friend that you haven't talked to in years, but then you call them and it like no time has passed? It's a comforting feeling, but also one that involves loss. Why did you lose touch with them in the first place? What deeper friendship could you have had if you kept them closer? Sam and Sadie have these moments of deep closeness, and even deeper betrayal.

I dearly loved the author exploring what it means to be a woman in a field that is dominated by men. The gaming industry is notorious for treating women poorly. It has been deeply misogynistic and hostile towards women, discounting their contributions and questioning how they even became part of the gaming world. Sadie is constantly having to consider how it will look if she make certain decisions. Will using her former professor's game engine seem like she is incapable of doing great work? Will it look like a man helped her out? Will people take her seriously? Sam never has to face such scrutiny.

What I Was Mixed About:

Perhaps it was intentional, but Sadie deals with a lot of internal guilt, while the men in the story never do. Both Sadie and Sam do some pretty awful things, yet Sadie seems to be the only one who feels bad about them. Her guilt also leads her into destructive behavior that was had to read about. But, Sam is also no angel. You never see him even realizing he has something to be sorry about. Okay, I suppose he does have some guilty feelings, but they are buried DEEP inside.

When Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow says it is a love story it truly is and they are not lying when they tell you it is a love story unlike any others. This story is beautiful in its misconceptions and assumptions. It is the perfect example of how people in life see only what they want to see. There are two sides to every story, but many times we as humans assign a story to someone and that becomes our perception of them. Is that perception their truth? Most of the time it is not, but that doesn’t matter it is what we have deemed them and therefore our perception changes. Two friends both of them in love, yet something stands in their way. This book is going to be big. I can’t wait to talk it up with our patrons.
Thank you so very much to Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book.

I have to be honest,I went into this fully expecting not to like it, it’s not really my genre, I am not a gamer, so I was totally unprepared for how much I loved this book! Though there is a lot of gaming in this story, the book is about so much more than that, it is about friendship, and love, and hard times and it’s messy and it’s wonderful. I really enjoyed learning about the gaming culture and industry, and I didn’t feel like my lack of knowledge of gaming inhibited my ability to understand the storyline, I would tell anyone who is skeptical to just read it, you won’t regret it!

Thank you Netgalley the e-ARC which I voluntarily reviewed

This story takes time to understand and think on when finished. At first, I wasn't loving it but was curious so kept moving forward. I admit, I'm not a gamer or part of that world so some parts weren't for me but the story, and characters were great. So worth sticking with and glossing over parts I didn't deem relevant for me.

This is the story of Sadie and Sam. who meet at the hospital and video games bond them together. Later, they reconnect in college, where life is complicated, the world and be crazy but they have games and have that world. They eventually, with the help of Sam's roommate, Marx, move on to making games. To say more is to spoil.

I will say, the characters are intricate, well thought out, there are twists but they stay true to who they are from when we met them first.

While The Storied Life of AJ Fikry is still my favorite by this author, I think many will enjoy the book, especially those who enjoy the gaming world.
4.5stars

Thank you for the EArc NetGalley. What can I say that hasn’t already been said? This is a beautiful story about relationships ups and downs. I really enjoyed the gaming aspect despite not being a gaming aficionado. This one will tug at your heartstrings and live in your heart. The author nailed it and she deserves all the praise she’s getting and more!

Two teens meet at a hospital, form an unlikely friendship, and then move on with their lives. Several years later, an encounter changes their paths. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow was filled with all sorts of millennial nostalgia. I enjoyed reading about Sam/Mazer, Sadie, Marx, and their relationships over time.

The parts that stuck with me were more related to the main characters' interactions, and I did find the "behind the scenes" thought process on video game story development and composition to be interesting. It was really slow moving at first and picked up over time.

CW: Suicide, accidents, amputation, murder, gun violence

Thank you to Knopf Doubleday and Netgalley.
#TomorrowandTomorrowandTomorrow #NetGalley

RUN DON’T WALK! Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a layered and touching story about friendship, gaming, love in all of its forms, and growing up. The story follows Sam and Sadie who have been friends for decades but haven’t spoken for many of them. They run into each other in a Boston subway station miles away from their shared home of California, which re-ignites their connection and starts their adventure building games together.

I loved so much about this, but I especially loved the characters. Even the secondary characters like Ant and Marx were so special. There were many times that I wanted to grab Sadie or Sam by the shoulders and shake them - I love how the author gave us the opportunity to see pieces of their journey from both perspectives and that we got flashes of reflections from the future throughout. The backdrop of gaming and game design was so interesting - I’m not an avid gamer but it opened my mind to the artistry of it.

This is going to be one of my favorite reads of the year - I wish I could read it for the first time again.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for the ARC - Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is out 7/5/22.

An absolutely beautiful novel surrounding the lives of video game designers who have been friends since childhood. Such a realistic portrayal of relationships, in my opinion. Lots of heartache and joy and humor and reality. I definitely recommend!

I am most definitely NOT someone who is an avid player of video games, but I raised three sons who do, so I’m pretty familiar with gaming in general and in particular, the games available in the 1980s and 1990s, which figure large in Tomorrow And Tomorrow And Tomorrow. This book uses gaming - the programming, production and playing of computer/video games - as the main plot device, but the story really is about friendship and love, about coming of age from preteen through adulthood. And that’s something that will interest everyone. I found that the author was able to give us (presumably) authentic information on gaming without bogging down the narrative with overly technical details.

Sam and Sadie meet in a Los Angeles hospital when they are about 12 years old, where Sam is recovering from a major injury to his foot during a terrible car crash, and Sadie is visiting her sick sister. They bond over video games and the rest, as they say, is history. They do have a falling out after a while and don’t see each other again until they are both in college in Cambridge, Massachusetts (Sadie is at MIT and Sam at Harvard).

Zevin is the author of another book I loved (The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry), and while this one is very, very different, it's terrific. The main characters here are truly individuals. In addition to Sadie and Sam, we have Marx, Sam’s college roommate, who becomes an integral part of their lives and one of the founding partners of their gaming company. Sadie is of East European Jewish heritage; Sam is half Korean and half-Anglo, although his father really doesn’t figure in his life. His two Korean grandparents definitely do. And Marx has a Korean-American mother and a Japanese father. Each of them carries the weight of their backgrounds with them. We also have a lecherous professor who plays a large role in the story.

Be prepared to encounter a lot of words you may not be familiar with! I think I have a good vocabulary but I was happy that I was reading on my Kindle so that I could easily look up unfamiliar words.

I can’t say that I couldn’t put it down, because I did put it down - to listen to an audiobook on a long plane trip - but as soon as I could, I got right back to reading this wonderful book.

There’s a particularly amazing section, about 75% into the book, written in the second person, present tense. I can’t say more without it being a spoiler, but that section shook me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for the opportunity to read an advance readers copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a story that spans over thirty years. Told in multiple POVs, it follows our leads through the ups and downs of their childhood and into adulthood.

This book is somewhat hard to describe. It's a love story, but it's not. It's romantic but also not. It is most definitely a tale of friendship and family, of growth and understanding. It is a journey rife with misunderstandings that often left me wanting to wring someone's neck and other times wanting to give someone a hug.

I think for the most part this book will be a hit or miss for people. I can see many people loving it. But I also see people loathing it. And I think that will in large be due to the main relationship/friendship in this book. Sam and Sadie truly are a unique pair, love them or hate them. Other people, such as myself, will naturally be middle of the road. I didn't love either of our main characters and yet I found myself invested in this tale all the same. I was compelled to read it into the early hours of the morning, but I could hardly tell you why. Call it blind curiosity.

As is to be expected with literary fiction Sam and Sadie truly drove the story, often times in directions I wasn't sure I liked. Still, I stuck along for the ride and I can't say I have any regrets.