Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
Gabrielle Zevin
Knopf
Publication: July 5, 2022

Zevin has created a whip-smart novel of love, work, and video games. The story centers on two main characters: Sam Masur and Sadie Green. They meet in a hospital hospitality room where they take turns playing Nintendo. Sam is recovering from a car crash that killed his mother and that mangled his foot. Sadie is visiting her sister who is in the hospital for Leukemia. Sadie continues to visit Sam to play games even after her sister is discharged. (They are children at this point.)

Years later, they meet in the subway in Boston where Sam is attending Harvard and Sadie is attending MIT. They re-connect and collaborate on a complicated game, Ichigo, about a young child who gets swept away in a storm and returns home years later as a ten-year-old. Sam’s roommate, Marx, helps them as they work hard to finish the game. They have great success with the game and soon, with Marx as producer, the three have their own gaming company, Unfair Games.

Sam and Sadie have love for each other but they have arguments and don’t speak at times. This causes friction at the company and things become complicated. I don’t want to spoil the story so I’ll leave it at that.

Other characters I loved are Sam’s grandparents Dong Hyun (Grandfather) Bong Cha (Grandmother). They provide much needed wisdom and love to Sam and play vital roles in his life. A side note: They have a Donkey Kong game in their pizza shop.

I love how Zevin honestly portrays how women functioned in the gaming business. It reminds me of Brenda Romero (yes, wife to John) who is one of the few women pioneer female game designers. Was there a nod to her game Train when Sadie’s first MIT game dealt with Nazi’s? She wasn’t mentioned in the notes, but in my world, it is a nod to Brenda.

This novel is about love and work and video games. It is a fantastic book and I’ll be reading Zevin’s other works to see if they hold up to this ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ read.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #Knopf for this electronic arc in exchange for my honest review.

"Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow" captured my attention and heart. Sadie and Sam have known each other for almost their entire lives, meeting in a hospital game room playing "Super Mario Bros." on a TV. This book tracks the following 25 years of both of their lives, as well as the love, betrayal, heartache, destruction, and grief packed within that time. The language in this novel is stunning, at times perfectly reflecting the narration of a video game, both in the digital and real worlds. The stunning allusions to art, music, and theatrical pieces throughout help the reader encapsulate a full vision for the work Sam and Sadie create. This book captures the strength of loyalty and relationships while also presenting how we face trials and tribulations at our highs and lows. I will think about these characters for a long time...

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow is the story of Sadie and Sam - two childhood friends who bond over video games. Their lives continue to intersect until they create their own video game. Overnight they are hugely successful but their trauma continues to follow them.

This book! I laughed. I cried. I was so mad I had to put the book down and walk away. I haven’t felt this many emotions in a book for a long time. The character development and growth is fantastic. This is heavy on the video games and I can see how it could be a bit tedious for some readers. In the end though it’s a story of love - how to love and be loved. How to accept love when you aren’t sure you love yourself. Truly one of the best things I’ve read all year.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin is set in the world of Video Gaming, yet it is so much more. Kowing the Protagonists were Creative Partners in gaming design, I almost passed on this one. While I had no interest in video games, I do like Gabrielle Zevin's writing, so decided to pick it up. Sam Masur and Sadie Green share much more than a talent and business. Close friends since childhood, except for an estrangement during their teen/early college years, theirs is a relationship like few found in literature. A third business partner/roommate, Marx, adds another dimension as he offers financial support as well as friendship. Disability, independence, friendship and codependence all play into the story. I found the business development and gaming background fascinating, but it was the relationships that hooked me. The author describes love as both a constant and a variable at the same time and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow exemplifies this beautifully.
#TomorrowandTomorrowandTomorrow #NetGalley

3 stars, maybe 3.5. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a novel that, on paper, seems like something I'd love. A story of two lifelong creative partners that spans thirty years and explores a unique period in video game history, touching on all the race, gender, and class issues that inextricably affected (and still do affect) the video game industry at the time, and the fraught personal relationship between the two. And the book certainly is what it says on the tin -- it is all of those things. But in my opinion, it just didn't really say much about them. I definitely saw the culture of video games in the 90's and 2000's (at least, what I know of it) reflected in this novel, but found little else beyond that reflection -- nothing deeper. And while the novel also certainly does a good job of showing the complexities of the relationship between Sam and Sadie over the years, it offers very little in the way of any sort of deeper meaning or understanding of those complexities other than the fact that they were, well, complex.

The main issue I had with this book was the characters. Sam and Sadie are the two central figures in the novel, and to be quite honest, I didn't really like either of them. I get the feeling that they were meant to be realistically flawed individuals, but somewhere in the midst of giving them their plethora of imperfections, Gabrielle Zevin forgot to make them likable. As Sadie herself says near the end of the novel, people play (read) games (books) for the characters, not for the tech (not sure what the book equivalent of tech is, tbh). Or at least I do. And while I certainly felt like I got to know Sam and Sadie very well -- one-dimensional, they were not -- over the course of the novel, I didn't particularly like either of them. Sadie and Sam are both the type of people who are convinced that they are better than other people because they can code and read poetry, which is honestly not uncommon among college/college-age students, but they are convinced they are the only ones in the universe who are what they are. Sadie and Sam both come from different types of privilege; Sadie, money, and Sam, being a man, and both of them hurt each other through the lens of these privileges very pettily many times, are deeply hypocritical about them, and don't grow particularly much in the thirty years that we follow them. For two characters that should have been larger-than-life, like the video game auteurs of that time were, they were disappointingly small.

And since Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is primarily a story about Sadie and Sam, the fact that I didn't particularly like Sadie nor Sam made it very difficult to really care about that story. Or, rather, it made me wish I was reading this story with two different characters. One might argue that this story with two different characters would be a different story, which, well ... maybe I would prefer that one.

It was still an enjoyable read, especially as I have nothing but praise for Gabrielle Zevin's prose. And perhaps this book might resonate better with those fifteen or twenty years older than me, in Sadie and Sam's generational bracket. Perhaps there is a generational gap here, something I Just Don't Understand about the 90's and early 2000's video game scene that uniquely characterizes the emotions of this novel. Perhaps I lack the specific brand of nostalgia that would have painted this book in more favorable shades for me. Perhaps. But whatever the reason, I found myself feeling like I -- or perhaps Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow -- was missing something.

Being a fan of Zevin’s previous works, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry and Young Jane Young, I was excited to dive into her latest. There is a huge amount of detail about gaming and while you don’t need to be into gaming, I think it would be helpful and make it more engaging. The multi-layered novel read unnecessarily long and was overwrought with words that often needed to be defined. The characters never truly matured; Sadie forgave Dov for his misdeeds but held a grudge for years against her lifelong friend Sam? There is plenty for book groups to analyze and discuss. This one didn’t work for me.

Thank you to Knopf and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow follows the friendship of Sadie and Sam, from childhood to adulthood as they play games and then design them together. I was really looking forward to this book and the idea is unique and different. However, Sadie and Sam’s relationship is supposed to be an epic, decades long friendship but it is so toxic it makes it hard to like or root for either of them. They bring out the worst in each other and neither one has any idea how to be a good friend.

The book is also filled with too many flashbacks that upset the momentum of the story. The first third was good and the last third moved quickly but the middle was so slow and way too long.

The best part of this book to me was Marx. I would have loved for him to be more fleshed out and even given his own voice in more then one chapter. He was really the heart of the story and the parts with him were my favorites.

If you a fan of gaming or game creation, this one is a must read!

Loved this book. Rich and deep with meaning. Characters were realistic and the video games enriched the stories in compelling ways. Would highly recommend to our customers.

*This* is now my favorite book I’ve read this year, if not longer. It’s epic, in the literary sense, but also in the “spanning years and continents, lives ruined, blood shed, EPIC” sense. I laughed, I cried, I screamed out loud in protest when a character made a decision that broke my heart. My husband and I got into an actual fight because he interrupted me during a pivotal moment. I couldn’t read any other book for a week after I finished it - I just started this one over again.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is ostensibly about video games, but it’s also a meditation on the creative process, or maybe more accurately the creation process. The labor and logistics and compromise and collaboration that go into turning an idea into something tangible. It’s about love and family and friendship and the types of deeply impactful partnerships that defy labels. It’s about the joy and intimacy of play, and about the pain of living in a body or a brain that can’t do what you want it to. It’s about art and genius, and about the people and structures without whom geniuses couldn’t happen.

It has the beautifully fleshed out cast of characters and unique perspectives of an Emily St John Mandel. It weaves in the reflections on the fallibility of human memory and the stories we tell ourselves of Kazuo Ishiguro. This book is infuriatingly good, and I love it so much.

I received a digital ARC from Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group via NetGalley.

This story will stay with me. At it’s core it is a story about family, friendship, and life. We watch the characters grow up, and change. Do not be intimidated by this book if you feel you do not like or understand video games. It isn’t. So much about the technical side of making games, it’s about the experience of playing them, and the reader is brought into that.experience.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow didn't immediately suck me in, but once it did, I was hooked. Sam and Sadie meet in the hospital when they are 11 and 12 respectively and bond over a shared love of video games. But the book opens with them in Boston for college several years later, after not speaking for quite some time. They reignite their friendship and end up creating a video game, Ichigo, together. The game is a hit, but along the way their friendship hits some more rough patches.
The book itself is certainly centered around gaming and yet, it isn't. There's so much more to gaming in the book- friendship, sorrow, illness, resentments, just to name a few. I found it to be very well written and the characters to be relatable. This was a really enjoyable read. Being the same age as the characters really brought me back to my younger years.
Thanks to the author, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and NetGalley for this ARC.

This book tells of the lives and lifelong friendship of Sam and Sadie, people who dearly love and care for each other even though they don't always understand each other. The story spans thirty years, although the shift in time periods is easily made and placed in areas of the book that make sense and add dimension. The friends welcome another friend, Marx, to make a trio, who go on to start a successful business creating video games. The video games reflect what they experience in life and demonstrate their hopes, fears, values, losses and longings. This books is intricately detailed, emotionally moving and meaningful. I need to read more of this author's work! Highly recommend this read!

Oh goodness, this one is a stunner. I've heard from so many early readers of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin that they liked or loved this book *in spite of* the fact that it is about video games, with assurances that you don't have to care about video games in order to enjoy it. I wasn't worried about video games being involved, because I have enjoyed playing them occasionally (mostly just Stardew Valley, to be honest, but I've played others) and my husband and kids love them so I'm used to seeing them and understand how great they can be. What I didn't expect, however, was how much even my limited knowledge of video games enhanced my appreciation for this novel. There is actually a LOT about video games in it, with explanations of the storylines of the games they create, all of which sound absolutely amazing and wildly creative. I loved this book so much more because of the video games, and that truly surprised me. Add to that the references to Shakespeare (I figured the title was referring to MacBeth, but didn't expect to encounter Shakespeare otherwise) and the unique sections in the middle of the book that told the story in creative ways, and I'm in love. The book is primarily about the central friendship between Sam and Sadie, but I absolutely adored Marx and I was fascinated by Sam's mother Anna. Such beautiful characters and relationships. I think I'm going to have a book hangover for a while.

Sam Masur and Sadie Green first met in a hospital ward as kids and bonded over their mutual love of video games. They were each other's best friends until it all imploded. Now, years later, both Sam and Sadie attend college in the same city and run into each other in the subway. This chance encounter will go on to spark a partnership for the ages. Sam and Sadie decide to collaborate to create their very own video game, and after begging and borrowing money from whoever they could, they put out the instant-hit, Ichigo. They've barely graduated college, and yet the world is already theirs. Over the next thirty years, Sam and Sadie face both personal and professional ups and downs as they learn the hard way that fame comes at a steep price. One that they may not be willing to pay.

I'm not a huge gamer, but I do appreciate the craft. I loved all the references to games I grew up playing, and it was nice to see Sam and Sadie bond over them. I liked their friendship and thought they balanced one another out pretty well. At times Sadie annoyed me because I found her very pessimistic and quick to treat those around her poorly. Both weren't perfect by any means, but they cared about one another, and I found it sweet. I also liked the dynamic once Marx was introduced. He was such a sweetie and felt like the heart of the story in many ways. Plot-wise, I enjoyed how it was broken down into different parts, but it could've been trimmed down. It was just so long, and it felt even longer. If you enjoy stories about games or the gaming industry, or stories focused more on platonic love and how sometimes your soul mates are your best friends, then you would like this.

I devoured this book. The characters are wonderful and it didn't hurt that they are close to me in age, and came of age in the same era I did. I wouldn't call myself a "gamer" but I do enjoy and appreciate video games. Though I don't think you have to, to enjoy this book. It's about friendship, success, failure, finding yourself (losing yourself and finding yourself again), creativity, love, art, relationships, grief, growing...and so much more. For me, it read like a cross between Meg Wolitzer's "The Interestings" and the TV show Mythic Quest—particularly its fantastic flashback episodes. Highly recommended.

2.5 stars.

This story is about friendship, love and video games. Two friends, Sadie and Sam, grew up playing video games together. A betrayal leads to a break in their friendship, but they are reunited as adults. Eventually, they end up teaming up with their friend Marx to create a successful video game and launch a company together. But the stress of creating and selling their game along with running the company tests the bonds of their friendship.

There were moments of this story that I really enjoyed. I thought the dynamics between Sadie and Sam were interesting, and that dynamic became even more interesting when Marx was added into the picture. Their complicated friendship was the best thing in this book.

But the book was really, really, really long, and I struggled to keep reading. I definitely liked the first half of the book better. There was a part at the end that goes into a detailed description of playing a video game and it really didn't connect with me at all. At that point, the book felt like it was never going to end! But perhaps a gamer would have a stronger appreciation for that part of the story and ultimately the ending? It didn't quite keep my attention all the way through to the end.

I really enjoyed this book. It is a fun, contemporary coming of age story. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a story of friendship and love, in life and video games. The novel follows the main characters, Sam and Sadie through thirty years of their lives. Through their love of video games, they forge a friendship and then a business and a life in the world of gaming.

While I am not a gamer, I found the creation of the video games interesting. I was very impressed by how artfully Zevin was able to use video games to reflect what was going on Sam and Sadie's lives.

I don't think you need to know much about gaming to enjoy this book, but it might be difficult for some readers to get through the details in creating games. This book is a great summer read for people who enjoy something a little more meaty.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for the advanced copy.

DNF at 24%.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a story about Sadie and Sam's friendship and game development partnership over the years. I had concerns going in that it would be everything I hated about Ready Player One, but thankfully Zevin treads a very different path with regard to gaming nostalgia - if you disliked RPO as much as I did, you might just find this one to hit the spot.

However, the one constant issue I had with the quarter of the book I read was the narration. Instead of allowing scenes to happen and flow organically, we're given highly summarized snapshots, and even then, the narrator goes off on tangents to describe elements of a character's past or to insert a future interview snippet. This makes the read feel bogged-down and heavy - which is disappointing as it's very clear that Zevin is a great writer, and I did want to know what happened with the characters. I just really was not enjoying the read enough to keep going and push through another 75% of it.

Thank you to Knopf Doubleday and NetGalley for providing a copy for review.

An epic, sweeping, timeless tale of love and friendship and all the intricacies of life, spanning over thirty years.

𝘛𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘸, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘛𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘸, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘛𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘸 begins when Sadie Green and Sam Masur strike an unlikely match in the hospital where Sam's recovering from an accident and Sadie is present to accompany her sister. After a minor betrayal, however, they lose contact.
Fast forward fifteen years, they reconcile over their shared love of videogames, and Sam presents Sadie with an opportunity to to build games with him. Thus begins the start of a striking and remarkable friendship.

As I'm writing this review, my heart is heavy and I'm overwhelmed, whether it's over the grief of finishing this book or the honour of having read this masterpiece? I don't know.

I'm also confused as to how to make sense of this review so we'll start with the beginning and work our way towards the end.

1) As I mentioned, Sadie and Sam meet at the hospital and connect over videogames. Now, videogames are a major emphasis of the plot. Personally, I've never played a single game discussed in the book or a console game ever but miraculously I could follow their programming lingo easily (I guess years of watching youtubers playing videogames payed off eh?).
I'd recommend watching atleast one gaming competition finale for reference and if you're a gamer then this'll definitely be your comfort book.

2) A few aspects of the book that may be an issue to some are the timelines and the alternating povs which don't have an order. Not necessarily frustrating but you never know when the plot changes into the past or the future and which character's perspective you'll get next as the povs aren't limited to only the MCs.

3) The writing was above my paygrade.
The vocabulary felt way too advanced but new words are always welcomed so I didn't mind. Though, I will say, the dialogue writing especially for the first half of the book felt a lot like reading historical fiction for some reason? Probably because of how proper it read and sounded.

4) I still haven't gotten over Marx. He's the bestest friend one could ever be blessed with.

5) I would also like to mention that the love Sam had for Sadie and Sadie had for Sam exceeded the limits of platonic love but they never were lovers. And that, I found was a beautiful emphasis. They've always loved each and always will, even or especially in the worst of circumstances.

Another aspect that I found intriguing was the generational difference. As someone who wasn't even alive in the 90s, it was rather interesting to note all the wildly different social constructs.
It's probably the most Gen Z thing I've ever said but how did people get by without constant access to each other? The thought is wild to me.

I'll conclude by saying that this story was exceptional and I hope I'll come back to it one day to reread and take away even more than I'm doing now.

Ps. I'm deducting one star because I'm still grieving and I will 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 get over him (iykyk).

- ~ -

4.32 / 5✩

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘒𝘯𝘰𝘱𝘧 𝘋𝘰𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘗𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘎𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘱 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬, 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘐 𝘷𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 & 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘦𝘥. 𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯.

My ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to like this book. I was looking forward to this book after some of Ms. Zevin's previous works. And for the first 200 or so pages I liked it. The video game references were great. The characters were developing. The book is about 33% longer than Zevin's other books (AJ Fikry, Margarettown, Young Jane Young), and at times it could have moved faster. And then about halfway through, the story makes a couple of strange turns and heads towards an unsatisfying ending. Overall, I give it a 2/5.