Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow went on and on and on.
On the one hand I loved the main characters and their back stories. On the other I felt like it just was way too long. They made a game then another then another.. …I don’t think you need to be a gamer at all to enjoy this. You might be someone who liked the creative process, or wants to understand how things get made or you might just be interested in how friends might work together. There a lot of throw back nostalgia to donkey Kong and other games from the past I appreciated.
My rating is probably between 3.5 and 3.75 but I’ll round up here.

I loved Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. I was awed by the depth of the characters: how well I felt I knew them and their pains, how tightly wound their bonds were, and how, following them over so many years didn't feel too long at all. For some reason, A Little Life kept popping to mind - the last story I remember reading where the friendships felt so deep, complicated, and tangible.

Sam Mazer, aka Samson Masur, has a bum foot. He has surgery after surgery, which means tons of hospital time. Sadie Green's sister has cancer, so she has hospital time, too. The two meet playing Mario Brothers. Their relationship with each other and with video games extends decades. A third character, Sam's college roommate Marx, enters the scene. He makes up the other side of their isosceles triangle.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is about friendship. How hard it is, how wonderful it is, how bittersweet and joyous and full of sorrow it is. Gosh, I loved them and it all.

I'm not a gamer, but I was swept up in the games. I think these three could have been friending, working, and collaborating over anything and I would have been rapt.

The writing is great. I wanted to highlight so many passages. There are a ton of 50-cent words. I was grateful for the Kindle's e-reader dictionary because I looked up at least 10, probably more. Sometimes that feels pretentious to me (I'm an avid reader; I know lots of words), but in this case, Zevin's use of uncommon words felt so accurate, I couldn't begrudge it. I'd see the definition and think, 'yes, that's a perfect word for this sentence.'

Highly recommend. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. I loved Zevin's Storied Life of A.J. Fikry. I can't wait to read more of her!

If you read to collect new experiences, or visit new places, this book delivered both of those things for me.
The complexity of the computer gaming world was the focus of this book and, as alien as it is to me, I was attracted to the intensity of the characters and the complexity of the imaginary universes they created.

Zevin’s protagonists were extremely empathetic characters and it was very easy to be ome immersed in their pain, their ambition, and their jealousy. This book pulled me far out of my cozy literary comfort zone, but I relished the time I spent with it and found it very thought-provoking.

Netgalley provided me a complimentary copy in exchange for a candid review.

Lovely exploration of relationships and how they change over time. Each character was thoughtfully rendered, and it was a joy to follow them through their creations and obsessions and longings. Marx was my favorite, and I grew to understand Sam and Sadie even if I didn't always like them. Thanks for the ARC :)

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is so smart, fresh, deep, wise, and meticulously crafted. I am in awe of how Gabrielle Zevin is able to so deftly create totally unique and disparate worlds in each of her adult novels. It keeps her work very interesting, and with her latest, she may just be one of my favorite writers out there today.

I went into this novel about video game designers with a strong background in the industry, as my husband and several of our long-term friends all designed MMORPGs for a large corporation for 15+ years. Zevin's descriptions of crunch time and launches and behind-the-scenes power struggles were captivating and accurate. I am obsessed with how she connected various aspects of video games to the challenges of everyday life in the real world. There is so much wisdom in this book. I highlighted dozens of passages because they were so touching and true. I'll never look at video games as "just a game" ever again.

But what really makes this book top-notch is the relationship between Sam, Sadie, and Marx. My heart is both swelling and breaking as I type their names. This is one of those novels that makes you love literature. It's just so rich. It's a gift to the reader. I wish I could put more coins into a machine and keep watching their lives unfold until they run out of hearts!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Knopf for the eARC in exchange for my honest thoughts. And thank you to Gabrielle Zevin for creating this magical book that I'll never forget!

FULL DISCLAIMERS: I requested this book because I quite liked The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry.

BUT: I am not a gamer, have NEVER gamed, touched a console, know anything about gaming. And I am far from Gen X--which I believe to be the target audience.

So...
Just not for me. The two main characters--Sam and Sadie [and as far as I read--Marx and Dov]. I liked Sam better than Sadie probably because I found him a more sympathetic person [because of his foot? Only in part--his backstory much more so.] MEH.

I sensed from the beginning a huge disconnect and that I was not going to like this book. I was just bored and uninterested and nothing captured my attention, Yet, I persevered. Until I couldn't any longer. At about 31% in, I had to stop. I'm not necessarily a prude, but the S&M signalled over and out. Since I abandoned, I do not know how much this factored in the rest of the book.

Although the writing was not bad, this book WAS NOT FOR ME.

3.5 Stars

I loved this author's previous book "The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry" which is why I chose to read this one. The main theme in this book centers on computer games. On a personal note, I absolutely adored playing the first 3 Harry Potter computer games in the early 2000s (and still do...broomstick practice anyone?), immersed in that Hogwarts world of magic. My young son enjoyed them at the time, but I used to have my stolen moments with it as well. In later years he expanded to the other stand alone gaming systems like xbox, wii and PlayStation. My older brother is a gamer as well. In fact, he has maintained the second largest website for the Lara Croft Tombraider games for decades, and travelled to Los Angeles for a gaming convention where he interviewed the game designer. So I have a decent understanding of the computer game designing concepts discussed in the book- but don't think it would be hard to understand them even if you didn't.

The character I have a soft spot for in this book is Samson Masur. As a kid in the 80s he was in a terrible car accident with his mother, severely damaging one of his feet. He spent a lot of time in a Los Angeles hospital recovering from this injury, in immense pain. The greatest diversion in managing this pain was getting lost in the world of video games. The hospital had a rec room with a gaming console where he played Super Mario Bros. This is also where Sam met the most important person in his life, Sadie Green- a fellow gamer. She was in the hospital regularly visiting her sister Alice who had leukemia. Sometimes her sister was cranky and kicked her out of the hospital room. This is when Sadie drifted into the rec room and starting playing video games with Sam. Sam was a loner, but he welcomed Sadie into sharing the levels of the game as if it was the most natural thing in the world. The nurses really appreciated this growing bond between the two pre-teens, because Sadie's friendship was thought to be very therapeutic in Sam's recovery. In fact, Sadie was prompted by others to keep a log of hours that she spent with Sam as a record of community service for her upcoming Bat Mitzvah.

Sam and Sadie reconnected by chance years later, running into each other in a train station in Boston. They were both attending college; she at MIT, he at Harvard. Sam had always loved Sadie and in the chaos of the subway station managed to forge another connection with her. She slipped him a disk of a game she had designed (an assignment from one of her college courses) to try out and review- her contact details were in the "Readme" file on the disk. This was a life changing moment because it led to Sam's dream of he and Sadie creating their own computer game. It was very interesting "looking over their shoulders" watching them come up with the concepts for this game from things they liked and experienced, troubleshooting problems during its creation and adding a music score. This ultimately launched their own media/tech company, Unfair Games.

Sadie's various romantic relationships and interactions with other main players/employees in Unfair Games round out the book's drama. The character of Sam is a sympathetic one with his loner mentality and the disability he navigates with his damaged foot. His relationship with Sadie is the most important one in his life, but it's complicated. He's a rather sad and stoic figure, but also strong and resilient. I found him the most interesting character study and strength of the book. It was intriguing "watching" Sadie and Sam create other games, navigate jealousy, fame, tragedy and their growth into adults. The writing style was stellar, which I expected. It went a bit off the grid at a certain point towards the end during a gameplay experience where I got a bit lost and frustrated, but otherwise this was a very unique and interesting book.

Thank you to Knoph Doubleday Publishing Group for providing an advance reader copy via NetGalley.

Brilliant! I almost didn’t read it because marketing says it’s a “gamer” novel but it’s so much more than that! While creating video games is in the center of the story it is also about friendship, love and grief. One of the best books I’ve read in recent years.

Without a doubt the best book I've read in a long time. I'm new to this author, but the John Green blurb was all I needed to request a galley. So glad I did. The characters are fully formed. The emotions are raw and true. The author goes deep into gaming history—and, incidentally, what it was like to grow up Gen X—and nails it without getting too deep in the weeds. For Gen Xers who got hooked on gaming with Pong, Pac-Man, Zork, Myst, and so on, "Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow" will bring back a lot of memories. Ironically, the pre-internet friendship dynamics reminded me of what it was like going to college before screens took over our lives. There's a lot to unpack in this book—in a good way.

As John Green would say, "I give 'Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow' five stars.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow has been pitched as a kind of Ready Player One which had me excited. It's difficult to have a nerdy gamer as a protagonist, and I'm not sure Zevin quite pulled it off for me. The narrator reminded me a bit too much of what tik tokers have dubbed "adhd gamer boy with golden retriever energy." Some with love this quirkiness, but I found the hero particularly difficult to connect with. I recognize the limits of my own experience though and can see this being a hit for the right audience.

This is a beautifully told story about love and friendship, and how those two terms can both describe a single relationship. Love, work, and love of work are central themes.

The story focuses on Sam and Sadie, who meet as kids, by accident. They are a couple of brilliant introverts with a common interest in video games. Years later, they run into each other again, by chance, and it is Sam who is determined to stay in touch, with the specific hope of making games with Sadie. Eventually, they do just that, and by this time, there are other people in both of their lives, especially Marx, Sam’s college roommate, foil, and protector. Marx is an extroverted thespian into Shakespeare who coaxes Sam into bonding with him.

Sam has known trauma and adversity, is awkward socially, and is also self-conscious about a physical disability. Sadie must navigate the challenges of being the only woman in a room of gamers and struggles to be taken seriously in her career. She is also preyed upon by an important college professor.

After Sadie and Sam take a semester off school to produce a game that is ready for prime time, they launch their own company, called Unfair Games. Marx becomes their producer, a role for which he is perfectly suited.

Though Sadie and Sam are extremely close, their pasts and their insecurities will inform how they perceive each other over time. Misunderstandings, missed opportunities, along with their different perspectives make for a very unusual and rocky love story. And, through it all, Marx has an ever changing relationship with each one of them. He is the calm, happy one, providing support to them and keeping the company running.

The story of Sadie and Sam involves a tragic turn, to which they each react very much according to their characters. And author Gabrielle Zevin cleverly relates the games they play to the journey and choices make in real life.

Thank you to Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and Netgalley for this amazing experience.

Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow is an unforgettable, exquisitely written story about Sadie, Sam and Marx, characters developed so authentically I ended the book in tears. The book follows Sadie and Sam from their chance meeting in a hospital as children and throughout their partnership as gamers. Their friendship and love for each other face obstacles, pain and grief. As the characters grow and evolve, so do the sophistication and maturity of their games. Learning about gaming was very interesting and kept me engaged. It was their relationships, the pain and loss and joyful celebrations that made this book excel. Five easy stars and my strongest recommendation to put this on top of your "to read" list. Thanks Netgalley,publisher and author for this over the top reading opportunity.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin is magnificent! This is a complex and haunting novel that explores human connection and the beautiful yet fragile nature of a unique love between two people. The two main characters, Sadie and Sam, meet accidentally as children in a hospital. They're both facing difficult medical challenges, Sadie through her sister's cancer and Sam through his badly damaged foot. They soon find out they have a magical connection through gaming that will be a source of both pleasure and pain through the many years explored in this story.

POV changes continually between Sadie and Sam, and later with Marx, a third character who plays a critical role in the story. The three are partners in a gaming business that starts as a gaming design dream of Sadie's and Sam's. They are helped by Sadie's brilliant teacher and secret lover, Dov, Zevin returns to the theme of the use and abuse of sexual power by an older man towards a subordinate young woman she also wrote about in Young Jane Young. Another continuing theme examined here are the affects on children by an absent or deceased parent as seen in The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry.

Zevin's homage to two great cultural icons is brilliant. For the book cover, she selected The Great Wave by Japanese artist Hokusai, which depicts the drama and unpredictability of a fateful moment, just like her characters often experience. Also, both Sam and Marx are of Asian descent, further solidifying Zevin's careful selection of every element. The novel's title, the other homage, is to Shakespeare's Macbeth with the use of the haunting soliloquy "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" given by Macbeth on the cruel and meaningless nature of life. These two elements are contrasted expertly with the heart of every video game itself--the game can infinitely be replayed and, as Sam says, "the hero never dies."

Zevin's text is so beautifully written--rich and full of unique words and references. The world of gaming and Pop Culture is enhanced with continual references to actual games throughout the novel. Zevin has been quoted as being a lifelong gammer herself, so this is a familiar world to the author. Her inclusion of Sadie and Sam as characters in an actual game was a little weird at first until it became clear what Zevin was trying to accomplish.

A reader need not be a gamer to really enjoy this book! Sadie and Sam are both exceptionally talented designers, consumed with gaming. They are also exceptional humans who will stay with the reader for a very long time.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this exciting novel.

If I could give this book 10 stars, I would. I have loved everything I have read by Zevin (especially The Storied Life of AJ Fikry), and I had high expectations for this one. I wasn't disappointed. I am not a gamer, but somehow the fact that this book is all about games didn't distract from the amazing characters and how they evolve over time, while basically staying the same. This is one of the few books I know I will be reading again soon.

I really wanted to read this book because I loved Zevin’s book “The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry” and I was not disappointed with “Tomorrow.” I couldn’t put this book down. When I did put it down, I couldn’t wait to pick it back up! This book revolves around video games which I honestly have no interest in. However, this book is about so much more than gaming. It’s a book about work, love, relationships, survival, and secondarily video games. I still have no interest in gaming but loved this book. I highly recommend it!

Sam and Sadie meet when Sam was in the hospital and Sadie was visiting her hospitalized sister. They played videogames together which launches a long-term friendship. They both loved to compete and videogaming fulfills this love. Sam has a disability which frequently tugs the reader’s heartstrings. Sam overcomes many hurdles in his life, and Sadie has her own concerns. Friendship is a major theme of this book and makes one realize how hard it is to find that special friend. The journey of having a friend through life’s ups and downs are prevalent. Back to the videogame aspect, there are numerous lessons embedded in the videogames that Sam and Sadie’s business develops. Lessons that we can all learn from. The author does a superb job with character development and storytelling. Read this book! You will not be disappointed!

Thank you to NetGalley and the book’s publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, for an advanced reader’s copy. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

✨Book review✨
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
By Gabrielle Zevin

This was not my usual type of read, but I had heard such great things about it, that I had too!

What a cute story! The relationship between the two main characters is so beautiful, and watching their love change over a 30 year span was amazing.

As an 80’s baby, I LOVED all the pop culture references, they made the book for me!

I really enjoyed this one, and if you can handle video game banter, suggest checking this one out. Zevin is like a poet with words.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

This book has a pub date of July 5th, be sure to check it out.

QOTD: What is your fave video game? My son loves Kirby!

Thanks so much to @netgalley and @knopfdoubleday for sending me an e-arc in exchange for my honest review!

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Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow stunned me. I was prepared for a nice read, a fun read, but instead, I was completely stunned.

In Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow we follow Sam and Sadie, two video game lovers who eventually start their own company together where they make video games.

I love a book that teaches me something and this book taught me about the video game world while holding my attention. It's clear Zevin knows her stuff, but she kept the story accessible to all readers. And, though I'm not a gamer, I found myself interested in the parts where she describes the process of creating a game.

But! I think Zevin is trying to get the reader to understand that video games are stories and art. The book becomes almost philosophical at times about things like art, work, love, games, friendship, and story. These parts really elevated the reading experience for me and prompted long dinner-table discussions about the intimacy required for playing games and if openness about trauma makes art better. Plus, there were plenty of references to classic literature to keep this English major happy!

The best thing about this book, though, is the relationships Zevin manages to capture. I can't count how many times I was like, "Yep, I know someone just like that." I thought she must have been exhausted bringing so much reality and dynamic representation to every one of her characters. Sadie's sister plays a side role but she is well developed. Sam's grandparents come into the story only occasionally but I was completely attached to them. And don't get me started on Sam, Sadie, or Marx.

I loved Young Jane Young, but with Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow Zevin has hit her stride. She's an auto-read author for me now.

This was an excellent book… not quite the ‘perfect play’ but very close, for me. I really enjoyed how there were different styles incorporated throughout the book, such as portions of interviews and from the point of view of a secondary character, and would have liked to see a little more of that as I really enjoyed it. The pop culture references were mostly known to me, some areas felt a bit heavy with them, but overall they did a great job of setting the scene.I enjoyed the pace of the book, though I did feel it slowed a little in the last quarter or so, if I’m being picky.
Overall a fantastic book and I’d have been very happy if I’d purchased and read it! I enjoyed the list of games that provided inspiration at the end.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What to say about this absolutely beautiful piece of art? While most of the description say this is a book about two friends who make video games together, I’d argue it’s about three friends who make video games together: Sam, Sadie, and Marx. We see more of Sadie and Sam as their friendship started when they were just children in a hospital game room, but Marx is just as integral to what they create together. As many reviewers have already said, you don’t need to be a gamer to appreciate this story but in reading it, it felt as if the games, and the worlds of those games, were real. If they were real, I might even be tempted to try some of them out. But the games aren’t real and they weren’t created by three brilliant minds but just one- Gabrielle Zevin. And that is why this book blew my mind.

Yes, the games seemed like they could have been real, but more importantly, the characters felt like real people. Zevin has an obvious talent for dialogue, creating jokes between friends without it feeling forced, staging arguments that you might overhear in Ikea, writing tension and love in palpable ways. I knew I was reading something great pretty early on but by 75% I was so invested, I felt some emotions viscerally in a way that I haven’t with a book for as long as I can remember.

I recently defined my star ratings and said a five star is one that I could re-read, would need for my shelf, and would recommend to everyone. I don’t know if I could bear to read this a second time, that’s how hard it hit me. I also don’t know that it will be a fit for every reader out there. It’s not a light read. But, if you want to read something that feels incredibly real, by which I mean full of the sorrows and pain of real life and the ups and downs of real friendship, then please pick up this book. The point being, this book is absolutely deserving of five stars because it is an incredible piece of fiction and probably the best book I have read this year and possibly last year too.

This book is already appearing on all sorts of lists and I know it’s going to make huge waves in the literary community when it comes out next month. I feel so lucky to have gotten an ARC from @netgalley and @knopfdoubleday.

Oh Zevin, Zevin, Zevin. To this day her book The Storied Life Of A.J. Fikry is the book I recommend the most to friends and family. I trust her and her ability to make me care about her characters and the story she wants to tell.

Zevin has an ability to create a village of characters that you quickly care deeply about - you are invested in their choices. I cannot wait for you to meet Sadie, Sam, and Marx.

We are given a book about friendship centered around a mutual love of gaming. Or perhaps the opposite could also be said. Regardless, the story is rich with complexities about relationships and choices they make at different stages of their lives. Sure, it’s a book about gamers, gaming, and world building - but it really is so much more. I might have been looking too much into certain aspects, but much like the games they created, there seem to be hidden messages throughout. I found it interesting how similar the names Sadie and Sam are, then when Sam changed his name to Mazer, how similar it was to Marx. The names and the relationships that each character had to one another changed too. The floating Anna Lees sprinkled throughout allowed in grief, and hope, and mystery. I guess it’s all up to interpretation, but I’m interested to hear how that hits others. I absolutely loved this one. Instant classic for me.

Thank you for the ARC!