Gabrielle Zevin continues to impress me with her stories. Each one so different from the last, but all amazing!

Gabrielle Zevin's brand-new novel Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is incredibly well written with raw emotions and relatable main characters. Zevin eloquently addresses friendship, hope, love happiness and grief. Although it is a story about gamers it covers real life situations that bring the reader to tears. A business as well as personal perspective is woven throughout this captivating story of anguish, success and failure.

Synopsis:
Sam, Marx, and Sadie are friends who bond while creating a video game to market for the public. Due to stress, depression, jealousy and communication issues it is difficult to maintain a consistent workable dynamic between the three friends. In time the trio realizes that while diligent work pays off with riches, heartache follows. Will the friendship between Sam, Sadie and Marx survive long-term?

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin is available on July 5th. (4.5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫)

Thank you, NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, for allowing me to review this outstanding book. Your kindness is appreciated!

This is a really difficult review to write and I'm honestly amazed that none of the early reviewers have talked about this yet. I was SO excited to get an ARC of this as a I loved the Storied Life of AJ Fikry and I'm also a huge gamer, but I'm so disappointed.

I can't speak to the author's own rep, intentions, or life experiences, but the way Sam is repeatedly described throughout this book made me very uncomfortable and seemed deeply problematic. I am not a part of these groups, so I can't comment on it in-depth, but I will give a high-level review of what made me stop reading (I DNF'd around 40%).

Sam is Asian, poor and disabled. When his roommate, Marx, first meets him, he describes Sam as being "cute" because he "looks like an anime character," he refers to him as a "strange boy," though they're both the same age and place in life (arriving as college roommates). And what 18 year old describes his college roommate as sweet faced when they first meet? Direct quote: “With his sweet, roundish face, light-colored eyes & mix of white & Asian features, Sam looked almost exactly like an anime character.”

Marx, as someone who is rich, sees that Sam is both poor and disabled and makes the decision on his own that he needs to take him under his wing and take care of him. Both Marx, and Sam's other supposed "best friend," Sadie, infantilize and pity Sam throughout the whole book. Sam is frustrated by their pity and the way they treat his disability, but that does not stop them. It is possible this was the author's intention, but the way it was represented was not well done. Sam is also very much a "nerdy Asian stereotype" and his voice is repeatedly described by Sadie as "reedy." She also describes him as "moon-faced" at one point, which is not a phrase I've ever head, but when I looked it up I could not believe it made it into the book. It is deeply problematic. The way his disability is described and his walk as "hobbled," and his physical appearance as "small" just all feeds into him as a childish character we should pity, and not as their partner/equals. Though Sadie loves Sam, she is not in love with him and Sam is never ever seen as someone to be desired. They feel SORRY for him. I also saw one negative review that said they were surprised this made it past the editors because of how deeply sad it is so I would NOT be surprised if some other awful thing befalls Sam.

There's a part when one of the characters gets called out in an interview for their game being cultural appropriation and they laugh it off and say "that didn't exist then," so I get the feeling as a reader these thoughts reflect the author's beliefs.

Lastly, a small thing that bothered me was the author's insistence on using huge words throughout the whole book that my kindle defined as "archaic." It was fine when they were adults in Harvard, but 10-year-olds saying "tautology" or "self-aggrandizing" doesn't make sense. Some other choice words: habiliments, bloviate, and grokking.

I don't know if this book had sensitivity readers, and I'm sure as more reviews come out this will be pointed out, but as this book doesn't come out until July there is still time to fix this and I urge the publisher to do so.

TikTok on this, here: https://www.tiktok.com/@lizalovereads/video/7099905036502797611?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7042481933524076037

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Multilayered and textured, Tomorrowx3 is a love story, a story about friendship, and a love letter to video games and their creators.
Sam, Sadie and Marx felt heartbreakingly real from the moment we meet them in the story. I had to ration my allotted pages per day because I didn’t want the magic of living through this story to disappear.
The writing is lyrical and full of insight and pathos. Zevin has once again created a masterpiece that transports readers to an alternate dimension inside her mind, where real characters live out rich, full lives.

Thank you NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for an advanced copy!

I thoroughly enjoyed this story. It was a different kind of love story spanning decades. It reminded me in some ways of Ready Player One. I am not a gamer, but that didn't take away from my enjoyment! I highly recommend!

I really enjoyed Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. A friend asked why I requested this book because it is about gaming. As a 55 year-old woman, why would I want to read about the gaming world that I have no real interest in. First the book is written by Gabrielle Zevin and I enjoyed The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry. Second, it is good to learn about something that is outside my normal and the Gen X world.

This book is so much more than a gaming book. It is more about coming of age, friendships, love, loss, and even business. It is easy to love the main characters Same Masur and Sadie Green, There relationship is complicated, in both business and in love. Their communication with each other is often star crossed and complicated.

The book is so well written and very difficult to put down. It is a book that will stay with you long after the last page. This is a book to savor. You will not get to read this book for the first time ever again.

I would like to thank Gabrielle Zevin for writing fantastic books and NetGalley for sharing an advanced copy. This book should be a big hit in the summer of 2022. #GabrielleZevin #NetGalley #TomorrowandTomorrowandTomorrow

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book. I LOVED this book! It was so absorbing and I couldn't put it down. The author did an absolutely masterful job of weaving voices and timelines into a cohesive and compelling narrative. I am also astounded by all the game worlds described in loving detail, I wish I could play them!

An epic story of life’s complexities, deep-rooted love, incredible grief, and video games. Regardless of infinite restarts, some games are just not winnable. Perhaps winning isn’t the point. This affected me in very much the same way as The Heart’s Invisible Furies (iykyk). The intricacies and tiebacks are so thoughtful and moving. I was fully immersed in Sadie and Sam’s tumultuous friendship and professional pursuits.

This is my top read of 2022 thus far, and I’m confident it will remain so.

What a wonderfully rare story about friendship between two people who love each other deeply, and not romantically. I loved the characters in this story, thought the writing was beautiful and the pacing was excellent. I am not a gamer and yet I found myself fully immersed in the world of these people who love gaming. The world building was so good, the traumas that each character experienced were so tenderly written. I loved the ending. I cried at least three times while reading this book, which for me, is always the sign of an author's mastery-- to evoke deep emotions is such a gift. I will be recommending this to everyone this summer!

Thank you for sending me a copy of this in exchange for an honest review!


I enjoyed this book so much, I couldn’t put it down!

"Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow" touches on many elements of modern culture, from gaming to startups. The novel also captures some truths about love, loss and competition. At the heart of the story, we find Sadie and Sam, two exceptionally bright teens coming of age in California and, later, in Boston. Their friendship (and sometimes rivalry) spans decades and produces memorable video games. If, like me, you appreciate both Shakespeare and The Oregon Trail, you may connect to this book and its themes. Some of the strongest sections reveal how it's possible to share deep truths through games and also how we can sometimes close ourselves off from those closest to us.

After absolutely loving the quirkiness of The Storied Life of AJ Fikry, I was excited to read another book by this author. Unfortunately, I didn’t finish with the same kind of love for this one as I did for Fikry, but it wasn’t without its own kind of quirks.
I enjoyed revisiting some of the 89s & 90s nostalgia. I am not a gamer myself, so a lot of the terminology and references were lost on me, but the relationship between Sam and Sadie and Marx was the heart of the story anyway and that I did enjoy. Sam was a great character with lots of depth and I liked how the author wove in the backstory into the current day timeline.
I loved the first, say, third of the book, and probably the last third, but the middle was a lot of dragging and I am never a fan of a married teacher having a relationship with a student, no matter what grade, and Sadie was kind of hard to rally behind because she kind of took the people who loved her for granted and saw life as the glass half empty despite their success with her games.

Thanks to Knopf Publishing Group and NetGalley for this eArc in exchange for my review.

I am as far from a gamer as you can get, unless you count Pitfall when I was 10. And still I adored this book. Sam and Sadie are my age and also from LA, so immediately there was some bonding going on. Beyond that, we have not much in common as they are brilliant thinkers, game designers, world builders. They also struggle with human emotions and relationships (enter Marx, their glue and all-around doer of things). Their friendship is complicated and messy and not always nice, but it was a fascinating journey to be on with them. Zevin is a hell of a writer. This is the third book I've read of hers and they are all incredibly unique, you would never know she wrote them all.
I will say that the first two-thirds of the book was riveting and sucked me in immediately as I cared for the characters and the story being told. The final third takes some chances with different kinds of storytelling (which I think worked) and is quite melancholic. The timing of that melancholy for me was very challenging but I don't want to judge the book on that. Ultimately, I feel like the first two-thirds was 5 stars, the last third was 4, but rounding up to 5 because I want everyone to read it, and I don't want my review swayed by my headspace.

Sadie and Sam are 11/12 year olds who meet in a hospital and bond over a video game. They will be forever linked together in ways their young minds could never have imagined. We follow them for decades as their friendship evolves and grows, breaks and shatters, and changes as life’s challenges and uncertainties test them. A GenX coming-of-age story with a creative twist.

This book is about genius video game creators, yes, but you don’t need to care one iota about video games to appreciate it.

The story is loaded with love, and grief, and friendship, and camaraderie. It’s so very heavy in different ways and the story feels sad throughout as we read about Sam’s physical ailments, his depression, Sadie’s confusion, her depression. Luckily we have friend Marx who provides much needed levity and light…well mostly.

I’d recommend to anyone looking for a book about friendship and love, (or those into classic video games). Lots and lots of video games.

My favorite quote:

“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.”

🎥This one has already been snapped up by Paramount Pictures so we may see Sadie and Sam on the screen, and hopefully soon. 🍿

Thank you to NetGalley and Alfred A Knopf for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to Knopf Doubleday and Netgalley for sharing the Advanced copy of Gabrielle Zevin’s new novel. This was enjoyable, with a few echoes of Ready Player One. Overall, I found it not as strong as her previous novel that I loved, The Storied Life of AJ Filkry. I also read and enjoyed Young Jane Young. In this book, I think I found the lack of intimacy (not the physical kind) between the two main characters to be unrealistic given their history and years of knowing each other and working together. And I also didn’t find Sadie that likeable or at least relatable; I felt that some of reactions to things were extreme. The same could probably be said of Mazer, the other main character as well. I would still recommend this for fans of Zevin’s.

I loved everything about this book! This book follows the lives of three friends and collaborators through childhood, college, and early career success until they are established professionals in the video game industry. The gaming references from the mid 80s and 90s were so much fun for me, being of the Oregon Trail generation myself. I think anybody who loves gamer culture will eat this book up, but I think the character arcs and messages about friendship, disability, trauma, grief, and moving forward after failure will connect this story to an audience far beyond the gamers. I found the handling of multiracial identity to be particular meaningful.

I tried very hard to get into this book because I loved the author’s previous work. But, I just could not. I did not find the characters compelling or relatable. They all seemed to very interesting backstories but they just fell short of being interesting people. I am not a gamer either so the subject matter didn’t appeal to me either. I stopped reading at about 25%.

This book was the perfect combination of fantastic multi-dimensional characters, old-school gaming, 80s and 90s pop culture references, and multi-layered friends, found family, and "real" family (for want of a better term.

As someone who started gaming in 1985, I have played so very many of the games that were mentioned in this book and it evoked such a feeling of nostalgia and a wish that I could play those games again. The insight into how games are coded, designed, and marketed was fascinating and I've already picked up and started reading one of the books about gamers that was mentioned in Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow.

I think this is a quirky, off-beat book that many will love if they give it a chance. Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of this book. I think you'll be glad you did!

Thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for an ARC at my request. All thoughts are my own.

Complicated and Memorable

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, is a multilayered novel about friendship, love, and video games.

Sam and Sadie met when they are kids and quickly bonded over their love of video games. They develop a friendship that spans almost 30 years. The novel follows the highs and lows of their friendship, including falling in love, falling out, a love triangle, successes, and failures. Throughout it all, the one constant in their lives is video games.

The narrative alternates primarily between Sadie and Sam's POVs. Sam and Sadie are both loveable, arrogant, infuriating, and flawed. The dynamics of their friendship are complicated by love, jealousy, and misunderstanding. I got a little sick of the friends to frenemies cycle between Sadie and Sam (more of Sadie’s anger towards Sam, but I understood her point of view). I loved them, but I also wanted to shake some sense in them.

Sam’s mother, Anna; Marx, Sam’s college roommate; Dov, Sadie's professor; are some additional characters who make an impact. My favorite characters were Sam’s grandparents, Dong Hyun and Bong Cha.

The novel blends reality and game worlds, and parts of the narrative take place in a virtual open world.

All characters are well-developed and multidimensional. Even the avatars are multidimensional.

I am not a huge fan of video games, but this book made me nostalgic for the video games of my childhood. I got all of the Oregon Trail and Mario references, but there were times that I was a little lost, but I didn’t mind because I learned so much about gaming. The reader doesn’t need to know much about video games to enjoy this book (but it might help!). There are also a lot of 80s, 90s, and early 2000s pop culture references mixed in. I loved reading the details behind creating a game and the gaming industry as I was introduced to a whole new world.

This is a well-written, complex, thought-provoking, and original novel. I was invested in the characters, and some moments hit me on an emotional level. I got teary-eyed towards the end. I won't forget these characters; this is a book that is going to stay with me for a long time.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a complex, character driven, dazzling, inventive novel spanning 30 years of friendship between two people whose lives intertwine in and around a shared loved of video games.

Sam Masur met Sadie Green when they were kids in the hospital and bonded over Super Mario Bros. From there, the novel switches back and forth between past and present events, recounting the many ups and downs of their friendship, love lives, successes and failures both professional and personal, and how their deep love for each other will always connect them, even when they are not speaking. Both are strong willed and head strong, finding faults in the. other when they might not even be there, all because of pride and the need to be the best at what they do, even when they don't get everything right. Sacrifices are made and tempers flare, but ultimately, Sam and Sadie are connected to each other for eternity.

Beautifully written, Gabrielle Zevin is a master of words, occasionally dropping ones I have never heard of or don't remember seeing before, so be prepared to have your phone nearby to look them up. Clocking in at 416 pages, this book will either delight you or infuriate you, and not just because of the length. It addresses some very real issues that are just as important today as they were 20-25 years ago. She makes you laugh, she makes you cry, and I almost wanted to reach in and shake some sense into the main characters for how stubborn they are or for jumping to inane conclusions, It means I truly felt for these characters and will be thinking about their story for weeks to come. And I didn't know a book revolving around video games could do that to me, Yes, I played Nintendo and Sega games as a kid so the book drew me in for the nostalgia but it left me content.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf Publishing Group for the ARC. All opinions are my own.