I am not a gamer. I really enjoyed this book. You know I like a book when I don’t wanna put it down. The appeal to me was the well developed characters and the not knowing what was going to happen. I can only imagine how much a gamer would love this book. There is one chapter that I almost skipped because it was strictly, the game. If you read this book, though, you can’t skip it as it is pivotal to the plot, as I suspected it would be. Thanks to NetGalley for a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

I really liked this author's other books, but unfortunately this one failed to keep my interest. I do believe it will be fairly popular. ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

A heartbreaking tale of friendship that is challenged by competition, success, failure, miscommunication, time. This follows the ebbs and flows of a relationship that is plagued by extremes. Two friends go into business together, which brings them both closer and pushes them apart. The characters are so real they practically step off of the pages. This is a love story, but there is nothing typical about this story. There is sexism, homosexuality, discrimination, adultery, a love triangle, racism, insecurity, disability, genius; but, through it all, a boy and a girl drawn together and then pulled apart. This is all told within a framework of a gaming culture, so there is a lot of gaming history and evolution and game play. A lot of drama and real feels in a fun gaming world. Incredibly well written!

Gabrielle Zevin has been a favorite author of mine since I read her Anya Balanchine trilogy ten years ago. Other than that trilogy, each of Zevin's novels are wildly different from one another, in terms of genre and protagonist. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is the story of computer game designers and of friendship. Sadie, Sam, and later, Marx are the friends at the center of the story. Sadie and Sam met in California as tweens, becoming instantly close, 609 hours into their friendship, it ends in a blow up, and they don't speak significantly again until a chance meeting in Cambridge where Sadie is attending MIT and Sam, Harvard, where he rooms with Marx. That chance meeting sets a collaboration in motion that will yield highs and lows for all three.

I don't know how to characterize the novel, whether it's literary, a certain kind of romantic, something for "new adults," or game aficionados. I'm excited to hear what nuances people in the last group will bring to their reading.

Some highlights from my bookmarks

"Alice would only have to be in the hospital for two nights this time, and it was only out of, according to her mother, 'an abundance of caution.' It reminded her of a murder of crows, a flock of seagulls, a pack of wolves. She imagined that 'caution' was a creature of some kind--maybe, a cross between a Saint Bernard and an elephant."

"Once, Sadie found [Sam] at his desk, replying to a letter that began with the salutation, 'Dear Chink Jew Faggot Lover.'
"I like that the person writes 'Dear,'"

"'There are no ghosts, but up here'--[Sam's grandmother] gestured toward her head--'it's a haunted house.'"

"Sam and herself were the oldest people in the room by at least five years. How quickly you go from being the youngest to the oldest person in a room, she thought."

^ relatable

I haven't done a good job recommending TTT, but I do recommend it, with gusto!

PS Two of the main characters are queer and of color, and one has a disability.

Sadie and Sam have known each other since grammar school through the Los Angeles school system smart-kid circuit. They originally meet in a hospital where Sadie’s sister is undergoing treatment for leukemia and Sam is undergoing extensive treatment following a serious car crash. Sadie becomes his best friend after continuing to visit him even after her sister is discharged.

Years go by and then they bump into each other in Harvard Square, she a student at MIT and he at Harvard. They are both students of computer and gaming technology. They begin to write a game together and draw in Marx, Sam’s roommate as their producer. They become so engrossed that they take a semester off to finish the game. Their story is multifaceted and effortlessly slips back and forth in time.

I think anyone who was a teen in the 80s or had a teen in the 80s will be familiar with many of the games mentioned in this book. After I read the Pioneers chapter I realized that I had just read the narrative of a game sans graphics.

I called my daughter who is a gamer. What was the name of the computer game you kids used to play? It had a poor old man whose sole possession was a violin and you got scolded for taking it away from him since it’s all he had. OMG Mom, that was King’s Quest. That was one of games written by Roberta and Ken Williams. They wrote them all, not really, she wrote them and he got all the credit. She was the genius behind all of those games. The memories bubbled up as she started trying to figure out what grade she was in, where we lived, and who used to come over to play.

I suspect Tomorrow, and Tomorrow might have received a little inspiration from the pioneering Williams duo. Anyway, it makes it fun to think so.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday for this ARC!

Oof, this book hit me in the feels so many times that I didn’t quite know how to place it at times. I loved the video gaming intensive backstory. As someone who has very little background on gaming, it was fascinating to see a passing notion for young friends become a lifelong pursuit, and I loved the character development. It is not an easy read, but it was worth the journey.

Gabrielle Zevin is an absolutely exquisite writer. I know very little about gaming but she drew me into her world with her prose and character construction. This book was ambitious in scope and story-telling and but for a few very small hiccups (that were subjective and may be mine alone, so they're not even worth elaborating on), it was brilliant and delicious. I suspect I'll be thinking about these characters for a long time to come.

Sadie and Sam meet when they are 11 and 12 respectively. Sadie’s sister is in the hospital and she’s looking for something to do to pass the time while her sister doesn’t want her around. Sam has been in a car accident and his foot is in bad shape. He’s had many treatments and is likewise needing something to do. They meet up in the hospital video game room. They immediately become best friends and spend hours and hours playing video games together. A few months later they have a falling out and don’t speak for a long time. Eventually, they meet up while in college and pick up where they left off. However, instead of just playing the games they decide to build one. It’s the beginning of the cycle they repeat for many years.

The book is good. I didn’t know anything about the business of making video games. The industry is practically a character unto itself. Also, the dynamic between the Sadie, Sam, and the people they bring into the picture is really interesting. (Marx is my favorite.) The book is quite sad. There were a few times that I had to put it down and walk away. Overall, it’s very engaging, the writing is wonderful, and it’s easy to get through.

Thanks to @netgalley and @knopfdoubleday for an advanced copy of this book. It will be released on 7/12/22.

I was first intrigued by the title of this book, and the connection between Shakespeare and technology. For some reason, I thought it might be in some realm of relationship-based Sci-Fi, like a St John Mandel book. But then I thought the author had written more easy read/book club-type fare, so I assumed it must be in line with that. (?)... Turns out, it's not any of those things. This book is literary fiction, about video games and the people who play them-- though that is a bit reductive, as the book delves into layer upon layer of emotional complexity. Each of the main characters (Sadie, Sam, Marx) are so fully developed and grounded in reality that they come alive off the page. They all have their strengths and flaws and I found myself getting frustrated with their respective stubbornness, their illogical actions/blind spots, their miscommunications, all as if they were my own friends. The plot is intricately woven, a bit of a slow burn, but the relationships are so thorough and complicated that the book remains engaging throughout its (slightly excessive) length. The the shifting of perspectives that occur occasionally reminded me a lot of Jennifer Egan's books, though I think Zevin was wise to use these devices only sparingly. My biggest 'fault' with it is that the video games of it all got quite tedious after a while, but overall, it's very well written, compelling, and unique. It offers a glimpse into a world I've never really thought too much about, and made me care deeply for characters who could easily have been unbearable. In lesser hands, this book could've gone horribly awry, either by being boring or ostentatious or excessively gentrified, but Gabrielle Zevin does a beautiful job with this latest effort and, I think, will be catapulted to the next rung of the ladder in her literary career.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin was such a fun novel! A lot of it incorporated gaming/gamers- which is not a familiar world to me, but the author made it so interesting that it became almost like another character in the book. And there was so much nostalgia throughout-80s, 90s, & 00s! I completely fell in love with Sam & Sadie!! Highly recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC, reviews and opinions are my own.

I'm a few years behind the age of the 2 main characters, and definitely not as into video games are they are, but you don't have to be in order to fall in love with this book. I will recommend everyone to read this, and fall in love along with me.

I'm almost disappointed that I got an ARC of this book so far in advance of the July 2022 release date because I want to talk about it with everyone right now. <i>Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow</i> is a beautiful book. It follows two childhood friends, Sadie and Sam (and then later Sam's roommate Marx) over the course of 30 years as they play and then design video games. When their first game becomes a wild success they have to figure out their place in each other's lives and how their relationships grow and change as tragedies, successes and failures pull them in different directions.

The book is hefty, at over 400 pages, but I was so sad when I hit the 90% mark in my copy because I wanted to keep reading about these characters to make sure that everything in life turns out okay for them. Zevin makes it so easy to get absorbed in their world and to root for characters who are flawed yet incredibly loveable. I do not recommend reading the final 1/3 of the book in public because it completely crushed me.

If you don't play video games, you'll suddenly be deeply invested in them. If you are a millennial or Gen X-er who grew up playing games like Oregon Trail, Donkey Kong and Animal Crossing, you're going to want to play every game that Zevin so meticulously and beautifully describes. Can someone who works in video games please make us Ichigo and Master of the Revels?

Thank you NetGalley and Knopf Publishing Group for my ARC. I cannot wait for more people to read this book.

Y'all, let's talk about this book. It is hauntingly beautiful. It was one of those books I found myself reading as much as I could as I was so drawn into the story, AND it was one I was still thinking about once I turned the last page. I also owe a thanks to NetGalley for putting this on my radar AND giving me early access as I never would have found my way to this one otherwise. So, what's it about? Well, I'm glad you asked. This is the story of two childhood friends who bond over a love of video games. As adults, they go into business together making video games. That said, this is not just a book about video games. It is about the two humans, Sam and Sadie, behind the games. It is about their relationship. It is about how the why behind the games they design. It is about how they handle the reception of their games. It is about how they handle success and sadness and surprise and every emotion in between. It is a beautiful exploration of two people doing what they love with people they love and the challenges that can come with this. I could rave on and on about this one. It's been days since I've finished, and it's still on my mind. Also, I should note I'm not even a gamer, and I would absolutely play all the games they design. Read. This Book. Please.

This novel will probably be known as a book about gamers, although Sadie and Sam are much more than just that. We meet them at age 14 in a hospital setting (after Sam’s foot has been managed in an accident; again at age 20 when Sadie is at MIT and Sam is at Harvard. Together they create a famous game and that keeps them entwined, platonically, for many years afterward. It’s a story about growing up, learning about relationships, loss, sorrow and joy. It feels like that BIG story that will move a lot of people to both laughter and tears.

However, I never did follow any sort of gaming in the 80s or 90s and there was little emotional connection to the story for me and I struggled to finish it, although I did care about both Sadie and Sam. The book seemed way longer than it was (416 pages). Because I kept losing interest, I can only give it 3.5 stars — there’s an audience out there for “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”, but it just wasn’t for me.

Thank you to Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I surprised myself with how much I liked this book, while also saying that if someone asked me what this book was about I really wouldn’t know what to say. Yes it’s about video games but it’s more just a “friendship book”. I liked how it basically just followed Sam and Sadie through their lives. I got so frustrated with both of them at different points through the book, but they were acting like real people so the frustration made sense. I really really liked this book.

Like books, video games have given people the opportunity to escape their lives and go on an adventure they might not otherwise be able to. In this case, Sam was left disabled after a car accident in which he lost his mother. Sadie met Sam when they were both pre-teens, he recuperating from his injuries in the hospital and her as a tag-a-long while her older sister went through cancer treatment at the hospital. They formed a friendship over video games, had a falling out some time later, and they reconnected when Sam was going to college at Harvard and Sadie at MIT. Sam’s roommate Marx allows them to use his place as a work/home hybrid when Sam and Sadie decide to make video games together, and he also serves as their producer.

The nostalgia factor is high here. If you’re in that sweet spot of growing up with the first console games (original Nintendo and Sega and Playstation) and then migrating to personal computer (PC) games, you are going to love all the throwbacks. I remember back when the electronics store was full of PCs and racks and racks of PC games, and I would take at least an hour leisurely inspecting software boxes. They initially held the really big floppy disks, then the smaller, harder disks and then eventually CD-ROMS. The graphics steadily got better, and they became more immersive. Even if you aren’t a big gamer, I think the author gives enough background that you can still understand the video gaming world.

The big takeaway I had was that video games give the opportunity for connection that might not otherwise exist.

There is a lot of representation in this novel. Sam has a physical disability. Marx is Asian (Japanese and Korean), and Sam is half Asian/half white. Sadie is Jewish although that’s not explored that much.

The characters are very realistic. All of these characters are flawed – although I personally think Marx is flawed the least. He’s very likeable. Sadie and Sam are very similar in how they interact with the world, which creates challenges throughout their friendship. It was puzzling that Sadie had little interaction with any other humans besides Sam, Dov (her boyfriend), and Marx. We don’t meet her parents or any of her other friends, and we barely meet her sister Alice.

What I appreciated the most from this book was that it wasn’t a love triangle. I don’t want to say more for fear of spoilers.

I had one small issue with the flow of the book. It was written as a series of vignettes. That’s understandable as this covers about 20 years of the main characters knowing each other. But the flow was choppier than I would have liked, almost as if the vignettes were written months apart in isolation. This is the first Advance Reader Copy I’ve read, so I’m not sure if flow will be addressed before publication. There was one vignette that was set up in smaller parts went back and forth between Sadie and Sam. I really liked how that was set up.

This novel is very much character-driven. The plot is slow. The novel itself reads slower than a lot of other books I have read. I think in part because it is a rather long book, but it’s also denser than the typical novel.

Overall, I really enjoyed this novel. It is very memorable with its video game nostalgia, interesting characters, and interesting premise. This book was provided as an Advanced Reader Copy by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin is a story about love and relationships wrapped up in the world of gaming. As someone who doesn't play console games, I still found the storyline and characters very compelling. Ms. Zevin's storytelling skills allowed me to understand what the characters were doing without having to have any prior knowledge of coding, graphics or video games.
Her writing is succinct and illustrating. The characters do come to life and I found myself rooting for each one as they struggled. Mainly, this is at the heart a story about the manu forms of love. A definite recommendation.

Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow is different than anything I've ever read. It was between 3 and 4 stars for me, but since I wasn't completely taken by it, I had to round down.

I enjoyed it overall but it came in waves (pun intended, when you read it you'll understand)

The beginning - I loved it and couldn't get enough. We meet Sam and Sadie and find out how they became friends and fell apart, for the first time. Then there's Marx the ever-supportive best friend.

The front-middle - This part went on for far too long. The S team are making games, they're expanding, Sadie is making bad relationship choices, Sam is low-key taking credit and manipulating Sadie. They found their own company and move to California where it's more of the same.

The back-middle - I'm excited again. I can't say why because spoilers. Then I'm heartbroken. Can't say why, cause spoilers.

The end - It wasn't a picture perfect happy ending and I liked that. Real life rarely ends happy and that's just the way it is. I like that she didn't tie everything up in a perfect Hallmark bow.

Zevin has written a compelling story about friendship, trauma, and video games. The real strength of this story is its characters, who feel like real people who mess up, succeed, make bad choices, and do it over and over again as they learn who they are.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow I will still be thinking about this brilliant book.

Fair warning that I am predisposed to adore coming-of-age novels about protagonists of my generation (Gen X), apparently even if I don’t have much in common with them other than birth year. In this case, the protagonists are Sadie and Sam, two friends whose lives intertwine up, down, and around their love of gaming.

It must be said that this book is VERY MUCH about video games. Sadie and Sam play them, talk about them, design them, and promote them over the span of thirty years. What a testament to author Gabrielle Zevin’s writing that I could be glued to the pages of a story about a topic that typically bores me to tears! Because I loved Sadie and Sam so much, I never lost interest in their worlds - either the real one of their day-to-day existence or the virtual ones they were building.

They are, without a doubt in my mind, the two characters I’ve cared about the most over the past decade of my reading life.

I do say that with a bit of trepidation, as I know some readers of this review who love me (shout out to my mom again!) will want to read Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow to meet my new literary best friends. I must therefore point out that while the novel is a masterpiece in my eyes, some people are not going to be able to get through it. Zevin is a fan of obscure words, there are risky techniques used (such as an occasional second-person chapter and dropping readers into a video game world), sad and unsavory things happen in the plot, and the text is fairly dense. This is a long 416 pages.

Also, having read (and enjoyed) Zevin’s previous two novels, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry and Young Jane Young, this feels like it’s from an entirely different author. I breezed through those others in a day, but Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow took me a week. I know that’s because I savored every word and often reread entire paragraphs, but that’s my point. If her prior books were hamburgers, this one is a steak.

I feel a bit bad for the upcoming books I’ll be reading in the wake of this novel, since I know nothing will compare for a very long time. In case it’s not clear enough already, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow has a well-earned place on my all-time favorites shelf. When you finish the final page of a book and hug it to your chest, where else would it go?