I think we all need a book like Gabriella Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow to remind us that even if we don't get what we want, life can be filled with joy and happiness. I am grateful to NetGalley and PenjguinRandomHouse for sharing an advance copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

This book captured my heart by the end of the first chapter. Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green, a friend since childhood. Impulsively, he shouts out her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn't heard him, but then she turns. A magnificent dance begins. A dance of romance and friendship, unimaginable success, and heartless betrayal. Spanning thirty years, this dance of love, loss and redemption carries us from the never-ending nightly work sessions on Boston campuses and dreams of dazzling success, to stark halls of corporate prosperity in California, as Sam and Sadie create a wildly successful video game which overnight changes their lives forever.

In the musical, Into the Woods, Stephen Sondhem writes:
Careful the wish you make
Wishes are children
Careful the path they take
Wishes come true
Not free

Sam and Sadie's wishes come true, but at a terrible price. But, like a video game, there is always another chance to play - to win or lose - another chance at redemption. There is always tomorrow.

A fresh story, eloquently told, with interesting well-rounded characters, nicely paced....a reader could hardly hope for more.

Every once in a while, you will read a book that touches you in a way that you were not prepared. Gabriella Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is such a book.

Having recently finished The Storied Life of AJ Fikry, I was very excited to have the opportunity to read this book. Overall, I like the story of Sam and Sadie and their extended family and friends. While I had read that you did not have to have a background in or knowledge of gaming to appreciate this novel, I disagree. There are a lot of references to the gaming world; someone who knew nothing at all about it would have a hard time with parts of the storyline, in my opinion. I also thought that the story dragged in the middle, and was a bit longer than it needed to be. That being said, I really did enjoy the story as a whole. I liked seeing the growth and transformation in both Sam and Sadie, and I really liked watching their personal relationship change and grow. I am definitely looking forward to reading another book by this author. Thank you NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book.

A well written story about friendship, love, betrayal, grief, oh, and video games, lots of video game references. Didn't really like the first couple of chapters, but once the story gets going, I was really invested in the characters. Stayed up way too late reading and picked it up first thing in the morning. Highly recommend!

This book was such a challenge for me to finish. There were multiple points where I wanted to DNF it but pushed through. I was looking forward to the idea of this story based off of the blurb, so I was definitely left feeling disappointed. The idea of a story following the same characters over 30 years really peaked my interest, not to mention that I am a huge fan of video games.

One of the biggest struggles I had with this story was how absolutely unlikeable most of the characters were. I respect that the author wrote characters with trauma and disabilities and pain, but it is so unsatisfying when a story spans 30 years and there is little to no actual character development. The lack of communication and the near-constant bickering between Sam and Sadie became almost unbearable for me. As realistic as this might be to real life, I read for escapism. If you want a book that irritatingly depicts a somewhat toxic friendship, this might be a great read for you. But it definitely wasn't for me. I will note that I loved Marx and his character is probably the only reason I didn't DNF.

As for the writing, I know that this novel is literary fiction which is typically known for its use of more complex words, but this book felt a little pretentious. It almost felt like the author kept the thesaurus open next to her as she was writing which left it feeling forced. There were even spots in the book where the language felt so inappropriate in the context that it pulled me out of the story. As an example, the author writes about an article in the magazine <i>AdWeek</i> in which the word "verboten" is used. I find it very unrealistic that a magazine would an obscure word over the well-known "forbidden" (maybe I don't read enough magazines, but it just felt out of place for me).

The author also switched between multiple different writing techniques. She occasionally employed a second person POV or jumped into interview style storytelling. The variety of styles was one of the things I did actually quite enjoy about the book.

TL;DR As a whole, <i>Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow</i> is not a book that I would recommend to most people. The story was slow, the characters were unlikable, and the vocabulary felt forced.

I received an e-ARC for this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! What an incredible novel and story! Completely sucked me into the story and I was very invested in the characters lives. I will be suprirsed if this isn't one of my favorite books of the year. Such an incredible read!

I loved this exploration of friendship! It wasn't at all what I was expecting, but in the best way.

The references to gaming (although I'm not a gamer myself) were great and applicable to many other creative endeavors. I loved the changes in the relationship between Sam and Sadie. It was interesting without being too melodramatic.

Gabrielle Zevin is such a talented writer...I'll follow her anywhere.

This is my third book by the author. I was already a fan going in. Enough of a fan to pick up a book over 400 pages (yes, I don’t love fat books and I cannot lie), enough of a fan to read a book about video games (not really my jam either).
So yeah, I did it and it was good. The writing just as terrific and engaging as I expected based on previous works. In fact, a writing so good it completely overrode most elements I didn’t much care for.
If one was to describe this book, using other well-known books, and yes, it is grotesquely reductive but it’s all the rage and all the kids are doing it, this book is Adventures of Kavalier and Clay meets Ready Player One. Mind you, it’s nowhere near as good as the former (and few books are), but it’s substantially superior to the latter, which I found to be extremely overrated.
Which is all to say, this is a book about a longtime friendship between two creative individuals and a story about their real lives intermingling with the fictional video game worlds they create.
This is a story about Sam and Sadie and their complicated, loving, antagonistic, devoted, all-encompassing friendship of two plus decades. A friendship that gets challenged over and over again by the trials and tribulations of life and emerges battered but not defeated.
It’s a story of second chances, as the title hints at, the infinite possibilities and endless opportunities of the willing and able, in real and virtual lives. In fact, the two are often cleverly juxtaposed for maximum effect.
It’s a sort of proper literary novel that grabs you, draws you in and doesn’t let go. It has the power to delight you, to charm you, to emotionally devastate you and it knows it and relishes in it. It’s a novel good enough to make the not-especially likeable characters compelling. It’s a novel good enough to make a not-especially interesting (to some) subject of gaming compelling. So yeah, it’s long but worth it.
Not a perfect novel by all means. Or not a perfect novel for me, I should say. Kavalier and Clay had comic books, which are awesome. Games…not so much. The author is a gamer, her enthusiasm shows.
The main characters I didn’t especially like. I’m not even going to get into the tragic fate of the character I did like.
But honestly, those are pretty small potatoes in a large perfectly seasoned and cooked stew that is this novel. Or no, maybe that metaphor doesn’t work – potatoes are always delicious. At any rate, this was a very good, just about great read that’ll remind you of the magic powers of real literature. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

I was intrigued that this book dealt with games .. I really enjoyed that although this book is a game book it is also more. It felt like a trip down memory lane and a look toward the future. The characters were interesting, and relatable and even though some of their decisions i didn't agree with, I still cared where they ended up. Would highly recommend if you love video games or like interpersonal stories.

This book is such a departure from what I usually gravitate towards, but I really enjoyed it! The story is very interesting and kept me interested! If you're in to gaming ( or if you're not, like me!), most will enjoy seeing behind the scenes and learning more of this world.

Thank you to net galley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Two adults reconnect in their college years, dispelling misunderstandings and misperceptions from childhood. These characters are pivotal to one another across time, both as creative coworkers and friends. Yet, while they may have experienced more across the years together than any others, neither is willing or able to truly share their innermost thoughts or feelings. This leaves the other with continuing incorrect assumptions. While the author continually has novel ways of pulling them back into one another’s orbit, is there too much distance to overcome?

This was a little out of my normal reading comfort zone but it was phenomenal. It's one of those books that really makes you think as well as one you will still be thinking about months later.

I really enjoyed this authors other books but unfortunately this one failed to keep me interested.. I believe there will be readers that like this book with the gaming references but I just struggled trying to finish this one.

I liked this! Flashback episode of Mythic Quest vibes. Sam and Sadie are vibrant and interesting characters and their world was very readable.

I'm not a gamer, but I was still immersed in this story from the first chapter. It's definitely a contender for a top read of the year for me. I'm now planning to read all of the author's other books.

While certainly a book about gaming, Zevin’s latest offering is more a story about character. It’s a book about friendships and partnerships, and how these relationships change, grow, and adapt over time due to circumstances. In that sense at its heart, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is rather reminiscent of those reunion films from the 1980s: Diner and The Big Chill.

Zevin’s characters are nuanced and true to life. More likely than not, readers will probably have met Sam Masurs, Sadie Greens, Simon and Anthonys and even Marxes at some point in their lives. These characters may not necessarily be likeable; they’re often rather selfish in their own ways, but they are fascinating to observe, as is the theme of gaming and how it becomes a converging and diverging force in these relationships.

Zevin also takes on the weighty theme of gaming obsession; how for some, fantasy can have the ability to distort reality—art seeming to dangerously mimic life. Zevin also shows how this art can desensitize situations, make one oblivious to underlying problems and their consequences.

Zevin’s story is simply a tale of day-to-day life, a basic character study. Yet it’s wonderfully imagined, thoroughly detailed and ultimately engrossing to readers.

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.