Writing: 4/5 Plot: 4.5/5 Characters: 5/5

Immersed in the Gaming world, this novel follows two childhood best friends who alternate periods of estrangement and brilliant (and wildly successful) collaborations in game design over a thirty year period. Sam and Sadie meet in a hospital when they are twelve years old — she is visiting her cancer-fighting older sister, he is recovering from a terrible car accident which has crushed his foot. She is the first person he has spoken to in the six weeks since the accident.

In the gaming world, you always have a tomorrow — you never really die — and this contrast between the imaginative worlds they create and play in and the experiences of the real world in which they dwell figures highly. Moral and ethical dilemmas, a good long story with plenty of twists and turns, and (most importantly to me) characters that you like , even when they are actively disliking each other, make this book worth reading. I'm a Zevin fan so my enjoyment came as no surprise.

I’m not a gamer or someone who is even remotely interested in online or video games, but this did not impact my enjoyment of the book at all. At heart it’s about people and relationships, and I did enjoy the descriptions of the games and the creative process that generated them — even if I have no desire to ever play them! If you are a gamer, I would imagine it would enhance the experience.

Some fun new words (for me):
cicerone — is an old term for a guide who conducts visitors and sightseers to museums, galleries, etc. and explains matters of archaeological, antiquarian, historic or artistic interest.
torschlusspanik — gate shut panic — fear that time is running out and you’ll miss the opportunity


Some fun quotes:

“She had once read in a book about consciousness that over the years, the human brain makes an AI version of your loved ones. The brain collects data, and within your brain, you host a virtual version of that person. Upon the person’s death, your brain still believes the virtual person exists, because, in a sense, the person still does.”

“Ands what is love, in the end? Except the irrational desire to put evolutionary competitiveness aside in order to ease someone else’s journey through life?”

“Sam experienced his body as an antiquated joystick that could reliably move only in cardinal directions.”

“The way to turn an ex-lover into a friend is to never stop loving them, to know that when one phase of a relationship ends it can transform into something else. It is to acknowledge that love is both a constant and a variable at the same time.”

“The conversation was an ouroboros of inaction that they dutifully repeated every couple of months.”

“Sadie felt a swelling of love and of worry for him — what was the difference in the end? It was never worth worrying about someone you didn’t love. And it wasn’t love if you didn’t worry.”

“Sadie was, by nature, a loner, but even she found going to MIT in a female body to be an isolating experience.”

Sam and Sadie are so realized in this book. Oh my goodness how refreshing of a book this was—yes, I know Ready Player One exists and I’m aware of other concepts like this one but how cool of a story this book was. I like it all the way till the end. But, I’ll let you all disagree. This story does all of the high stakes moments so well. This story does sometimes feel a little far fetched, but what story doesn’t. It’s not hard to imagine someone in the real world working their butts off at something and then becoming amazing at it—as was the case with Sam and Sadie two old estranged friends who come together to launch something great. I like how the author also didn’t fall in to typical tropes that we see so often in books. This is a great read. Very well plotted, and very enticing. I can’t wait to go back and read past work. Because this book is and was the perfect introduction. Excellent job!

I fell in love with Gabrielle Zevin's writing in high school. I read Elsewhere and I swear it played such a huge part in my love for reading.

This book was so good. Zevin has a way with creating the most relatable characters. The theme of 80s/90s video games was so much fun. I really enjoyed this book!

(4.5 stars) I loved this book!! It hooked me in early and I loved how much time it spanned over as the characters evolve. The characters were so well written and believable. It also felt like the author really cared about the subject matter and although I'm not a game developer she seemed to have done her research. I liked how the writing references the characters future careers and particularly in part IX the writing was super unique and served the plot well. There were certain parts where I felt the pacing was a bit funky (mostly in Sadie's first relationship) and I felt like the effects of it were too big to not spend much time on that. But overall one of my favourite books I've read recently!

I had mixed feelings about this book, I liked the start, when we got to know the main characters, Sam, Sadie and Marx, and I liked the bond between them all. I also enjoyed some of the gaming aspects of the novel.

But I think the book seemed to really drag from the halfway point, and I lost interest in a lot of the gaming chat - and with the main characters. I started to find myself increasingly losing interest and I struggled to finish in the end.

I could not put this book down. All the characters were incredibly real and so well written that I felt like I knew them. The story was compelling and so heartfelt.

QUICK TAKE: I liked a lot about it, but oh man was it long. I enjoyed the first half better than the back half (the video game stalking stuff kinda lost me), but this is a nice platonic love story that feels contemporary and fresh.

The first two hundred pages was a fun Halt and Catch Fire story. The last two hundred went in an entirely different and soapy direction, and then included FIFTY pages of "explaining someone playing a video game as a metaphor." I finished it hoping it would get some of the beginning spark back, but alas, it was game over.

I have very mixed feelings about this novel. I so wanted to love it, but I kept losing focus while reading it. I love stories that surround video games and friendship, but the overall tone left me feeling cold. Some of the flashback scenes seemed very far-fetched and outlandish. There's a discussion and traumatic moment involving a woman taking her own life, and the scene came off comical and insensitive. I didn't like it all.

I almost ditched the book at this point. I decided to stick it out, and truthfully, I wish this book would've been more compelling and heartfelt. I just felt aggravation in the end. It ended in such a lackluster and predictable way. Also, I didn't care for the writing style. Zevin's prose came off a little juvenile. and this not a debut novel so...

I also didn't believe the friendship between Sadie and Sam. Their friendship felt forced and surface-level. Sadie as a child was much more relatable than Sadie as an adult. I really disliked the choices she made. Sam was the heart of soul of this book, but even his character fell flat at times. The video game aspect of the novel was interesting but a little too detailed to death. Less is more, folks. It irks me to give this novel such a low rating, but the overall message was pretty poor. Also, this book was way too long. Ho-hum.

Thank you, Netgalley and Knopf for the digital ARC.

The incredible Ms. Zevin returns with "Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow" - a sweeping saga of two friends set in the immersive world of video gaming. This 30-year look at two friends, Sam & Sadie, who create a smash video game back at the turn of the nineties & build a gaming empire is quite immersive. Spanning both time & geography, we move through their lives, careers & gaming creations. Interesting, hard to put down - loved the L.A. references! Recommend to those who love both gaming worlds and strong character-driven novels. My sincere thanks to the publisher and Net Galley for the complimentary DRC in exchange for an honest opinion, which was unaffected by this exchange.

In this story you follow Sam and Sadie - two friends who have known each other since childhood when they met in a local
Hospital.

A story full of gaming, love, friendship, loss, and hard-hitting political issues.

I tried to be in love with this book and, truth be told, I almost was. However, every time I would start falling in love with the book I would be taken out of the moment by long-winded memories. Don’t get me wrong, a backstory is needed in this story, but not as often as it happens and definitely not as long-winded as it was.

If you’re a fan of gaming/game creation then this book may be perfect for you!! It was almost perfect for me, but i just felt like the story went back and forth a little too much.

I’m a huge nerd so a story about some fellow nerds making video games was bound to suck me in.

I didn’t expect the heart in this book though. Though frustrating at times, the characters felt so real and their relationships felt realistic and nuanced. I loved seeing the three central characters’ relationships unfold, and the story was a beautiful reminder that while friendships may ebb and flow over the years, the friends you choose can truly become family.

My only minor gripe would be that the writing style was confusing - at times, I wondered if the book was intended to be framed as a biography of the characters and other times, just a straightforward novel told from the third person.

This book is so compelling. I have had trouble concentrating on reading book-length stuff throughout the pandemic but this sucked me in. The characters are unique yet relatable, and I'm not even someone who plays video games. It's possible some of the appeal was that I've lived in both the greater Boston area and LA, but I don't think any aspect of the book relies on a familiarity with either city. Highly recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of Gabrielle Zevin's amazing new novel, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. Although the story delves into the world of gaming, you don't have to be a gamer to fall deeply in love with the story's complex and beautiful characters.

Sam and Sadie meet as children when Sam is recovering from a car accident that shattered his foot and his emotional well-being. Sadie meets Sam when she is visiting her sister and the two form an incredible bond over their shared love of video games. They lose touch but reconnect during college and begin creating games together. They share successes, failures, and everything in between until circumstances and tragedies pull them apart. But can Sadie and Sam truly exist without one another?

Their story broke my heart and put it back together more than once in this beautifully written story about love, creativity, friendship and resilience. Have a box of tissues ready for the newest 5 star novel by one of the best authors of our time.

I'm not a gamer, so I was a little hesitant about this book-- for about 3 pages. Then I was totally immersed. Certainly, games and gaming are central to this novel's plots and characters, but they're also deployed really thoughtfully, described in ways that can maintain a nongamer's interest while clearly dropping Easter eggs for gamers.

The reality, though, is that the book is about Sam and Sadie's love, intimacy, friendship, work. Oddly, Sam feels much more fully realized for me than Sadie does, despite the book feeling balanced in terms of how much space each gets. Maybe it's more that Sam makes sense to me; Sadie remains inscrutable. That's not necessarily a criticism, though-- it's just something that I kept expecting to evolve or resolve, and it never really did. And both characters' are more interesting together than apart, though neither is quite as magnetic as their third wheel Marx.

Most notable to me is the structure Zevin uses, allowing us to follow Sam and Sadie throughout their friendship but not necessarily feeling obligated to follow a clear chronological order or even a single narrative framework. I think this book would be a really fantastic text for an intro to lit class (on the college level) because of its play and playfulness, which are never careless, even if they don't always land 100% successfully.

The story of Sam and Sadie is not a traditional love story as it’s more than love. Following these two from their teens to their 30s we see that being soul mates isn’t necessarily about romantic love or the perfect happy endings, it’s full of trauma, collaboration, joy, heart ache, failure, loss, and life!
I am not a gamer and I loved this story line and the characters still. The video game aspect helped to piece the story together and bring the characters together when they felt there was no hope.
Beautifully written and wonderfully told, I believe many will enjoy this book!

Maybe I should start by saying that I am definitely not a gamer — we’ve had several systems and countless games in the house over the years and the closest I’ve come to participating is singing along with The Beatles: Rock Band — but I found this book to be intensely interesting. With Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow — about two childhood friends who have a falling out, but when they run into each other as college students, go on to create some of the most popular video games in the world — author Gabrielle Zevin takes a subject that I’m not that familiar with and makes it relatable, universal, and meaningful. Covering topics like sickness and disability, grief, poverty, abusive relationships, and evolving political landscapes, Zevin makes the case for people finding ways to live meaningful lives within invented worlds that are closed to them in reality, and not incidental to my enjoyment, she creates invented worlds that I found fascinating and artful. She has also created some truly compelling characters here, and when they hurt, I hurt; I cried more than once while reading this, and I love anything that touches this jaded heart. Four solid stars.