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?

4.5 Stars
Wow. I just finished reading Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and I am at a loss for what to say. At times I loved it, and at other times I hated it, and when I say I hate it I mean that in a good way.

The book is good. It elicited multiple emotions from me and at times those emotions were full of extreme hatred.

It is a beautiful story of friendship and life. The book is about video game design, and I don’t have a lot of experience with gaming but I never once felt that was a deficit in my reading. It is extremely relatable and I think it’s a great recommendation for most readers looking for a meaningful and heartfelt story.

Sadie and Sam meet when they are children and make an instant connection. You might imagine that they grow up as best friends or fall in love, but their bond is severed. They don’t meet again until a chance encounter when they are in college, but they soon become inseparable. They create a popular game and go on to start a video game company. Through the years, there are triumphs, tragedies, failures, physical and emotional pain, and at times, their friendship seems destined to end.

Nothing earth-shattering really happens and there aren’t many ‘what’ moments. Somehow though, the author crafted such a compelling story that this became a 5 treadmill read for me(the amount of time before I checked how long I have been going). It was just a beautiful tale about life and the fact that we never know what is around the next corner. Whenever Sam or Sadie was in pain, I wanted to help, and when they were successful, I celebrated. I guess that was at the heart of my feelings for this book. It made me think deeply about these flawed and very human characters and their journey will stay with me for quite a while. 4.5 stars.

What a delightfully complex set of characters set in a world I know absolutely nothing about. I was cheering for both Sam and Sadie the whole time. Cant' wait to share this book!

There was something so magical about Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by @g. As I read this sad, intricate, compelling book about two video game creators and the life they created together, I kept trying to put my finger on why I kept falling in love with their story. I’m not a gamer, so it wasn’t the subject.

But when I turned the last page, I realized what it was: there was so much hope found on these pages. I’m still thinking about this beautiful story and I know it will stay with me for a long time. In fact, I’m already wondering when I should join Sam and Sadie again in their world. It was too lovely to read about just once.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Books for the ARC.

#TomorrowandTomorrowandTomorrow #NetGalley #bookreview #bookstagram #bookstagrammer

This book is very different from Gabriell Zevin's previous novels for adults. Although it does share the wonderful way she has of visualizing and describing children, it is first and foremost a novel about love and friendship and how they sometimes can't exist at the same time between two people. And, of course, it is about computer gaming, and that is a novel and unique subject matter, encompassing as it does the creative process and how people can work cooperatively and separately to produce a piece of art.

The story of Sam and Sadie, and the story of Marx, Sam and Sadie is one that will involve you completely. I am not a gamer and not particularly technically adept, but this book made me curious to see what the appeal of video games is to so many people.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow, describes physical pain and emotional pain in a most gut-wrenching way. We have all experienced it. What Zevin does so well here is make you feel the pain of her characters as we watch them trying, and sometimes failing to deal with it.

My only criticism is the length of the book seeming not quite necessary and including so much repetition. Shorter, it might have been 5 Stars and perhaps it should be anyway for its originality.

So this is not a book I would necessarily have chosen for myself but the offer from Net Galley and Knopf Doubleday was very intriguing. I am not a video gamer and I avoid cliched romance novels. I have enjoyed some of the authors previous books.
The book was a total surprise and a total WIN!!! Loved it!
It is the story of Sam, Sadie and Marx who started a video game company. We follow Sam and Sadie from childhood. It is a brilliant story of primarily friendship but also a very non cliched romance. The evolution of the characters and their changing relationships was beautifully written. There was a disturbing twist to the story about 2/3 s of the way in , so this is not a rosy or unrealistic story. It is about real human emotion and the difficulties of creative work. These characters will stick with a reader for a long time.
After reading this book, I do see the enticement of video games and I wish the games that Sadie and Sam made, especially Master of the Revels was real!
Publication date - July 12 202. Can't wait for this one to come out! Would make a great film!

I wasn't sure I could get into a book about video games, but I've never been disappointed by Gabrielle Zevin before and this time was no different. The friendship at the center of Zevin's newest was so original and beautifully portrayed. I enjoyed every moment of this book and can't wait for Zevin's next one. I've read them all!

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf Publishing Group for my ARC in exchange for my honest review. This book will be published July 12, 2022.

This is the second book I’ve read by this author and it was so completely different than “The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry” which I loved.

I just reviewed Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin.

This book is about two teenage friends, Sam and Sadie. They both love video games and decide to create their own games and start their own company. It was an interesting insight into video game development but it was so much more: loyalty, trust, disability, love, loss and most importantly friendship. I was sucked in immediately and loved it!

My only complaint is the author chooses to use some unusual words (at least to me). Luckily my kindle defined them for me, but given this could be a YA novel I felt the obscure word choice didn’t really fit.

Original review also posted on GoodReads.

This might be the best book I will read all year. (But it's only February.)

I received an ARC of this upcoming novel through NetGalley. It is about two video game developers (Sam and Sadie), but you don't need to be a "gamer" (I'm not) to fully enjoy this book.

Sam and Sadie meet when they are pre-teens. Sam was in the hospital with a severe foot injury suffered in a car accident. Sadie visited him as part of a community service obligation prior to her Bat Mitzvah. The relationship that began then leads to a 30-year odyssey where eventually the two developed games together while having a somewhat contentious love-hate relationship.

These two characters are equally fascinating and intriguing. Sam is the ultimate underdog, walking with a permanent limp and otherwise odd-looking, brought up poor. Sadie is a rich girl. Together they experience the highest of highs and the lowest of lows over the years. And their relationship with each other has its ebbs and flows.

The lives of these two characters are quite unique and make for a great read. The kind of book you wish never ended.

This is easily the best book I have read so far in 2021, and it is one of my new all time favorite books. I could not recommend this book more highly.

Zevin's Elsewhere came out when I was 11 years old. I couldn't have loved it more at the time. I can't quite remember all of it now, but I know it moved me profoundly then -- to the point where I am actually afraid to reread it as an adult because I don't want to mess with the magic of it. I read her other works, including the more recent and awardwinning The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry. I loved that book too. But this book, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, hit me differently - it hit me in the same way that Elsewhere did as a child.

Perhaps part of this is because on paper, Ms. Zevin and I have a lot in common: we're both mixed race Asian American, we both have spent significant amounts of time in Southern California, and apparently, we've both got a bit of melancholy at times (or at least, she writes as though she has experienced it herself).

But the majority can only be attributed to the strengths of the book itself, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow brilliantly tells the stories of people- Sadie, Sam and Marx - through a story that is fundamentally about making stories - videogames. By the end of the book, you feel as though you are friends with each of them, or at least that you wish you could be friends with each of them. The book covers a twenty-five-ish year period of their lives, from Sadie and Sam's meeting in their early teens to their late thirties. This would be a brilliant book if it were only about these characters.

Yet, this book also creates a beautiful, huge world around them - a world in which obviously, what the characters are up to is not the only important thing, despite how invested in them you are. The world is believable and familiar to me as an adult not quite at middle age - it's complicated, it's often ugly, and it's painful - and the character's journeys through it together properly feels like the center of the world in the way that the best books about this time period feel.

It deals with difficult subjects - sexual coercion, disability, depression- with kindness and generosity. In fact, if I had one complaint about this book, it's that perhaps it is a bit too generous with one of the secondary characters (or at least lacks the amount of pushback on that characters' actions that I would hope to see). While it's not an author's job to force a hard moral point about the wrongness of a character's behavior, it did feel somewhat out of character for the other main characters to tiptoe around the issue (and in one spot, possibly set that character up to suffer more, though that remains ambiguous).

This book made me think about friendship, love, and pride. It was so remarkably human that sometimes I shouted in my apartment at the characters, and I cried at the not-sad parts as much as I cried at the sad parts. This book is nothing short of a wonder.

[5] This may be my new favorite book. Was able to get an ARC and I DEVOURED it - what a creative book full of endearing characters. I just wanted to spend more time with Sam and Sadie and Marx, despite them being sometimes described as not-likable or seeing them do foolish things. I couldn't help it. I liked them anyway. And I loved them together. Plus I learned so many new vocabulary words, just casually thrown into the text (swipe to see the list I started...) There is one particularly devastating chapter that is so beautifully written and keeps you on the edge of your seat - could this really be happening? And another chapter towards the end inside of a game called Pioneer that is one of the most creative things I've ever read. This book is, I suppose, about video games and the designers who create those virtual worlds - but it's also about love and friendship and figuring out what matters most in your life. A stunning read - I can't wait til it releases this summer as I plan to re-read it as an audiobook.

This is the first novel I've read by Gabrielle Zevin, and halfway through I added several of her others to my TBR. Tomorrow And Tomorrow And Tomorrow is a smartly written story of love, friendship, and human connection, spanning three decades. What I found so unique here were the sentiment, art references, and nostalgia evoked revolving around something I'm not very familiar with- gaming. The world-building was so interesting and vivid. I never got bored. This was a lengthy read, but not in vain. The cover and title were perfect. I thoroughly enjoyed this piece of literature, and would highly recommend to anyone who connects with friendship, love, loss, grief, abusive relationships, and the need to belong somewhere.

I loved this, it was such a lovely story with interesting characters. I enjoyed it right from the start and thought it would appeal to many types of people not just readers interested in gaming too.

A story of friends, gaming, and the political issues it creates. I’m not into digital games so this book although enjoyable wasn’t up my ally. If you’re a gamer, I’m sure you’d love it!

Thank you Net Galley for the free ARC. If you are a gamer and you liked Ready Player One, you will love this book. It is basically how a group of misfit friends produce and publish games and deal with their own relationship issues. I enjoyed this!

Plot: 4.5/4.75
Characters: 4.5
Writing Style: 5
Cover: 5 (based off the actual cover and not what is displayed here, because it appropriately resembles a game case - otherwise, I'd have given it a 4 without the dedication to detail)
Enjoyment: 4.75

Ample amounts of vulnerability and intimate relationships, chock full of pop cultural references both recognizable and not (I enjoyed Googling while reading, and also looking up the handful of words I was previously ignorant of). I had such an enjoyable experience reading this for most of its duration. I did find frustration with a few decisions (or lack of action) that Sadie and Sam committed to, especially the former, but at times it fit, even if it left me grumbling. It's Sadie, though, that knocks off a few points from the fun novel, but revealing why would be a spoiler. The characters, even the side ones, are so well developed. A lot of natural feeling to it, plus exciting insight on how to create a game through a certain lens. Format is well done, and again I'm reusing the word, fun. Zevin mixes it up a few times, and I like how the book is divided up. I laughed, I teared up (and would have possibly cried had I not been consumed by a recent death in the family), I cringed, I nodded along. Mostly, I was smiling whilst reading, though I don't one hundred percent get behind everything about the ending.

If you like video games, or tabletops/RPGs, or hobby board games, and/or "Ready Player One", this is the novel for you.

This book is different from anything I have ever read. The introduction claims this does for video games what “Cavalier and Clay” did for comic books… and I thought Zevin’s world building was intriguing. We have a kind of romance between two or three characters set in the world of games… and games is what our characters- especially Sadie and Sam- come back to. (I also really dug the Macbeth allusions.)

I have to say though… I really dislike Sam. Sadie has her moments, but I didn’t find anything redeeming about Sam.