I began playing EverQuest shortly after its release. Before that, I had been involved in various text-based D&D themed games, among other arcade games, since the late 80s. I loved Ernest Cline's Ready Player One, but it felt more fantastical than real.

In comes Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. Zevin takes the 80s, 90s, and 00s, Shakespeare, Dickinson, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Ultima, adventures, platformers, shooters, and more and she has molded them together with the story of three characters, Sadie, Sam, and Marx, and created a masterpiece of writing for "geriatric gamers" like me. In fact, this is the only book I've seen EverQuest mentioned in (thank you, Zevin!).

I loved every minute of this 400+ page journey. I found some parts to be a bit reaching (I don't recall some of the more gender-inclusive stuff as being around in the 80s and 90s), but it was nice to see it there. I loved the ideas of the games introduced and the way that storytelling seemed to weave in and out of reality and alternate reality, something those of us who have spent half their lives in the gaming world understand on a deep and personal level.

I highly recommend this story. I recommend it even if you don't game, because there's a real story there about relationships and love and how messy it is to be human. I couldn't put this one down, not even to play a video game.

I loved this magnificent book! Even though I have no interest in video games, the book completely absorbed me. The author brought the unique characters and relationships to life, and I loved her vocabulary. I can't wait for the book to be released so I can buy it for people in my life who are gamers; I can only imagine that they will appreciate it even more than I did. Readers, please don't let the subject matter keep you from reading this- it is a wonderful book about relationships, more than anything. I was also happy to learn more about the video game industry.
I was delighted to have the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book because I loved AJ Fikry and Young Jane Young. The books couldn't be more different, but all are outstanding. Zevin is such a talented writer! Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher. I highly recommend this book and I think it would be an excellent choice for book discussion groups.

Extremely well written. Believable and realistic characters. A unique storyline. A modern love story.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58784475

I flew through this! It had a sort of old-fashioned, saga-of-decades feeling that I really love in a book. In this way, it reminded me of Rebecca Makkai's The Great Believers and John Boyne's The Heart's Invisible Furies, which are two of my favorite novels and at least to this reader, don't seem to be the typical style anymore even though they used to be the norm. It also reminded me a bit of TJR's Daisy Jones and the Six, and Dawnie Walton's The Final Revival of Opal and Nev, and so I was expecting more interviews like we saw in the beginning and was surprised when they petered out. I liked that there were some experimental chapters, but I also didn't understand why Marx's chapter was in the second person and found it a bit distracting. Similarly, I thought the Emily B. Marks section went on a bit long, although it was an interesting device. All in all, though, I really enjoyed it! I even had dreams about Sadie, Sam and Marx.

This book was fantastic! It is about love and relationships and grief and life. It is also about video games, but it has much deeper themes. If you don't like video games that fine, you'll enjoy this book. If you love video games you'll find this story enjoyable as it weaves the characters experiences into the story.

There are two things that made this close to five stars but just missed the mark for me. Right off the bat the narrator uses several very large vocabulary words that I feel like are unnecessary. It happened so many times that it caught my attention. I have such a pet peeve for using SAT words when a simple common word would do the trick and be more impactful! You can say more by saying less. I can understand when the characters speak this way, it's part of their intelligence as students of Harvard and MIT. For me, the author could have kept it simpler. If I was recommending this book to students I would also need to lend them my kindle so they could look up words as they read.

My second, smaller grievance was the length of the book. I really loved the book and the story I just felt like some parts dragged on. It took me a long time to get through this one.

Overall it was a fantastic book and a creative story. Different than a typical fiction book. A story about a relationship that is deeper than love.

Normally when I finish a book I have some strong opinions either pro or con. I am of two minds with this novel, which is excellently written and an epic tale of its three principle characters. We follow their exploits for the next 20 years, starting when they are all in their late teens. If you are interested in computer gaming, the book portrays the world of game creators and the gaming industry very realistically -- I covered this world as a tech journalist once upon a time. And the relationships of the trio -- who form their own gaming studio and quickly become successful -- is also very believable and interesting as they and the industry matures. The downside is that the ending is less than satisfactory as the author takes us inside a game itself that the characters play new roles. It just felt off somehow. Nevertheless, this novel is one of hope, of loves found and lost, of how people work together and work against each other in interesting ways that drives the plot forward. And maybe one day you will find those secret underground LA freeways that are posited in the book. (You 'will have to read it to understand this reference.)

This book has been one of the hardest books to get through. I felt as though half of it was written in a different language because of all of the “gamer” references and this was quite disengaging for me. The characters were easy to understand but a lot of their interaction was choppy.

Thank you for allowing me to preview this book, using NetGalley.

Introducing the book.
Dear reader please meet Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. I hope you read this book and love it as much as I did. It is brilliant. I was moved, emotionally involved. The characters are unforgettable. You will be sad to see them go.
Outlining the contents.
This is the story of a lifelong friendship. Sadie Green and Sam Masur build games and a company together. They are gamers. No one here is perfect. There is pain. There is joy. Bumps, craters, in the road along the way. Their connection is well told. You can feel it. Marx is another character to care for. He keeps them focused. Feeds them. Looks out for them. Lets them be Sam and Sadie.
Highlights.
Sam and Sadie are the highlights of this story. Their friendship. The connection to each other. My heart was involved in their retionship. They are creatives. Dedicated to their craft.
Evaluation.
I loved reading this book. Writing is brilliant. It is special. I am ready to read it again.
Thank you #NetGalley #TomorrowandTomorrowandTomorrow #GabrielleZevin

I had read and loved Gabrielle Zevin’s earlier book, “The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry,” so I was delighted when I was given the opportunity to read an ARC copy of her latest novel, “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow,” about the love and friendship among three video gamers: Sadie, Sam and Marx.

Sadie and Sam meet at a hospital in Los Angeles when they are 11 and 12 years old. Sadie is there because her sister is being treated for leukemia and Sam is at the hospital recovering from multiple surgeries on his left foot, which was severely injured in a car crash. Sam hasn’t spoken to anyone since the accident until Sadie meets him in the hospital’s video game room. They are off and on again friends for a time, but don’t reconnect until a chance encounter on a Boston subway platform years later, where Sadie hands Sam a video game she developed at a seminar. Sam is there attending Harvard and Sadie is studying at MIT. Sadie and Sam begin to develop a video game together at the apartment Sam shares with Marx, a warm, optimistic person who takes care of Sam who has little money and still suffers pain from his injured foot.

Sam and Sadie, with Marx as their producer, sell the game to a big company, then move to L.A. where they form their own company and make several more popular games. Over the course of the years, Sam and Sadie’s relationship is strained by Sam’s inability to express his feelings and Sadie’s distrust. Through it all, Marx is the glue that holds them and the company together.

The characters are multi-faceted and complex and their interactions are complicated and intricate. The reader quickly feels enmeshed in their lives. The novel’s language is beautiful and moving, with its many comparisons between real life and video game lives. The book’s one minor flaw is that at times it feels too long, but in the end, the beauty of the writing and the depth of the characters makes it all worthwhile.

Thank you to NetGalley and Alfred A. Knopf for providing me an ARC copy of the book for my review.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is not just a book for gamers. While it gives the non-gamer a beginner-level peek into the world of video games, it is most of all a story of love and friendship that, in a way, challenges the definition of friendship by recognizing the almost indescribable nature of some relationships.
“...but ‘friend’ was a broad category, wasn’t it? ‘Friend’ was a word that was overused to the point that it had no meaning at all.”

Although described as being “about two childhood friends, once estranged,” this book has three main characters. The friendship between Sam and Sadie is where it begins, but Max is far too important to each of their stories to be left out. In fact, the story is alternately told from all three of their perspectives.

This novel challenges us to love all of the layers of a person:
“It was easy to dislike the man; it was harder to dislike the little boy who existed just beneath the surface of the man.”
“The best colors of Sadie Green are not her darkness.”

And describes to us the beauty and benefit of failure:
“The fabric is not just a fabric. It’s the story of failure and perseverance, of the discipline of a craftsman, of the life of an artist.”

Several current topics of importance such as race, gender, sexual preference, gay marriage, relationship violence, and disability are woven into the story, both in the real and gaming worlds. Sadie struggles throughout the story with the recognition of her work within the male-dominated gaming world, among other women’s issues. Sam and Max are both from multi-racial families and we learn how this affects them throughout their lives.

During the years we spend with Sam, Sadie, and Max we see that, alongside their personal struggles, friendship and love make their world much richer which, in turn, allows them to see, do, and experience more than they ever imagined.
“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?”

I was delighted by Zevin’s writing style - not only the sentence structure, but the word choices that challenged me to learn more. Susurrus, izakaya, or Torschlusspanik, anyone? Zevin’s work is full of unusual and beautiful metaphors beyond comparisons to gaming, (“... a mortifyingly psychosomatic weathervane…”), humor of all flavors (“...you, like most humans, have redundancies built in. Your pancreas is, heartbreakingly, single.”), and references to visual art, literature, theatre, music, geography, and more. It is both broad and deep, joyful and heartbreaking, and beautifully weaves the fantasy world into the real world.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is one of the best books I have read. From the first chapter, I could tell this book was going to be special. A common note about this book is that it isn’t about video games, and while there definitely are video games in this book, it is a book about so much more. You don’t need to know anything about video games to understand this story.

Sadie and Sam. These two characters are drawn together by traumas in their lives and throughout their friendship they test each other’s loyalties. Their friendship and partnership was incredible and real. It was full of love and words left unsaid. It was about showing up when you aren’t sure you are wanted.

There were not many topics left uncovered in this story, but each one (disability, LGBTQIA, feminism, friendship, grief, family, the list goes on) was integral to the story. It was beautiful.

I noticed that there were a lot of words in this book that I didn’t know the meanings of. I think it made sense given the characters in the book, but I was really glad to be able to read this on my kindle so I could quickly look up the meanings. I wish I would have kept a list of all of the new words I learned.

Do make sure to read the author’s note in the back. It added so much context to the setting. I had no idea that some of the places described in the book were based on real locations.

Thank you to Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and @netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts expressed are my own.

Publish date: July 12, 2022

#tomorrowandtomorrowandtomorrow #netgalley #bookstagram #bookrecommendations #bookishlove #bookish #booksbooksbooks #netgalleybooks

I can not recommend this book highly enough. The story was propulsive and the characters were easy to fall in love with. It’s a love story about friendship and the pressures adulthood puts on relationships. I finished this book in 2 1/2 days- shirking my own adult responsibilities to do so. I have not done this with a book in a long time. There is a lot to unpack in this book- trauma and effects of trauma, privilege, generational and political change, friendship and how it changes, relationships—- but the points that it makes comes naturally in the course of reading the book. I’m still thinking about it over 24 hours later and I feel this is one that will stay with me for a long time.
I did receive this copy as an advance review copy from #NetGalley. I can not wait for it to come out in print. I will want this one for my library!

I can say that I know a little bit about gaming. Highlight on little, but this wasn't hard to get through at all as the author deals with all the details gracefully. Sam and Sadie have my whole heart, I adore them so much. I can't explain the emotions I felt while reading this, both sad and happy. And I think that's a testament of how good the story was!

This book is all about gaming and games. I am not into gaming so was a little lost. The story is about Sadie and Sam who create a virtual world. The story spanned thirty years. I did enjoy the overall life story but did get confused

Oh, how I loved this book! At it's most basic, the story reminded me of a "Kavalier and Clay" in the video gaming world with notes of a "real world" Ready Player One, but not, as that description might imply, the least bit derivative. It's really a story about people, about relationships, about growing up, about the ways we fail ourselves and others,, blinded by our own perspective, but about how that failure is human, and is part of how we evolve. It's also just a compelling and fun to read book. Highly recommend!

Good god. I’m a mess. A blubbering, wrecked mess of a human. And I am not sad about that. Because I will have Sam and Sadie and Marx forever. Dare I say for tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow? What a monumentally spectacular read. It never occurred to me that I would be both desolate and delighted at its end. Yet her I am, feeling equal parts of each.

This one goes into my favorites of all time. And at 58, that’s saying something. I will love it always. 💜💜💜💜💜📚

This was a remarkable read. It’s one of those books that makes you want to climb into the author’s brain to see how this book came together. A story about 2 friends, then 3 friends, that follows them into their late 30’s and all the messy, exciting, happy and sad pieces that go along with it. This is not a “techie” book although it’s centered around the creation of virtual games. It is not a coming of age novel although it begins in Sam’s and Sadie’s teen years. What is it then? A really, really great read. Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC (kindle) in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley, and to the publishers of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow for allowing me the opportunity to read and review - the review is in no way a reflection of NetGalley or the publisher. The review is my own and honest opinion. I was intrigued when first approached (via email) to read this book; I liked the description and was motivated by the three-day time limit. I read the book almost to its entirety stopping at about 89% according to my kindle. Throughout my time reading, I just kept thinking this may get better, and I have a deadline. I felt like an observer of a special, secret club. I didn't really care for any of the characters, thinking of them as pretentious, awkward and not seeing any growth. The $5 words - what I refer to as unnecessary words that can be replaced by simpler words - were aggravating and added nothing to the experience. The one guy that I did like Marx was "put to death too soon" - his plot line was obvious but not obnoxious. It seems silly as I don't think the book was about the games at all; however, I did not like the games and found them like the founders of the gaming company dark, and not something any gamer would enjoy. There were so many unlikable parts to this book that I don't really know why I would have continued...just my own character flaw I guess (to finish what I started.). I won't be recommending this to anyone for one reason - the feeling of disappointment, and the hopelessness one feels when it is impossible to finish this read.

This is a story for gamers, full of references to classic games, the history of the field and lots of coding language. If that was all there was to it, I wouldn’t have lasted very long. I haven’t played so much as a single level of Donkey Kong. In fact the stories and characters of these games are metaphors for the dreams and lives of the fascinating creators of the games described here.
The setting moves from the East Coast of New York and academic Boston to Southern California with a trip to Japan along the way. It follows the development of computer games from simple stories like Oregon Trail to multi-user complex role playing games. All of this is seen through the eyes of three friends, Sadie, Sam and Marx and the complicated love they have for each other. It follows their dreams and ambitions and makes you care about their successes and losses.
All three of the main characters are so skilled at analyzing each other and so adept at verbalizing their conclusions that I felt I was in a continuous therapy session. That gets tiresome after awhile and, in fact, the story would have benefited with a tighter story line. Gabrielle Zevin is a gifted writer and gamer, but not every reader is willing to put in the 18 hour days her characters devote to moving this story along.

This book was amazing! It was one of my all time favorite books.
I thought it was fascinating, wonderfully engaging characters, and well written.
Sam and Sadie, were both entertaining very enjoyable characters.
The story was truly unique. And very satisfying.
I read this book with a smile on my face and sad to see it end.
This love story is unlike anything I've ever read before.

Knopf,
Thank You for this eARC!
I will post and tag to my platforms and blog close to pub date!