Thank you Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group ​and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book.
In this captivating tale, love, art, belonging, and betrayal intertwine with an unconventional element: video games. Sam and Sadie, childhood friends who bond over gaming in a hospital game room, embark on a journey that spans eight years. As they reunite in college and create a groundbreaking video game inspired by Tempest, their personal lives are forever changed. Despite my initial disinterest in video games, this book enchanted me. It explores themes of creativity, ambition, unexpected success, and the complexities of life-defining friendships. It's a powerful reflection on the hopefulness inherent in games and their significance for us all.

I was underwhelmed with this book. Elsewhere by Zevin was one of my favorites as a teenager and I had high hopes for Tomorrow & Tomorrow & Tomorrow. As a disclaimer, I struggle with character driven stories versus plot driven. Even so, I thought Sadie and Sam were both terrible and annoying. Neither character had any redemption or growth as the book went on. For the first half of the book I could put up with it and was actually enjoying it. As things didn’t get better, I got more and more frustrated.

The writing itself was top notch, but I could not get past the characters.

Absolutly Amazing! I loved every page and character. This book provokes the Big-Feelings: Nostalgia, Heartbreak and the excitment of doing what you love. Allthought i was screaming at the pages: "JUST TALK TO EACHOTHER!" it was definitly my favorite Book of 2023 so far!

Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow is one of those books that you read and sit with for a while. It is the story of the lives of two friends, and their shared love of video games. But it’s so much more than that. It’s their friendship, their deeper connection and devotion to creating art together. Deeply moving, readers who don’t even enjoy video games will find themselves invested in the story and the characters.

This book took me longer than normal to really get into and ended up being one that I loved but when asked what it was about, it was hard to put into words. My typical response was, "Please just do me a favor and read this book" which is about the biggest compliment I can give.

I received this ARC long after the book had been released, and had received rave reviews. I was very excited to read it, especially after finding out this was the same author of Elsewhere, a book that I hold dear from childhood.

This unfortunately wasn't for me. I can see why some people absolutely love it: it is well written, it's about gamers, and there is a love story.

This is what did not work for me:
-the MC's have a lot of toxicity going on
-the MC's are not likeable
-the way in which social concerns were woven into the book wasn't "smooth". It very much felt like "pause storyline, here's a message. Message over, let's return back to the story." Some authors are very skilled at making social commentary by actually making it part of their story.

I understand that some people like things spelled out for them, but this is an adult novel, not one for children/teens.

While the pacing and plotting of this novel are at times difficult, this is a thrilling story full of interesting and well-drawn characters. Readers will find themselves completely engrossed in Sadie and Sam's journeys, both together and on their own.

✨Book Review✨
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
.
4.25 This book was a solid read. I do think it was a little too hyped in my mind before starting, so that may play into my rating. I will say that Zevin did an incredible job world-building. I really felt a part of the Tomorrow x3 world, and the games that she made up throughout the book sounded SO fun...I wanted to play them all.
.
I also really really loved the ending of this book. There was so much beautiful commentary about generations and I could relate so much having grown up in the same generation as these characters/Zevin. I also really loved how much many of the characters represented different parts of Zevin's identity.
.
Finally, the writing was beautiful. There were so many creative turns, and the prose itself was gorgeous. I have a feeling that the more I reflect on this book, the higher my rating will crawl.
.
Also, the cover designed by John Gall gets a solid 5 stars. It's SO gorgeous.
.
This book needed a LOT of trigger warnings, which made it slightly less enjoyable for me. I will list the ones I can think of below in case you need them. They may contain spoilers.
.
Trigger warnings: death, cancer, illness, mass shootings, depression, amputation, suicide, sexual violence (this could be up for interpretation), car accidents, homophobia, hospitals.

I didn’t finish this novel because I find it hard to stay engaged in it. I couldn’t connect with the characters or where the author was going in the plot.

Holy Moly! I loved this SO much! I wasn't sure what to expect because I was staying away from reviews and I'm so glad I did. I knew it was about gamers and the span of a friendship, which it was. But it was so much more too. I loved the video game references, I knew quite a few of them. I also thought it was so interesting to get a glimpse into the process of creating a game. Overall, it's about the friendship between Sam and Sadie and all that they go through both together and apart. There was A LOT in here, but it didn't feel overwhelming. I just loved it. So much.

I can see why this book was on everyone's best of list for 2022, but it wasn't my fave book of the year. I enjoyed the story, but it was about 75 pages too long for me. I lost interest halfway through, but I was pulled back in before the end.

Wow!! this book blew me away, and completely lived up to the height that social media has built around it. I didn't know much going into the book, and that was probably the best decision I made. We follow Sam and Sadie from childhood all the way until their in the early 30's. We meet them when they are both in the hospital but for different reasons. Sam was in a fatal car crash and has damaged his foot, while Sadie is there as her sister is having Cancer treatment. They bond over their love for video games and the release it gives them from their own world. They end up parting ways after they fall out and don't see each other until they are both in College. They then decide they should make a video game together which is the start of their journey of working together. Both have very messy personal lives, and I would say they are both morally grey characters; both have their moments when they are being pricks which just makes them more relatable. The success of their first game inspires them to continue to work together along with their friend Mark.
The book is so well rounded, and I felt empty when I finished this, I felt like I had been on a long journey with them all, and that they had tried to resolve their issues with each other.
This is a must read for everyone, and I feel like it is relatable to a lot of people. I would however say that there definitely is some triggering content, so would recommend researching those before hand.

I think for me personally this book suffered from being overhyped. It was on so many best of lists before I got around to reading it and it just didn't live up. While I thought Zevin was a very skilled writer who did some amazing world-building (in both senses!) and character development, I just wasn't as into it as I'd have hoped. This book should've been catnip for me and sadly it fell a bit short. Don't get me wrong, it was still 4 stars because it was so well-written, I just wanted to love it and I only liked it.

Didn't think I'd like this book but WOW! Not a subject I thought I liked or wanted to know about but this novel offers so much more. READ IT~!

Sam, Sadie, and Marx are friends who are on the forefront of the gaming industry in the early 1990s. When the video game they created hits big, their company really takes off and they make more money than they dreamed of, doing something they love. Their story over the course of 15 or so years makes up the basis for this book, but this is not really a "gamer" story, it's really a story of friendship and love along with all the trials and tribulations of life.

This is an amazing book. The writing is just wonderful, the characters are compelling, the details of creating video games are fascinating. But the book is really about Sam, Sadie, and Marx, so the story has wider appeal. I'm an older woman and probably not the target audience, but I recommended it to my son and daughter-in-law who grew up with video games along with the comment that I loved it. There are plenty of game references and plenty of Asian culture references to keep the attention of afficionados, and .enough emotional/personal storyline to keep the attention of everyone else. I was definitely connected to the story, completely engrossed in the action, and could not put it down.

One note about the writing style. While most of the book is a straight narrative with some flashbacks, there are a couple of chapters that are unique. One chapter is written in second person (you did this, you did that). Normally I really can't stand that style of narrative, but in this case it is the perfect way to express the events in that chapter. To say more would be a spoiler, so suffice it to say I loved that chapter and completely agree with the author's choice. The other unique chapter takes the reader inside a video game as a player, and again it's a perfect way to relay the events and a perfect "aside" to the plot of the novel as a whole. I am so impressed with this author and will definitely seek out anything else written by her. I'm so glad I read this book!!

I don’t think I’ve ever cared about characters the way I care about Sadie and Sam. This book has literally dug a hole in my soul and marked me forever.
Very grateful to Netgalley for giving me this ARC.

Loved this book. You don't have to be a gamer to enjoy it. Sam, Sadie, and Marx were my favorite characters.
Favorite quotes:
"We are all living, at most, half of a life, she thought. There was the life that you lived, which consisted of the choices you made. And then, there was the other life, the one that was the things you hadn't chosen. And sometimes, this other life felt as palpable as the one you were living. Sometimes, it felt as if you might be walking down Brattle Street, and without warning, you could slip into this other life, like Alice falling down the rabbit hole that led to Wonderland.
You would end up a different version of yourself, in some other town. But it wouldn't be strange like Wonderland, not at all. Because you would have expected all along that it could have turned out that way. You would feel relief, because you had always wondered what that other life would have looked like. And there you were.'
"Your cousin Albert told me that, in business, they call this a pivot. But life is filled with them, too. The most successful people are also the most able to change their mindsets.'
Speech from Macbeth: "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. "That's bleak," Sadie said.
"It's good work," Sam said. "The God rays are nicely done, but the moon is almost too beautiful. The scale seems off."
"How is it so large and low? And it needs more texture. A bit of Perlin noise. It should look a little rougher, otherwise it doesn't seem real." "But maybe that's the look they were going for?" "Maybe so."

After seeing this book EVERYWHERE I decided that I needed to pick it up to see what all the fuss was about. I went in fairly blind, only with the vague knowledge that Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow had something to do with video game creation.

Much like Ready Player One, you do not have to be a gamer to enjoy this story. Personally, I really enjoyed the video game creation portions of this story and even would have liked to see more! Video game creation aside, this book is more about the characters and their relationships with one another. The characters in this book felt so real, they are flawed, but you cannot help but fall in love with them.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is not an upbeat novel, but rather it packs an emotional punch. It isn’t often that books bring me to tears, but this one did. For a book, specifically a character in this situation, to cause such an emotional response solidifies that I’ll be thinking about this story for years to come. This would make for an excellent book club selection with many different things to unpack in a discussion.

I do think Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow suffers from some pacing issues at different parts throughout the book, however this didn’t impact my overall enjoyment.

If you enjoyed Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, you should check out The Animators by Kayla Rae Whitaker.

Thank you to the publisher for providing an eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Don't be fooled by the idea of this book: you do not need to be a video game expert or even enthusiast to really appreciate this complicated look at life and friendship. I really enjoyed this book so very much, and struggled with parts of the ending as far as whether I agreed with the author's decisions, but that's not for me to decide. These characters took on a life of their very own, and I was interested from the very beginning. Well done.

4.25 ⭐️

Overall this book was really good, in some parts amazing even. I think what brought my rating down was the second half when all the character started getting into, in my opinion unnecessary, arguments. I didn’t dislike any of the characters by any means, but I didn’t agree with a lot of their decisions, again especially towards the end. I think Sadie especially made a lot of questionable choices about her relationships with people, specifically Sam. I think why she was mad at him was immature and a little stupid. That being said, I did really enjoy this book and would recommend it!