I really enjoyed “The Storied Life of AJ Fikry” and so I was looking forward to this latest novel. I must say I started this book with some trepidation because I knew it was heavy on the video game theme.
As it turned out, I didn’t love this book like I hoped I would. It wasn’t the video game portion that got to me, instead I thought the overall storyline was rather dull and I grew tired of Sam and Sadie’s ongoing relationship.

Stunning and emotive prose, brilliant and layered characters, heartbreakingly beautiful story, and imagery that still lingers with me long after I turned the last page. There is a reason why this book has shot to the top of everyone's list. It is without a doubt a masterpiece.

this is a difficult book to summarize. it has been categorized as a romance, but I don’t think that’s accurate. this book is only kind of a love story. this tells the story of Sadie and Sam, childhood best friends who bonded over their love of video games, who go on to make a successful video game company and several very popular games. their relationships go through many difficulties throughout the decades this book spans, and they always come back to video games as a way to make sense of the world and heal.

I love video games. I always have. as soon as there was an Oregon Trail joke on the third page, I was hooked. I fell in love with these characters immediately. the problem is, I didn’t stay in love with them. I KNOW that this book is supposed to highlight the complexities of people, that these characters were not meant to be perfect, but I found them so hard to love towards the end of the book. this book also just had. SO. MUCH. PAIN. and trauma. this is literally a book about trauma. at a certain point it just felt like, can we give these people a break? please????? that’s the main reason I don’t feel like I can give this 5⭐️, because I just ended this feeling like there was so much pain for the sake of pain and plot in this. still, Zevin did something truly spectacular with this book. it’s like nothing I’ve ever read and I really thought it was brilliant. the creativity that went in to each game they created and why, and what it represented and meant for them… brilliant.

This book. No. Not for me. Got 50% but I just keep trying to have nothing to show for this book other than resentment. When I first started this book it felt like a chore to get into it. I didn't like the characters and everyone has this odd way of talking. Were we in a Wes Anderson movie and I didn't know it?

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for this advanced copy of the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Lots of people loved this one, so I know I’m in the minority. I think I’m just not the right audience for this book. Felt too long and drawn out to me.

I received this in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley.

I am unfortunately late to review this book so there isn’t much that hasn’t already been said. I really enjoyed the world building and the saga of these character’s lives. I felt like I lived things alongside them. It was emotional and raw and real, with two flawed main characters. I was frustrated at a lot of their decisions, especially when it came to their friendship with each other. Ultimately I was sad it was over. I will say I think I would have liked this book more had I read it before it became so buzzy.

This book is getting so much attention I am not sure another review is necessary but I enjoyed this story despite its do-over type plot.

Had a great discussion on this in book club the other day. <i>Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow</i> is a very solid entry into contemporary literary fiction. It's very well written, and once the story got momentum (about halfway through) it was really engaging and hard to put down. It has four stars for the quality of the writing and how evocative the last 1/3 or so is. (Listen, I'm a crier. And I cried for at least the last 1/3-1/4 of this book.) Once the big thing happens (no spoilers, you'll know when you get to it), the rest of the book carries itself through very nicely and keeps a tight grip on your heart as it goes.

That being said, the writing, for me, is maybe a little <i>too</i> literary. While discussing with a friend in book club who is much more well-read in literature and the classics, and teaches literature and writing, I realized how many allusions had completely gone over my head. Not saying you need to be a Shakespearean scholar to enjoy this book, but I bet it helps. The main sticking point for me in terms of writing, though, was the vocabulary. This book has a bad case of thesaurusitis. Sure, there were words I had seen before a million years ago and would never remember the definition of, and I don't mind looking those up. But honestly, using "<a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jejune">jejune</a>" in a contemporary novel feels like a parody of purple prose.

The writing also falls prey to this Internet-age tendency to write for Kindle highlights. You know, when you're reading a book and Kindle helpfully tells you that 1,109 other people highlighted this passage, so you assume it has some universal appeal or truth because, well, why else would it be a popular highlight? Full disclosure, I read this as an ARC, so I didn't get that lovely feature in this book since Kindle seems to do it only for publisher versions of books. But there's still this sense that the author is trying very hard to write something deeply profound that will get highlighted and excerpted and shared - all while, ideally, keeping to about 280 characters.

Those are literally both from the first chapter of the book. They were the first two highlights I made, along with a note for myself: 🙄 It's also where I gave up on highlighting the bits I found try-hard:
<ul>
<li>"Time was mathematically explicable; it was the heart—the part of the brain represented by the heart—that was the mystery." 121 characters, em dashes and all!</li>
<li>"Sam looked at Sadie, and he thought, This is what time travel is. It’s looking at a person, and seeing them in the present and the past, concurrently. And that mode of transport only worked with those one had known a significant time." 234 characters. And because [book:How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe|7726420] is one of my all-time favorite books, I added the note "ok charles yu give us nothing"</li>
</ul>

I'm not even going to get into the complete mangling of discussion on cultural appropriation and childhood trauma. Both really just boil down to the sentiment that "in the 90s no one cared about these things and life was better" — read: in the 90s, no one spoke up about these things and life was easier for white/straight/cis male people. For a book that's very adamant on exposing the sexism in the games industry, it's honestly just a weird mishmash of stances to have.

Apparently this is one of those reviews where I change my star rating by the end of it, because I think I'm officially giving three stars. Looking back, I think the end really influenced my initial rating because I was so emotionally affected by the plot and some really beautiful writing in that one part (those two parts, I guess (no spoilers!): the second person chapters, and the Oregon Trail section). Holistically, though, this is really solid literary fiction, but ultimately I think it tries too hard. I can definitely see this as being a symptom of a young writer and I will say I'll keep an eye on Gabrielle Zevin's future work, because I think she can mature into a real literary fiction powerhouse.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley. Thanks Netgalley! Sorry I didn't get to read it until several months after publication!

Everything about this novel is realistic in such a painful way. The flawed characters, grief, chronic illness—the ugly sides of friendship. Mostly you know the characters are on a collision course to disaster, and you have no choice but to sit back and watch the implosion. It employs so many rarer narrative techniques in isolation (i.e. a single chapter in second person), and spectacular callbacks dropped in little moments: a line from a poem, a poster from decades ago, giving the characters the kind of depth you'd expect of a real lifetime.

One of the best books I've read in years. The years long relationships as the characters navigate high school, college and beyond. I found myself rooting for Sam, Marx and Sadie at different times.

A slower read than I'm used to. I was surprised how long the characters stayed with me afterwards. I finished this book over a month ago and still remember all the character names. I found Sadie to be the most relatable, loved Marx and felt so unsure about Sam, which surprised me because he reminds me a lot of my high school best friend. I genuinely don't know if I liked Sam or not. I can't tell if he just lacks empathy, is manipulative or is possibly high-functioning autistic? Like he doesn't process emotions the same way? I still don't know. However, the book went off the rails for me when

***SPOILER***




Marx dies. The way in which he dies feels so unnecessary and violent. He's literally "fridged" to move Sadie and Sam's story along. Marx is so much more appealing than Sam. I just wasn't invested in the book after this part. 3.5 stars

🕹 Unpopular Opinion Alert – I didn’t love this book. I really wanted to like it – and I know many of you reading this did love it - but I was so bored. Or rather, I was bored after they created their first video game Ichigo (which is in the first third of the book). After that I lost interest almost completely.

🕹 I did enjoy the “love story” between Sam and Sadie. They were a unique partnership.

🕹 For me, the book tried to cover too many topics/themes, and since there were so many, they were all diluted.

🕹 Trust me, the video game component of the story isn’t what turned me off. That was probably one of the few elements of the story I actually enjoyed.

🕹 This is an unusual book – and I mean that as a compliment. I’ve never read anything quite like it. Sadly, it wasn’t a book that resonated with me.

Thank you @NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing for an eARC of this book, which I have read and reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

4.5 stars! I LOVED this book!

Gabrielle Zevin's "Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow" kept me guessing, entertained, and invested until the very last page! I didn't know a thing about this book until I started reading it, and it was immensely captivating despite my not being a gamer or a computer programmer. It has just enough cultural "member berries" to set the stage without heavily relying on pop culture and video game references to the point of annoyance. There are many other books that do this, and luckily, this one did not. I loved (and sort of hated!) all of the complexities of the characters in this story. I think they are all flawed, and that's what makes them so relatable and compelling. It's not black and white: there are many gray areas where our characters Sam/Mazer and Sadie are concerned. They made me want to scream at them, to cry with them, to mourn with them, to love with them. This book also has a terrific commentary on disability and the trauma surrounding it. Disability plays a central role in the story. It is not glossed over or romanticized in any way. Zevin never once shies away from how difficult it is for Sam/Mazer to live with a permanent physical disability. These portions of "Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow" made me weep! As someone with a physical disability, I have felt like Sam/Mazer has felt so many times in my life. To see my inner thoughts articulated on the page...it felt like my soul was being laid bare! The reason this book is not a 5-star read is that I thought the pacing could have been better in some areas. Some people might think this book is overly self-important or grandiose to its detriment, but I didn't think so. It's intricate, sure, but Zevin weaves a delicate tapestry and builds worlds on worlds in a refreshing, interesting way, one that I will be thinking about for years to come. I've already recommended this book to many people and will likely keep doing the same for the foreseeable future!

Thank you to NetGalley, Gabrielle Zevin, and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group/Knopf for providing me with an ARC copy of this book! All opinions are my own, and I was not compensated for my review.

Synopsis: Sam Mazer and Sadie Green make video games, and they are very good at it. But when life gets in the way, they walk the path of adult and interpersonal struggles that will forever change them.

Review: 5 ⭐️/5⭐️
This book is fantastic! I found myself rooting for all the characters and desperately sad when their lives didn’t quite turn out as they would have hoped. I even bought it as an audio book and that added a whole new, wholly wonderful level to this book.

I feel so lucky to have gotten my hands on this before it really got all the amazing hype it so rightfully deserved. This book has so much heart and gripped me right from the beginning.

As someone a few years younger than the main characters, I really enjoyed the nostalgia of this book. All the 90's references were fun. :-) I enjoyed watching the relationship between Sam and Sadie, and liked that it didn't necessarily end with them getting together. It was left open. I loved that Sadie was a strong female character but she still had mental health issues.

I prefer the audiobook as the start has the boredom of school schedules and male fashion choices. Sam is a coding savant pining for the equally autistic Sadie now that they’re out of the Ivy Leagues. They reconnect over Oregon Trail jokes and other try-hard dialogue. Everything they say revolves around a principle of chance or some quirky proof. I just don’t see the general appeal/realism.

LIKES:
1) the relationship with Sadie and Sam. When they say it’s a love story, this one is truly sweet.
2) Marx. He was a great secondary character that stole our hearts.
3) getting a new appreciation for games and gamers. It made me think of Inside Pixar. So much work goes into it.
4) for having neurodivergent character, lgbtq characters, and not making it a highlight (if that makes sense) the fact that more and more books and movies are incorporating more diverse characters is fantastic.
5) continuing to survive amongst some crippling depression l

DISLIKES:
1) I can pinpoint what didn’t connect with me, but I liked this whole story I just didn’t love it.

Kinda wished I reviewed this as soon as I finished it cause I know I had a lot of thoughts on everything going on. To be honest I didn't actually know what this book was about going into it, I just knew it was super popular last year and a lot of people liked it. I thought the book was fine tbh. There's a lot going on and if you're going to read this just know it is extremely heavy on the video game language. I'm honestly not sure if I liked any of the main three characters. I definitely understood where they were all coming from and the dynamics between all three but still as usual a lot of things could be solved with communication. I did love those last few Marx chapters (probably the most interesting chapters to me if I'm being honest.) But yeah this was an alright read for me, like nothing entirely special if I'm being honest. I'm sure someone out there would like this book more than me!

I was kind of surprised to realize I recently read another book by the same author, which I enjoyed more than this. While there is some good writing here, I'm finding it hard to express my thoughts about this book. A couple of sections were practically brilliant but a lot of this seemed tedious. I can see why so many love it though, so give it a try. 3.5 stars