I do in fact understand the hype! This magical, beautiful, tragic story is exactly what I needed. I typically don’t gravitate toward literary fiction, since I find them boring, but the mystical (almost surreal) writing had me so engaged throughout. I think if you enjoyed Alone With You in the Ether you will enjoy this cerebral, almost pretentious but in a good way, toxic friend/relationship !!

Two big things to note: I actually wasn’t crazy about Sadie and Sam’s friendship. I loved Sam at first, but he says very cruel things to Sadie. Sadie on the other hand, can’t cede ANY success to Sam really. She even mentions how when he gets attention it makes her feel small, which is not a great friendship IMO. HOWEVER the side characters, creative and insanely engaging writing, and video game storyline had me hooked.

Second thing, “you don’t have to like video games to enjoy this” is a comment sentiment I’ve seen. I actually disagree with this. I think you have to at least be interested a bit in learning how video games are developed just because it takes up about 200 pages.

Sadie first meets Sam at the hospital where her sister is being treated for cancer. Sadie and Sam play video games together, and the nurse looking after Sam encourages a friendship between the two. It is suggested to Sadie that she uses the time to gather up community service hours. When Sam finds out that their supposed friendship is a 'charity case', he ends their friendship and doesn't speak to Sadie again. Years later Sadie and Sam bump into each other at the train station, and Sam expresses interests in reconnecting with Sadie. Sadie gives Sam a copy of the video game that she is creating and asks for his feedback. Sam loves the genius behind the game and suggests that during the summer they collaborate on creating a full game together.
The story follows the creation and subsequent success of the video game and tells the story of Sam and Sadie's lives in the years following.

This book was a very compelling read, and I found myself enjoying the aspects of the game creation within the book. It was delightful following the character Arc's from young children to grown adults and made for a very captivating read. At times I could not put this book down. The beginning of the book that shows the relationship between Sadie and her professor Dov, really really made me cringe and felt very much like "god I cant watch this because I know where this is going", and made me feel highly uncomfortable.

I am very conflicted about my view on the characters. Sam and Sadie are both equally flawed and whilst we get POV's from both of them at times I feel that they are both in the wrong. Marx's character was delightful and I highly enjoyed his comic relief aspects. The fact that Marx was just there along for the ride, made a nice buffer between the Characters of Sam and Sadie. I enjoyed the heaviness of chapter vii:The NCP, whilst heartbreaking was nicely done and I have never come across something like that before in a book. It added something unique to the story. On the flip side however, I absolutely hated ix:Pioneers Chapter! I found it incredibly boring and I didn't like how the chapter took you away from the flow/story line. In the beginning of the chapter I found it difficult to decipher what was happening. This whole chapter seemed Highly unnecessary and could have been executed in a different way and as a result this book lost a few stars.

I would highly recommend this book, because even though the characters could have been written better/likable, the story line was good.

there were two things that drew me to this book:
1. that gorgeous cover
2. a tag line i read somewhere: "two friends often in love but never lovers"

i must admit, i was very intimidated by this book. i had always wanted to get into video games growing up but i always felt they were too expensive and, since i was an only child, i never really had anyone to play with me or share in the fun and so i defaulted to reading more. i had an n64 that i loved but i never wanted to ask for games because i knew they were expensive. but i always felt like all my cool friends had the cool games. so going into a book heavy on game culture, i was worried i'd feel isolated by the references. this book was so beautifully written and so thorough that i often forgot that i had barely any experience playing games to the extent the characters did.

i think what really engulfed me was the love in this book. i had been talking to a friend a couple months ago about the different types of love and how i believe that there are so many layers to loving people and there is no better way to explain that than reading this book.
warning: spoilers ahead!
ultimately, this book had the best written death of a character i have read in a long time. quite possibly ever. the set up for building marx up throughout the book as a central but secondary figure who carries the weight of the company that sam and sadie create and the entire section where he dies...

i always pride myself in trying to guess what happens next in books and i did not see this coming and certainly not in the way it happened. and it made so much sense for his character to die the way he did. it also made so much sense for the plot to turn how it did.

that part of the book destroyed me and i have half a mind to stop typing and reread it right now. (but if i do i'll never finish writing this post so i wont lol)

overall, this book really hit one of my top three favorite books of the year and definitely an all time favorite. a certified champ for sure.

My review is late, but, like the rest of the world, I love love loved this book. Do I want to go play video games now??

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is a book I could rave about for days and days and days!!! The night I started this I read for literally five hours straight… I just couldn’t put it down.

This novel revolves around two friends, Sadie and Sam, who meet when they’re kids in the 80s. This isn’t the type of friendship where they meet and find themselves inseparable ever since; it’s a rocky relationship, and though they get along well through a shared love and appreciation for video games, they spend long stretches of their life out of contact. When they reconnect as university students, they decide to start creating a video game together with the support of Sam’s college roommate and friend, Marx.

Watching Sam, Sadie, and Marx grow up together was truly special. I totally understand the comparisons to A Little Life in the way that this book follows a group of friends as they age, while simultaneously unfolding more and more details from their past. The result are characters who are fully realized -- whose lives stretch backwards and forwards in a way that make them feel like true people, and whose sorrows and joys and accomplishments and failures you feel so deeply because you can understand these events not in isolation but in the context of an entire life.

What really surprised me about this book was how well it articulated the creative process. Zevin treats video games as a mode of storytelling, as an artform in its own right, and hearing the way these games are conceptualized and then tweaked and edited and disputed over then eventually created was really, really interesting. My video game expertise is very limited, so believe me when I say I really didn’t go into this novel excited to read about video games, but wow -- it ended up being one of my favourite things about the book!!

I will say, the dialogue felt kind of stilted at times, and the characters all had quite a similar voice. I also do think that this book tapered a bit towards the end… not to say the ending was bad, but the beginning was sooo engrossing that I felt myself losing steam in comparison by the end.

This is one of those books I’d truly recommend to any person. It’s clever and literary (the title is a Shakespeare reference!), technical and nerdy, fast-paced while still rooted in character, and with a good mix of light, feel-good moments and devastation. I’ll be thinking about this for a long, long time -- tomorrow, and tomorrow, and probably the day after too.

It was super interesting, and not my typical read. I was seeing this one everywhere, so I wanted to check it out. If it’s not your usual read, I still highly suggest giving it a chance. I throughly enjoyed it!

Worth the hype! One of my favourite novels of 2022. One of those books where the characters stay with you after finishing the last page. I didn't want it to end.

This is not a book for my demographic. I decided to read it because of many positive reviews, and because I liked The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by the same author. I am not a gamer. I don't like reading about kinky or casual sex, or recreational drug use. Will I read another book by this author? Maybe.

Truly speechless over this book. My favorite read of 2022. Gorgeously written characters that are actually unforgettable. The bird chapter was perfect, the video game chapter was incredible. The writing was really out of this world. I love this book and have been pushing it on everyone I know.

This book did for me one of the coolest things a book can do - make me care about something I honestly thought I'd never care about. I'm not a video game person and have never put any thought into what goes into making one, and so I wouldn't think a book about two gamers would be something that would hold my attention. This book proved me wrong. A beautiful portrait of a friendship and the complexities of human relationships over time, with characters I cared about - it was genuinely enjoyable to get to know them and watch their lives unfold.

I REALLY wanted to like this one. Truly. I had heard such wonderful things about it and as a videogame lover, I thought it would be a natural fit for me. Unfortunately, this was just not the book for me.

I found it underwhelming and tedious and couldn’t connect with either of the main characters at all. The only part of the story that I found to be told well happened about ¾ of the way through, and I was already uninvested by that point.

I also didn’t love the whole “it’s a love story but not a love story thing”. It just felt like two people who didn’t trust each other argue for the majority of their lives. I’m weirdly feeling guilty about my extreme dislike for this book, especially considering the people in my life who rated it so highly, but I just can’t bring myself to give this anything past a 1 star.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Knopf for sharing a digital reviewer copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts.

one of the best books I read in 2022! Kept me engaged from page one--the character development was wonderful!

This was outside of my normal go-to reads, but I’m pleasantly surprised by it. Super glad I took a chance and read it. Highly recommend.

There was something so pure and heartbreaking about the depiction of friendship & love in this. Even the slow points remind me of the slow points in our own lives. Really well done and would recommend. Also, kinda sad and sad to read and so not my normal chipper review even though it is so good! Maybe I should revisit this review after some time passes...

I think I’m very much alone on this opinion but I thought this was just ok?! The story was definitely engaging and heartbreaking and beautiful at times but certain parts just lost me a bit. I enjoyed it but it didn’t really stand out for me like it did for so many others. Bummer!

I received this book complimentary from NetGalley but all opinions are my own.
I had high expectations for this one. It’s not my usual genre. I got this one because Ashley Spivey recommended and then I saw it on NetGalley. It’s not bad. The writing is great. It was just not my subject area. It felt like it dragged for ages and ages. I didn’t love the characters.

This book is brilliant. It was fully immersive right from the beginning. I feel in love with these complicated characters and longed to spend time with them.

I adored this book! It’s the story of two childhood friends who grew up playing video games together in the 80s/90s (hellooo Oregon Trail)! They part ways but later reconnect in college and start developing video games of their own. It’s so unique and beautifully written. I highly recommend this one!

This book was brilliant. I have never read anything else quite like this! It follows the friendship between Sadie and Sam from their first meeting as children in a hospital through a lifetime of working together and being together through some of life's hardest moments. Although there were times I wanted to scream at both of them to get over themselves and remember how much they love each other, I thought this portrayal of friendship was beautiful. I loved that it never turned romantic, even though they love each other their entire lives. I think Sadie's explanation near the end that what she has with Sam is harder to find than a romance and is more special to her in many ways was so refreshing. The Marx storyline broke me. I absolutely loved him. It kind of snuck up on me because I was so focused on Sam and Sadie, I didn't see Marx's importance in their friendship until it was too late. Very character driven, but I also loved getting to experience different elements of the games they work on throughout the story. I am not a gamer, but this made me appreciate game creators so much. I will not forget this book, and I may need to get a copy for my forever shelves!

I feel... really disappointed by this. I've loved Zevin's books in the past and I was lured in by some of the early starred reviews that promised I would be enchanted by this book. I can see the many interesting themes the author is juggling here and have highlighted a few passages I thought were noteworthy, yet a few moments of brilliance just couldn't make this book any less tedious for me.

The story is essentially about gamers and video games, throwing up constant references to the history of gaming and gaming culture. The two main characters, Sadie and Sam, bond over playing video games when the pair meet in the children's ward of a hospital and later conceive of, and program, games of their own. Their own personal stories-- involving family, friends, sexism in the industry, and abusive relationships (contains emotional manipulation and sexual assault) play out alongside this.

I will confess that maybe it is just my disinterest in the world of gaming that drives my apathy toward this story. I have played my fair share of certain games-- caught them all in Pokemon, explored the worlds of Final Fantasy VII onwards, built a fabulous neighborhood in Sims, employed some questionable antics in Grand Theft Auto, and, to a lesser extent, tried my hand at Tomb Raider, Resident Evil and The Last of Us.

That being said, I do not consider "gamer" to be a defining term for me. I would always rather read. And my interest in games does not extend beyond the games to the culture surrounding them.

Kirkus assured me that even those who "have never played a video game in their lives" will love this book, but I feel like that probably isn't true. I found it a struggle just to make it through and I kept finding excuses to check my email, google something random that occurred to me, or just do household chores instead of reading this.

Some people have commented on it being a long book, but 400 pages aren't all that long. It feels much longer.