One of the most beloved books of the year is this sweeping story of friendship, love, grief, recovery, and video games.

Sadie and Sam meet in the hospital when they are 11 years old in the late 1980s. Sadie is visiting her older sister and Sam is recovering from one of several surgeries to repair his foot, which was crushed in a car accident. She finds Sam in the hospital’s game room and she is impressed with his skill at Super Mario Bros.

Even though Sam hasn’t spoken to anyone since he came to the hospital, he and Sadie strike up a friendship, mostly bonding over video games. She even comes to the hospital to visit him after her sister is released, and they spend a great deal of time together until an argument ends their friendship.

Years later, Sam spots Sadie on a crowded subway platform in Boston. He knows she’s a student at MIT, while he attends Harvard, but they’ve not seen each other since they were 13. But quickly it’s as if no time has passed, and that encounter is the spark that leads to their partnering on developing a video game.

The story follows them over the next 15 or so years, as they become famous video game developers, and deal with personal and professional ups and downs. Their friendship is tested time and again, with jealousy, misunderstandings, ambition, and tragedy affecting them. It’s a powerful and emotional story, which meandered a bit too much for me, but it definitely kept me invested in the characters’ stories.

While you don’t have to know much about video games to read this, it would help. But I enjoyed the portrayal of their creativity and genius, as well as the commentary about video games’ effect on society.

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for the complimentary advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review!

I loved Zevin's The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry, and I love a good coming-of-age story, so I was very interested in giving this book a try. And I loved it just as much as A. J. Fikry. It's a story about three brilliant kids who start a videogame company, and yes, videogames are a big part of the story - which scared me just a bit because I've never been a gamer, at least not these type of role-playing games. But like most of my favorite books, the gaming is just the background against which Zevin has set a story about so much more - friendship, love and loss, success and failure, betrayal and forgiveness, loyalty, family and the different ways we learn about and deal with all those things and more. At the heart of the book are Sadie and Sam, who initially meet as kids in a hospital and bond over their shared interest in videogames. They're extremely close for a few months, but after a falling out, they don't see each other again until they're both college students. Ultimately they start a successful gaming company with Sam's roommate, Marx. And the things that happen along the way - well, it's all the beauty and heartache of life. It's just a lovely book.
Thanks to Netgalley and Knopf Doubleday for providing a copy for an unbiased review.

This book was sooooo slooooow! I wasn't particularly fond of any of the characters as they all pretty much seemed shallow and whiny. The story line could have been shortened A LOT and gotten the same point across. This is one of those books that leaves me wondering who they had doing media because it got a bunch of press about how wonderful it is....

4.5 stars. More and more often lately, I find myself drawn to stories about friendship and found family, books in which people comfort and love each other in the messy, often exhausting maelstrom that is modern life. That's exactly the type of novel Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is: a book about imperfect people being kind, and cruel, to each other, and loving each other through it all.

Set against the backdrop of the 1990s and early 2000s video game industry, this is the story of childhood friends Sam and Sadie, who reconnect as adults and decide to make a computer game together. That game becomes a huge success and leads to the creation of a gaming company, and we follow the course of their relationship across cities, continents, years, and video game worlds.

Having some appreciation for video games will definitely enhance your enjoyment of this novel, since it's firmly entrenched in the world of gaming. I wouldn't call myself a gamer -- I'd almost always rather be reading, so I mostly stick to MarioKart, Pokemon, and an underrated but incredibly awesome PlayStation 2 game called Dark Cloud -- but my husband is definitely a gamer. Our typical evenings usually consist of him playing something, and me reading something. Until reading Tomorrow, I don't think I ever really thought of video games as narratives with deeper meanings to interpret and messages to convey. I really appreciate this novel for helping me to see video games in a different light -- as visual versions of books.

Tomorrow's true strength, though, is its characters. The core group of people at the center of this novel are flawed and authentic, frustrating and relatable. They treat each other beautifully and terribly as we follow the successes and failures of their lives. It's not always an easy journey for them -- there is a lot of heartbreak in these pages, but there is a lot of joy too. Some parts of the novel are a bit dense, but by the end these characters feel like friends, and I felt privileged to share in the journeys of their lives.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is an imaginative and captivating reading experience. It's thoughtful but not overly sentimental, witty and bittersweet, nostalgic and melancholic. It explores universal themes of family, love, trauma, and camaraderie in such a specific, unique, unforgettable way. It's a book that shows us that our realities -- virtual or otherwise -- are nothing without our people.

I've always loved Gabrielle Zevin's books and this is no exception. I fell in love with the protagonist. This is a multilayered coming of age that I would recommend to anyone.

What you think is a pure book about friendship, is so very much more. What a fantastic journey this book was!
I had heard all the "buzz" and wasn't sure about it at first. It was a slow start for me. But it picked up quickly and I was fully invested.
I did not love any of the characters, I found Sadie and Sam endearing together, but when apart each had their egos and selfish traits that turned me off some. They created magic together though, and by the end, it was clear how their relationship was really supposed to evolve.
So many levels to this novel, themes, quotes, it's hard to narrow them down. I really enjoyed it!

Excellent! One of the best books I have read in a long time. The relationships were well developed and it hit with just the right amount of nostalgia for those who grew up in the 90's

Loved try he stuff about video games but could not handle the silly misunderstandings resulting from the main characters just not talking to each other. DNF at about 65%

This review is really hard to write. I’ve been putting off reading this one because of the hype. Now it’s been voted BOTMs book of the year too. Everyone I know has LOVED this one.

So… my thoughts: I was put off by how long this book was, but I started anyway. I was hooked and intrigued in the beginning. Second stretch of time I sat down to read it was losing steam for me. It’s like every other time I picked it up I enjoyed something about it and the other I got bored. I liked the unique concept. I liked seeing them grow up. I liked concept. This book has excruciating detail, in an excruciating way. Maybe because this was because I wasn’t allowed to play video games as a kid due to my parents fear that video games would make my brain mush or would turn me/my sister into gun crazy kids with shooting games. So maybe being so far detached from the gaming world had an impact on my enjoyment of this book. But maybe not, the movie “Free Guy” has a similar ish premise in many ways and I went into that thinking I would hate it and i absolutely loved it.

I think there were many parts of this book that could have been cut out and the book could’ve been shorter. Did this book make me feel? Yes.

This book took me seven days to read. It’s not bingeable at all, but I don’t think the point of this book is to binge due to all the detail. I have a hard time with books that take me awhile to read, since I’m the one who WANTS to binge books in one or two sittings.

I have such conflicting thoughts so I’m going with 3 stars on this. Maybe I’m the wrong demographic for this one, I’m not sure. It’s unique, it’s quirky, it’s sweet and heartwrenching but it’s also the most painfully long slow burn.

Thank you NetGalley for my eARC in exchange for an honest review.

What a great coming of age story that spans decades of the up and downs of a friendship. If you liked Ready Player One, this is a must read. Thanks to NetGalley for a digital copy of the book.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by #gabrielzevin is a book about so many things, but mostly about friendship. Adult, awkward, weird friendships, especially between two people who know each other almost too well. It’s sweeping and covers so much time. It’s heartbreaking and tragic and wonderful. Zevin has never disappointed and this one is no different.

I looooved this book so much! As a fan of science fiction centered on games, I really enjoyed this, especially that there was a lot of depth to the characters, and so many relatable lines.

From the start of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, I KNEW this would become an all time favorite! This isn't only because I adore most everything Gabrielle Zevin writes, which I very much do, but also because the characters, world, and situations were becoming so THOUGHTFUl so QUICKLY!

I applaud Zevin for creating such an interesting relationship between the deeply complex Sam and Sadie. Even with much conflict and strife between the two, both completely make sense in their line of thinking and actions. Even with you disagree with one, you understand where they are coming from and can empathize with them. That has always been the sign of a truly great writer and story, when you can create someone as richly interesting and relatable, especially in their wrong doings.

However, I find the games some of the most interesting part of this book! Split between relating directly to the story in unique and innovative ways, and being just SUPER smart and interesting, I loved watching the characters create new game ideas! I found myself walking away from the book dissecting the games, wishing to play them, and even ranking which I'd want to buy if they were real!

I can definitely see myself returning to Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow in a few years to relive all of the gorgeous story, brilliant characters, and heartbreaking moments all over again!

Zevin's writing sometimes felt simplistic (so many lists!), but I loved the overall tone and especially the ending of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow! The friendship depicted here felt complicated, deep and REAL. I blazed through this in a single day!

At its core, this book is a love story. But it is so much more than that, I can give you the synopsis on the back of the book - that this book follows the lives and loves of Sam and Sadie from childhood into adulthood as they create video games together. That is the basic backdrop for a book filled with rich, amazing characters that will forever be emblazoned into my memory.

Sam and Sadie are so relatable, so unique, so interesting, so lovable, so despisable. But beyond them, there is a cast of characters that are so well thought out, so well written, so well-conceived. It is hard to put into words how fantastic this story is. I am not a gamer by any means, having not played a video game since highschool, playing Mario Bros with my little brother. But the games are just a backdrop for the telling of a story about love, redemption, living, and dying. This is a book I would like to revisit some day. It is deep, it is moving, it is depressing, it is inspiring, It is all of us.

Special thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, Knopf Publishing Group, for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars. I saw mixed reviews and I was hesitant going into this book (there's also a lot of words on a page lol), but I found myself flying through the story. I really enjoyed the structure of the book, and the progression of the lives of the characters kept the pages turning. I was never bored, and I felt a nostalgia for games that I've never even played. But I don't think you need to have played a single game to enjoy this book; it's more about the people that make the games and what of themselves they put into and see in their work. Really enjoyed this read.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me this arc.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow was a lovely book to read.

There were many things that I learned about the inner workings of the video game industry and what types of work goes into making a video game.

Each of the characters in this book felt so well developed and dynamic that you could nearly believe that they were real at times.

Overall, it was a great read that I could recomendable to just about anyone.(Check tw though!)

Very different from my normal selections but I really liked this story. Life-long on again off again friends who start a gaming company together while in different Ivy League schools. Massive success brings penetrating scrutiny and high expectations. Their friendship takes the hit and sometimes bouncy back and sometimes breaks. Great relationship story about personal struggles, struggles of opposite sex friends and those in their orbit. Worthwhile read.

An absolutely masterpiece of pace, plot, and heart. Everything everyone has said about this book is true. just make way for the best book of the year.

Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow has been well received by the general public. My own opinion of the book is multifaceted:

I enjoyed the writing, the setting, the work that must have gone into it, and much more.

I really hated the abusive relationship. It was more than I could handle. That does not mean it should be eschewed my the public, but it does mean it was not for me. I won’t stock the book for my 8th graders for many reasons - high level vocab, content concerns, etc., but I will have good, long conversations about it with adults.