Me and my colleagues all read this and it seems to be a real marmite book - its lovely in many ways but just not for me. Having said that....I was one of the few who didn't enjoy it so I think maybe I'm....wrong? Or...different? I'm going to say a solid 3 stars because I can see the appeal to others±

I got to 47% before I decided I couldn’t finish it. It took me about 3 months to get that far and I just didn’t care about any of the characters and wasn’t interested in continuing. I’m happy the book has so many positive reviews but unfortunately it just wasn’t for me.

"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow" is the first line of a speech by MacBeth that is more recognizable for the ending versus the beginning, but that's the point in Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin: all possibilities exist in tomorrow. There are, as Marx the actor says in this book, infinite possibilities, infinite lives. However, as also shown in this book, when tomorrow becomes today, there are only singular endings for us as we make decisions minute by minute.

Sadie and Sam meet in the hospital one day. Sam is there for surgeries and rehab on his foot, which has been crushed and mangled in a car accident; Sadie is there to visit her sister, who has been stricken with cancer. Sam, who has not said a word since the accident, responds to Sadie, and they bond over their love of video games. Thus begins a friendship that we get to develop over the next three decades.

They drift apart after their hospital visits, but meet again almost a decade later - a chance meeting on the subway. Both are attending Ivy League schools, and both are still keenly interested in gaming. They join forces and writer, then release, a game that becomes wildly popular. Although Sadie played a large part in the game, it's Sam who gets the lion's share of attention, although initially this does not bother Sadie - she's more withdrawn than Sam - but as the book continues through their years, it's apparent that it does, at least subconsciously.

While they're developing their first game, Marx, an actor and Sam's roommate, becomes Sadie's friend as well, and now there are three of them, dealing with what we would today call a viral success. Their task now: write a followup that is also successful.

The dynamics of their relationships with one another follows what is probably the most realistic friendship arcs I've read. Friendship is not just besties to broken/fractured/lost to time and back to exactly the same deep friendship that existed before. As Heraclitus tells us, we do not step in the same river twice. As people change, so do their friendships.

Their second release suffers a bit from the sophomore effect, but is still well received. Initially, the three work toward their previous bond, but Sadie and Marx become closer than just friends, which puts a strain on that third bond with Sam.So, they fracture again, more deeply this time.

Then, tragedy strikes the three, which pushes that last friendship to a brittle, thin string and their company to be run by others. The last two part ways, meeting again in a virtual world and then once more in the real world before the book closes.

It's somewhat of a long book, at just over 400 pages. That doesn't seem so much once you've burrowed into the text, especially if you're a gamer or even moderately interested in them. If you are neither a gamer nor particularly interested in video games, each page may feel a bit like trudging through mud. This book is absolutely thick with gaming, coding, actual games, game history, and other nerdly things. The writing may very well pull the hesitant reader through, however, as it's engaging and intelligent, with point of view changes coupled with interesting structural choices throughout.

While I was not really a fan of the virtual world piece just before the end, the remainder of the book I found to be excellent. That minor ding aside, this is a five star read for the reader willing to invest the time.

Five out of five stars.

Thanks to Knopf Doubleday and NetGalley for the reading copy.

The writing here is spectacular and the scenes grabbed me. For the first time, I really understood phantom limb pain. I’m not a gamer, but I could totally get into how the games were created and the depth of thought that went into them. This is a book that will appeal to all readers, not just the young or the gamers.
It’s not a fast or necessarily an easy read. It’s layered and complex. It speaks to all types of love and grief, about the ability to start over, for multiple chances.

this is the story of Sam and Sadie, two childhood friends who reconnect in college and have the ups and downs of long term platonic friendship over many years. They work together on a video game that takes off, making them rich and famous and with that there's many ups and downs. Many have said you don't have to enjoy video games to enjoy this story and I disagree. I found the video games details to be plentiful and very boring. It caused me to lose interest in the story and by the end I was ready for it to be over. It's an ok story overall but one made less interesting with all the video game parts .

✨REVIEW✨
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
By Gabrielle Zevin

sam is in the hospital often for his shattered foot from a traumatic car accident + sadie’s sister has cancer and these two become childhood friends in the hospital’s game room

things I especially loved:
-korean grandparents who run a pizza shop on wilshire in ktown, LA🥹🥹🥹🥹
-1,000 cranes
-precious grandparents 💗

this book is about passionate work, love in friendships, and the shared experiences that connect us all

from firsthand experience you definitely do not need to be a gamer or know about gaming to jump into this delicious novel. this was such a refreshing read, loved getting tangled up in all the emotions & carried along these stories.

I HAVE DIED FROM DYSENTERY but will come back to read this again and again and again

thank you NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for allowing me to read this e-ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!

I had a hard time getting into this one. Everyone says great things. I haven’t read a single bad review but I was stuck at 17%. I hope to get back into it eventually.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Literary Fiction
Format: Kindle eBook
Date Published: 7/5/22
Author: Gabrielle Zevin
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
Pages: 416
Goodreads Rating:

I requested a digital advanced readers copy from NetGalley and Knopf Publishing Group and providing my opinion voluntarily and unbiased.

Synopsis: On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn't heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won't protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.

My Thoughts: This was a beautiful art of literary fiction. The story is narrated by both Sadie and Sam, unreliable narrators, from their perspectives. Their friendship is powered by love but still complicated. They are likable characters, even if a it frustrating at times. This book’s plot is video games, the playing, building, designing, and anything in between. The characters were well developed with layers of depth, connection, compassion, frustration, and creatively written. The author’s writing style was complex, intricate, thought-provoking, and brilliant. This book will take you on an emotional rollercoaster, experiencing all of the emotions on the rainbow. I love the span of the cultural references from when I was growing up from the 80’s through 2000’s. I highly recommend reading this book that was released in July, it is a little on the long side, but worth the investment.

This is such a unique twist on a love story. Does love just have to be about a physical connection to someone? Is there something more intimate than physical intimacy. Literary fiction may not be.my strong suit or preferred genre usually, but I had heard so many amazing things about this book I had to try it for myself. As a nerdy person I did have some knowledge about gaming and older games, and at least awareness bout things they were talking about with programing even though I am not a video programmer by any means.So I loved these characters having a story.

These friends have such bad miscommunication and I think they realized that at the end, they really didn't know each other well for being best friends. They went through so much and even stuff I never ever saw coming. While it was a slow build up, the ending was very satisfying. I think everyone finally came full circle and while tragic, hard, and scary they had a love that worked for them. These are imperfect characters and they don't have a perfect story and sometimes that is just life and that's the story that needs to be told.

Sadie and Sam are a pair of unlikely friends. Sadie is smart, gorgeous, and supported by her family. Raised by his grandparents, Sam is broken physically and emotionally in the aftermath in a horrific car crash in which he lost his mother. Their first encounter in a childrens' hospital in LA involves a shared game of Super Mario Brothers on the NES and an easy friendship ensues.

Years later, they reconnect as college students on the east coast and rekindle their gaming friendship and begin to design their own video game. Zevin takes us along with Sam and Sadie navigating the highs and lows of adulthood without losing the essence of their childhood selves. The notion of redefining relationships of our youth and determining which roles still fit in our evolution of self is something I connected with.

Marx was my favorite character. Couldn't we all have used a best friend/roommate like Marx our freshman year of college? An absolute empath, he was able to anticipate Sam and Sadie's needs and always came in clutch with the quiet save.

I devoured the first 75% of this book because I was so invested in Sam and Sadie's struggles and successes. The last bit of the book dragged a bit for me. Maybe I absorbed some of Sam and Sadie's depression, but I joined them in their doldrums. Having made it through their darkest days, I felt their story just ended abruptly.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is about video games, yes. But the video games were just the vehicle for enduring friendship through decades of shared grief and what can happen when we don't give up on those that we love...and forgive.

Loved loved loved this book. Unlike anything I've read. The whole vibe read like a movie and I thoroughly enjoyed it, Thank you for the arc and apologies for the late review.

I missed the publication date on this one but it’s a fun little book. I tend not to love bestseller novels, and this hit bestseller status almost instantly at the library I work at, so it’s no surprise I only found it average.

As a gamer, I did love the focus on video games that this novel has. I thought from the summary it might only be a gimmick but it was pretty well-developed and didn’t feel like bait for the reader. There is some content in it that wasn't for me, but overall I think this was a strong novel, and since it's already published, anyone reading this one can just go pick it up off the shelf!

This book had and interesting writing style that took a minute to get used to. As a person who is awful with communication, it is quite obvious to me that the 2 main characters could have saved themselves so much heartache if they they just talked to each other! It got quite annoying. Despite that, I did enjoy the story and writing.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t know how I would feel about this book since I am not a gamer.

I shouldn’t have feared. I LOVED this book. Even though it broke my heart and made me cry, it was just amazing.

Sam and Sadie are frustrating and I wanted to shake them half the time, but I loved following their lives and watching them grew together and apart.

Just beautiful.

Loved from first page to last.So well written so involving characters that come alive will be recommending.Another wonderful read from this author.#netgalley #knopf

This book blew me away, seriously . As someone who is a "gamer" I am not well educated on the history of gaming. This book, though, BLEW me away. This is very much if you took the gaming history element of Ready Player One and mixed it with the witty, overly analytical writing of John Green mixed with the study of trauma of a character from A Little Life and combined them all into one book. I adored this, and will see myself reading this again, and again, and again.

This was such a wonderful story. I loved following the ups and downs of Sadie and Sam’s friendship. It is so tempting to want this to be a romance, but as Sadie has to remind Sam what they have is even more special than that. Heartbreaking, frustrating, funny, this book has all the feels.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is the third book by Gabrielle Zevin that I have read. I have loved all of them for different reasons. This one made me nostalgic for the 80s and the 90s.

Sam and Sadie meet as kids in a hospital. This is the story of how their mutual love of playing videos changed their destinies. We follow them from their preteen years until they are in their late 30s.

It's a story about chosen family and belonging and the activities, in this case video games, that weave us together. Even though I am not a gamer, I really enjoyed reading about their time gaming and then as they designed and produced games.

There are some tough subjects broached in this novel but it's handle with care. Even though bad things happen, the wonderful book was a reminder that there is always a way to be ok at the end. I give this one 5 heartfelt stars for the writing, the characters, the plot and overall enjoyment.

Gaming, Gaming, if you enjoy the gaming world then this book is for you. This is my first taste of author Gabrielle Zavin, and I have to say I was impressed, this is beautifully written and smart storytelling that goes back and forth in time, embedded in the world of gaming. We are given a insightful glimpse into the gaming industry, its history and business side, and how gaming can help people endure hard times through the escapism it offers. This is the story of Sadie and Sam who met in a hospital as children. Sam was there recovering from a horrible car accident, and Sadie's sister was undergoing cancer treatment. The two met playing video games together and forged a friendship, which grew and stalled many times over the years. They would go on to create a gaming company and many games together, but the underlying factors in their life and friendship ebbed and flowed continuously. This is an immersive book, full of human actions and interactions. I went from liking Sadie to not liking her and then back again, and the same with Sam. I could understand them sometimes and others I didn't. There are portions of this book that will truly break your heart, because they broke mine and caused me to dissolve into tears. Yet in the end, what are we without each other? And that's what this book communicates best. There are some slower parts that bog the story down just a bit, this makes the book a little longer to read but push through because it is worth it. I’m not a gamer, but I could totally get into how the games were created and the depth of thought that went into them.
Thank you to Netgalley, Author and publisher for the ARC.

This book was full of surprises! I wasn’t anticipating how emotional I would get but that can be credited to the phenomenal character building. I felt like I knew these characters and that translated into empathy for them. The book revolves around a misunderstanding and normally I would find that frustrating but not in this case. The author does a great job planting the seeds and allowing the grudges to grow. The chapter with The Event was one of my favorites because it was so unexpected. I also liked the way the author changed the format of the chapters near the end, especially the one set in the Pioneer game. The games themselves were wonderful and easy to follow for someone with very little knowledge. I do think parts of the book were a little contrived and the pacing did not hit its stride till halfway. However, the emotion and heart of the story really shines through.

Thank you to NetGalley & Knopf Doubleday Publishing for the advanced copy! I had a busy month so it took me a while to finish reading. As a result, the book is already out! Go check it out!