Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Published: July 5, 2022
Knopf Publishing Group
Pages: 481
Genre: Action & Adventure
KKECReads Rating: 5/5
I received a copy of this book for free, and I leave my review voluntarily.

Gabrielle Zevin is the New York Times best-selling and critically acclaimed author of The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry and Young Jane Young. She has also written books for young readers, including the award-winning, Elsewhere. Her books have been translated into thirty-nine languages.

“Time was mathematically explicable; it was the heart—the part of the brain represented by the heart—that was the mystery.”

Sam has lived a hard life. He witnessed a stranger die at his feet, lost his mother in a tragic car accident, and spent much of his childhood in the hospital for injuries to his foot from the accident that killed his mom. But that is where he meets Sadie. Sadie lived a hard life as a child of privilege whose sister had cancer as a child. Luckily, she survived, but Sadie was often an afterthought during her treatment. But that lead her to Sam. And started what would be the most incredible love affair in the history of love.

This is not my typical story. I’m not a gamer, and I know next to nothing about games. The only game I can say I play with any expertise is The Sims, and I am forever a fan.

What is unique about this novel is the complete story arc. You start at the beginning, work through a series of trials and tribulations, and come to an end. But that end isn’t necessarily the end.

I loved the themes. The relationships, the complexities. I love that the characters were so complicated and layered. Marx was larger than life, easy to love, and have love easily. He was loyal and a true friend.

Sadie was a complicated character. I spent a lot of time not caring for her. But I also understood where her feelings were coming from. She spent so much of her life being in the shadow that she wanted to shine.

Sam was a heartbreakingly beautiful character. Very mechanical but deeply emotional. He was a true visionary who could see and solve a gaming problem immediately. But give him a human issue, and he would be stumped.

This novel is so much more than I expected it to be. It’s about life, love, passion, trauma, pain, growth, forgiveness- the list could go on.

This is one of those books that should be recommended and read. Every book club should consider this title. The book presents so much to discuss—beautifully written, incredibly heartfelt, and dynamically different.

Wow! No words can describe how much I enjoyed this book but let me tell you that after finishing this, I immediately checked out a copy from BOTM.

This is my first time reading a Gabrielle Zevin book even though I heard a lot of good things from my friends about the author's previous works.

I may not be able to write a decent review but one thing's for sure, this book will be a timeless modern classic that will be loved by generation of readers from today, tomorrow, tomorrow, and tomorrow.

This is a love story. It’s not a romance. It’s the story of two people who bring out the best and not so great in each other. What’s it like to love someone out of reach and yet near you all the time? Sam and Sadie meet when Sam is in the hospital and Sadie visits home through her volunteer work. After this teenage experience, they cross paths again when attending university in the same city, their connection is creating video games and together, they create great video games, start a business, have grown up problems and trials. It’s bumpy and at times ugly, but the thread of their connection makes for a great story.

Sadie and Sam have the best love story considering they’ve never been in a romantic relationship. It seems strange to say that about a book with a heavy gaming theme, but I feel like this is also a love story, at its heart.

Spanning over 25-ish years from two young kids playing a console game in a hospital to college kids designing and launching a game that will change the course of their lives, to 30-somethings dealing with loss in its greatest form, Sadie and Sam have been through it all sometimes together and sometimes not.

Even if you’re not a gamer (I’m not), I’m confident you’ll find something relatable in this story.

This wonderful novel is about friendship, growth, love, and the creative life. The creative life it imagines is what kept me from jumping on this book the first time I heard about it, and I was so wrong.

That life is the creation of video games. Fearing show-off-y and boring discussions about coding and algorithms, creepy tech moguls and blood splatter, I put Gabrielle Zavin’s book aside. Please don’t do the same! All discussions of game creation are accessible, increase your understanding and move the story forward.

Because Sadie, Ben, and Marx are such a literate and artistic trio, their inspirations for their games are books and plays, classic art and self-exploration. Their intelligent exploration and audacious expression of these lead to beautiful and highly popular games. These characters are immediately relatable and engaging, with well-spun backstories. Accompanying them as they begin their creative journey and remaining by their sides as they become Old School in their industry is pure pleasure.

Character-driven with a surprising plot, “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” is not to be missed.

Thanks to Netgalley and Knopf for access to this title in exchange for an honest review.

A mix of The Social Network and Ready Player One with a literary fiction lens... I wasn't completely sold initially, but I absolutely loved this one. It's a fantastic story whether or not you consider yourself a "gamer", though I definitely do! We delve into the lives of Sam, Sadie, and Marx as they navigate the burgeoning videogame industry in the 1990's and deal with the landmark success that is their first game. But it's not all sunshine and rainbows - we talk about difficult topics like grief, loss, depression, and abuse. Each part of this book feels like a game itself, be it how it changes character perspectives or narrative voice, following along with the different videogames being produced. And in all reality, I want to play ALL of these games! I'd recommend this to readers looking for something to hit them in the feels, though I always recommend researching trigger warnings first, or who's looking to feel creative again.

*Thank you to Knopf and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review*

“The thing I find profoundly hopeful when I’m feeling despair is to imagine people playing, to believe that no matter how bad the world gets, there will always be players.”

Wow, what a story!

We just started playing Mario Bro. with our 6 year old so the timing of this couldn’t have been more perfect. I loved being transported back to the 90s when video games were so exciting and new.

The relationship between Sam and Sadie, albeit complicated, was powerful and raw. With a few exceptions, I thought all the ups and downs of their friendship were understandable and an inevitable part of the growth of a friendship and working relationship.

This is an original, thought-provoking, and we’ll-written story. My first book by Zevin and definitely not my last!

Thank you @netgalley and @aaknopf for the arc in exchange for an honest review!

⚠️ two major trigger possibilities in this one so please reach out if you’d like to know.

this new novel from the author of “The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry” comes this amazingly deep story about friendship. The story starts off as a chance meeting between the two main characters Sadie and Sam in a children’s hospital gaming room. The story goes through changing narrators and times and delves into so many issues with living along with and having relationships with people for years and years.

I really enjoyed how the time moved along and how the narration changed throughout the book, helping to emphasize some of the themes that are brought up from childhood to adulthood and beyond. The relationships and conversations felt so realistic I felt at times that I could have remembered hearing all of it before.

Although the story of Sadie and Sam is based on creating video games and having lots of nostalgia for older gaming consoles this is not a prerequisite, Zevin writes this growth story so easily that anyone can enjoy something about it and I will be recommending this to everyone.

The parallels of the games they are developing and how their relationship develops is perfection. I did not want this story to end at all and honestly didn’t even feel like what I had read was as long as it actually was. I just love Zevin’s writing style and even though it was so completely different from my other favorite of her’s it still speaks to me in the same way.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday publishing group for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

This is a new release from a critically acclaimed American author, whose previous work includes "The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry". This new novel features two childhood friends (Sam mad Sadie) who meet again as university students. Both share a love of video games and Sadie is taking a gaming course at MIT, while Sam is majoring in math at Harvard. As the friendship resumes, they decide to take a semester off to create a new game. This is a coming-of-age story about friendship, disability, and the need to connect with others. It is a wonderful recommendation for anyone looking for a beautifully written story with great characters...and you do not have to be a gamer to enjoy it.

An intimate story of epic proportions, Gabrielle Zevin’s latest book doesn’t require you to be a gamer, but like Easter Eggs (the hidden treasures game designers put in their games) it certainly is a bonus. But removing the game aspect, more than anything it’s a love letter to enduring friendships and the richness that is found there through it’s ups and downs over the years. In this case, thirty years to be exact, as Sadie and Sam meet as young kids while Sam is recovering in a hospital from a terrible car accident and Sadie is there visiting her sister. Both are hardcore gamers and it’s this love of the game that will propel them in the long run to become designers and partners developing a smash hit that brings great success and all it’s trappings including jealousies, insecurities and misunderstandings that can cause fault lines in the most stable of relationships.
⠀
Zevin’s characters including their producing partner and life third wheel, Marx are all so wonderfully rendered that you can’t help but feel such a tremendous affinity for them. It’s also such a pleasure to read such a well crafted book that, much like a great video game, unfolds it’s narrative with such confidence. Zevin moves our characters forward but at times rolls back enough to fill in crucial backstory that enriches them each even more. And she plays with her love of both story and games by literally melding them in an extended chapter in the latter half of the book that I thought was simply genius. In a year of simply great literature, this heartfelt, creative and thoroughly imaginative book levels up repeatedly. I loved it.
⠀

***thank you to Netgalley and Knopf for an advanced copy of this book***

Wow. This book. I didn’t know what to expect—a book about 2 gamers in the early aughts. I figured, with everything going on a little nostalgia sounds good. DO NOT BE FOOLED. This is an immense story about people, relationships, love, and hope. I devoured this book. The characters were well flushed out and the gaming aspect was delightful. As an infrequent gamer, I was easily able to follow along and it even made me pick up my Nintendo switch for the first time in a year. I can’t stop thinking about this book. Truly a top 5 read.

Ohhhhh, I loved this book.

I also loved Gabrielle Zevin's previous book, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, but this book is VERY different. The same emotional storytelling is present, but this story is darker and grittier.

There is so much to unpack in this book. It is about video games (and the way the author uses the games to tell the story is brilliant), but it's also about a beautifully flawed friendship that spans decades.

I have a hardcover copy on its way to me, because this is definitely a book I want to share with others.

I just loved this book -- I was hooked from the beginning and I honestly had no idea where it was going to go. I loved how the narrative unfolded and I highlighted so many passages in this book because it was so beautifully written! I will re-read this because of the language but also because of the friendship it described, it felt so real but also aspirational.

This book was just so lovely and well written and beautiful and I didn't want it to end. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow comes out next week on July 5, 2022, you can purchase HERE, and I hope you consider reading this one!

"What is a game?" Marx said. "It's tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. It's the possibility of infinite rebirth, infinite redemption. The idea that if you keep playing, you could win. No loss is permanent, because nothing is permanent, ever."

This book was such a delightful read! Sadie and Sam are both flawed and beautifully written. You root for them both the entire book. It’s a love story, sure, but so much more. I could not put it down!

Thanks to Knopf and NetGalley for an ARC of this title.

I picked this up based on the description and some early reviews, and then got absolutely sucked in when I finally started reading when I realized it took place in Cambridge, MA. I know the locations the book references in the Boston area well, and that only added to my enjoyment. I couldn't put this down, and devoured it in a few sittings - even if you're not a video game person, you'll find something in the characters to keep you going. It does some great stuff with narrative style between sections, and these feel like real people throughout. It doesn't surprise me that it's already been picked up for adaptation - this feels like prime limited series material for something like a Hulu.

*4.5 stars*

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is a beautifully written book following the lives of two friends Sadie and Sam though the unpredictable ups and downs of friendship, all the messiness and all the joy, while also exploring the mysteries and frustrations of the creative process.

When Sadie's sister Alice is hospitalized, Sadie finds herself roaming the hall, trying to find something to occupy her time. She soon meets Sam, a young boy whose foot has been crushed in a car accident and who has not spoken since. That is until the day he bonds with Sadie over video games and the two become fast friends, until something happens to break them apart.

Eight years later they meet again, brought together once more because of video games. They work together to create a video game that rockets them into fame. Through smart dialogue, video game culture, tragedy and an intimate look at disability, we get an up close look at a friendship that spans decades and is as beautiful as it is complicated.

While I enjoyed Zevin's A Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, it was a bit too on the nose for me at times, too in your face with its messages. I was afraid this book would be like that, too. While there were moments this novel that could have been more subtle, and the plot could have a been tighter, I was pleasantly surprised at the nuance and complexity of the themes.

It was so smartly written that I would stop and read some passages over and over again. There was one chapter near the end that I thought was brilliantly perfect. It was amazing!

I would highly recommend this book if you love books about friendships, love video games or enjoy reading about the messiness of living life.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for the digital arc copy.

In a Nutshell: A moving story of relationships. Great character development. Outstanding writing. Medium-paced. Gaming knowledge not required.

Story Synopsis:
Samson Mazer and Sadie Green first met in the hospital in 1987. One of them has a sick sister, the other is recovering from a car accident. A shared love for video games results in an unlikely friendship but a misunderstanding soon separates the friends. When they bump into each other 8 years later at a crowded train station, many things have changed but their passion for gaming hasn’t. They decide to collaborate on a new game, and with this begins a new phase of their joint story – one that will cause many ups and downs. This is a story of the worlds and connections built by Sam and Sadie, both in real life as well as in the virtual domain.

Where the book worked for me:
😍 I had been apprehensive of picking this book up because I had assumed this to be as intense as ‘Ready Player One’ when it comes to gaming knowledge. Thankfully, you don’t need to be an avid gamer to enjoy this because video games are just part of the background. There are tech terms but not so many as would overwhelm a gaming newbie.
😍 The main story is all about human connection and communication. A vast range of relationships is explored – friends, parents, grandparents, teachers, peers, colleagues, lovers (straight and queer). It is an amazing array of human associations and how this impacts our thinking and decisions.
😍 The book is medium-paced but the story is such that it keeps you hooked. It is quite intense on the emotions, quite unlike what one would expect from a book with gaming as a binding factor.
😍 The main trio – Sam, Sadie, and Sam’s best friend Marx – are complex characters and tough to slot into any predefined moulds. Each of them displays a layered personality that evolves and sometimes even devolves, throughout the story. Through them, we get to explore a wide range of emotions as well as ponder upon what we might have done in their place. The varied cultural backgrounds of the trio also helps to add some novelty to the narrative.
😍 I wasn’t a big fan of the cover art at first but the story reveals the role of the Hokusai wave in the proceedings, and also the source and significance of the title, “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow”. I don’t want to reveal the latter here but once it came up in the book, it felt perfect!
😍 The vocabulary will be a delight to every logophile. It is not needlessly flowery or verbose, just precise to the situation. I was thanking my lucky stars I was reading this on my Kindle because I needed to use the dictionary quite often. The writing is a treat.

Where the book could have worked better for me:
☠ The final 15% drags too much. Some scenes in this segment were needlessly stretched and this brought down my overall rating.
☠ The secondary characters don’t get much attention except when they are needed in the lives of the main trio. Some of these can be excused but for some crucial people such as Sadie’s parents, their absence in the second half doesn’t make sense.

All in all, despite the clumsy finale, I enjoyed this book a lot. I didn’t feel like keeping it aside once I had started, and the characters won my heart with their realistic complexity. Definitely recommended.

4.25 stars.

My thanks to Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and NetGalley for the DRC of “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

Truly, the publisher’s note says it best and sets the tone perfectly:

“Sadie and Sam are the heart of this book, and I think there is a little bit of them in all of us. So yes, if you love video games, you will love this book. But also, if you’ve ever felt different, you will love this book. If you have ever wanted someone who didn’t want you back. If you grew up in the 90s. If your grandparents were immigrants.[…]Basically, if you are a human, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a book for you.” ⠀
⠀
THIS BOOK. It’s a book I know I won’t be able to stop thinking about. It’s just got so many layers. It’s about the philosophy of life and how that can be reflected in games and virtual worlds. It’s about friendship and found family, that love equal to or more profound than romantic love.

“We we’re together. You must know that. When I’m honest with myself, the most important parts of me were yours.”

It’s about chronic pain and disability and how that can manifest and shape us. It’s about self doubt, toxic relationships, and the way we cycle through our own internal highs and lows riddled with the fear of failure and the high of brilliance. There’s grief and trauma, mental health and depression, emotional and physical loss that manifests in isolation, resentment, jealousy — but also connection, understanding, and bonding. ⠀

“That’s a game character’s life, too,” Sam said. “The world of infinite restarts. Start again at the beginning, this time you might win.”
⠀
Highlighting issues in STEM like burnout and representation, the gender gap and the abuse of power, this will not feel like an easy or comforting read, but it will also feel like a salve and balm at times because it’s so honest. There’s just so much packed in, but not in a way that feels overwhelming, rather it’s a messy tapestry that feels vivid and authentic to the messiness of life.

This is hopeful, refreshing, and challenging in the best ways.⠀

“What is a game?” Marx said. “It’s tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. It’s the possibility of infinite rebirth, infinite redemption. The idea that if you keep playing, you could win. No loss is permanent, because nothing is permanent, ever.” If that doesn’t crack your heart in half and make your soul hurt, I don’t know what will.
⠀
This has great Asian American, Jewish, and Immigrant representation, and also includes queer relationships. Thank you @librofm and @aaknopf for my ALC and galley, this is such a special read.

#TOMORROWANDTOMORROWANDTOMORROW by #gabriellezevin is a gorgeous gamer novel of fellowship, collaboration and craft. How magnificent life can be, even one mired in grief and loss, to share what you love with the people you love most. This is definitely a favorite of the year.

From the moment we meet Sam and Sadie, we feel a pulse of all the great things yet to come. Sam describes how seeing a person you love is much like time travel. Standing in the middle of a train station, he observes her at eleven years old, when they first met in the game room at a children’s hospital, as well as all the years still ahead, if only he can bring to fruition his idea to design a video game together.

A player finds much solace in gaming; it distracts us from pain and the mundane. And so the story of Sam and Sadie unfold, from taking on an ambitious summer project to starting their own company, games provide the backdrop to breakups, sickness and death. To be able to build a whole world, even virtually, means to save lives. Success, however, is not only about myth-making and the ride into the stratosphere, but the acceptance that a story must also conclude. This book was such a perfect blend of nostalgia. I can’t help but fondly recall all the hours I used to spend playing my favorite games.

Thank you to @aaknopf and @netgalley for providing an eARC for review. #TOMORROWANDTOMORROWANDTOMORROW is available TODAY.

This book is in contention for the best book I've read all year! The story follows three childhood and college friends, Sadie, Marx, and Sam through their 30s. I thoroughly enjoyed the gamer background of this book, but one does not have to be into gaming to enjoy it thoroughly. I was reminded of the feeling of nostalgia that I got when reading Ready Player One many years ago. The title is a quote from Macbeth about the seemingly unimportant, fleeting nature of life. Zevin's writing is full of beautiful quotes that bring back the nostalgia with a sprinkling of life wisdom, for example: "Friendship", Marx said, "is kind of like having a Tamagotchi". I've already recommended it to several of my friends!