4.5 Stars. Fantastic novel about friendship and love, the value of play, disability, and identity. Yes, it's also about two friends who create video games, but it's not really about video gaming. The novel starts in Cambridge, MA in the mid-1990s when Sadie and Sam are both in college. I immediately connected with the setting (being about the same age as the duo and also having attended a nearby prestigious college), and feeling of youth. Sam and Sadie are both complex, fully-realized characters. I loved them both.

"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.

Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond . . ."

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf Publishing for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Rating (4/5) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Publishing date July 5th 2022
Thank you Netgalley and Knopf publishing for providing an advanced ebook copy! When I first saw this book was about video games , I wasn’t so sure I would enjoy it , but you don’t have to be interested in or know anything about them to enjoy the story. I really enjoyed this one! I loved the references to the Oregon Trail - a computer game that most adults my age played back in elementary school! This is a story about people, about relationships, and about growing up! Compelling read I recommend to anyone!

"Let her know you're there. And if you can manage it, bring her a cookie, a book, a movie to watch. Friendship," Marx said, "is kind of like having a Tamagotchis."

Oh man! This story was marvelous. I think it could easily take me several days to unpack it all so this will be a short and sweet review. Sadie and Sam meet as kids in a hospital in Southern California. Sadie is there due to her sister having what might be cancer, Sam because he had been in a terrible car accident and his foot was severely damaged. They become fast friends while playing video games. After over 600 hours of game time in the hospital, over the course of many many months, they have a bad falling out. Six years later however as fate would have, they meet at a train station in Boston. After that chance meeting they decide to create a video game together. The game changes their lives forever. But Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow isn't just about gaming. It's about the complexity of friendship and different types of love. Having career ups and downs and trying to navigate life in your 20's and 30's.

I'm embarrassed to admit this was my first time reading Gabrielle Zevin's work, especially since The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry is sitting in my book shelf that I walk past everyday! Her writing is truly beautiful and its obvious how much time and effort she puts into her books. I loved the gaming aspect. My sister and I loved Mario and Sonic growing up. It was fun to hear about the back end of creating games. Thank you so much Knopf and NetGalley for the gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.

At first one would think this book is nearly about the world of video games, but it is much, much more. This is such a wonderful book about friendship in many of life’s stages, and overcoming trauma. The characters were wonderfully written and lovable. Sam and Sadie will live in my heart forever.

Thank you to the author, the publisher, and to Netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin is a beautifully written journey of two young kids facing traumas that cope through their love of video games. This story made me feel so many emotions and had a lot of ups and downs. At times I was so frustrated with the main characters (Sadie and Sam) that I had to put the book down and come back to it. In the end, I am giving it 5 stars. These characters are flawed but aren’t we all.
Things I loved about the book: I loved all of the video game, pop-culture and literature references. I especially liked how they would change with the year/decade. I loved the theme of the “video game life”. Imagine if we had the chance of a do over until we reached perfection.

On the surface this is a book about gamers and those who create the games. Sounds like something I would not enjoy since I don’t play video games, but this book is so much more than that. It’s about growing up, love, friendship and surmounting difficult things in life. Sam, Sadie, and Marx are all wonderful, multifaceted characters. The story is extremely well written. And I did enjoy learning a bit about the gaming world!

Gabielle Zevin's newest novel Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a long but beautifully written story of video games and friendship and love. Sam Masur and Sadie Green meet when they are young over a shared loved of video games. Years later when they are in college they are reunited, and again still share a passion or video games. They form a partnership and design a very successful game together. Told over the span of a few decades, Zevin covers topics such as grief and loss, disability, economic hardships and abusive relationships. Zevin has a way with characters, are Sam and Sadie feel so very real, that you'll miss them when you're done reading.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, is another emotional, full-of-story book by Gabrielle Zevin! Following the interlacing lives of Sam and Sadie, who have known each other since childhood, we see the leveling up of the two as they develop video games, grow a company, and deal with how to continue a friendship as one matures.

It's hard to condense this chunky book into a review, but here are some thoughts:
-There are slow bits, and sometimes there are brick of text, which make it feel a bit long.
-The story is bittersweet and emotional. I would have used the word sad, but I think just using that word is a bit reductive for what all is going on in this story. It definitely tugs on some heart strings.
-There is disability representation, and it can be both hard and good to read.
-Grief really coats most of this book. Which I personally like!
-The arts are featured a lot in the story, on top of video gaming, which I thought was great. There's theater, visual arts, etc. It reminds you that video games are more than just something you play.

Overall, I would recommend!

Thanks to Netgalley and Knopf for the e-ARC.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is getting a lot of traction on the gram stateside, so I was elated to discover it on Netgalley this month and eager to dive in. Here’s my quick take…

The story centres around Sam and Sadie, childhood pals who bond over their shared love of video games. From here, the story follows the pair over two decades as they pave their way through adult life and the tribulations of love, heartbreak, ambition, uncertainty and devastation (to name a few). It’s a complex tale of friendship and illustrates the type of intimacy that one only really has with someone who gets under one’s skin, but has never touched it. Theirs is a really intense, frustrating at times, platonic love and one that is easily shaken but perhaps never broken.

Sam and Sadie are gamers. They play games, they create games, they promote and sell games and I for one, LOVED this particular component. It’s great that games are finally getting some decent recognition outside of the gaming world. At the same time, I cannot stress enough that loving games is not a prerequisite in order to enjoy this immersive story.

My one critique, and it is admittedly a small one, is that I think it ran a little long. For this reason, it stops short of a top of the pops read for me. At the same time, it’s definitely one I would recommend to anyone looking for a fresh alternative to all the sugary beach reads that are heavily circulated this time of year. All in all, a pleasure! 💜

This is very good, which is not really a surprise since this author has written a number of highly rated books. This has lots of helpful reviews, so I'll simply recommend it.

I really appreciate the free ARC for review!!

I loved this book. Sadie and Sam meet in a hospital children's ward as 12 year olds - Sam is playing video games and Sadie is visiting her sister - and this beings a life long friendship with many bumps along the way. Both are incredibly bright and meet again in college where Sam is at Harvard and Sadie at MIT and they decide to build a video game together. It immediately becomes insanely popular, and with the help of Marx, Sam's roommate and best friend, create a company and spend the next 20 years creating. It's the story of Sam and Sadie's relationship though all sorts of ups and downs. Sam is very insecure and is always in pain from his disability, and hides most, if not all of his feelings. Sadie does not. They are like oil and water. Marx says tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, borrowed from Macbeth, is like video games - there is always a chance at life again when you die in a video game, and you can always take that chance. Marx is very positive, and is always there to fix what has gone wrong in Sam and Sadie's lives. And even though they are like oil and water, and even though they seem to always be at odds with one another, and they spend a lot of time apart, they still love one another.

I cannot say enough good things about this book! Though this is a story mainly about platonic love, what a story it is! Gabrielle Zevin does relationships so well-- and the fact that the relationship between the two main characters Sam and Sadie isn't romantic makes it even better. It's multi-layered, complex, and messy. But oh so very real. This book delivers a punch to the gut but in a good way. Memorable and unforgettable. Highly recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and author Gabrielle Zevin for gifting me with an ARC of her newest novel; Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. In exchange I offer my unbiased review.

Almost as wonderful as The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, this new book by Gabrielle Zevin will leave you with #AllTheFeels ❣️Sam & Sadie are childhood besties until a misunderstanding shatters their friendship. Years later they reconnect only to once again have a falling out. It’s a story about friendship, love, responsibility, expectations, staying true to your art , promises & promise.

This multilayered story was full of nostalgia and heart. Sadie and Sam bond as teens over their love of video games both preferring virtual worlds and realities over their current ones. It’s their love of gaming, games and ultimately each other that remains a constant as this novel spans several decades. While I didn’t understand all the gaming references, as I’m old school Pong and Pac Man, it didn’t matter at all. Sadie and Sam along with the secondary characters will worm their way into your world.

This is a MUST READ - available July 5, 2022.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin is an immersive story about growing up, friendship/found family, and video games from the 1990s to present-day. This is a book for people who enjoy character driven stories that span several decades. I loved the pop culture references and throw back to many youthful memories.

This book explores the relationships of three friends, where the relationship between Sadie and Sam is most central. The book follows this central relationship from childhood through adulthood. I loved the backstory of these two characters and how their lives are woven together. Their relationship starts organically as children when both Sam and Sadie are dealing with individual life challenges. However, their loving friendship is continually tested, as they try to figure out their place in the world both as individuals and in relationship with each other.

What makes this relationship especially interesting is the backdrop of the gaming world where Sam and Sadie’s relationship intensifies as they expand their gaming roles from players to designers. I have to admit I was a bit wary about the gaming aspect prior to reading this book, since it's not a world I inhabit. However, the author invites the reader into this world with just the right amount of explanation so that I was engaged and enjoyed learning about the gaming world.

This book would be enjoyed by anyone who likes a story that is character driven and follows the relationship of characters over time. All types and levels of relationship are explored - including romance, friendship, parental, and work relationships. The characters grow in ways that feel real and satisfying. After finishing this book, it's difficult to say goodbye to characters who feel so real.

Trigger note - gun violence and sexual violence are part of the story, but not overly graphic.

A big thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an Arc of this wonderful novel in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for.providing me a copy of this book to review.

If there is bookish catnip for me, it is this book: a long, character-driven tale about a friendship and found family. Sam and Sadie meet as children but have a falling out. When Sam forces his way back into Sadie:s life in college on the other side of the country, they begin a partnership that lasts years, creating video games together.

The characters of Sadie, Sam, and Marx, and their family members and friends, are so vivid and real. Some of the stylistic choices in this novel are beyond creative and blew me away. I loved everything about it.

If you need an action-packed book, this is probably not for you. But if you don't care what happens as long as the characters are amazing and grow and the writing is fantastic, I think you'll love this one too.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow follows the lives of Sam, Sadie, and Marx, three individuals who are linked by their love of playing and creating video games. They are programmers, designers, producers and more. But from the beginning, Sadie and Sam keep rubbing each other the wrong way which affects their collaboration and their creativity. Sadie, Sam, and Marx's desire to create games that are gender neutral, that are accepting of different lifestyles, and that present a wide range of human experiences becomes their downfall. But not how you might think. There are references to Shakespeare, to Homer, to Emily Dickenson, and more, each seamlessly integrated into the narrative.

Gabrielle Zevin has come up with a very original concept and she presents it in her own unique way. The characters are endlessly fascinating and are constantly growing and changing as the novel progresses. At 416 pages, this book is somewhat long but it is never boring. It kept my interest throughout.

Ultimately a story of growing up and all the different types of love one should be so lucky as to encounter in their life, Tomorrow and... tells the story of childhood on again off again best friends Sadie and Sam, following them through their lives as they come together over the shared love of game creation and draw apart over misunderstandings and that same shared love. It's like being a fly on the wall in their lives, watching them experience success and failure, all while trying to understand exactly what they mean to each other, what that means for how they want to spend their lives.

I loved this book. I don't have many other words than that, but this book was just lovely. I really felt like I knew Sadie, Sam, and Marx, and I was living my life parallel to theirs. I thought this book successfully took a topic that is very nostalgic for many people (including me), the rise of popular gaming in the 90s and 2000s, and made it meaningful to the characters, not just a list of cool things they happened to toss about when needed (looking at you Ready Player One). I also felt that it didn't neglect anyone who may not have that set of knowledge or memories. It explained what was important for the story and why it was important to our characters, but never over explained anything either. I thought the games that Sadie and Sam created were very clever and fit into their appropriate time periods well, along with other games from that time. I loved the snippets of articles and interviews with popular tech publications. It honestly felt like they fit in with the time period, and I had to remind myself that they and their games weren't real multiple times.

I really loved the relationships of this book and the emphasis on platonic love. You don't see that done very often, let alone done well, and it was done extremely well here.

It's difficult for me to accurately pinpoint everything that made this so enjoyable, but I honestly did enjoy the whole book and walked away with a feeling of contentment. It's not a happy book, but it's also not a sad or tragic story. It feels real, and I think that's what I liked about it most of all. The middle can drag a bit, as Sadie, Sam, and Marx become comfortable with their business and lives, but that kind of fits with real life too, so I can't fault it for that. I bought a physical copy of this book to keep, despite already having read it and having a digital copy. It's one I want to keep on my shelves and revisit when I need a hug.

Rating: 2.5
This is the type of book that I wish I loved, bit I just didn't. I don't typically like literary fiction because they're usually too pretentious and are usually about toxic friendships/relationships and it's almost never done well to me.

This is a story of a complicated relationship between childhood friends. Their relationship begins under false pretenses and throughout the book they graple with the complexities of their friendship. Sadie and Sam have a friendship that is complicated to say the least. And then they become business partners! They are joined in that endeavor by Sam's roommate turned friend Marx. The the friends are in the business of creating computer games. I imagine you can still love this book if you didn't grow up with computer games, but I greatly appreciated the references to some of my favorites from childhood: Kings Quest, The Oregon Trail, Commander Keen, and more. It was really fun to be transported in time via these game references!

I truly loved the story of these friends and how their relationship changed over time. Though he was technically a secondary character, I especially loved Marx and his heart of gold. He had a way of holding everything together! If you've loved other books by this author, there's a good chance you'll enjoy this one, too!