I read this book in under 3 days (2 of which were work days) and finishing a 400-pager in that time speaks to how engaging and hard to put down it was. This is the story of a friendship between two imperfect human beings, united by their love for video games.

While Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow sounded like a promising read, I did not expect to get so invested in it! Sadie and Sam first met at the hospital. Sadie’s sister was undergoing treatment while Sam had been in a car accident, recovering from a shattered leg. Sam was twelve and Sadie was eleven. They bonded in the hospital’s gaming room, taking turns playing the same characters.

Writing & Storytelling
There are many styles of writing that are prevalent in literature: chronologically order, time jumps in chapters, flashbacks to the past to name a few. I think flashbacks take the most skill because in the process of talking about the past, you don’t want to distract the reader from the present situation. Gabrielle Zevin develops the characters and their families masterfully with flashbacks, sprinkling little Easter eggs throughout the book, rewarding the attentive reader who can connect the dots. Sadie notices the poster of a Korean beer commercial with the most beautiful woman in town at Dong Bong Pizza, Sam’s grandparents restaurant. Later, Sam recalls his mother’s professional life and sheds light on the timing of when she starred in that very commercial. Another of my favorites was when Marx and Sadie get together, from Sadie’s point of view, Sam has shaved off his hair. Later, in Marx’s perspective, I learned how that came to be.

Marx leaves the pitch by the Worths for Our Infinite Days on S’s desk, leaving the reader guessing who it was – Sam or Sadie, who did Marx want a second opinion from? Later, Ant and Sam find it in someone’s office. I am not telling you who.

While the flashbacks built the characters, the snippets from future interviews provided foreshadowing of what was to come. A fallout is always alluded to and how it transpires is a journey worth reading.

In this manner, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow had a game feel to it too.

Themes
1) Creativity
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a tribute to creativity through video games, literature (Shakespeare), music and painting. The cover of the book comes from the famous painting of The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai which inspires one of the games by Sadie and Sam. The title is from Marx’s favorite part about Macbeth, a speech of the same name, spoken by Macbeth himself in Act 5 Scene 5.

As they play games, they think about what makes a good game and when the opportunity presents itself, they embark on creating a game together. Sadie is a trained game designer while Sam is self-taught. He is often the visionary while she is the one who brings his visions to life, blending technology and storytelling. Ichigo holds a special place in both their hearts but their relationship and skill is no longer the same when Ichigo is completed. Once the creative process is done, the professional obligations begin – marketing, publicity, and of course, creating a 2.0 version. While Sadie choses to take the backseat with prompting the game and Marx takes care of the day to day running of their company, Unfair Games, Sam ends up being the face of many of the games that they three work on together.

There is tension around a woman making it into a male-dominated industry. There are questions about pursuing a craft to make money or for the sake of creativity. Sam uses Maplewood to make many political statements, the first one being Sadie’s idea to introduce marriage in the MMORPG. I loved how real world events were woven into the narrative. Their effect on society and the gaming industry is explored beautifully through the happenings at Unfair Games.

There is a deep love for video games and how they have been pivotal in shaping players, particularly Sam and Sadie. Games continue to be something they return to in their adult years.

2) Changing Times
A book spanning three decades should showcase changing relationships and priorities for the characters. This was one of my favorite parts about Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. As time passed, the characters and their relationships evolved too. Sam and Sadie grow throughout the story. They are ambitious young people who are important to each other but also recognize that their friendship is one that does not require them to talk to each other every day or live in the same city. They can live their lives separately and still be in each other’s lives.

Spanning thirty years gave Sadie and Sam the opportunity to grow and later reflect on how far they had come. They may have completely different lives from when they were young kids or in university, but their love for games and creating will always bring them back together. They thought about how things would have been different if Sadie and Sam had been born in a different time. They were one of the first to develop video games, when the industry was still quite new, gaming engines were still few in numbers and technology still had a long way to go for hardware, speed, performance and graphics. Sam remarks how launching a Japanese-inspired game would have had a number of hurdles in a saturated market of gaming and the political atmosphere.

Sam eventually has to pick up the running of the company. Sadie does not have space for Unfair Games and she takes a backseat. I got the impression that she remained a founder and executive but no longer actively developed games at the time the book ends. The author does write of the possibility that Sam and Sadie could develop a game again. I liked that messaging. Life goes on, things change but our passions are always there for us to tap into.

3) Friendship
In chatting with Laur, we reflected on the parts of Sam and Sadie that they chose to share with one another. It speaks to how friendships and relationships tend to be. We share all of us with very few people, and can be quite selective in other aspects of us that people see. While Sadie did not want Sam to know about Dov when they were together while building Ichigo, Sam would never talk about his pains with Sadie. He wasn’t too thrilled about a broken body and had such high pain endurance levels that it was a normal part of life for him.

For Sadie, I suspect there was a kind of creativity she glimpsed from being with Dov. He saw potential in her that no one else ever had. There were darker sides to the relationship but by acknowledging them to her friends, she may have had to give up the brighter sides as well. So selective sharing was something both Sam and Sadie engaged in in order to keep their main project – their game – as the focal point of their interactions. While Sadie would not have grown into the designer and world builder she was without Sam, Sam would also not have become the creator he became.

This book is sometimes slotted under the romance genre and I heartily disagree. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is about love and friendship. It is about being in each other’s lives and accepting the ways in which people show up in ours. It is a reminder that we can love someone without choosing to marry them – it is healthy to have relationships and strong feelings for someone who is not our spouse or child or family. Friends make life special and this book highlights that through Sadie and Sam.

Many thanks to publisher for the review copy.

This book took me multiple tries to get into on my e-reader. It wasn’t until I got ahold of a physical copy that I was able to enjoy it. While as a whole I did really like this book I didn’t necessarily like either of the main characters Sam and Sadie. For such close partners/friends I found both of them terrible at communicating with each other.

My favorite character had to be Marx. He brought the heart to the book. Sadie and Sam at times came across as very cold and unfeeling to me.

I did enjoy following their lives over an almost 20 year span together and the ups and downs that took place during that period.

My largest critique of this book though was I found it very wordy at times. Like the writer was just trying to prove how smart she was. As someone who doesn’t game I was a little lost during the parts of the books.

Overall though I thought the book was very good and I was glad I was able to finally read it and see what all the hype was about.

A beautiful, winding love story told through the lens of modern day video game creation, this book is a masterful and heartbreaking read. If you haven’t yet picked up this 2023 must-read, don’t wait.

Anyone saying that this story is not about video games is a big fat liar. There I’ve said it sorry-not-sorry.

Yes this book is about many things as the author herself writes at the end of the story - it’s about love, it’s about friendship, it’s about family, it’s about the work ethic. It’s about many things but it is most certainly, first and foremost, a story about the gaming world. The main storyline itself melds into an imaginary video game, the lines of which are very blurred to the point where I didn’t know what was fact and what was fiction.

Am I glad I read this? Sure as I’ve loved Zevin’s 2 previous books. Did I read it feeling the pressure to do so because everyone around says it’s a book that they loved and have thought about long after? This is also true. Will I recommend it to anyone who does not care about gaming? Absolutely not. Will I recommend it to my daughter who I hope goes into this very field Zevin writes about? Absolutely.

Gaming is nothing I’ve ever been interested in and it’s the bane of my existence having 2 teenagers at home who chose to game over anything else. I skipped long detailed descriptive passages in this book because I just wanted to get back to the main storyline. Did I miss anything by doing so? Probably but I did get the gist of the dynamics between the characters? Yes, yes I did. I enjoyed that aspect of the storyline thus the four star review.

Thank you to Knoft publishing and Net Galley for this ARC.

This is a book I plan to buy a copy just so Ican go back and annotate quotes and feelings. There are so many amazing parts that I want to flag so I can go back to whenever I need to.

I loved how both Sadie and Sam's characters evolved over time and how they hovered on the edge of friendship or something more throughout the book. It was wonderful to see the layers of love one can have for people and how it can change over time.

You don't need to know or love video games to love this book. It is more about the characters, the connections and the emotions.

Overall, I enjoyed this book but there were some things that i think would've made me enjoy it more. The story was great but seemed to drag on a bit longer than felt necessary at times, or was almost a bit repetitive perhaps? I enjoyed all of the references and discussion of gaming and did really feel drawn into this world, but by the end was left a bit disappointed. I had high hopes this would be a 5 star for me but it just didn't hit the mark.

I don't know if my h heart will recover from the portrayal of friendship and love in this way. It was an excellent story about two friends, over a good span of time ... and honestly, I think everyone should read it. I know when I have too few words on it, I am usually in awe and will keep this on my shelf to reread for time to come.

3.5 This was not my usual book choice but I had heard so much about this book. I really enjoyed the main characters in this book and watching them develop from children to adults. Zevin created a unique relationship between Sam and Sadie.

I am not a gamer and this really gave me a better understanding of the world of gaming. I liked the unique themes interwoven throughout the book.

The reason for giving this less than 4 stars is that I really didn’t love the last 100 pages of the book. It felt a bit odd to me and changed gears a bit too much for me but again I am not a gamer. Thank you #netgalley for this advanced copy

Loved it! One of the most invigorating and interesting books I’ve read in some time. Thank you for the ARC!

I really enjoyed The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by the author and was looking forward to reading more by her. Unfortunately, this book didn't work for me. I almost got vibes of "Normal People" which while very popular also didn't work for me. Will try more by her but this one wasn't a hit.

A great coming of age story.  Being both friends and business partners is a challenge no matter how old your are.  This is a story about how these young folks find their way.  I really enjoyed it.

Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow…. Tomorrow I’ll finish this book I thought to myself for 6 months. The first half of the book was so slow it was hard to get into… but the second half was amazing! I really really enjoyed it!
I must say Marx was by far my favourite character with Sam following close behind. Sadie was a bit petulant throughout and was quite mean overall… she made silly decisions and put up with the wrong people while treating the good ones like crap.
I learned lots about the art and hard work that goes into videogame building which I appreciated.
Overall you should read it!
ARC received in exchange for an honest review.

I need to preface this by saying - Netgalley and Penguin House Canada provided me with an advanced copy July of 2022 - and for some reason it slipped my attention (I'm really sorry it has taken me so long to get to this review).

I got to this late - but boy was it worth the wait.

My first Gabrielle Zevin read was The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry and it was spectacular. I gave it 5 stars and wrote the following:

"The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry made me a very very happy reader.
It's about a bookseller whose life is turned upside-down.
It's about people who love books. Who share books. Who talk books. Breathe books. Live with books.
It's about all that messy stuff in life - hurt, anger, loneliness, love, forgiveness.
It really isn't special ... except that it is special. It made me laugh and cry.
Highly recommended."

I could basically say the exact same thing about this book - except it would read:

"Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow made me a very very happy reader.
It's about friends who push each other towards success. And then the fallout of that success.
It's about people who love gaming and games. Who share games. Who talk games. Breathe games. Live gaming and games.
It's about all that messy stuff in life - hurt, anger, loneliness, love, forgiveness.
It made me laugh and cry (big ugly tears).
Highly recommended."

I know nothing about games and gaming (I used to play Tetris on Gameboy and Aladdin on Sega) - but Zevin presented them in such a way that it worked really well.

I also LOVED how this story flowed - from one character to the next, from one timeline to another. It flowed really well and filled in gaps in a way that felt natural.

Marx has a special place in my heart. He was such a lovely character.

Recommended read.

I loved this story of friendship. Interesting characters, creative and great writing. One of my favourite books from last year!

This book has chronic pain rep, game development, epic friendships and loss, trauma, and love. It is not a happy fun read but it was such a captivating story. Content warnings are long so DM if you need details but it’s worth it.

I adored The Storied Life of AJ Fikry but this one might be even better.

I absolutely loved this book. Usually I am not a fan of video came content but the writing and character development was absolutely beautiful, making the video game aspect not seem so daunting! I am recommending this to anyone that loves beautiful friendship stories. The characters made me fall in love with them and wanting more. Zevin is one of my all time favorite authors!

I think this was case of the "It's me not you" for this book and I. I DNFed this book. I thought the writing was beautiful and the characters were wonderfully flawed, but I could not keep myself in this book. I tried really hard, and got about halfway before I realized, I don't really care about these characters or the story. I took some time to read another book and found that I didn't miss the story or the characters. I do honestly believe that it is a great book and a great story (hence why I'm giving it 3 stars), I just don't think I'm the best fit for the reader of it. Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for gifting me an ARC of this book.

Such an amazing novel! Since finishing it, it’s been difficult to pinpoint all the different things that went into the formula that made this novel so addictive…but I know for a fact it’s going to be a reread. Such a beautiful story of love and relationships and turning inward on yourself and having art, people and purpose pull you out of that.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for an egalley!

Wow. I loved this story--this exploration of friendship and family and identity and how all of these interweave, but also continually evolve throughout our lives. I also understand why these characters and their journey may not resonate with every reader (or at the very least, resonate differently with many readers)? But for myself, I will be thinking about them for a very very long time...

5 STARS

Beautifully written, almost lyrically at times, I was drawn in to the characters and story immediately. I loved how the story went back and forth in time, how Sam and Sadie were flawed humans who were doing the best they could with the information they had, and even though I'm not much of a gamer, I found all of the programming talk very interesting and I may have even learned something. I can see why this is a favourite on social media!