4.5 stars

There’s something about Gabrielle Zevin’s writing that pull me in and holds on to my heart until the very last page.

This is a story about friendship, work, joy, love, tragedy, perseverance, grief and video games. Told on the span of 3 decades, we follow Sadie and Sam,
from video game playmates in childhood to inseparable business partners designing their very own and soon to be very successful video game(s) along with their friend and producer, Marx.

The story is mostly told alternating from Sadie and Sam's point of view, giving you front row seats to their never ending cycle of friends to complicated to business partners to friends again. Nevertheless, although you want to shake some sense into them at times, you also get a profound understanding of each characters and their flaws.

Although video games are at the centre of the book, what really appealed to me was the relationships, their challenges and successes that emerged from the story. If you have a good understanding of 80s and 90s videogames, you may enjoy this book even more but the author did a great job at getting me to care anyways.

This Complicated, heart breaking at times but beautifully written story is worth the read.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free copy in exchange of an honest review

Gabrielle Zevin’s novel is immersive. Her usage of language is exquisite. You escape to a new world of gaming. But don’t be discouraged if the reader is not into video games. I loved the novel despite my lack of “gaming” knowledge or interest. The characters are flawed, but you still root for them. Simply put, I love characters who are underdogs and are complex. This novel gives you layers and its uniqueness is unmatched. It is all the emotions- sad, tragic, happy. I loved The Storied Life of AJ Fikry so much (my top five novels of all time)- such that, it was exciting to have her new novel and this one did not disappoint. Highly recommend. Thank you to Gabrielle Zevin for your story telling, and providing a copy of this novel. Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for providing me with a copy of this ARC.

A beautifully written book that is spread across a few decades. A story of friendship and so many other emotions. The two main characters and their life - how they are intertwined yet separate! The book is written around gaming. Even though I am not into gaming, I thoroughly enjoyed this book!!
**
The publication date for the book is July 5, 2022. Thank you to Gabrielle Zevin, Netgalley and Penguin Random House Canada for an Advance Reader Copy.
**

<u>Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow</u> was, in essence, "Art Imitating (Gaming) Life."

I began to suspect early on that the author was creating an artificial world in this story that mimicked Sadie and Sam's respective "realities." For me, each of the various games that Sam, Marx and Sadie birthed into their fictional world had in turn evolved from their own life or gaming experiences.

<img src="https://c.tenor.com/uUxDlflaqE0AAAAC/gaming-twitch.gif"/>

I must admit that Word Scramble or various mutations of Solitaire are the only games that I ever tend to play - and those, sparingly.

<img src="https://thumbs.gfycat.com/FittingWelltodoAardwolf-size_restricted.gif"/>

Sadie's character is put through the emotional ringer: I don't think there was any major grief or crisis trope that was spared her.

<img src="https://thumbs.gfycat.com/EmotionalUntidyGreatwhiteshark-size_restricted.gif"/>

Sam's life was one unending wall of pain after the accident that left him practically orphaned and with an irreparably damaged foot. (I even started feeling sympathetic ankle pain for him - Zevin's description of his pain was so vivid.)

<img src="https://media.istockphoto.com/photos/young-asian-man-with-a-broken-leg-sitting-on-the-sofa-close-up-of-the-picture-id1312223869?k=20&m=1312223869&s=612x612&w=0&h=c8go1JUlcezDpfaE2G0iTff7XYNff5X21FcGxwoPUhE="/>

I'm going to have to admit that those passages, devoted to live action displays of the actual games that Sam and Sadie created together or inspired in one another, had my eyes glazing over more than once. But to offset these less riveting passages, Zevin often enthralled me with her skillful - downright astute, even! - use of language. There were many beautifully worded or insightful passages scattered throughout this 416-page book, including this one about a game character's life (it was):

"The world of infinite restarts. Start again at the beginning, this time you might win."

<img src="https://data.whicdn.com/images/260359565/original.gif"/>

Real life, of course, does not allow many of us a chance to rise from the animated dead and press a restart button.

The structure and writing style of this novel had "levels" just like you would find in most games. We meet Sadie and Same as young children, in a hospital. As the story progressed and the characters aged, I would often have to look up meanings to obscure words or references which were dropped like clues or land mines all over the narrative. Very clever!

<img src="https://c.tenor.com/9Uiv1geUg9wAAAAM/hypnotism.gif"/>

I usually enjoy disappearing into Gabrielle Zevin's fictional worlds, and this world was no different! I'm rating this one four out of 5 stars: an intelligently written flashback to the 1990s and life at MIT and beyond. My thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
Avid gamers will love this one and fully relate!

This book was delightful. Following Sadie and Sam's friendship and creative/business partnership through the decades gave us a chance to see so much of their lives. The depth of the backstories was so rich, and I'm so glad we got so much of Marx's life as well. What an absolutely fabulous secondary character.

I don't have much of a background in the world of video games, but Zevin skillfully included titles and references that were recognizable just from pop culture awareness of games in addition to the [presumably] deeper references for avid gamers. The gaming world she wrote was immersive and such a beautiful backdrop for this story.

Loved this exploration of creative collaboration and friendship. Delighted to include this title in the July instalment of Novel Encounters, my regular column highlighting the month’s most anticipated fiction for the Books section of Zoomer magazine. (see review at link)

This book was truly a dream for character focus readers, and self described nerds. The characters are so vivid and realistic, and the author did not shy away from having flawed characters. The story really focuses on growing up, dealing with love, identity, friendship, grief, disability, family, race, and failure. The writing was beautiful and lyrical. This may have been my first book by the author but most certainly won't be my last.

Going into this I had heard the book compared to Ready Player One. While I see why it could be described that way I would not describe it that way. Although there is a very large focus on video games, and it does take place partly in the 1980's the vibe of this book is completely different. I am not a gamer myself and that in no way put me off to any parts of the book. The story is told with flashbacks to when they were kids, and we see how they grow and end up where they are.

The book starts out with 2 kids Sam and Sadie meeting in the playroom of a hospital in LA. Sadie is the the little sister of a cancer patient, and Sam is a boy going through reconstructive surgeries for a foot crushed in an accident that left him orphaned. They bond over video games, and become fast friends. Even though their friendship was genuine, Sadie was using their friendship to get volunteer hours. When Sam finds out he is obviously upset and that is the end of their friendship. Years down the line they reconnect in Boston where they are both university students. From there we see them as thy begin making games together, with the help of Marx, Sam's friend from Harvard. How the trio go from creating a game in an apartment, to starting their own gaming company, and expanding. How their relationships and individual lives evolve through the decades. There is so much detail about the gaming industry, and how the escapism of games is a way of healing in the real world.

A beautifully written book about the joys, benefits, and limitations of friendship.

This is the first book I’ve read by Gabrielle Zevin, and I will definitely be checking out her other works! I was a little worried I wouldn’t enjoy a book about gaming and game development (something I know nothing about), but for the most part, I found it quite interesting.

The gaming aspect is really a backdrop for the decades long story of Sadie and Sam’s relationship. It was complicated, messy, and sometimes hard to read, while also being pretty sweet and wholesome.
Added into the mix is Sam’s college roommate, Marx. He’s the cinnamon roll of this story. Kind of a stabilizing force between Sam and Sadie.

I’m not going to lie, I ugly-cried reading this book. My heart broke more than once. Watching these characters grow up and navigate life, become strong and find themselves was amazing and bittersweet. I’ll miss Sadie and Sam and Marx.

sam and sadie first met at a hospital as children and bonded over their love for video games. but they had a falling out after a misunderstanding. a decade later, they see each other again at a subway station and reconcile over their undying shared love of video games. sam presents sadie an opportunity to create a game together and from there, we are taken into an epic story of friendship that spans over thirty years.

this book deserves all the love it’s receiving! it’s brilliant, memorable, and incredibly well-written with relatable characters. don’t let the mention of video games fool you though. while this novel does talk a lot about video games and 90’s nostalgia, you don’t need to be a gamer or know anything about games (because i sure don’t 😅) to read and enjoy it. it is more of a coming of age novel about the highs and lows of friendship, dealing with loss and grief, love, communication and forgiveness.

i wanted to hug every character in this book. the main characters, the side characters — all of them (maybe except one…🫢) this book made me laugh, it made me cry, and the friendship between sadie, sam and marx has completely captured my heart. they were so different from one another, but their friendship worked because of the mutual love they had for one another and for video games.

this was my first novel by zevin and i love the way she writes. she captures raw emotions so beautifully and in such detail. i couldn’t put this book down even though i wanted to savour it until the very end. i will now be reading zevin’s backlist and anything else she puts out in the future!

Such a different book from those I usually read, and in the end, this tale relating the relationship between Sam and Sadie as they make their way to success in the gaming industry was a bit disappointing. I found it difficult to engage with the characters, and the story itself.

This is the story of the growing relationship between friends Sam and Sadie, their love story with video games to a point where they create their own games / company.
This book gave me such nostalgy for early video games.

This book has been getting a LOT of hype and I really, really wanted to love it but I ended up just liking it. At the core, this is a story about two friends, Sam and Sadie, who meet randomly in a hospital in 1987 and are later reunited in college where they bond over a shared love of videogame design. The story follows their relationship as they find success together and then later grow apart.

What I loved:
The 80s/90s references (ie Oregon trail - iykyk!!)
The gaming culture
The Asian American main characters
The women in STEM rep
The disability rep (Sam uses a cane and later has to have his foot amputated)

I didn't love the flow of the story and I also found the start and ending were the strong while the middle dragged on too much.

Overall I did enjoy this book but I didn't LOVE it the way I had hoped I would. Recommended for fans of We are watching Eliza Bright. Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my advance review copy!

I’m going to start by saying I am not a gamer. I am that mom that fights her kids outside to play instead of on screens 😛 and I grew up in a generation that only started to see Mario Bros. Type games take over when we were young adults.

But

Let’s just say it’s not really about the games.
It’s gaming but it’s life.

Friendship over decades and a deep dive into relationships with challenges that feel real and raw.

It’s not something I would have picked up but I’m glad I read it. I think this is going to be a favourite of a lot of ppl once it’s out. It’s the grit and “real life” that kept me turning pages. Not the games but I thought it was a uniquely clever idea for a book.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: July 14, 2022
Gabrielle Zevin does for gamers in her newest novel, “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” what she did for readers in “The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry”. An angsty, artsy mix of “Ready Player One” and a romantic comedy, “Tomorrow” is a well-written, tech-driven story of life-long friends, and gamers, who relate to the world through a video screen.
Sam and Sadie met at a hospital (Sam, the patient, Sadie, a visitor) when the two were just young children. Bonding over video games, the two grew up with a mutual love of the gaming world. Now, as young adults, Sam and Sadie, with the help of Sam’s roommate Marx, have developed some of the world’s much beloved games. As they continue to grow into adulthood and their lives veer onto other paths, Sam and Sadie use their love of games to keep them together. But an unexplainable tragedy shakes the pair to the very core, and threatens to destroy their business, their future, and their very identities.
I was a huge fan of “Fikry”, being an avid devourer of books, and connected with its characters immediately. I did not find this same relationship with the protagonists in “Tomorrow”. I am not a gamer, and the majority of this novel focused on gaming, game development, and the gaming industry. It was slow moving in parts and although the relationship between Sam and Sadie was touching, it did not do enough to hold my attention. The introduction of Marx was a nice touch, as he was charming and amiable, but the relationship between him and Sadie was predictable to anyone who has seen a romantic comedy with a love triangle at its centre (which is about 99% of them).
The tragedy occurs in the last one-third of the book and it was devastating on all fronts, but it did serve to capture my undivided attention. I was heartbroken, emotionally captivated and completely sympathetic to both Sam and Sadie, hoping for a positive outcome that did not come.
The novel is narrated by the main characters and is clearly marked so it is easy to determine who is speaking. There are a few parts in the novel that play out as video game segments, which seemed extraneous and confusing (although I’m convinced gamers will definitely love these parts). I did not think “Tomorrow” could live up to my expectations after such an astounding book like “Storied Life”, but I was hoping to connect with it more. The novel is well written though, and is both unique and creative, and I think it will check all the boxes with the right audience.

so. um. yeah.

i picked this book solely because the author has the same name as me, meaning that i went in completely blind, and i’m grateful for that. knowing myself, i might not have been as intrigued if i’d known that it was about video games and the creation of them.

but the truth is that it’s so much more than just that. it’s about the deepest of friendships, the truest of loves, the most irrevocable heartbreaks, and yeah, video games.

i found myself attached to sadie and sam from about 10 pages in, and just when i thought i couldn’t be more in love, marx was introduced. the three of them worked soooo incredibly well together on the page, even when they were apart, because they were written in such a skilled manner that they felt like real people with real emotions and lives that hung in the balance.

i’m word vomiting now but yeah this book is just… absolutely beautiful. so heartbreaking.

and honestly, how could i not love a book with a shakespeare reference for a title?

3*
Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin.
What I loved, the characters of Sam and Sadie. The highs and lows of true friendship shines on the pages.
What didn’t work for me was the extent of the gaming content, only because I am not a gamer. If you are, then this is a book I believe you would really enjoy. The detail of coding and gaming was impressive.
There are books for every reader, this just wasn’t mine.

What a phenomenal book. I felt so invested in the relationship between Sam, Sadie are Marx. This book revolves around video game development and even though that's not something I'm interested in, I really loved the story that was told. You will not regret reading this book. I can't wait to read more by Gabrielle Zevin.

Thank you to Random House/Knopf, Gabrielle Zevin and NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

I have very mixed feelings about this book. On one hand it had a lot of depth to the relationships, the coming of age, the ability (or inability) to deal with loss / grief and maturity that comes with age. It centered around video game design and the author spent a lot of time describing the games and worlds the designers created .. which honestly gelled nicely with how the characters interacted and grew in their real world over the 20 years of the story. In some ways I found it whimsical and artful and enjoyable. On the other hand I did find the plot bogged down with irritating and annoying behavior by both of the central characters which sometimes make me really disinterested in what would happen next. There is also an unanticipated plot twist that threw me for a loop about 2/3 of the way in – unfortunately after that twist, I felt the plot just never recovered my interest. I did like the kind and hopeful way the book ended and overall I’d say I enjoyed the novel more than I didn’t … but not as much as the other’s written by the author.

Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada and NetGalley for the ARC to read and review.

I loved this book. I didn't know that I needed to read fiction set in the world of video game design but I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to read Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. I am not really a big gamer but I loved that I knew a lot of the video games referenced in this book and that some of Sadie's favourites were also my favourites (I'm looking at you Harvest Moon). But this book isn't really about video games, it is about relationships and how sometimes your friends become your family.

This is an incredibly well-crafted book which I found hard to put down. I enjoyed the intricately developed characters of Sam, Sadie and Marx, so different from each other and yet so intensely bound by their common interest and deep friendship. Although I'm not a gamer and understand very little of game development, Sadie and Sam's passion, determination, and sacrificing tenacity in pursuing their creative goals impressed me and kept the pages turning, not least due to the beautifully flowing prose. I must say, though, that I was lost for awhile when the  plot slipped into a game, and that for several chapters. Although I realized the intent and appreciated the efficacy with respect to the plot, this section appeared unnecessarily long to me. That is probably due to my ignorance of games, and the only instance in which it hindered my enjoyment of the book. I felt with all three protagonists and could really 'get' them, but my special tenderness was reserved for Sam, the brilliant mind, intense emoter, but stunted social relater. I often felt intensely sorry for him, but was thankful to the author for not changing him but rather devising an ending/continuation for him that was comfortably Sam, even if the reader might have preferred a more conventional happy ending. Essentially, for me this book is a deep exploration of human relationships; of real people with all their brilliance, flaws, dreams, aspirations and desires.

My thanks go to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book and the opportunity to write an unbiased, voluntary review.