Name: el.'s review of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Item: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
Rating: 3
Author: el.

Gabrielle Zevin

Let the games begin! From the New York Times-bestselling author of The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry--a glorious and immersive novel about two childhood friends, once estranged, who reunite as adults to create video games, finding an intimacy in digital worlds that eludes them in their real lives. 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. They borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo a game where players can escape the confines of a body and the betrayals of a heart, and where death means nothing more than a chance to restart and play again. This is the story of the perfect worlds Sam and Sadie build, the imperfect world they live in, and of everything that comes after success: Money. Fame. Duplicity. Tragedy. Spanning over thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, games as artform, technology and the human experience, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

In this exhilarating novel, two friends—often in love, but never lovers—come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.

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, Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.

A Novel

jean

Aishwarya Verma

It was never about winning or losing. It was about playing. It was always about playing.

Every person you knew, every person you loved even, did not have to consume you for the time to have been worthwhile.

I love that world more, I think, because it is perfectible. Because I have perfected it. The actual world is the random garbage fire it always is. There’s not a goddamn thing I can do about the actual world’s code.

The most successful people are also the most able to change their mindsets.

You couldn’t be old and still be wrong about as many things as she’d been wrong about, and it was a kind of immaturity to call yourself old before you were.

“Because,” he said. Click on this word, he thought, and you will find links to everything it means.

Because you are my oldest friend. Because, once, when I was at my lowest, you saved me. Because I might have died without you or ended up in a children’s psychiatric hospital. Because I owe you. Because, selfishly, I see a future where we make fantastic games together, if you can manage to get out of bed. ‘Because,’ he repeated.”

‘That’s the best part,’ Marx said. … ‘“Tamer of horses” is an honest profession. The lines mean that one doesn’t have to be a god or a king for your life to have meaning.’

It was as if being a woman was a disease that you didn’t wish to catch. As long as you didn’t associate with the other women, you could imply to the majority, the men: I’m not like those other ones.

Every time I run into you for the rest of our lives, I’ll ask you to make a game with me.

‘Isn’t that the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result.’

‘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. And it’s not as if all our results were bad. I love the things we made. We were a great team.’

It isn’t a sadness, but a joy, that we don’t do the same things for the length of our lives.

Why wouldn’t you tell someone you loved them? Once you loved someone, you repeated it until they were tired of hearing it.

This is what time travel is. It’s looking at a person, and seeing them in the present and the past, concurrently. And that mode of transport only worked with those one had known a significant time.

He loved the intimacy of being in a tight group of people who had come together, miraculously, for a brief period in time, for the purpose of making art.

Long relationships might be richer, but relatively brief, uncomplicated encounters with interesting people could be lovely as well.

The alternative to appropriation is a world in which artists only reference their own cultures. … As any mixed-race person will tell you — to be half of two things is to be whole of nothing.

We are all living, at most, half of a life. There was the life you lived … and then there was the other life, the one that was the things you hadn’t chosen.

The way to turn an ex-lover into a friend is to never stop loving them, to know that when one phase of a relationship ends it can transform into something else.

And what is love, in the end? Except the irrational desire to put evolutionary competitiveness aside in order to ease someone else’s journey through life?

What is a game? … 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.

"There are no ghosts, but up here”—she gestured toward her head—“it’s a haunted house."

This life is filled with inescapable moral compromises. We should do what we can to avoid the easy ones.

To Marx, it seemed foolish not to love as many things as you could.

If you’re always aiming for perfection, you won’t make anything at all.

akynn 

Didn’t understand what all the fuss was about?

KellyParmenter

Saskia Hughes 

Loved reading the relationship dynamics and growth over decades of these perfectly imperfect characters.   

Jenny Engel

It was different in a good way, but somehow the ending didn't feel right to me

Ásztai Anna

Two kids, each in a hospital game room for different reasons, discovered friendship through a shared love of gaming. Their bond flourished amidst laughter and competition, only to be tested by a childish misunderstanding that led them on separate paths. Yet, fate intervened, reuniting them and sparking the desire to create a game together. This was the beginning of an adventure filled with challenges and triumphs.

In my reading, I saw reflections of myself in Sadie, Marx, and Sam. Although I don't consider myself a gamer, as someone immersed in programming and AI, I have experienced the spectrum of emotions—excitement, misery, struggle, and ambition. Perhaps this connection is why I loved 

. Ultimately, it reminds me that at the end of the day, I can always restart and seek a winning path with an infinite lives.

Bilge Ince

Two kids, each in a hospital game room for different reasons, discovered friendship through a shared love of gaming. Their bond flourished amidst laughter and competition, only to be tested by a childish misunderstanding that led them on separate paths. Yet, fate intervened, reuniting them and sparking the desire to create a game together. This was the beginning of an adventure filled with challenges and triumphs.

In my reading, I saw reflections of myself in Sadie, Marx, and Sam. Although I don't consider myself a gamer, as someone immersed in programming and AI, I have experienced the spectrum of emotions—excitement, misery, struggle, and ambition. Perhaps this connection is why I loved Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. Ultimately, it reminds me that at the end of the day, I can always restart and seek a winning path with an infinite lives.

I love this book so much! If you’re looking for something heartwarming and about love but not specifically a romance between two characters, this is perfect! Makes you think about how to appreciate the relationships you have with close family and friends. While this is mainly about games programming and design, you do not need prior knowledge or any interest of gaming in general, as the plot is so much more than love for games. 

Olanda

not sure how i feel about this book. i’m surprised more reviews don’t mention the predatory relationship that’s depicted early on—nothing inherently wrong with portraying that, obviously, but i feel like this is as much a story about surviving abuse and violence as much as it is about friendship and forgiveness, which is the part everyone emphasizes

honestly this really depressed me (this interpretation might also be because i’m writing this at 3 am, lol). i feel like where this lands is that life is unfair to marxes who deserve better, and that sams & sadies get to grow off of them 💀 

overall these are complaints about the fact that the story makes me feel (bad), which i guess should be counted as a good thing. i was entertained by this book, even though i often didn’t quite enjoy it, and i was always curious enough about what would happen next. but yeah i found this very sad 

julia

not sure how i feel about this book. i’m surprised more reviews don’t mention the predatory relationship that’s depicted early on—nothing inherently wrong with portraying that, obviously, but i feel like this is as much a story about surviving abuse and violence as much as it is about friendship and forgiveness, which is the part everyone emphasizes

honestly this really depressed me (this interpretation might also be because i’m writing this at 3 am, lol). i feel like where this lands is that life is unfair to marxes who deserve better, and that sams & sadies get to grow off of them 💀 

overall these are complaints about the fact that the story makes me feel (bad), which i guess should be counted as a good thing. i was entertained by this book, even though i often didn’t quite enjoy it, and i was always curious enough about what would happen next. but yeah i found this very sad 

“You remind yourself that no one is paying any attention to you and it’s a perfect time for you to sit down in front of your computer and make another game”

Jacqueline Kim

Captivating

“You remind yourself that no one is paying any attention to you and it’s a perfect time for you to sit down in front of your computer and make another game”

Da leggere se: 1) sai cos'è un easter egg 2) ti piace Spike Jonze, Charile Kaufman 3) hai un animo rococò 2000

Sara Fidati

Not my usual type of read but I did read it. Some gaming speak and a steady plot. 

Joanna Tweedale

i  wasn’t really invested until about 70% through, and the ending felt incomplete 

Carmen Malca

Let the games begin! From the New York Times best-selling author of The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry--a glorious and immersive novel about two childhood friends, once estranged, who reunite as adults to create video games, finding an intimacy in digital worlds that eludes them in their real lives. 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. They borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo: a game where players can escape the confines of a body and the betrayals of a heart, and where death means nothing more than a chance to restart and play again. This is the story of the perfect worlds Sam and Sadie build, the imperfect world they live in, and of everything that comes after success: Money. Fame. Duplicity. Tragedy. Spanning over thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, games as artform, technology and the human experience, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.

Foggylong

Nika Khoshdel

Great pace, lovely character developmemt and intimate 

Frida Wiig 

excellent character development and for the most part great pacing. lost me a little after the big thing that happens but the finale is strong.

Mitch

julie reads

perdi 15 anos de energia vital lendo isso aqui, ótimo livro

Pedro Rodarte

Definitivamente uma montanha russa de emoções, da maneira mais clichê que eu poderia descrever, para um livro que passou longe de ser clichê. 

Algo que começa despretensioso e se torna emocionante, se torna frustrante e complicado, um emaranhado de sentimentos que não pode ser desfeito. Me encontrei com falta de ar, envelhecendo junto com os personagens e sentindo a perda deles, sentindo especialmente o quão rápido o tempo passa e o peso de ter só uma vida, não várias, para fazer suas escolhas e viver suas consequências.

É perceptível os arrependimentos e o que os personagens teriam feito diferente, e essa é uma das partes mais bonitas, porque você acompanha exatamente essas ações feitas na juventude e entende que sim poderiam ter outros caminhos, mas não é possível prever e nem refazer, passar pelo nível novamente como se fosse um jogo.

Talvez eu tenha me apegado demais no personagem, me visto demais nele, vivido através dele, mas quando Marx morre, perdi um pouco de vida também, o ânimo de continuar acompanhando o livro. Terminei sentindo falta do Marx tanto quanto seus companheiros.

Larissa Campos

Definitivamente uma montanha russa de emoções, da maneira mais clichê que eu poderia descrever, para um livro que passou longe de ser clichê. 

Algo que começa despretensioso e se torna emocionante, se torna frustrante e complicado, um emaranhado de sentimentos que não pode ser desfeito. Me encontrei com falta de ar, envelhecendo junto com os personagens e sentindo a perda deles, sentindo especialmente o quão rápido o tempo passa e o peso de ter só uma vida, não várias, para fazer suas escolhas e viver suas consequências.

É perceptível os arrependimentos e o que os personagens teriam feito diferente, e essa é uma das partes mais bonitas, porque você acompanha exatamente essas ações feitas na juventude e entende que sim poderiam ter outros caminhos, mas não é possível prever e nem refazer, passar pelo nível novamente como se fosse um jogo.

Talvez eu tenha me apegado demais no personagem, me visto demais nele, vivido através dele, mas quando Marx morre, perdi um pouco de vida também, o ânimo de continuar acompanhando o livro. Terminei sentindo falta do Marx tanto quanto seus companheiros.

Um dos melhores livros que li em anos.

loved this book sm. exciting plot twists and a wholesome story about friendship

Mitul Shah

This story was so complicated. I loved the evolution of each character and their wholesome and sometimes infuriating friendships. Initially this book felt slightly tedious as it was rather slow, but as you become more invested in each character you cant stop yourself from reading just one more chapter. I have to admit that I found the female MC more than a little annoying though… she seemed overly unreasonable on many occasions. I have to say however that I do feel inspired to start playing some more video games :)

Anna

Molly Bridge

I did not read the summary before starting on this book and it was not what I expected; not in a bad way as I still really enjoyed it. maybe I haven’t read enough but I don’t think gaming, as a context/plot is common for fictional novels. I found it romantic, kinda geeky, kinda sad, creatively put together and heartwarming with friendship as a key theme. 

victoria lim

It would be especially unkind to say, but this feels a bit like a novel Elon Musk would write.

The first third or so is the best and the two main characters are generally well drawn. Their initial friendship and foray into game design is an enticing read. The author is clearly intelligent and knowledgable, and the book is full of  references for the curious. 

That last point is one of the problems. The frequency of references and accompanying explanations doesn’t help the narrative, especially when some side characters only exist to deliver an info-dump that just happens to be exactly what one of the protagonists needs to hear. 

The video game theme is handled well at start. I’m a gamer but no designer; nevertheless, it was gripping to read about the duo creating their first game and the emotional punch behind the clash over the game engine. 

Unfortunately, the gaming theme is not threaded so well for the rest of the story. Multiple characters make references to 1ups and ‘game overs’ and how these relate to life which is not only cliche and repetitive but also overused to the extent that it reveals nothing about these people. A section toward the end based in a role playing game is an improvement, but stretches credulity as a game and a character moment. 

A shocking event later in the novel ultimately feels underdeveloped, and only seems to happen to further explore the friendship of the main characters. Elsewhere, some of the dialogue (of which there is far too much in general) is extremely clunky and didactic. One conversation during a dramatic flashback comes off as completely unbelievable and unlike any conversation I can imagine two human beings having in such circumstances. 

Luke Pearce

It would be especially unkind to say, but this feels a bit like a novel Elon Musk would write.

The first third or so is the best and the two main characters are generally well drawn. Their initial friendship and foray into game design is an enticing read. The author is clearly intelligent and knowledgable, and the book is full of  references for the curious. 

That last point is one of the problems. The frequency of references and accompanying explanations doesn’t help the narrative, especially when some side characters only exist to deliver an info-dump that just happens to be exactly what one of the protagonists needs to hear. 

The video game theme is handled well at start. I’m a gamer but no designer; nevertheless, it was gripping to read about the duo creating their first game and the emotional punch behind the clash over the game engine. 

Unfortunately, the gaming theme is not threaded so well for the rest of the story. Multiple characters make references to 1ups and ‘game overs’ and how these relate to life which is not only cliche and repetitive but also overused to the extent that it reveals nothing about these people. A section toward the end based in a role playing game is an improvement, but stretches credulity as a game and a character moment. 

A shocking event later in the novel ultimately feels underdeveloped, and only seems to happen to further explore the friendship of the main characters. Elsewhere, some of the dialogue (of which there is far too much in general) is extremely clunky and didactic. One conversation during a dramatic flashback comes off as completely unbelievable and unlike any conversation I can imagine two human beings having in such circumstances. 



akynn &
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

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Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin