Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

It's not a 8/10 but it's more than a 6/10 so I'm being slightly generous in awarding it 4 stars. For some reason I was expecting a Groundhog Day style book which it wasn't.

I found it really easy to get into and the first half of the book especially was satisfying. Thereafter I found the lack of character development & the teenage psychological development of the 2 main characters to be somewhat Young Adult Fiction-ish. An average rating over 4 reflects a teenage-skewing audience imo.

A very satisfying novel about coming of age and male-female friendship, that adds enough nerdy details about video game design and fandom to make the story interesting and believable. I especially liked how grounded it is in its settings of Boston and LA. Some really lovely scenes, and I thought Marx was a beautifully drawn character.

“Every person you knew, every person you loved, even, did not have to consume you for the time to have been worthwhile.”As much as I liked [b:The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry 18293427 The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry Gabrielle Zevin https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1404582137l/18293427.SX50.jpg 25694131], I was more cautious approaching this ARC. While I enjoy video gaming a lot (like, a lot, a lot), I wasn't sure how the experience of making video games would translate to a fiction book. I wanted my side hustle of a hobby to be represented well in books for other non-gamers to read and understand, and I was afraid there'd be an over-emphasis on all the negative aspects of the video game industry to sell books. I was pleasantly surprised to actually really enjoy this book. Sam and Sadie, childhood friends, together with Sam's friend Marx, get together in college and make a game called Ichigo. It's a hit, and the book centers around these three turning their hit into a profitable gaming company while also navigating the pitfalls inherent in doing business with your friends. There's high points and incredibly low points, there's intense character development, and there's both happy and sad tears along the way. My only hangups were that I thought the book overstayed its welcome a bit. I greatly enjoyed the buildup in the beginning to being a successful gaming company, and even allow that (seriously, don't click this spoiler if you plan to read this book) Marx's death was poignant, sad, and handled well, but I sort of checked out 2/3rds of the way through when we go through Sam's MMO stalker phase and Sadie finding him out. I thought that was unpleasant and desperate, and it felt a little out of character. The ending was sweet, though, and I thought it wrapped things up nicely, that part aside. I also despised Dov as a character, even understanding his role as a caricature of many things wrong with the gaming industry. All that said, I enjoyed the journey this book took me on, and I'm glad I gave this book a chance. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Reading the first half of this book had me hooked. The part of the story until the three of them decided to move to California was going amazing. Until it wasn't anymore. The moment Marx had gotten with Sadie, I had a feeling he was going to die because that would potentially be the only way for Sam to end up with Sadie because Marx and Sadie were very much in love. I also grew to despise Sam after realising how much he manipulated Sadie into getting what he wanted and using her & her relationship with Dov. It was a very good book and I absolutely loved the storyline because it was very new and refreshing. However, towards the second half of the book it took a turn for the worse and somehow turned out to be similar to A Little Life - in terms of the theme of the book. Sam started off as a very good character but as the book progressed his character got very much worse. Sadie on the other hand was a very stubborn character, but she stood up for what she believed and it was nice to see her grow. I would rate this a solid 3.5/5!

I loved the way this book was structured and the prose was enjoyable. It was such a well-crafted novel. 4.5 only because I know I loved most of it, but when I finished the book, I'm still not sure if I absolutely loved all of it. But I read it in one sitting and I loved how well the characters were realistically messy and everything could be everyone's fault. But they didn't communicate, and I'm always frustrated when they don't ask the questions I think they should ask of each other.

In the first chapter of this book seemed like Same was a stalker cause of all the information he had on Sadie and when they first met in the hospital where in the game room the boy at the time who was Sam and was playing Mario and I used to play that game all the time when I was little. And I didn't like how the chapters were in sections in the book and how the chapters have to start from chapter 1 again I wish that it just continued with the number of the chapters and cause I like to know how much longer I have to read the book. And why does all most every chapter like for example Sadie said and then Sam said and then Zoe said and so on? It was pretty annoying after saying the word “said” thru out the whole book. I have to say that for the pace of this book was slow to medium and don't get me wrong I like how it talked about Mario, Mario Kart, Mrs. Pac-Man, Tetris those were my games that I use to play all the time.

I was really excited to read this book after hearing all the great things about it. While I did really enjoy it I feel it fell short of my expectations; but that is because I expected a 5 star book.

I really enjoyed the prose of this book, the in depth/3D characters, and the symbolism/metaphors. While I did not necessarily ‘like' the characters themselves, I did like their flaws, fullness, and perspective. Zevin definitely can write very realistic characters. I love videogames and I really liked to hear their development of all their games and imagine what it would be like to play them, especially Icharo.

Where I feel it let me down was in the plot. While the plot was solid and moved at a fitting pace I feel that it was fairly predictable and a little dull. I think part of that can be attributed to the fact I am used to the typical SF/F plots that have speculative/unrealistic plot points in them, so I feel I should not knock it too much for being a realistic fiction.

Overall I enjoyed the character study as well as a peek into a fictional videogame world.

3.5 stars!!!

This book was a lot of fun! I read my first Gabrielle Zevin book when I was in high school and I was super excited when I saw that she was coming out with a new book. This book centers around two people who were childhood friends but had a falling out only to cross paths again in their 20s. They reconnect and start building video games together. I live in Boston and I'm in Cambridge, where the book is set, nearly every day so it was a lot of fun seeing places that are so familiar to me in a book. I loved hearing about all the video games and I wish I could play them! I really enjoyed seeing the relationships between all the characters grow and change throughout all the years.






Thank you to Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Knopf, and NetGalley for providing me with an eBook copy to review.

Mijn god, er kwam geen einde aan dit boek. Het voelde steeds weer als hetzelfde verhaal: ruzie met vrienden, games verzinnen en het maken van een videogame, opnieuw ruzie, iedereen wisselt van partner, maakt nog een spel...
Zou u echt maandenlang niet met uw zakenpartner praten? Jarenlang niet met je beste vriend praten vanwege een klein ruzietje? Iedereen beoordeelt dit boek als een geweldig voorbeeld van vriendschap, maar zo zou ik mijn vrienden niet behandelen. Ik hoopte steeds dat het beter zou worden, maar dat gebeurde niet.

These characters felt so real. I was sure it was based on a true story. It's been a long time since I cried this hard at so many different parts of a book, the friendships are so true to real life, and their relationships are so well written. It's a long book and there's not a lot of action that even happens but that's why I love it.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is such a touching, human story about the ups and downs of friendship. It's been a long time since I've been so deeply captivated by a storyline.

The story follows Sadie and Sam from their childhood friendship through to adulthood. Having met in the hospital, it's needless to say that their relationship hasn't always been easy. As with most long-term friendships, there is an ebb and flow. This becomes especially true in college and their adult lives when they become collaborators. While the center of the plot is on the ups and downs of their friendship/partnership, we also get to know them as individuals. 

There is a lot happening in this book. I can't pretend that I followed every bit word for word when I'm at best a casual gamer. There were parts I didn't understand or plain had no interest in. But the overall story? I loved it. Sam's flashbacks were my favorite hands down. While I didn't particularly love the characters themselves (or rather, I didn't find myself attached to or deeply relating to them), I thoroughly enjoyed their stories and journeys. It's a heavy read, but such a great example of the human condition. The video game nostalgia is fun, too!

This book was decent. I liked the idea of it and a lot of aspects of the book. But I'm taking away a star for two reasons. One, I was really bothered by Sadie saying “hey Sam, leave me alone, I meant it”, and he still comes and pesters her and he is supposed to be applauded as a hero, which happened a few times in the book. Also, the third act was not my cup of tea. I didn't like how Marx died. I felt like they put that in just to add conflict that didn't need to be there. 

I did enjoy how the story touched upon aspects of females being into programming. And there were Jewish elements sprinkled throughout the book, too. I would recommend this book to another fellow gamer, as long as you are prepared for an intense (and maybe unnecessary?) third act.

Wow! The characters GO. THROUGH. IT! It was a whirlwind of emotions and events maybe in correlation to the Hokusai wave? Meh, I suck at literary analysis but I really enjoyed this. Every time I picked it up I could not stop reading. It was hard for me to put it down. I teared up twice maybe but didn't cry! Proud of myself but I wish I had