Just the best book i’ve ever read. Forgot to review this one but truly it left me speechless, and I’m so glad everyone loved this as much as me.

Let me start by making it clear that I am probably not the intended target audience for this book. I know nothing about computer games and when I was a kid only one person I knew had a computer and that was the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. It was all gobbledygook to me then and it has pretty much remained that way.

However, pushing the game stuff to one side for a moment, I could not stop reading. It is strangely addictive in its joys and tragedies. The characters are compelling and I enjoyed getting to know them and all their flaws, of which there are many. At times I was smiling as they triumphed in completing a game and at others I was exasperated with their maddening stubbornness.

Sam, Sadie and Sam’s flatmate Marx go from playing games to creating them. Marx working behind the scenes to ensure their lives run smoothly as they set up Unfair Games.

It doesn’t take long until jealousy rears it’s ugly head with Sadie feeling like she is doing the donkey work while Sam takes all the credit. Each of them suffers from personal issues that they keep secret and I was longing for them to just open up to each other.

Life is not a game with infinite lives or a reset button, it is messy and complicated with no winners. It really is all about how you play with others, the connections you make and showing up even when things are difficult.

“𝑩𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒓𝒂𝒓𝒆.”

I loved this book. The characters were so human - lovable and imperfect. I was invested in their friendships and lives. I feel like I really knew them. This story is why I read fiction!

I've been a fan of Zevin for a long time, and this is her best novel yet. Complicated characters who are well rounded but you ache for their lives to be fulfilling, even when they are behaving terribly. I fell in love with every part of this story and didn't want it to end,

Zevin doesn't go for easy outcomes that part of us would wish for, instead she stays true to the personalities of her characters, the result is one of the most engaging, intriguing and true pieces of fiction I have read in a long time.

And incredible book that I gave five stars and featured in my top 10 books of the year. This book has everything: beautiful writing, complex characters, and a well-paced plot. I can’t imagine a reader who wouldn’t love this book.

This is one of the best novels I've read in a really, really long time. It was emotional with lovable and fully fleshed out characters -they really felt real! She almost made me want to start gaming, I loved the allegories between parallel lives and everyday lives.

I'm afraid I'm in the minority here.

I seem to have been reading this title forever, and forever, and forever and have sadly decided to DNF this at around 45%.

The early marketing around this book sold me and indeed the hype. How can you resist a quote on the cover from one of your favourite authour's who says it's one of the best books they've ever read.

I'm not sold however. The plot and pacing seemed lacklustre and almost halfway through the book I was still waiting for it to kick into the next level.

Ultimately, a love story about programmers is probably not my cup of tea. And throw in a strange S&M plot twist that left a strange taste in the mouth (it just felt misplaced) and that's me used up all of my lives before the end of the game.

Game over for me but I can appreciate that it WILL be someone's high-scoring novel.

I wanted to love this, so much. Because the Storied life of AJ Fikry is one of my favourite books of all time. But unfortunately it fell short for me. I didn’t like the characters so I found myself not caring about what happened to them. The female lead came across as very fickle; I just wasn’t buying into any of it. Shame. It’s very popular though so it’s probably just me!

What an incredible book. At first glance, a book about gamers was not a book that really appealed to me, but the more I heard about it, the more I realised that is a book that is about so much more than gaming. It is a beautifully written exploration of friendship, of love and of the complex journey that is life in all its messiness. The characters are wonderfully developed and they leap off the page as the reader gets to travel through life from childhood to adulthood with them. This is a book that will stay with me long after I put it down.

If I could give this book fewer than 1 star, I would. Paper-thin characters, overly long and self-indulgent. If you want to read a book about the difficulties women face in tech and the 90s tech boom, Allegra GOodman's 'THe cookbook collector' is excellent. Her book in the world of video games 'THe chalk artist' is also very good. For a book that's about the creation of new technology, the innovations in a nascent industry, Tracy Kidder's 'The soul of a new machine' is absolutely excellent, and beautifully written and absorbing. THe only interesting thing about Zevin's book is the conceit behind the title, of how video games let you live through an infinite series of tomorrows. THe book's about childhood friends, Sam and Sadie, who reconnect in college and collaborate to come up with a game, with the help of their mutual friend and early investor, Marx, and where that takes them. THe characters are very badly written-Marx, for instance, serves no purpose apart from being rich and having money. Sadie is another women in the long list of female protagonists over the last 3 years, who are extremely entitled and have no personality traits apart from imagined traumas, while people around them have real traumas ( a character in the book gets an amputation and Sadie treats it like they stubbed their toe). Increasingly I find that authors ignore character development completely and this book suffers a lot from this-characters behave in very strange ways, adults who could resolve things by a simple conversation absolutely do not bother. One of the characters, who has till then not shown any signs of it, suddenly turns into some excellent at PR and working a crowd, and this ends up being a plot point, when we've not been given any writing to lead up to this at all. A lot of space is given to a college professor who has sexual relationships with his students, and for some reason this is glossed over completely and normalised by the end of the book. Also, what's with authors starting to throw in badly-written BDSM into their books, as a substitute for a character arc? Sally Rooney did it, and so does Zevin-did all these women read 'FIfty shades' and think they could improve on it? Because they're not doing a better job, and it's completely unnecessary! 'The soul of a new machine' had writing that made you feel deeply invested in the development and creation of new technology, and despite Zevin mentioning that she's an avid gamer, her writing about the development of their game felt at a remove. I cannot understand how this quite silly book is making it to so many year end lists.

I love the fact that the title of this very modern book has its origins in Shakespeare, and feel that this sets the tone for the rest of the book, where the modern virtual world coincides and conflicts with the age old world of human emotion and experience.

The book is very much character driven, and I loved all three main characters who were all exceedingly flawed but very human and relatable. Not an awful lot happens for the majority of the book, but this doesn't matter as I loved getting to know the characters and what makes them tick and how they relate to each other, how small misunderstandings can become huge and can affect how the rest of their life plays out, how trust is developed then lost, how friendship can turn into love, or not.

The book was heart wrenching and engaging throughout and I couldn't put it down. I'm not a gamer, so couldn't relate to some elements of it, but that didn't matter as it was so well described and explained that I still understood the characters motivations and feelings.

Highly recommended.

I wasn't too sure what to expect with this book, as I don't read contemporary often, but honestly I think this may be one of my favourite contemporaries out there. I loved seeing Sam and Sadie grow up and I loved to hear about all of the games they created. Kind of sad when I remembered that none of these games exist in real life, because I would have wanted to play all of them! Will definitely be recommending this to my friends and I am 100% going to get myself a physical copy asap!

Sadie and Sam shares the love of video games, they met in the hospital game room when Sadie was taking a breather from her sister, who was a patient at the hospital. The nurse was gobsmacked when Sadie told her about the encounter with Sam, as he had not spoken a word since he was admitted following an incident.

Sadie and Sam become friends and the book tells the tale of their friendship throughout the years, how they become partners and make video games together, with the help of Sam's roommate Marx.

A nostalgic book, beautifully written, which will take you on a journey.

I really enjoyed this. Not at all what I was expecting but a great read. I would read this author again.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I started Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow as it's themed around gaming - not something I'm into. But ultimately this is a really moving story of friendship, it just so happens to be that those friends make video games.

Sadie and Sam meet as children and stay friends - with various levels of intimacy through the years.

I found myself just drawn into these pages and really caring for both Sam and Sadie. They both made frustrating decisions at times, but that gave the whole story a level of realism. Written in such a lyrical way, this is definitely one of those reads that came out of the left-field and knocked me over. Really enjoyed it!

Believe the hype! This book is something special. It was initially a bit of a slow burn for me. I actually put it down at 20% and came back to it a few weeks later. Approaching the halfway mark, I was completely invested in the characters and story. And that feeling continued to grow such that, by the end, I couldn't bear to leave them. 'Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow' is about friendship, love, gaming, collaboration and so much more besides. It's an excellent, richly imagined read and I can't wait to seek out more of Gabrielle Zevin's work.

There's also an accompanying Spotify playlist - a brilliantly eclectic mix of songs from different eras and genres. I highly recommend listening as you read. Anyone who receives this book for Christmas is in for a real treat!

Did I stay up till nearly 2am to finish this book? Yes, yes I did and I have no regrets.

I adored everything about this book. The characters were just amazing and so relatable that it's hard not to care about these characters and their lives.

This book is heavily about video games which I loved. I'm such a huge fan of video games. If I'm not reading, I'm playing video games or watching other people stream/play games. I really enjoyed having games as the main focus of this story and felt it made it so unique and honestly addictive. I loved all the references throughout!

I cannot get over how much I loved this book. I could talk about it for days and I'm sad it's over.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is a thought-provoking, emotional and beautiful story that is going to stay with me for a very long time.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A stunningly, beautiful story following the friendship between Sadie and Sam that begins when they’re children and meet in a hospital bonding over video games. The story follows their lives when they meet again in college and collaborate on making a video game together.
The novel explores how gaming is a form of storytelling and throughout the creation process looks at how women are often marginalised in the gaming world with their credit given to the men in their lives. It’s really well observed and relatable although at times I felt it did lag especially in the second half and the portrayal as Marx was rather Saint-like, almost too perfect.

This was such an amazing read! Definitely understood all the hype that has surrounded it! I had my request for it accepted on NetGalley and I honestly don't know why I waited so long to read it!

Apart from an interesting cast of characters, I loved the gaming aspect of the story!

I loved Sam, Sadie and Marx. The relationship between Sam and Sadie was so complex though.

I loved the way the story ended.

I would definitely highly recommend it!

Thank you to NetGalley, Gabrielle Zevin and publishers Random House UK, Vintage and Chatto & Windus.

I absolutely loved this book. It deserves the hype I'm seeing on social media. In writer's terms, it wasn't always the 'best written' but proves without doubt that 'good writing craft' is unimportant if a story is great and flows well,a nd this one ticked all the boxes and had me hooked. It felt like a long book, but in the best possible way. The nostalgic setting and references were captivating (it spanned my era; I'm the same age as the characters) and the will they/won't they? love between Sam and Sadie had me on tenterhooks right until the end. The author brilliantly weaves in a lot of heavy issues (cancer, race, disability, US shootings, bereavement) without ever becoming preachy or taking away from the pure, simple story of friendship and bonds. I adored this book and will reread it often.