I don't think there is a way to properly encompass into words how striking this book is. TOMORROW AND TOMORROW AND TOMORROW is gentle and raw and tender and so, very painfully human. It is a story about escapism and creativity and building worlds out of nothing but the desire to create something whose legacy might outlive you; about the value and intimacy of platonic friendships and creative partners, about the ways love takes many forms and those who mean the most to you come in unexpected forms; it is a story about grief and loss (of self and others), about escapism and depression. Ultimately, this is a story about the human experience and connection, spanning over years of these characters lives, making you fall in love with each of them and view them as beings as real as yourself.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough and can see where all the hype has stemmed from.

I sadly didn’t get to finish the book before my e-ARC expired, however I’ve bought two stunning copies and can’t wait to finish it. My review will be updated afterwards.

I didn't wanted to finish this book and say goodbye to Sadie and Sam. I loved the, loved their refreshing and interesting relationship, and enjoyed this heartwarming and riveting story that kept me reading, smiling, thinking.
I work in high tech and I appreciated the depiction of women in STEM and in the gaming world. Sadie and Sam are two likeable, clever, and well developed character.
The author is an excellent storyteller and made me fell in love with this story since the first pages.
I loved it and it's strongly recommened.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Gosh, this book is good. I've been seeing a lot of buzz about this book, so I’ve been looking forward to finally reading it. To put it simply, it’s about three friends who make a video game together, but it's really so much more than that. It’s a special story and you really come to love the characters so deeply. It’s beautifully written and so clever and I’ll be thinking of Sadie, Sam, and Marx for a long time 🥲 It made me want to just go create something. Prob one of my faves of the year so far - Read this!!!!

I truly loved this book! It's such a beautiful story of love and friendship, and learning how to navigate relationships with peers as you grow up and face difficult obstacles in life. It's so well written, I fell into the world in just a few pages and was completely hooked.

It's a book that will make you laugh and cry and everything in between. It's gripping and immersive, and I can't recommend it enough!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.

Devoured this one in a couple of days, loved the characters and their stories. The first half of the novel is particularly strong - as we meet the characters as children and they meet up again in college.

Some significant twists in the plot didn't make much of an impact on me, but the changing relationship between Sam and Sadie kept me turning the pages.

Still thinking about it now.

This was an interesting choice for me - I have little interest in gaming and feared that I wouldn’t be able to become absorbed in the story. It was indeed very game oriented but underlying that is a beautiful story about friendship over decades. I particularly loved Marx - he was such a calming influence on Sam and Sadie. I think I grew into this book so whilst it took me a while to get into it, I became totally invested by the halfway stage. A long book but very worth the time. Recommended.

"There's no game without the NPCs"

What a profound, beautiful and deeply moving ode to love this book is, it has completely and utterly blown me away. It is an instant classic and the best book I have read all year.

I loved so many things about it, the flawed and therefore extremely realistic characters, the sense of nostalgia brought about with references to games I too played and loved, the insight into programming and developer life, the layered relationships and intertwining of characters - it all just works so so well. It's not a romance but it very much is about love.

I will deliberately keep this review more focused on my reaction to the story, rather than telling you too much of what it is about because I went into it 'blind' and I think that also enhanced my reading of it. The story centres around the friendship between Sadie and Sam, who meet as children in a hospital, keep each other company, and bond over their love of games. We follow their lives for the next few decades and see how they meet again as adults and begin working together. And the fact that it is decades of their lives that we see unfold really sets a nice pace for the novel because Gabrielle Zevin has really taken the time to fully round out her characters, and delve deep into this central, and the many other relationships, rather than rush through them.

The virtual world (and development of virtual worlds) form the perfect setting for philosophical and existential discussion but this discussion is carefully woven in as the story unfolds, and that is further supported by the shifts in points of view. The character development is phenomenal, Sadie, Sam and Marx - leap off the pages transgressing from characters in a book to people you feel you come to know. You feel their emotions, are frustrated by their actions, laugh with them, cry with them - it's an emotional ride!

Just beautiful inside (and out because that cover artwork is also brilliant).

For me this is a book I will add to that list you have ready for anyone asking for a recommendation! This is the first of Zevin's books that I have read and I will definitely be going back now to read her other novels.

Thank you so much to the Vintage Team, NetGalley and Gabrielle Zevin for my ARC, I also now have the book in hardcover and will treasure it for years to come.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.
This book is up there to be one of my favourite books of the year so any book after thing will have some big shoes to fill.

I think that even if it is about gaming there is something for many people because it is predominantly about friendships at the end of the day. Not that the gaming part deterred me as I met my husband in a game shop when he ID'd me.

What I loved was how it shows different kinds of love throughout this story, we have familial love, romantic love, and the love between close friends and we throw a little bit of lust in the mix.

I will definitely be reading this book again

This was a great read with a unique storyline.

Sam and Sadie meet in hospital - Sam is a patient and Sadie is visiting her sister. The pair strike up a friendship playing video games - both are keen gamers and we follow them on a journey where gaming becomes their life.

I'm not a great video game fan, but the storyline was so much more than gaming - even though it was based around it. It's a tale of love, friendship and fulfilling your dreams. I loved it, and will be recommending it to anyone who will listen!

Many thanks to Random House UK and Net Galley UK for the review copy.

I debated for a while whether or not to request this book from NetGalley as ‘gaming’ is definitely not my thing. In my entire life, the only game I’ve ever played has been Sonic the Hedgehog and I’ve only played that a couple of times. However, the book had such rave reviews that I thought I’d give it a go.

The book begins when Sam and Sadie meet in hospital, Sam is an inpatient and Sadie’s sister has cancer. It spans about 30 years of their friendship, their separate paths for a while and their coming together again through their shared interest in computer gaming.

I did really like the book but unlike many other reviewers it was neither life changing, nor my ‘book of the year’, it was simply a fairly good book that kept my interest till about three quarters of the way through when out of the blue the story is told from the point of view of characters in a computer game. At that point, I lost interest, however, I kept going till the end.

It is a story of friendship, love and life experiences with a fair amount of misunderstanding and lack of communication thrown in.. I can’t say I loved the characters of Sadie and Sam but I did really like Marx. It’s a lengthy book and would probably be more enjoyable to readers with some knowledge of computer gaming.

My thanks go to the author, the publishers and NetGalley for an advanced e.reader copy of this book, however, the review in return is one hundred per cent my own honest opinion.

The Storied Life of A.J Fikry is one of my all-time favourite reads, so I was very excited to find that Gabrielle Zevin had a new book coming out. One line of the description says it all ' This is not a romance, but it is about love'. The novel centres around the friendship of Sam and Sadie , who bond over a love of computer games as children. A chance meeting at university rekindles their friendship, and they go on to develop their own games. This is a wonderfully told story about friendship. About finding ways to deal with the trials of life. About losing yourself in an alternate reality, (much like losing yourself in a good book. And this is a good book!!) Highly recommended.

This is long, spanning decades as it follows a pair of friends from their first meeting in a children’s hospital ward to adulthood. Sadie and Sam bond over a love of computer games, and as adults they work together to create their own games that capture the imaginations of millions. But there are fractures and breaks between them, and their relationship takes many twists and turns as the story progresses. It put me in mind of A Little Life, in terms of its scale, the complexity of the relationships and the sense of reality. Really lovely.

If there were 6 stars, I'd be giving them. I absolutely loved this book and devoured it at speed. It had charm, depth and heart. Highly recommended.

First, I was raised on the Atari. The Sega Mega Drive followed soon after. Sonic the Hedgehog and Tails, the controller passed between sticky hands. I spent rainy afternoons upstairs in my friend's box bedroom mashing the buttons of her Nintendo 64, a console which I have regrettably never owned. My brother got a Playstation for Christmas, and I snuck into his room when he wasn't there, traumatising myself on Resident Evil 2, later calming myself with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. Driving laps on a quad bike on our first PC in Tomb Raider 3. And so on.
I read a lot too, and have done throughout the decades that followed. One could surmise that these two hobbies consisted primarily of different means of escapism, so it's hard to believe that it's taken this long for me to come across a novel in which both of these hobbies collide.
I've read books in which the author has casually mentioned Tetris, or Pacman in passing, but they've never actually been about gaming. Until now.
First things first. You don't need to be a gamer to enjoy this book, but it certainly helps. Zevin mentions Hideo Kojima in the same way that your favourite band mentions your home town in the middle of a concert. She brings up the early Grand Theft Auto games, stirring up a dose of nostalgia. Zelda. Final Fantasy. Metal Gear Solid. And on, and on.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow follows Sam and Sadie, two friends that meet in a hospital games room. The novel follows them throughout their youth and into adulthood, bouncing between both of their perspectives as they grow up to work together as game developers. The novel is about gaming, but it's mostly about their friendship, and their relationships with those around them.

Zevin also deals with chronic pain and disability in a refreshing way. One of our protagonists has a disability, but this is not a story about overcoming in spite of or despite disability. It's just another facet of this character's personality. It's not tragic or the main focus of the story. It plays its part in how the story progresses, but it's not a story about illness. It just exists, as do illness and disability in general.

I liked this novel, but I didn't love it in the way that I expected to. I found the timeline a little jumpy sometimes, almost reading like a biography in which this happened and then that happened, and then the unimportant years are ignored in favour of our protagonist doing this impressive thing, and then this other impressive thing. Although some parts of the story were emotive, I somehow found this book lacking in emotion despite our protagonists living through some incredibly traumatic experiences.

The novel isn't always written from Sam or Sadie's perspectives either. Sometimes it's written from their friend Marx's perspective, or even from the viewpoint of a character in one of their games. Personally, I found this chopping and changing of perspectives to be a little jarring and I'm not sure that it worked all too well.

Otherwise, I enjoyed the story. It kept moving, and was well researched. I know that there are people out there for whom this novel will be incredibly special.

Sam and Sadie first met when they were children. Then they didn't see each other for years - until one day Sam sees Sadie on the subway platform. This chance meeting starts them on the road to success as video game designers. You follow Sam and Sadie over thirty years - as they play games, design games and grow up, always linked together but sometimes pulling in different directions.

You all know that I’ve been reading mostly stuff with happy endings or resolutions for the last *checks calendar* two years or so and this took me a little while to read because I wasn’t sure I was going to like how it all worked it. But I’m so glad I stuck with it because it is just wonderful - even if there was some crying involved, thankfully not on a train though. You watch Sam and Sadie grow and develop and try to help each other through life’s challenges. I can’t really say too much more than that because it’s going to give to much away.

I was a PC gamer when I was younger - mostly simulators like Sim City, the Sims and Transport Tycoon, but also Commander Keen and some of the other shareware games of that era, so I’ve played some of the games that Sam and Sadie played when they are kids and I understood the sort of games they were trying to create even if they weren’t my sort of games. But I don’t think you have to be a gamer to get this novel, don’t worry. It’s two people navigating friendship while working together. And it’s 400ish pages, so if you need a book for the beach this could be it!

I haven’t read any of Gabrielle Zevin’s books before, although I’ve had The Storied Life of A J Fikry on the list of books I would like to read at some point for years. But if her other books are anything like this one, I need to get to them sooner rather than later, just as soon as I’m in a more resilient state of mind, because this broke me at various points.

This was absolutely incredible. I expected to like it but wow. So tender, such gorgeous prose and fully fleshed out characters. I felt completely transported reading this, and I'm certain this will stay with me for a long time.

Will be recommending this to everyone.

I’d like to thank NetGalley and Random House UK for approving me for an ARC of this book. After seeing so many great reviews of this one I couldn’t wait to pick it up. When I was in London I popped into Waterstones and picked up a signed copy with blue spredges for my collection.

This story follows the beautiful and turbulent friendship of Sadie and Sam and it is one hell of a rollercoaster ride. We begin the story with the pair reuniting after not speaking for some time and as we progress through the story we learn about the start of their friendship through a series of flashbacks.

Both Sadie and Sam are complicated characters with interesting back stories. I found Sadie to be infuriating in some parts and her attitude towards Sam really wound me up at times. I will admit that Sam wasn’t perfect but I felt that at times he was the bigger friend and willing to show his feelings towards her. They were like an old married couple at times, always bickering but underneath it all you knew just how much they needed each other.

Gaming does feature heavily in this book and whilst I am not a gamer I did find it interesting. I loved learning how a game went from an idea to being produced and didn’t realise just how much work went into the process and how many people were involved. The community they built at Unfair Games felt more like a family and I loved the quirky characters that joined them. Marx was my favourite character. His ability to unite Sadie and Sam whilst maintaining the peace was masterful and you could feel his connection to them both deeply.

Over the course of thirty years we see the highs and lows of Sadie and Sam’s friendship. The good, the bad and the ugly are all on show and it was a beautiful thing to watch. Gabrielle Zevin’s writing is detailed and beautiful I was completely sucked into the story. When my eyes had absorbed the final words I wanted to hit the restart button and enjoy it all over again.

Firstly, I'm not a massive gamer, although I do love the Lego games! However, I don't think you need to be to love these characters and their friendship that starts when Sam, aged 11, meets Sadie in hospital.

I'll say no more on that as I don't want to spoil but this huge novel, spanning 30 years, is a wonderful read. The characters are all believable and the descriptive writing explaining the games is beautiful. I've not read any of work before but I will do now.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House for granting me a copy.

I finished this beautiful book last night and I loved it. The characters were wonderful and flawed, the story was gorgeous, it made me cry. I loved the different perspectives and how the story unfolded. I’ve read 2 other Gabrielle Zevin books over the years and both have been 5 stars and instant favourites, and this book is joining them