Review – Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (4/5 stars)

Reading Level:Adult
Genre: Historical Fiction
Length: 418 pages
Publisher:‎ Knopf
Release Date: July 5, 2022
ASIN: ‎B09JBCGQB8
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Borrowed ebook through library
Rating: 4/5 stars

“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.”

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book I borrowed this on ebook from my library.

Thoughts: Previous to reading this I had also read Zevin’s “The Storied Life of A.J.Fikry” which I liked. I had been wanting to read this book for some time. It was an intriguing read and bounces back and forth a lot between characters and time. I ended up enjoying it but also felt like it was a bit slow at parts and wandered off track occasionally.

This is the story of Sam and Sadie, two long time friends who end up meeting again in college and making a video game together. When the game is a huge success, they end up starting their own company together. However, as they face personal disasters and questionable life decisions, they constantly struggle to keep the company together without their creative differences pulling it apart. They both undergo tragedy and pain (in other words this thing we call life) and deal with it in very different ways.

I really enjoyed this look at the gaming industry through time. Sadie and Sam are just slightly older than I am and it was fun to relive my gaming history while they lived through it. Looking at how the industry has changed was both fascinating and nostalgic for me.

Although this is set in a backdrop of the video game industry, this book is really about two amazing people trying to keep their lives together through loss, depression, and tragedy. Sadie struggles a lot with being accepted in the gaming industry as a woman. I did like seeing the contrast and change from when she went to college to when she was teaching college. I could definitely relate to this being a woman and in engineering. Although things haven’t changed fast enough in some of the more male dominated industries, they definitely have changed even from when I got my college degree in engineering in the late 90’s.

I found both Sadie and Sam to be incredibly frustrating at times; they are both selfish and think they are superior to each other in different ways. However, they both have a unique working style and when they collaborate on work they can make something amazing together. I did think the question of them having a romance was visited too often throughout, Zevin kept trying to drive the point home that they could be excellent co-workers and supportive friends (in their own way) without being lovers. However, it was like she kept second guessing herself. It seemed a bit confused, like even the author here didn’t know what she wanted to happen.

The book closes fairly unfinished feeling, however, that is true of these life story kind books and I think it was appropriate for this book as well.

My Summary (4/5): Overall I liked this and am glad I read it. It was a nostalgic look at growing up with video games. I liked some of the extra insight into the industry as well. Sam and Sadie are fascinating, if frustrating, characters to read about. The story also feels a bit unfinished. I have enjoyed both of Zevin’s books that I have read and will continue to check out future books by her. They have intriguing characters and always provide some food for thought.