This book spans multiple decades, but I finished it in about a day. “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow,” by Gabrielle Zevin sucks you in like the video games she writes about. It’s aptly titled after a Shakespearean soliloquy, as I have no doubt it’ll stand the test of time.
Sadie Green and Sam Masur take the leading roles. The pair meet in a hospital in differing circumstances — Sadie’s sister has leukemia, while Sam is recovering from multiple surgeries on his broken foot.
We follow them through childhood, college and adulthood as they navigate relationships, develop videogames and go through intense highs and lows. Although the storyline bounces around between decades, it isn’t confusing, and in fact, it builds tension while doing so. The time flip-flopping fills in holes that give the story depth.
Although published in 2022, you wouldn’t know it if you looked under the hashtags on TikTok or the Goodreads reviews, with a burgeoning number of videos and reviews this year. I don’t normally opt for contemporary books; However, the rave reviews on BookTok drew me in, and the writing style, plus the quirks of each character, made me stay.
My favorite part was the premise — reading how Sadie and Sam develop videogames in their college dorms, to then go on to build an entire gaming company was such a journey, and one that I wish I was on with them instead of just reading about it.
It was clear that Zevin did her research on video games, and it’s a testament to her writing that she made concepts that would have otherwise been complicated into very palatable topics, feeling sophisticated but still accessible.
The games that Sadie and Sam create are also so clever; it’s a fun journey to feel like you’ve stepped into Sam and Sadie’s minds as they develop the games. My personal favorite — one that I wish was real — is “Mapleworld” (“The Sims” meets “Animal Crossing”). I found “Ichigo” and “Solution” to be particularly clever as well, although you’ll have to read to find out why.
The strongest part of the book was the interpersonal relationships and Zevin’s ability to casually and matter-of-factly drop sentences that made me reconsider the way I thought about something — I didn’t realize it was possible to do a double-take while reading a book until I picked up this one.
As much as I love Sam and Sadie and the rest of the characters who fill out the ensemble, they are messy. They don’t always communicate how they feel, and they often let those feelings get in the way of longstanding relationships. It’s frustrating, but timeless, and you can’t help connecting with them in spite of yourself.
The most heartbreaking part of the book is how it builds this world up only to shatter the expectation and comfort that fiction can provide you — that nothing bad will happen. There are real-world issues in this book that have affected generations, and Zevin tackles them deftly.
I honestly liked the inclusion of these issues, despite them being devastating as I tore through the pages. It was a good reminder that life can hit you like a gut punch, but there are also beautiful moments, and that you have tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow to experience them.
“Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” masterfully depicts interpersonal relationships, akin to other popular authors like Sally Rooney or Coco Mellors. It may not have Shakespeare’s track record of holding up centuries later, but I have faith it’ll last the next few years, as Zevin weaves a gripping plot between the relationships to make this book the whole package.
