Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

133 reviews

evreardon's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I started this books months ago and never really got into it. I was maybe 30 pages (or less) into it when I put it down. I wish I could tell you why.

It wasn’t until after I read The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry that I felt an urge to pick this back up. I understood more of Zevin’s style and knew I had to push through.

Zevin’s style isn’t my favorite but there’s something about it that digs its claws into you once you get past the first few chapters.

The most resonating quote to me is one she chose to not use in the book but instead was in her notes in the back. “The friendships we make when we’re young are like a spell cast over our entire life.”  I’m drawn to it because I relate. 

Zevin has a gift of being able to write novels that span years and years without getting bogged down with minutia. I’m so used to reading novels that take place over the span of weeks or months where every little thing is detailed that this was a pleasant break. 

I love the moment when you finally understand the title. It was so perfect and touching. 

“It isn’t a sadness, but a joy, that we don’t do the same things for the length of our lives.” 

I loved the characters even though there were times I hated them. They were perfectly imperfect and flawed. 
The exploration of friendship, family, love, and loss is expertly written. There’s no one way to experience it all and Zevin showed that wonderfully. 

I don’t think you need a strong interest in video games to read this because it’s mostly about the people. I have a passing fancy in video games and I still greatly im enjoyed this without knowing all the gaming references. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Chronic illness, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Medical trauma, and Death of parent

Minor: Cancer, Drug use, Blood, Vomit, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

s_panfil's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent

Moderate: Cancer, Chronic illness, Suicide, Blood, Car accident, and Classism

Minor: Sexism, Vomit, Abortion, and Alcohol

megmo's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Car accident, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Cancer, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Stalking, Abortion, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Drug use, Gore, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Blood, Cultural appropriation, and Alcohol

const_elle_ations's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Antisemitism, Mass/school shootings, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Chronic illness, Drug use, Blood, Vomit, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Body shaming, Cancer, Sexual content, Cultural appropriation, and Abandonment

elderwoodreads's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

One of the most remarkable books I have read in a long time. Zevin does a masterful job of exploring what it means to be a friend and the depths of platonic love over the landscape of early video games.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Suicide, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Car accident, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

Minor: Confinement, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Medical trauma, Abortion, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

shannnne_reads_words's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Suicide, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Drug use, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Car accident, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Eating disorder, Racism, Sexism, Vomit, Abortion, and Cultural appropriation

alisonannk's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Hate crime, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Chronic illness, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Terminal illness, Cultural appropriation, and Classism

Minor: Antisemitism

miniingrid's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Es uno de esos libros que tengo que reposar. Así que de momento diré que aunque tenga cosas que no me han gustado, me ha tocado la fibra y me ha hecho recordar cierta época de mi vida y me ha removido. Así que el balance es más bien positivo, pero me ha dejado un poso triste que aún estoy procesando.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer

Minor: Abortion and Alcohol

blair_w's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Mass/school shootings, and Abortion

Minor: Domestic abuse and Alcohol

mlcrawford's review against another edition

emotional sad slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

1.0

UPDATE: knocked it down a star due to plagiarism allegations regarding Brenda Romero’s 2009 board game, Train. “Solution” rips the concept and there’s no credit given to Romero in the acknowledgments. https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2023/03/24/train-board-game-brenda-romero-tomorrow-and-tomorrow-and-tomorrow/

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I've taken a week to think about this review, but my mind remains unchanged—it was disappointing. I wanted to love it, especially since so many people told me that it was their favorite read of 2022/now in their list of top-ten favorite books, but I would personally prefer to forget that I read it.

Part of this is the story itself—I find it hard to believe that this is a book about friendship. I understand wanting flawed characters, no one is perfect, etc., but more often than not Sam and Saide straight-up hate each other. Constantly getting into arguments and not speaking for years, in my mind, is not friendship. Miscommunication as plot advancement is predictable at best and utterly frustrating at worst—moreover, it removes the realism of what's supposed to be a slice-of-life novel.

There are a number of instances that removed me from the story—the unnecessary thesaurus-chosen words, out-of-place anecdotes that don't fit the time period, Miles Davis being underground and "avant-garde," inconsistencies with Sam's injury.

There's a passage of him driving after he's had surgery. Unless he drives a manual, why would he use his left foot for the pedals?

Good:
The NPC chapter was beautifully written. Does it fit the book? No—it stands out as the response to a creative writing prompt, but it's done well.

Not Good:
Personally, I couldn't stand the Pioneers chapter. And I love Stardew Valley/Animal Crossing! I am the target demographic for that chapter, and it was a slog. The book was beyond overwritten at that point.
The first half was stronger than the second half. At one point, it gets deus ex machina and really just goes off the rails from there.
There were a lot of sociopolitical issues mentioned, but without resolve. It felt like a list of "oh, and this is an issue, too," but why? Get into the nitty-gritty of it. Otherwise it feels like a sideshow of racism, sexism, homophobia, abuse, and ableism. Especially regarding

Dov—I understand that there's a balance of writing his character casually because that's often how cycles of abuse are perpetuated and that, more often than not, abusers go on without consequence. But it would have been great to have some level of recourse. Especially, I don't know, maybe with Sam actually being a friend and not going to Dov? Asking Sadie what's going on instead of just noticing it and sweeping it under the rug? Again, it's hard to believe that they're supposed to be friends.

Not every book is for everyone, and this one isn't for me. I think the other side of the coin is that I've read a few other coming-of-age books recently (The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith, and Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery). Obviously you can't compare these to Tomorrow because they are wholly different stories and settings, but they all are coming-of-age books, and that's where Tomorrow really fell flat for me. The character growth is nonexistent. Even

at the end, with a five-year time jump or whatever it was, Sam and Sadie are wholly unchanged. Even as flawed characters, how do you go half of your life without changing at all? Growing from experience? Learning how to communicate? Anything?

I also don't think this should be categorized as literary fiction—based on that, I expected something with deeper meaning, conceptual ideas, maybe a slight speculative fiction slant at times. I'd place Tomorrow somewhere between Young Adult and Adult fiction. More often than not, it read like a YA novel, which is fine if that's what you're expecting.

Also, hell, there should be a list of Content Warnings with this book.

Ableism, abuse, BDSM, cancer, car accident, death, death of a parent, gun violence, homophobia, mass shooting, medical trauma, sexism, suicide, racism, vomit, to name a few

. I tend to prefer books that let the reader infer what's going on, but Tomorrow just throws it all out there, often in an unsettling amount of detail. I would hate for someone to go into this book not knowing what CWs it entails and stumbling across something detrimentally triggering.

Overall, not the book for me. Frustrating, disappointing, and about 100 pages too long. I wish I could have read the book that a lot of other people seem to love. But the cover design is a 10/10, so it's got that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Suicide, Blood, Mass/school shootings, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Vomit, Antisemitism, and Car accident

Minor: Infidelity, Abortion, and Alcohol