Reviews with content warning for Chronic illness - Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

It's a love story, at it's core about friendship. It's a story about two people fundamentally shaped by the obstacles and challenges in their life which they in turn accidentally build similar obstacles in each other's lives. Where the only way they can show their love and connection is through their love of video games.

As I read this book I kept having this feeling that it is like a palindrome - a word, number, phrase, or other sequence of symbols that reads the same backwards as forwards (ex: "racecar" or 12:21). The characters, themes, stories... they volley back and forth in this circular pattern that simultaneously holds this melancholy and hope. It's a book of neverending comradry and loneliness. It is both endearing and depressing. It's frustrating and completely relatable. The writing is even weaved in a way that reveals layers of the past, present, and future interchangeably.

Marx was my favorite character. I saw so much of myself in him. However Sadie and Sam are the main characters. They are flawed characters to a T. The antiheroes to themselves and each other. As much as they'd frustrate me, I fell in love with them too.

This book at its peaks was captivating. And maybe at it's worst: overplaying is own quirkiness. But those moments are few. This is ambitious, labor of love. I admire this author swinging for the fences on something as abstract and creative as this. I love video games, and I appreciate the palpable feeling of mutual love for the medium as seen in this book. It is truly unique in the way of love stories and will be memorable to me even after this post reading haze.

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Edited March 2023*

Lastly, there are allegations about this book. I didn't learn of them until shortly after I started reading. I tried to not allow these allegations to affect my experience of the book because this is a matter of author vs their medium.

I'll speak of the book and book alone: (1) Crediting work - If you know you were inspired by someone's work, what is the harm in crediting them? Especially if you mention their husband's name in the book itself. Just seemed lazy and a misstep considering this book tackles the unfair discredit of women in male dominated spaces like the gaming world. Brenda Romero, for her board game "Train", should have received an acknowledgement. (2) Pro-Religious Undertones* - allegations have been made about Zevin and this book. I honestly can't speak about the author herself but the book did not promote a religious agenda at first glance, but upon further investigation I can see how it could be interpreted that way*. In the beginning there is a game based on the Holocaust, a character who is from Israel, and the main characters (Sam and Sadie) who have Jewish backgrounds. There is a brief mention of Sadie reading about "the founding of Israel" which I previously overlooked.* She doesn't go into what she read but it is mentioned.* After that Jewish related things are barely brought up and are most definitely never in a way to steers the plot. It's mainly used as character history/origin, with the exception of the "founding of Israel" being used to impress a boyfriend.*

It's up to you how you want to proceed with the author based on accusations. I suggest doing your own research.

Content Warnings

edevoursink's review against another edition

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dark hopeful inspiring 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

4.5

Content Warnings

yvo_about_books's review against another edition

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emotional reflective slow-paced

2.0

Finished reading: January 28th 2024

“This is what time travel is. It’s looking at a person, and seeing them in the present and the past, concurrently. And that mode of transport only worked with those one had known a significant time.”

WARNING: it's unpopular opinion time again!!

Right. I confess that I was already a bit hesitant to pick up Tomorrow, And Tomorrow, And Tomorrow, because hyped books and me don't usually tend to get along... But since I consider one of her other books an all time favorite, I ended up giving in when I saw I needed a book about gaming for one of the challenges this year. Sadly, I didn't get along AT ALL with this book. I'm starting to believe The Storied Life Of A.J. Fikry was the outlier, and her writing just isn't the right fit for me... Because to say that I struggled with Tomorrow, And Tomorrow, And Tomorrow is an understatement. Initially I was cautiously hopeful even though the pace was a lot slower than expected, but things soon started to go downhill. There is something almost pretentious about the writing, 'woke' characters/topics and the plot, and it kind of left me with a bad taste in my mouth. I can't say that I was a fan of Sam and Sadie's friendship at all, and they never felt like 'real' characters to me. It was almost like they were shouting: 'Look how different I am! Look how special I am! Look how I'm better than you!'... And it was a huge turn off for me. Add Sadie's relationship with Dov (cringeworthy and only made me like her character even less), and other topics introduced seemingly just to show how 'woke' the author is, and I confess that I started to skimread long before the halfway mark. In fact, I should have just DNFed it instead... Tomorrow, And Tomorrow, And Tomorrow most definitely wasn't the book for me, and I think I'll just leave her books alone in the future. Sure, A.J. Fikry did receive a 5 star rating, but this has been the third time her other titles have failed to hit the mark for me... And sometimes you just have to know when to throw in the towel.

Content Warnings

joa_price's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

lpalacios's review against another edition

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emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Very interesting premise for a book, the execution on the other hand isn’t great. The dialogue reads very flat and unrealistic. The character development is the biggest thing that detracts from this book. The characters, half way through the book began to change the way they think and treat their relationships in a way that feels weird given how they were depicted in the first half.

Content Warnings

saj04's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

kyannabrown's review

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emotional reflective relaxing 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

4.0

I felt disappointed by the ending even though I enjoyed reading the book. I really enjoyed the game designing portions of the book.

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