Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

241 reviews

aherrst's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Car accident, Death, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Blood, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Sexism, Sexual content, and Abortion

curlykristenk's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book made me feel SO MANY FEELINGS. Some happy, some sad, some furious, some distraught. But that’s what makes a good book. The writing was incredible, thoughtful and thought provoking. Just amazingly creative and clever. 
Yes there were plenty of toxic elements to the many relationships in this but navigating those is also a part of life. They were authentically human and both Sam and Sadie made mistakes. I don’t like that she still meets up with dov in the end but just goes to show the long lasting effects that (TW) grooming and manipulation can have on a person. This overall was a realistic, messy, heart wrenching, heart warming story about human connection and love. What else is there? 
The NPC has my heart. 

This review was written and book was read prior to learning about xenophobic author.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Gun violence, Chronic illness, Death, Grief, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Violence, Abortion, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Confinement, Miscarriage, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual harassment, and Terminal illness

Minor: Blood, Body horror, and Cancer

octopoid's review against another edition

emotional slow-paced

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

3.75

This was an amazing book and I binged the majority of it in a sitting. There were some themes that I was not entirely ready for but it was a very emotive and engaging read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Death, and Violence

lightthebeam's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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

3.75

This book is divided into parts, and if you think of it as the sum of those into a whole - I think readers will enjoy it more. The book doesn’t pick one time to stay in throughout, there are jumps foreword and back and the beginning features heavy foreshadowing (honestly it kinda just states the what’s to come in some parts) and doesn’t make the reader work hard in guessing how things may develop. There is a slight identity crisis in writing style and what the book is accomplishing but again if you think of it in parts, it makes more sense and is less confusing. 
I did not like the sudden narrator switch, it’s something I tend to not like at all in books but I do think it worked to further the story and of course it provided a unique perspective but I found it jarring and awkward. 
The characters in this book will piss you off, and while parts of it are so beautiful overall it does leave you feeling sad. Maybe that’s just me. It’s meant to leave off hopeful but it feels sorrowful instead. 
I thought the middle of this book was the most beautiful - everything before the pioneer game chapters. I devoured the beginning of this book, but at the end it wasn’t as captivating and I felt like I was reading in circles, the character progression had stagnated but honestly they were just in a stagnant place which I understand. Overall I did really enjoy this book, there were just parts of the writing style I found to be a hinderance to the actual story, it felt like there was a slight identity crisis but it did make for a unique and thought provoking read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Antisemitism, Death, Mass/school shootings, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Sexual harassment, Pregnancy, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Murder, Cancer, Car accident, Hate crime, Chronic illness, Confinement, Toxic friendship, Violence, Xenophobia, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, and Toxic relationship

maiqz's review against another edition

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Sexual content, Violence, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Homophobia

fancyjess_party's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Racism, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Misogyny, Miscarriage, Hate crime, Dysphoria, Drug use, Car accident, Bullying, Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, Addiction, Ableism, Suicide, Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Medical content, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Toxic friendship, Torture, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Rape, Physical abuse, Cancer, Sexism, Mass/school shootings, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Death, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Xenophobia, Violence, and Toxic relationship

keeparas's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

1.0

Boring. I thought this book would never end. Same plot over and over just to drag it out. Friends, not friends, friends, make a video game together, not friends. Repeat 15 times. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Mass/school shootings, and Violence

zeppolin's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

I loved the book from the first to the last page, which is very rare. I had to put it aside once so I wouldn’t start sobbing on the bus. Probably my favourite read of the year already.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Sexual content, Car accident, and Terminal illness

gossamer_lens'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

3.25

I have very mixed feelings about this book. As far as the writing style goes it is a 10/10 for me. I loved how the text bounced from past to present and from various points of view and perspectives. It was a book that kept me hooked on finishing it despite how much I disliked certain aspects of it. The writing style saved this book from being a 1.5 star.

So to talk about what I didn't like. 

Characters - I basically didn't like any character in the book except for one. I didn't hate them, but I found two of the central characters to be very dry and boring. They felt like a lot was going on, but they were written to be so "real life messy" that they felt like flat characters of the phrase "people are complicated." This is fine I guess, but in real life, I hope to never be closely tied to people who are so "complicated" that they cannot think to apologize, reach out, or otherwise acknowledge their flaws. I love my friends and family and I expect some basic courtesy in return at the very least. So it was hard when literally none of the characters in the book demonstrated any knowledge of the concepts of forgiveness, therapy, communication, or establishing boundaries. 

Plot - Overall this book didn't have a lot happen plot-wise. Some people do well in their careers and they all still have issues before, during, and after their successes. Not a problem... but when the book is so character based and I didn't love the characters... it made the writing style do a ton of the heavy lifting and left me hoping for more the whole way... only for it to end. Reflecting makes me realize it never gave me... "more".

Video games - I was super excited to read a book that centered video games. Over the last few years I have slowly become more and more aware of games. I was generally aware of them growing up but stuck to books. Then 2020 hit and my gamer husband (fiance at the time) got me invested in games by gifting me Animal Crossing. Since then I've played a bunch of cozy games, alongside a good smattering of fighters, platformers, Assasian's Creed, Indie games, etc. But besides that I've now watched hours upon hours of video game history video essays by developers, artists, and players. All this knowledge I thought would be helfpul and fun. 

Instead, it made me vastly annoyed as I found the author gave credit to the most basic and well-known games while making up a lot of games OR taking actual games and giving them new names as if the author herself invented them. This wouldn't have bugged me so much had the writing not come across as "super gamer is making up cool ideas". At the back of the book the author makes acknowledgment to several games and to me it read as "this is what I referenced" and implied that the unmentioned things were her own invention. Looking across discussion forms and listening to my fellow book clubers talk about this book, this seems like how a lot of people read the book and her acknowledgment. I guess I don't expect a fiction book to have an annotated bibliography... but I expect more of an author than taking people's real-life work and not acknowledging them at all AND changing the names of games to try and hide that she is essentially taking others work and writing those concepts into her work.

I could write a dissertation on what all this author drew from real-life artists' work without acknowledging it. But the most egregious example is probably that of her not giving credit to a Jewish woman whom she not just took the game from but also some of the surrounding circumstances. Just very odd and the Washington Post goes into it in more detail here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2023/03/24/train-board-game-brenda-romero-tomorrow-and-tomorrow-and-tomorrow/

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship

Moderate: Rape, Violence, Domestic abuse, and Homophobia

Minor: Xenophobia

ubalubi's review against another edition

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

4.5

It felt bittersweet to finish reading Tomorrow , and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. I fell in love with everyone and felt as though I was growing with them. I'll be rereading. This was excellent. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Violence and Sexual content