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edevoursink's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Gun violence, Homophobia, Racism, Violence, and Toxic friendship
c_peach's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
The middle was slow for me, as well as most parts when they were discussing making video games (their lives work and passion). I am often drawn to character driven books, but for some reason that was not enough to make this a 5 ⭐️ with this book.
Graphic: Gun violence, Mental illness, Racism, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Mass/school shootings
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship
yvo_about_books's review against another edition
2.0
“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.
Graphic: Ableism, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Racism, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail
lpalacios's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Chronic illness, Gun violence, Mental illness, Violence, Grief, Mass/school shootings, and Toxic friendship
justagir1's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Moderate: Ableism
Minor: Death, Sexual content, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship
wooblatoober's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
zevin does an AMAZING job of showing how people and their relationships change over time. it’s crazy how much my opinions on the characters changed over time, waxing and waning and flipping between them.
this book reads like creative nonfiction. it’s remarkable. my only small complaint is a major spoiler (everything i’ve marked “spoiler” is a major spoiler though), and that’s basically the end of the book. tl;dr for the spoiler, i felt like the ending was just over the line of a little bit too late in the back-and-forth of the story to feel satisfied by it. i felt empty at the end like i do out of all the best books, but that emptiness came from events that happened before the ending of the book, and the ending was overshadowed by that and felt too little too late.
Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Cancer, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Hate crime, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Ableism, Body shaming, Antisemitism, and Cultural appropriation
adavis16's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Mass/school shootings and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Chronic illness, Car accident, and Death of parent
ckiyoko's review against another edition
- 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
2.5
I'm also deeply Not Thrilled with "Solution" being a blatant ripoff of Brenda Romero's "Train" that goes uncredited, especially given this book deals so heavily with the power dynamics in video game design and how often women are overlooked/uncredited.
For me, I also struggled with some of the moments of the book that felt like they handwaved the concept of cultural appropriation, and later the soapbox moments about how sensitive the newer generation is. They felt a bit out of place, and more like the bubbling up of some deeper seated anxiety from the author than something coming from the characters' reactions to their place and situations.
I felt this similarly in the explorations of Sam's experience as being mixed EAsian and white, which felt like they tread the same ground that's been tread before/existed more as a justification for the existence of mixed white and Asian people. I don't know exactly how to phrase it. It was just something that was off-putting to me as someone who is in that category because it feels like it's re-litigating the same conversation we've been having for years and played to the same tropes and lines, which felt...recursive? Like it flattened a complex and nuance experience to a monolith? I'm not sure, but at the very least, I found it exhausting to hear the same talking points I heard in middle and high school here. There was an element of self-consciousness to the explorations of this that felt, again, like someone else's insecurities about their identity bubbling up here rather than the character.
But yeah, pretty wild book. Well written, but felt kind of like a liminal space turned into a novel.
Graphic: Ableism, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Mass/school shootings, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail
victoria_bnb's review against another edition
- 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
I would've liked to see their relationship develop,not even in a romantic way, but more caring and relying on each other. instead of 20+ years of them calling each other "friends"
Sadie specifically annoyed me, she was so hypocritical. Sam was not a great person but had "reasons". And when they were upset they never just talked it out, and then let it go.
Marx was the flatest character of them all he is "perfect and everyone loves him even his exes." He got treated badly but didn't care, and continued to take care of the people treating him that way and never corrected bad behavior.
Also Dov is the worst, he was abusive and manipulative (and an IDF solider) and that was just glossed over. This book as a whole did not do enough to criticizehis behavior. He continued to be a part of Sadie's life, after everything he did but she stops talking to Sam of all people.
I did like the overall writing. It was an easy read except some parts, there was too much detail or prose.
Graphic: Toxic friendship
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Racism, Mass/school shootings, Car accident, and Pregnancy
Minor: Cancer, Abortion, and Cultural appropriation
audreytrml's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship