Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

125 reviews

eskinner97's review

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.5

This book is definitely out of my traditional comfort zone. This book was chosen as the book of the month to read for my local library’s book club. When it was chosen, I honestly was disappointed. I found myself already dreading to read the book. With my first impressions of the book driving my decision, I concluded that I would not read the book. Then, things changed, and I was put into a position where I was required to read the book, even though I had no interest in it. After reading this book, I believe even more in the saying that one should not judge a book by its cover. With that being said, let’s dive into my review.

I want to begin this review by discussing the cover and the title. I do believe that the cover and title of this book played a huge part in my reluctance to want to read it. Not only was I put off by these at the beginning, but I also found the overall description of the book to be dry and unappealing. The cover, while I understand the reasoning behind its graphics, I am not a fan, even after reading the book. I feel as if there is just so much going on and find it to be distracting. Concerning the title, I was originally very put off by the choice. However, as I reached the end of the book, I began to understand the choice, and surprisingly gained an appreciation for it. I will not reveal any spoilers, but I will say that the reason behind the title was a revelation to me and brought tears to my eyes as I made the discovery.

Now that I have gotten my first impressions off my chest, I want to discuss more of the storyline and the writing. Regarding the storyline, I found that once I got over my reluctance to begin the book and started reading, I began to enjoy the story. I started to enjoy not only the story but found things in each character that I could relate to, appreciate, and understand. If it were for the storyline only, my rating of this book would be higher. I honestly would have probably considered rating it a five if I could be blind to the issues that I found throughout the novel as I read. Due to my original thoughts of the novel, I find myself being embarrassed about the fact, that the storyline in my mind was well done. But this wouldn’t be an honest review if I withheld this, would it? Honestly, I found that throughout the story I experienced so many emotions, and found myself immersed in the story, and wanting it to continue. I found myself falling in love with it and saw my overall thoughts and rating improve.

But, as you can see, my rating was influenced by more than the storyline. My rating, as all ratings should be, is based on the storyline as well as how the author delivered the story. While I like the storyline, I was not a fan of how the author wrote, and how some of the messages were delivered. For example, how it followed multiple perspectives, I feel was a distraction to the reader. Instead of giving perspectives their own chapters, their own light, in other words, the perspectives were intertwined with one another inside chapters, inside paragraphs, etc. I felt that with the power that the story could have had, I think if the perspectives were given their own room to grow and develop, it would have been less of a distraction and more of an aid to the novel as a whole.

The other thing that bothered me about the writing may just be a personal preference. Call me old-fashioned if you need to, but I thought that the language, drug use, and sex throughout were unnecessary and hindered the novel. These were the reasons that caused me to rate the novel lower. Again, this could just be a personal preference, but I had very strong opinions about how prevalent these were throughout the story.

For more reviews and discussions, listen to my podcast The Honest Book Reviewers with Nate and Emma. 

https://open.spotify.com/show/3H3ugH4xlzvjMXuUo1Lyvh?si=ewdzfkUnSVKyDmAvHMHIPQ

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Abortion, Cursing, Drug use, Sexual content, and Alcohol

narbine's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mass/school shootings, Torture, Sexual violence, Cursing, Death of parent, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Domestic abuse, Religious bigotry, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Vomit, and Misogyny

Moderate: Stalking, Ableism, Gaslighting, Abortion, Abandonment, Cancer, and Religious bigotry

amymarchlawrence's review

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Cursing, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Torture, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Suicide, Chronic illness, Racism, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship

monicabach's review

Way too much cursing for my comfort. Too much sexual content, including s&m. I like to be careful with what I allow into my mind…I went this far because I thought once Dove was out of the picture it would get better because it was all from him but he came back so I had to stop. Note- content warnings are for the first 40% of the book.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Cursing

Minor: Xenophobia and Suicide

vonrxyes's review

challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

i can’t decide if i enjoyed this or not, lots of it made me mad, lots of it made me cry. all i can say is i couldn’t put it down, for better or for worse. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Body horror, Death of parent, Vomit, Blood, Grief, Suicide, Chronic illness, Xenophobia, Cursing, Sexual violence, Misogyny, Cultural appropriation, Emotional abuse, Car accident, Homophobia, Mass/school shootings, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Racism

the zionism, second wave feminism, and internalized anti-asian racism is not subtle in this

wooblatoober's review

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.75

i really enjoyed zevin’s ability to portray characters with generosity & portray ever-changing relationships, even with rifts, and just overall make everything feel real.

i’m obsessed with marx’s fruit tree motif. he’s ever-giving, and he’s beautiful, and he’s soft. the love he gives freely is so beautiful and bountiful and juicy and sweet, but not too much so, like a fuyu persimmon. for now, maybe because of my own experiences, i’m more hung up on marx’s death than sam & sadie’s stories and relationship.

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.

specifically, i loved sadie at the beginning and felt sorry for how she was being manipulated, then disliked her toward the end, which isn’t even how every reader might feel about her, since she seems like such a real person, and real people have some people that like them and some people that don’t. conversely, i was a bit annoyed by sam for the beginning, thinking he seemed like any other toxic smart guy who thinks he’s smarter than everybody else, until i started LOVING him toward the middle, then i was a bit annoyed by him again by the end for his lack of communication, though i was proud of his growth and baby steps in communication.

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.

by sadie and sam’s happy ending, which implies that they’ll fight again in the future but will work to be better to themselves and each other, i was kinda over it. overshadowed by marx’s death, i had become done with sadie’s paralysis and easy-to-anger attitude as well as her ability to hold a grudge that outshines teen sam’s, and done with sam’s refusal to communicate, even if they had experiences or mental illnesses that facilitated those actions (or lack thereof).

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Racism, Gore, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Gun violence, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Murder, Violence, Cursing, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Blood, Body horror, Car accident, Death, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Cancer, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Drug use, Hate crime, Sexual assault, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Ableism, Cultural appropriation, Antisemitism, and Body shaming

freshbatchofbooks's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Car accident, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Gun violence, Sexual content, Cursing, Toxic relationship, Cancer, and Sexual violence

Minor: Domestic abuse, Abortion, Emotional abuse, Cultural appropriation, and Ableism

jsingh's review

dark emotional 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

4.5

4.5/5

God damn was this sad. This was quite an adventure to read. I'm no gamer, but I could appreciate this. My favorite part was the chapter on "Pioneer." I did feel like this book was a little too long and covered more perspectives than it needed, but it was quite well written. I could definitely see myself reading another book by Zevin in the future. Well done!

Favorite Quotes below!

"'A maze', he would say, 'is the video game distilled to its purest form.' Maybe so, but this was revisionist and self-aggrandizing. The mazes were for Sadie. To design a game is to imagine the person who will eventually play it." (47:24)

"The freight was in proportion to the groove." (4:44:15)

"Those two are thick as thieves. They'll do anything for each other." (5:18:56)

[Sadie to Sam] "I would've shown up in the game of your life either way." (5:46:30)

"Sam had surprised her. There was real depth to his side [Mapletown] and she had found herself in tears when she played Sam's side together with her side [Meyer Landing] for the first time." (7:02:39)

"'They wanted you! They wanted you! They wanted you!' She beats his [Sam's] chest with her fists, and he doesn't try to stop her. 'Harder' he thinks." (10:58:10)

LQ: Ludo means 'game' in Latin.
Emily: 'What does 'Quintas' mean?'
'Fifth,' Dedalus said after a beat. 'Fifth game.' (12:31:50)

Emily B. Marx: Is it you?...Samson is it you? Be honest for once in your life.
Dedalus84: Yes
Emily B. Marx: How did you find me?
Dedalus84: Find you? I built this place for you. I made it look like Oregon Trail because I knew you would like it. (12:32:32)

Emily looked at Alabaster - at their lilac eyes and their lilac hair. "Sam?"
"Who's Sam?" Alabaster said.
"Are you Sam as well?"
Alabaster lowered themself to their knees. "Sadie."
The figure of Emily disappeared from Alabaster's house.
(Emily has left Friendship) (12:35:27) 

"So, Sam builds an MMO RPG to lure one gamer? Brilliant. Crazy, but brilliant." (12:46:29)

"I guess Sam watched to see if I would join, and once I joined, he created a series of identities to keep me playing." (12:47:05)

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing

Moderate: Sexual content and Mass/school shootings

litoreads's review

adventurous 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

5.0

This is one of the best books I have ever read. I cannot even begin to explain how much I love this book. The writing, the characterization, the plot, the emotions. If you're in your late 20's or older, you will fall in love with these characters and their flaws, which make them so real.

Zevin's writing style is gorgeous and I need more of her in my life. Thank you for writing this. I'm so grateful to have found a signed edition at B&N <3

6/5 stars.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Death, Grief, Classism, Gaslighting, Medical trauma, Racism, Sexism, Ableism, Chronic illness, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit

ashmak06's review

emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective relaxing 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? It's complicated

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Chronic illness, Death, Grief, Death of parent, and Gun violence

Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Blood, Cancer, Racism, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Medical content, Homophobia, and Suicide

Minor: Abortion, Sexual content, Sexism, Pregnancy, Cursing, Alcohol, Mental illness, Drug use, and Violence