Reviews with content warning for Car accident - Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

I will say this book was beautifully written. I typically cannot stand to read character-only books— I find them to be too slow and boring— but I truly enjoyed this book. I would recommend this book to other folks who (1) prefer character development only over plot, (2) are okay with reading books with major characters that you do not like, and (3) are comfortable with reading books with major triggers.

Now tor my grievances which include spoilers. like major spoilers.

Spoiler

I did not like Sam. At all. However, the beauty of Zevin’s writing is that I still sympathized and emphasized with him so I still wanted his life to be okay. Sam had gone through so much(Anne’s death, developing a major physical disability, getting an amputation, and experiencing chronic phantom pain.) I wanted him to be happy but I believe he was written to be an unlikeable character so we can sympathize with the challenges that Marx and Sadie faced with their ever-changing relationships with Sam. I think Sam’s feelings for Sadie were very confusing for me to understand. I didn’t comprehend whether it was a platonic major love or romantic. I believed it was platonic until late in the book when he said he would’ve slept with her if it wasn’t for his foot/low self-esteem. I think the book needed someone to read the book solely to follow the plot line of Sam and Sadie’s relationship for inconsistencies with how Zevin acknowledged it. explanation: I still call it a relationship because a friendship is a relationship. Due to the fact that this book was heavily marketed as a deep-dive into the longevity of a friendship stronger than love is why I rated it a 3.5. I was too hung up on that aspect to fully understand Sam’s character which made it difficult to read some portions of the book.

Good things but still spoilers:
I liked Sadie. I sympathized with her. She made me realize things about my own past relationships. Again, illustrating the beauty of Zevin’s writing.

When Marx died, I was so upset and had to set down the book. It was heartbreaking to read this when you know they’re pregnant and what Sadie thought about it.I appreciated how she handled the coma scene and felt it did true justice to the experience. It was heart-wrenching, beautifully written, and absolutely perfect.<spoiler/> Zevin’s writing was so beautiful and I can see this book being taught in English university classes.

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obx_mt's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful 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

2.75

This book seems to be one everyone loved, but I found myself being more frustrated than entertained. I thought Marx was an incredible character: stead-fast and true. Sam was flawed, but endearing. I thought Sadie was unlikable. Her attitude toward Sam seemed unexplainable at times and cruel.

I loved the idea of the gaming world being the setting of this book. Also how the games helped enhance the narrative. I also thought that the words were beautifully written and I appreciated the commentary about the world at large.

Spoiler

But I think as a whole, once Sadie decided Sam couldn't be trusted and completely stopped communicating with him, I lost interest.

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dollym's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful 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

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kateslass's review

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emotional hopeful tense fast-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

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erindwanbaty's review

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emotional reflective 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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just_one_more_paige's review

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emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

Alright, everybody was doing it, so I did too. But for real this book topped all the popular-vote-based "best of" lists for 2022. And you know I always want to see for myself what the hype is about. Plus, I had a few people that I know well recommend it to me (from a variety of sources, not always the usual ones), so I really felt like I needed to make it happen. Shoutout to Libro.fm for the ALC.

Sam and Sadie meet as kids in a hospital. Sam is there for a long term recovery from a car accident he was in. Sadie is there becasue her sister is undergoing cancer treatment. The two strike up a friendship built around playing computer/video games. As the years pass, this friendship sees ups and downs, years where they don't speak at all mixed with periods where they spend more time with each other than anyone else. And together, along with the third of their close-knit triangle, Marx, they launch a business partnership that catapults them into gaming stardom. As they deal with the creative pressures of game-building to relationship complexities to health and disability concerns, the three will find refuge over and over in the endless possibilities of gameplay.

I can see why this book was so popular. What a story! Zevin writes the nuances and complications of friendship and love (platonic and otherwise) with such attention to detail and passion for the small things that might get overlooked normally, but truly create the backbone of connection. That was, for me, the absolute highlight of this novel. The portrayal of the intersections of friendship and love, and the different ways they manifest, as well as how we can be fine, even good, without them, but with them comes the potential to be great, was on point. It renders, gorgeously, the way experiences and interactions with others makes us who we are, pushes us to try and achieve more. Sam and Sadie and Marx are an interconnected threesome that is so fully dimensional and I loved reading their stories, both separately and coming into and out of each other's lives (or the waxing and waning of the importance of the role they play in each other's lives).

I also want to highlight the pure fun I had with all the games nostalgia, like Oregon Trail and Tomagochi. I mean, I would not even really consider myself a gamer, as it were, but these are like, millennial staples, and I loved seeing it. If I'm being honest, I actually was really interested in all the details of game-building, the story-telling and artistics aspects, and how those interacted with the tech capabilities, and all the ways they built off of or limited each other, as well as the progression of gaming over the years. It was creatively fascinating to me, even without a very extensive background in gaming. That was a really pleasant surprise.

In another moment of honesty, I really wanted to *love* this book. And I definitely enjoyed it; I really did. But I just didn't love it. I was so invested in the whole thing the way it was that when a certain traumatic event happens, the way it was handled pulled me all the way out of things. And to be clear, not the event itself, though it was unexpected and jarring. I am referring to the couple of sections right after the event, where the narrative perspective and style both changed. The vibe of the reading changed so much during those two sections, and they were not super short sections, and I just...I lost my flow with the story. However, the sweet and full-circle healing poignancy of the ending itself was nicely done.

Finally, in addition to the full relationships and characters, as well as the fun of the gaming aspects, Zevin weaves in a number of difficult and polarizing topics. I found it interesting that, in most cases, they were presented in the way(s) the characters experienced or understood them, without any in-depth attempts anywhere to grow themselves, and only marginal movements to affect change (though with a heartbreaking example of how even that little amount of taking a stand can be risky to a person's well-being, yikes.) I don't feel like Zvevin's writing was, anywhere, a calling out or call to action for any of these topics covered, but rather an observational lens of the ways they affect people. Touching on childhood illness, physical disability, sexism in gaming/tech industries, the inhumanity of long-term dealing with the healthcare system, racial and interracial nuances, cultural appropriation, sexuality/lgbtq+ rights, and more, these characters live out their realities on page, as the reader watches those realities inform their game-building (and how they find refuge from said realities in gaming). I think Zevin's efforts on this front, throughout the book, are solid and thorough, if not especially groundbreaking; they affect the story as they would IRL, but are not really addressed in any way past that.

Like I said, on the whole, I definitely enjoyed my time with this book. Once I started reading, I was fully invested and was always excited to pick it back up. As a person who loves the possibility in fantasy, that aspect of gaming and virtual worlds - the chance to restart or replay (which came up a few times, for different reasons, across the novel) - really spoke to me. Thematically, it was one of my favorite things. And while I came in with super high expectations because of the extreme hype, and perhaps that's why it didn't *quite* live up to what I was hoping for the novel to be, I would still, for sure, recommend it to others.

“To design a game is to imagine the person who will eventually play it.”

“This life is filled with inescapable moral compromises. We should do what we can to avoid the easy ones.”

“Life is very long. Unless it is not.”

“You aren’t just a gamer when you play anymore. You're a builder of worlds, and if you're a builder of worlds, your feelings are not as important as what your gamers are feeling. You must imagine them at all times. There is no artist more empathetic than the game designer.”

“What, after all, is a video game's subtextual preoccupation if not the erasure of mortality?”

“And this is the truth of any game - it can only exist in the moment that it is being played. It's the same with being an actor. In the end, all we can ever know is the game that was played, in the only world that we know.”

“[…] felt a swelling of love and of worry for him - what was the difference in the end? It was never worth worrying about someone you didn't love. And it wasn't love if you didn’t worry?”

“What does love even mean when you can find it with so many people and things?”

“Illness could not be defeated, no matter how hard you fought, and pain, once it had you in its grasp, was transformational.”

“Long relationships might be richer, but relatively brief, relatively uncomplicated encounters with interesting people could be lovely as well. Every person you knew, every person you loved even, did not have to consume you for the time to have been worthwhile.”

“'What I believe to my very core,' he concluded, 'is that virtual worlds can be better than the actual world. They can be more moral, more just, more progressive, more empathetic, and more accommodating of difference. And if they can be, shouldn’t they be?'”

“'What is a game?' Marx said. 'It's tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. It's the possibility of infinite rebirth, infinite redemption,. The idea that if you keep playing, you could win. No loss is permanent, because nothing is permanent, ever.'”

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isaarusilor's review

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adventurous 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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microbemom's review

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challenging dark emotional funny 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

Loved this book. I have been thinking about ever since I finished it.

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