Review by bookwormbreezyreads - Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

bookwormbreezyreads 's review for:

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

2.0

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-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

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow started off really strong and was cruising at about a 4.5 star read for me for most of the book, but a little over halfway through everything starts to turn sour and I really debating DNFing around 60% but at that point I felt committed to seeing if it would recover. It did not. While the story of a female programmer entering the gaming industry in the late 70s/early 80s and then climbing her way through it into bigger and more successful games should be a really good one (and it was for awhile). Zevin made choices that I felt ruined anything else they had going. The rest of my review will contain spoilers because I can't review this book accurately without them.

Zevin's decision to build a world in which Sadie has no men who are close to her who either do not want to screw her despite being her married professor, feel like they own her and she belongs to them despite being her oldest friend, and who fall in love with her despite being in a relationship and her business partner. All these "romantic" subplots detract from the book incredibly by the time they're done stacking at the end. Additionally, we have the unplanned pregnancy trope that adds no value to the characters or narrative except to drive a wedge between Sadie and Sampson because he feels like he owns her and a pregnancy by another man sits in stark contrast with that. And not to mention the casual painting of sexual violence by Sadie's married professor with whom she remains friends with, respects, and admires. It's a toxic wasteland. And it would be one thing to say "okay we can separate the rest of the narrative from these points" but you can't because they really are the story that's getting told behind the glitz and glamor of developing games.

I honestly don't know how this book got rated so highly and is so widely recommended when there are other works that achieve the commentary on love, disability, and discrimination so much better.

Content Warnings