A review by maxgardner
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

emotional funny hopeful reflective 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

4.5

Wow, this book punched me in the face...but I really enjoyed it. It's compulsively readable with good pacing overall and complex characters. I absolutely love Sadie, Sam, and Marx and the journey we get to follow through their lives in these formative years and into the beginning of their mid-life. I have not cried that much reading a book in a few months, and I think Zevin does such an excellent job of exploring the interiors of these characters and giving them room to be human—awful at times, confusing and unpredictable others, but ultimately redeemable. I personally did find the characters lovable, though I can understand why some would dislike Sam and Sadie. Give me characters that I should hate but then find a way to make me like them; I eat that shit up. There's such a great exploration of the different forms of love in this story and how one's understanding of the concept can change over time; it's not often black-and-white in how it looks, and it doesn't always make sense to others (the readers included here, I think). I had my qualms with the book (hence it not being quite 5 stars for me), mainly the needless thesaurus moments—she had an ersatz smile? get over yourself, just say 'fake'—as well as some of the plot points being left unexplored, but none of these were strong enough to detract from the overwhelming amount of things that worked for me. I will 100% read this again.