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

emotional hopeful fast-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

3.0

This book does a fair job of weaving together the events in the lives of the main characters and the various experiences one would encounter over decades—love, grief, triumph, disappointment, resentment, forgiveness, etc., in a realistically unfair world. This breadth of time and topics requires finesse, and I didn't find that the narrative techniques used here were up for the task; the writing is awkward, employing the “intrusive narrator” and a “quantity over quality” approach—rather than flowing in information or showing interactions/scenes that would reveal that information, a sentence of detail is tacked on to the end of a paragraph or chapter, or built into the occasionally used framing of an interview or gaming sequence (which, had these been used consistently, could have been an interesting way of offering insight into different characters’ perspectives). Significant scenes that could be longer and more impactful are similarly packed into an explanatory paragraph or simply implied, so the characters and their relationships to each other remain remote. Because of the inconsistent flow, flashbacks/fowards are often employed to fill in gaps, but the transitions are jerky and harsh, relying on “now, back to this other scene” type language that feels unpolished. In contrast, simple references to pop-culture or other familiarities meant to indicate time and place are over-explained, leaving very little for the reader to put together themselves. At first I thought this might be intentional, intended to depict a character's neurodiversity or some element mirroring video game play, but it eventually seemed removed from characters and becomes a staple of the pacing/storytelling, making it hard to feel fully immersed. Aside from the occasionally clunky writing, it's an engaging story, an entertaining and at times frustrating depiction of the ups and downs of friendship and partnership amidst various phases of coming of age and lessons of consequence, permanence and starting over. If only Sadie had at least one friend throughout the book that wasn't her terrible ex-teacher/boyfriend though, that was lame.
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