A review by rosa_lina96
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

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

2.75

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this book, to be completely honest. The timeline of the book jumps around a bit disconnectedly (it was easy to follow compared to some books that employ this style, though, so it has that going for it). The characters were....I can't say that I entirely identified with them. They were either just kind of "meh" or completely insufferable to me, and the way they seemed to get off on miscommunication and purposefully seeing the worst of each other's actions kind of ground on my nerves after a while. If the author wanted me to believe that these were tight-knit business partners, then maybe she shouldn't have had them childishly bickering with each other every five pages or so. It was a plot point that got incredibly old after about the first two instances. I'm sorry, but for the majority of the book Sadie was absolutely insufferable to me. Girl, you're the one who wants to stay with an ex that is at least frighteningly emotionally abusive and clearly taking advantage of the unbalanced power dynamic between the two of you, and you want to call Sam the asshole? Sure, whatever. Makes perfect sense.

(I also feel like the author was suffering from the same kind of disease John Green suffers from on occasion: the "no-one-in-their-right-mind-talks-like-this-in-real-life-itis". Stop making what are supposed to be college-aged adults talk like 19th century poets, please, it's incredibly disconcerting.)

That being said,  the writing style is lovely, even if parts of it were a bit too overly complicated for my tastes. It's a fascinating look into the process that goes into making video games, and some of the more philosophical parts of the book were enough to grab my attention and hold it. Marx was really the only consistently likeable character for me, and
I found his death absolutely gut-wrenching, especially in the beginning when there was a solid chance that he'd make it through.


All in all, it wasn't a book that I had to fight my way through and was still an enjoyable read, but at the same time I can't quite see it as anything to rave about. 
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