Stephanie Sullivan: Review - Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

TITLE: Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

RATING: ★★★★

Summary (from Goodreads): In this exhilarating novel, two friends—often in love, but never lovers—come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.

On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn't heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won't protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.

Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.

REVIEW: I’ve heard and read so many conflicting things about this book over the past few months. I honestly didn’t know what to expect. Now, as I try to gather my thoughts for this review, I finally understand why there have been so many differing opinions. On the one hand, I agree wholeheartedly with every reader who was annoyed by the numerous hot political topics that fueled this story. They’re all in there - gender identity, homosexuality, abortion, gun violence, racism - just to name a few. Also, the author’s needless use of big words was pretty irritating. (I personally don’t like having to keep a dictionary or thesaurus by my side while reading.) If you’re not a fan of the gaming industry then this isn’t the book for you because gaming IS the main focus of the whole story. My two grown sons have been gamers their whole lives, so I’m used to it, and this didn’t bother me. However, the two main characters, Sam and Sadie, have a very toxic friendship, and they seriously got on my last nerve. (I’ve never seen two “friends” hold so many grudges!) So, you might be wondering, why did I give this book four stars? Well…because once I started reading it I couldn’t put it down. Because the author’s writing style is flawless. Because even with the aggravating parts - political topics included - she somehow kept me turning page after page, and I was totally enraptured. Would I recommend it to someone? Probably not without a warning. Am I sorry I read it? Not in the least.

(DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this title from NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.)