Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

By Kate     11 March 2024

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Published: Vintage Publishing

Rating: ★★★★

Genres:  Fiction, YA, Coming of Age

Age Rating: 14+

About the Book

This is the story of Sam and Sadie. It’s not a romance, but it is about love.

 When Sam catches sight of Sadie at a crowded train station one winter morning he is catapulted back to the brief time they spent playing together as children.

Their unique spark is instantly reignited and sets off a creative collaboration that will make them superstars. It is the 90s, and anything is possible.

 What comes next is a story of friendship and rivalry, fame and creativity, betrayal and tragedy, perfect worlds and imperfect ones. And, ultimately, our need to connect: to be loved and to love.

My Review

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is a book written by Gabrielle Zevin. As the blurb tells us, “It’s not a romance, but it is about love”. This line instantly piqued my interest and I just had to pick it up (not to mention that I also love the cover). I read the book in three sittings and enjoyed it. It made me happy, sad, laugh and cry. It took me on an emotional rollercoaster and was different from anything I’ve read before. 

The book tells the story of Sam and Sadie and how they rekindled their connection after not seeing one another for years. They met as children in a hospital games room. Sadie is visiting her sister and Sam is there after a devastating car crash. He has spoken to no one since, but he did speak to Sadie. They immediately got on well, bonding over their love for video games. The nurse asked her to keep visiting Sam, and they spent a whole summer together. Sadie is starting to consider Sam her best friend. But when Sam finds out the nurse asked her to keep visiting, he’s furious and stops speaking to her. They fall out of touch but then meet each other at a train station years later, and without thinking, Sadie presses a floppy disk into his hand. It contains a game she’s been working on and Sam takes it home with him and he and his friend Marx play it. When they’re done, Sam decides they have to make games together. 

This is their story up until the beginning of the book. This sounded very intriguing and was different from any book I’d heard of before. I went into it not quite knowing what to expect and being slightly daunted by how many pages there were since it is almost 500 pages long. However, as I’ve said I read in three fairly short sittings and enjoyed the book. 

My favourite characters were Sam and Marx. Sam Masur was the son of a Jewish man and a Korean American woman, but following a devastating car crash, his mother was killed and it left him with an awful foot injury and a disability. Because of this, Sam is a massive introvert with no limit to the amazing ideas he has. He is also determined for people not to know that he has a disability and tries to hide it, but eventually, it gets too much and he ends up losing his foot. This causes him a lot of frustration, pain, and anger. But as he desperately wants, that should not be the main focus of his character. I found that I loved hearing his perspective on the events happening in the book and his friendships with Sadie and Marx. They were people who genuinely enriched his life and he deeply valued and loved them. He also encountered many struggles, but each time he bounced back. Not only did he have to deal with losing a physical part of himself, but he also lost his mother. He also remembered his mother’s struggles to make a name for herself as an actor, largely due to her race, and he also doesn’t quite feel that he fits in anywhere at times. Sam also has to deal with the death of his best friend, but he still manages to be functional. I thought he was a really strong character and loved hearing things from his point of view. 

The other character I really liked was Sam’s roommate, Marx Wantanbee. Meeting him in the book made me feel like I wanted to meet him in real life. He was really good friends with both Sadie and Sam and was always able to call them out when either made a mistake. We all need a friend like that. I was slightly disappointed that there was only one part of the book written from his point of view, but the little we did get, I loved. He was funny, compassionate, charming, and characteristic which made it such a blow when he passed away. Like a few other moments in the book, it made me cry. He was such a brilliant character and was my favourite one. He dies from his injuries after being shot, and it feels like the one who pulled the trigger didn’t just shoot Marx. It was devastating to see how much his death impacted other characters in the story. Both Sam and Sadie are plunged into deep grief, but while Sam can remain functional, Sadie has lost her life partner and completely withdraws from everyone. 

There is also a strong theme of grief and loss in the book. I’m not just talking about how Marx and Sam’s mothers passed away, but also the loss of a limb and of a friend for many years. It was both sad and interesting to see how different characters coped with loss and grief, but it is a very strong theme throughout the book.  

Overall, I did enjoy the book and read it quickly, but it was nothing too special. I think I enjoyed the character of Marx more than I did the actual book, but that being said, I’m giving it 4 stars. It was well written and easy to read, but the story wasn’t particularly amazing. Honestly, the characters of Sam and Marx pulled up the rating significantly. That being said, I do still think this is a good book and would recommend that people add it to their shelf, but I would advise everyone to look up the trigger warnings online, as the book includes quite a few. A good read, but just not the best for me personally.

Those were my thoughts on Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin and I hope you enjoyed reading this review. I also appreciated the nod to Shakespeare’s Macbeth. If you know, you know. Have you read any books by Gabrielle Zevin? I’ve also heard that The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry is supposed to be good, so I might give that a go!

Happy reading!

Kate x