This was my Book Club pick for April and if I am completely honest with you I probably wouldn’t have ever picked this book up if it wasn’t for my Co-Host Picking this out for April’s Book Club Pick. Also If you are interested in the book club check out this previous post for more information.
“If this were a game, he could hit pause. He could restart, say different things, the right ones this time. He could search his inventory for the item that would make Sadie not leave.”
Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
About The Book
Author: Gabrielle Zevin
Publisher: Knopf
Published Date: July 5th, 2022
Page Count: 416 Pages
Main Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Romance
GoodReads Rating: 4,26
Format: Physical Book
“How much of your life had been happenstance? How much of your life had been a roll of the big polyhedral die in the sky? But then, weren’t all lives that way? Who could say, in the end, that they had chosen any of it?”
Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
Synopsis
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.
Synopsis From GoodReads
“If you’re always aiming for perfection, you won’t make anything at all.”
Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
Rating
Review
Before I dive deep into this review I have a few things I would like to mention. One, If this was not for MY Book Club I would have DNF’d this book real quick. Two, I should have looked up trigger warnings for this before having my book club pick this up as it has practically every trigger warning under the sun. Three, Because this was for MY Book Club I think it’s the only reason I actually had any enjoyment for it as I really dove deep to understand all the little things so I can provide a good discussion for the book club .
This book starts off extremally slow and probably doesn’t pick up till around page 200 but I personally think it was worth my time and I am so happy I went forward with this book and finished it. If you go into this book knowing that this is not truly a romance book and more of a slow burn friendship I think you will have more enjoyment while reading.
As mentioned above this book has so many trigger warnings such as; Suicide, General Depression/Anxiety, Gun Violence, abortion, and more. So please take care of yourself if you decide to read this. Because of all of these trigger warnings this was a really difficult book to read but honestly left such a powerful message that really reflects on our day to day life and I applaud the author for bringing awareness to these things.
One Issue with this book I would like to bring up was the formatting of the chapters and the overall timeline. This was broken up into many different parts each with their own separate chapters so when discussing this book with others I couldn’t say oh yeah I am on chapter 5 because their were multiple chapter 5’s which is not a big deal but a bit inconvenient. But the big thing was all the timeline jumps out of no where, it felt like I was constantly guessing what age these characters were and it did take me out of the book several times because it felt weird. Again this isn’t a huge issue and overall it ended up making sense in the end of the book but I struggle with things like this I suppose.
Overall I am glad I read this book but I can’t say that it is a book for everyone so check the trigger warnings and other reviews before committing to this one.
“She had once read in a book about consciousness that over the years, the human brain makes an AI version of your loved ones. The brain collects data, and within your brain, you host a virtual version of that person. Upon the person’s death, your brain still believes the virtual person exists, because, in a sense, the person still does. After a while, though, the memory fades, and each year, you are left with an increasingly diminished version of the AI you had made when the person was alive.”
Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
QOTD: Have you read this book? I need to know if you think the same way I do!
“Long relationships might be richer, but relatively brief, relatively uncomplicated encounters with interesting people could be lovely as well. Every person you knew, every person you loved even, did not have to consume you for the time to have been worthwhile.”
Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
World of Bai 