Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin is such an amazing, gripping, lifelike novel. It is sweeping and larger-than-life, and then at the same time, intimate and personal. It's the kind of book that grabs you by your ankles and pulls you in to the point where you can't stop thinking about it (I had dreams about this book almost every night while I was reading it, I'm not kidding).
I cannot put into words how well this novel did its job. It’s one of the most (if not the most) evocative books I've read. Yes, it could be dense and melodramatic at times, but this book leaned into this aspect, and it was so good at it. It made me physically ache and cry multiple times, and I’m not normally one for crying while reading books.
The summary says it’s about two friends making video games, but it’s really about the evolution of a very complicated relationship between two people, stretching from when they’re kids bonding over video games in the '80s to when they’re adults in the early 2000s. Grief, pride, and betrayal have made them distant—despite both of them still caring deeply for one another.
I loved how the characters were written—all of them were deeply flawed and achingly human, and even after all the questionable things they did, you couldn't help but care about them. The reader is forced to love them like we love real people—with caveats. The book was also mainly a character study, and would definitely be boring to people who like more concrete action.
Although I didn't like the book at times because the characters felt so real that it hurt to see them suffer, I don't think there was ever a time I didn't enjoy it.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of 5
Written by Ellie Thai, member of Canton Public Library's Teen Leadership Council.
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