Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow: A novel

4.5

My only regret is not reading it sooner. What a stunner.

The beginning of this book was a flawless journey through games and how they relate and help with life. Sadly, as the story went on I found the language to be pretentious and the last video game ridiculous. I enjoyed the LGBTQ+ activism and how that related to our side characters. The main characters were too morally perfect for when the book was set. Perhaps it would have been more interesting/ realistic if even one of the main three had to grow in acceptance. I love video games and the story shines through a majority of the games it invents. I would love to play those games.

I'm a fast reader and it took me weeks to finish this one. At first, because I find the plot to be slow and I usually put a book aside. If you feel it too, please give it time - the book may grow on you. Glad I didn't because later on, I didn't want it to end. I'm not a gamer and I don't understand much about it, this book is about one and really gets into it, but it's also about life. The way that it's written is so rich and intricate, I don't know how the writer has such vivid imagination in building the world (both real and game worlds), the emotions and the characters in it. It was brimming with emotions of every kind, love in every form. Spanning over 30 years, we got to see how the characters grow up, together, and apart and how the world changes throughout. They started with Donkey Kong arcade game and the book ended with Sam exploring AI tech. I was blown away. I closed the book and found myself already longing for Sam, Sadie, and Marx, and this book.

“What is a game?” Marx said. “It’s tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. It’s the possibility of infinite rebirth, infinite redemption. The idea that if you keep playing, you could win. No loss is permanent, because nothing is permanent, ever.”

“Why was it so hard for him to say he loved her even when she said it to him? He knew he loved her. People who felt far less for each other said “love” all the time, and it didn’t mean a thing. And maybe that was the point. He more than loved Sadie Green. There needed to be another word for it.”

“The way to turn an ex-lover into a friend is to never stop loving them, to know that when one phase of a relationship ends it can transform into something else. It is to acknowledge that love is both a constant and a variable at the same time.”

“She had thought after Ichigo that she would never fail again. She had thought she arrived. But life was always arriving. There was always another gate to pass through. (Until, of course, there wasn’t.)”

“Still, I’d like to make a game with you again, if you ever find the time.”
“Is that a good idea?”
“Probably not,” Sam said, laughing. “But I want to do it anyway. I don’t know how to stop myself from wanting to do it. Every time I run into you for the rest of our lives, I’ll ask you to make a game with me.”

The first 25% of this book had me thinking it was a solid 5 stars. But the next 75%? Not much happened. It turned into a slow burn—a bit too slow for my taste.