Before I could get started on my 2023 reading list, I had to see what all the fuss was about for Amazon and Good Reads’ 2022 Book of the Year, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. Reading the summary, I wasn’t convinced that I was going to like it – a book about video game designers?! It didn’t sound like it was for me, a non-gamer. But I dove in anyway, and I’m glad I did. It was about so much more than video games, and ultimately, I was happy for the change of direction from the novels I typically read.
The book centers around a three-decade-long relationship between Sadie and Sam that begins in a hospital when they are just preteens. Their complicated and often messy friendship is beautifully explored through stories within stories as they make their way through college and into their gaming careers. Their relationship takes many twists and turns as they collaborate to build a video game that turns into a gaming empire, and I found myself rooting for them and screaming at them practically at the same time at some points in the book. All of the characters in this book feel so real and authentic, you can’t help but be drawn in as their stories unfold and intertwine.
In the end, this book has all the feels – grief, joy, tragedy, disappointment, forgiveness, and heartbreak. It’s a reminder that shared passions and messiness are often the glue that bonds friends forever.
