I... did not love Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow like I thought I *should*. (Spoilers)

Submitted by Potato_Lyn t3_11ee8t5 in books

Warning: this will be ranty.

So... like the title implies. I'd recently finished Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin and I was left feeling like it was 'okay' maybe 'pretty good' but definitely not in love with it like almost everyone else hyping this book to the moon and back.

The thing is, I feel like I really should have loved this book, and friends specifically reccommended this book to me under the assumption I really would and it makes sense they would because:a) I'm an avid gamer, gaming since childhood similarly to our MC's Sam and Sadie + I was also a 'sick kid' growing up like Sam who used gaming as a way to escape/cope with my illness.b) I also relate to the half-asian experience like Sam, being half-asian myself.c) I'm learning/dabbling into a couple of programming languages (python 3 and C++) mostly for fun right now, though I do plan to pursue a comp-sci degree in the near future.d) I'm a digital artist, I make pixel art too; a shared life goal/ambition I have with my boyfriend is to create a game of our own together one day (he is an 3D artist and animator by trade).

My apologies for the autobiographical account that nobody cares about, but now knowing the above you'd understand why I was particularly excited going into this book that everyone seemed to be hyping up as the best novel they've read all year and TBF for the first half of the book I could totally see why. The prose was very readable and engaging; I really empathised with young Sam and Sadie and was compelled to learn of the reasons behind their falling out and how they'd reunite again to work on games together. However, as the story progressed...

(Spoilery territory)

...many of the characters just became so unlikeable to me (except Dov, that cringelord was never likable to begin with) and narrative-wise I felt the plot just kind of kept sinking deeper and deeper into the melodrama of Sam and Sadie's constant bickering and miscommunication. Their back and forth dialogue was exhausting to read at times...

Which brings me to the biggest buzz-kill of my enjoyment of this story: Sadie Green. While some characters I believe were written by the author with the intention not to be liked-- I think Sadie was meant to at least be a semi-likable protagonist but she certainly wasn't in my experience. Which made things all the more confusing to me as literally almost all the other characters in this book seemed to be completely enamoured by her?? I don't think Sadie is a Mary Sue by any means (that title belongs to Marx LOL jk unless?), she's a decently well-written, introspective character and I did empathise with many of her struggles but the way she interacted with certain characters (espcially Sam LBR) borderline frustated me with her constant petulant, dismissive and self-centred remarks and retorts.

I was also not convinced as to why Marx was deeply in love with her, I'm even less certain as to why Dov was either? Or why neither Sam nor Marx had much of an issue with the fact that Sadie was knowingly Dov's mistress off and on for ages. Dov was trash and Marx makes it known his dislike of him on multiple occassions, but why was Sadie completely blameless-- especially knowing Dov was never actually going to divorce his wife for her. The king's share of blame should rightfully be on Dov, but I thought it was a little strange how Sadie didn't even cop a tiny (perhaps even unwarranted) fraction of crap from anyone else about it? Unless I missed some things (which I totally might have btw, as I did not have a physical copy of the book-- I listened to the audiobook) and I apologise if I'm severely misremembering, but it almost felt like since Sadie was navigating through her self-perceived flop era for most of the book she was almost immune from all other sources of criticism from the other characters minus Sam. That just sort of felt not entirely believable to me as the reader/listener.

The last couple chapters + ending was also a little disappointing NGL, the main climax of the story IMO was the shooting and death of Marx, which was genuinely quite heartbreaking even though I sort of saw it coming (Marx had many death flags) but the segments in his POV as well as the descriptions of what he was perceiving around him in his induced comatose state was surreally, metaphorically and beautifully written. A lot of the book is written in a similar way which I did really enjoy, but honestly after more of the melodrama arising from Marx's death... I feel as though the rest of the story calmly fizzled faded into the ending. The end felt almost too neatly tied with a bow, almost rushed despite there being a 5(?) year time jump. Sam's grandfather dies and Sadie finally feels some sort of meaningful remorse for the way she ended things with Sam, she attends the funeral, she inherits the DK arcade machine (in which we get a glimpse of seeing her excited about something since the first third of the book), semi-awkwardly reconnects with Sam who of course is completely welcoming of her and rapt to be with her again, they have a rather OK conversion which is a recap of events in a lukewarm sort of way, they decide to work together on a game again and then it just... ends.

I did not hate or even dislike Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. I think I'd give it a solid 3.5/5 were I to rate it right now. I'm just kind of left scratching my head a little as to why this book was SO hyped the way it was (not that I believe it's undeserving of its hype mind you), but I've only seen rave reviews and I feel weird/almost guilty for not being as in love with the story as almost everyone else seems to be-- especially so considering I feel as though I should've been the prime target audience for a story and setting like this. I guess that's what happens when you enter with higher expectations than you otherwise might've due to all the booktuber and booktok fanfare.

[That said, I'd also like to clarify that if you loved this book-- that's literally awesome, and I'm really glad if you did! It was never my intention to shit on this book or the characters (I don't even hate Sadie, I do hate Dov though... sorry xD) or shit on anyone for either liking the book or having a differing opinion to me. I still mostly enjoyed it and I don't regret reading it at all, I just kind of needed to vent some of the gripes I had with it in hopes of some friendly discourse surrounding the characters and events of this book :)]

Anyway, have a nice rest of the day, everyone!

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Comments

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trysstero t1_jae7g5a wrote

wow, really appreciate all your detailed thoughts about this book! i can't be quite as generous w/ my time today, but I did want to chime in re: sadie.

you asked "...why was sadie completely blameless?..." for me, it's because she was basically a child when dov seduced her! she was sort of manipulated into that relationship by someone w/ significantly more power than her, which for me makes it hard to want to shift blame onto her for mistakes she's making w/r/t dov.

that said, i'm with you overall. it's a good, not great, book. but I did think one of its strengths was that the characters are somewhat realistic in terms of their messiness; as a reader (or at least as this reader), it's easier to identify w/ characters that are trying their best, but are still making bad choices sometimes

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organic_sunrise t1_jaeuj01 wrote

I am not fond of this book either. I am also surprised by its high ratings/reviews and best-seller status. The novel reminds me of a so-so Netflix movie. You see what it was trying to do, and there were some cute moments, but overall, nothing landed or stuck with you. It was a very surface-level novel. Sadie to me was just so unlikeable. In the beginning her character had promise, but then it was really hard to like her. Espeically when she essentially blamed Sam for getting back together with Dov and then never really had a breakthrough or self-awareness as to why she shouldn't blame others for her actions.

In another thread on this book, I also mentioned that sometimes the writing was a little disjointed. Zevin would use more obscure words (which I do appreciate), but in the actual sentence, it did not seem to fit. For example, palimpsest. The way she used that word when I looked it up did not really fit its' proper or commonly used meaning.

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Pickle_12 t1_jadux0b wrote

OP nailed it. Felt exactly the same. Cannot understand how Amazon had this as their number 1 book of the year

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Juicyjoo t1_jadhb1x wrote

As someone who works in computer science and knows these very kinds of people in this book, I had a very similar reaction of disliking these characters. They were eerily close to some of the worst types of people in University / work.

But overall, I really liked the characterisations in this book and the theme that these characters bring out the worst in each other but amidst all that they still create something so brilliant.

It took a while for me to warm to the book but once I did I found myself really enjoying it.

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Potato_Lyn OP t1_jadjubm wrote

Oh I agree, and I'm happy you ended up really enjoying it! I did not end up liking many of the characters but I did also enjoy the way a lot of themes were tackled and characterization written, dialogue-wise many of Sam and Sadie's arguments felt frustratingly believable/real too.

Also, my condolences to your experiences having worked with some of those types u_u I relate to that as well...

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Complete-Nose2500 t1_jadlq4l wrote

SPOILER:

​

My biggest gripe with this book was Sam confessing his love to Sadie. If the book was supposed to be focused on nonromantic love then why did Sam admit to having romantic feelings for Sadie???

I felt like all of the characters were very two-dimensional- which is why the death of Marx didn 't have an impact on me. He was characterized as being too 'puppy' like for me to really imagine him as a real person.... But I also read this directly after finishing 'The Great Believers' which to me had the most life-like characters I have ever encountered. So maybe if my reading order was different I would have a different opinion...

I think part of the reason why this book has garnered so much buzz is because it is the first literary fiction a lot of booktok consumers have come in contact with.

Did I think this book was entertaining and therefore enjoyable? Yes. Do I think it deserves awards, accolades, and being "the best book of 2022"? Absolutely not!

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Potato_Lyn OP t1_jadnutl wrote

For the first half of the book I actually thought/wondered if Sam might be under the umbrella of asexuality which I thought would've been really cool were it so, as we don't often at all have asexual protagonists buuuut yea turns out that wasn't the case unfortunately. I was a bit worried towards the end that with Marx no longer in the picture that Sam and Sadie might get together romantically but I'm so glad they didn't!

Hmmm... I might need to check out 'The Great Believers' too! :O

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shelfdiscovery t1_jadiurp wrote

I recently read this in a book club, and most of us had similar mixed thoughts (most of us rated it 3-4 stars with some critiques, while a few loved it and rated it 5 stars). Personally, I was fascinated by the writing and really enjoyed the overall vibe, but also found the characters mostly unlikeable (except for Marx!). But...I almost felt like that was the point of it? At the very least, I think we are all supposed to hate Dov. Sam and Sadie were just likable enough for me to stay interested, but I was frustrated with both of them throughout most of the book. The most compelling themes to me were the unique narration with some interesting foreshadowing + the way in which games were woven throughout the story.

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Potato_Lyn OP t1_jadlejo wrote

Yeah, that's true honestly-- if the vast majority of characters were super likable that in itself would have been highly unrealistic, and I am glad that most characters I found kind of unlikable were so in a believeable, real sort of way. The narration was great, I think especially so since I listened to the audiobook as the female narrator for most of it surprised me by switching to a male narrator once the story is being told through Marx's POV and it really added another layer to the storytelling IMO.

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Ineffable7980x t1_jado3mt wrote

I thought this book was good, but, like you, I cannot classify it as the best book I read last year. Not even close. It does some really interesting things with friendship, and I loved a lot about the first half of the story, but you are right about the characters. Although not perfect by any means, I think Sam gets treated very poorly by Sadie for reasons that are more in Sadie's mind than legitimate. Thus, Sadie is probably the most unlikable of the main characters (aside from Dov, of course).

As I said, it's a good book, and I enjoyed it, but I am a bit perplexed about the gushing it elicited from so many people.

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ByeForNow143 t1_jadtrnp wrote

I liked it but when that “sad” thing happened, I just didn’t care.

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floppyjoe714 t1_jae1d81 wrote

I totally agree, I couldn't stand Sadie and have minimal patience about relationships based on miscommunications. I also felt like there was some apologist writing for Dov? There was an undercurrent of, well Dov's an abusive asshole, but at least he's brilliant, and Dov sticks around for the entire book for the purpose of continuing to provide brilliant tidbits.

The main thing I loved was the exploration of a creative work relationship/friendship, which is not generally the type of relationship that fiction explores. And maybe it's realistic in such a relationship that there would be miscommunication and jealousy.

Wait, did Sam confess that he loved Sadie? I read it as, he was jealous of Marx and Sadie's relationship in the way that many of us might be at first when two of our best friends start dating each other. I thought he was actually asexual.

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plugsie t1_jaet0b9 wrote

I also found it melodramatic. Melodrama can be awesome but it needs to want to be melodrama and really work it. I didn’t feel that here.

I do think it’s very hard to make a work of art about one kind of art in the form of another- a book about movies, a video game about books, a painting about music. But yeah I just wanted so much more than this one ended up having for me.

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Gina52023 t1_jaduerb wrote

I wanted to slap Sadie and Sam through the whole book. They're so annoying! Marx was ok, and Dov was a given character wise. I didn't hate the book, just irritated by it. No surprises in it.

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skylinetos t1_jadsjpf wrote

I really loved this book, but I loooooove a story with unlikeable characters. It’s super interesting to me. That said, you listed these reasons to be able to relate to the characters/plot that you felt like made it so you should have enjoyed it more. While I think that’s fair, I’d argue that this book is more of a character story than a story about video games/programming/etc. It’s more about those things being the things that are important to those characters than the story being about those things, if that makes sense? So maybe that’s why those things weren’t enough to make it so you enjoyed it more. That being said, there’s nothing wrong with not being able to connect with the story—like I said, I loved it, but I can see where it might not be people’s cup of tea. Are there any other books with similar aspects that you did enjoy more?

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