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Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow: A novel Hardcover – July 5, 2022

4.4 out of 5 stars 120,115 ratings

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Purchase options and add-ons

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Sam and Sadie—two college friends, often in love, but never lovers—become creative partners in a dazzling and intricately imagined world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality. It is a love story, but not one you have read before.

"Delightful and absorbing." —
The New York Times • "Utterly brilliant." —John Green

One of the New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century • A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of the Century • A Los Angeles Times Best Fiction Book of the Last 30 Years • One of the Best Books of the Year: The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, TIME, GoodReads, Oprah Daily

From the best-selling author of
The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry: 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 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.
Amazon Editors' favorite summer reads Amazon%20Editors%27%20favorite%20summer%20reads

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Popular Highlights in this book

From the Publisher

utterly brilliant, one of the best books i've ever read says john green
a gem of a novel says erin morgenstern author of the night circus
an exquisite love letter to life with all its rose gardens and minefields says tayari jones
the sort of book that comes around once in a decade says rebecca serle, author of In Five Years

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Amazon Editors' #1 Pick of 2022: I’m not a gamer, I will likely never be a gamer, but this book about childhood friends who bond over gaming in a hospital and later go on to build a video game empire, stole my heart and buoyed my spirits. This is a story of how friendship—in all of its messy misunderstandings, mistakes, and mishaps—gives Sam Masur and Sadie Green the fire to pursue their dreams, to be brave and overcome ridicule, to be the best they can be. Along the way they must reckon with what life throws at them: heartache and heartbreak, ambition and bravado, success and failure, jealousy and admiration. I devoured this book, and afterwards walked with a bounce in my step, a full heart, and the buzzy feeling of having discovered one of the best books on friendship—the complexity and the glory--I’ve ever read. —Al Woodworth, Amazon Editor

Review

WINNER OF THE GOODREADS CHOICE AWARD • NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER WINGATE PRIZE NOMINEE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK CLUB PICK

One of the Best Books of the Year: The New York Times, TIME, Buzzfeed, Entertainment Weekly, Oprah Daily, Slate, Self.com, Bookpage, Kirkus, SheReads, GoodReads, Goop, and The What List

A
New York Times Notable Book of the Year A Jimmy Fallon Book Club Pick • A Time Must-Read Book of the Year A Washington Post Notable Work of Fiction • BookPage Best Fiction of the Year

"Delightful and absorbing...Zevin burns precisely zero calories arguing that game designers are creative artists of the highest order. Instead, she accepts that as a given, and wisely so, for the best of them plainly are...Expansive and entertaining...Dozens of Literary Gamers will cherish the world she’s lovingly conjured. Meanwhile, everyone else will wonder what took them so long to recognize in video games the beauty and drama and pain of human creation."
—Tom Bissell, The New York Times

"A tour de force... A moving demonstration of the blended power of fiction and gaming....Zevin describes herself as 'a lifelong gamer.' That level of experience could very well have produced a story of hermetically sealed nostalgia impenetrable to anyone who doesn’t still own a copy of 'Space Invaders.' But instead, she’s written a novel that draws any curious reader into the pioneering days of a vast entertainment industry too often scorned by bookworms. And with the depth and sensitivity of a fine fiction writer, she argues for the abiding appeal of the flickering screen."
—Ron Charles, The Washington Post

“Whatever its subject, when a novel is powerful enough, it transports us readers deep into worlds not our own. That's true of Moby Dick, and it's certainly true of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, which renders the process of designing a great video game as enthralling as the pursuit of that great white whale….There are…smart ruminations here about cultural appropriation, given that the game, Ichigo, is inspired by Japanese artist Hokusai's famous painting The Great Wave at Kanagawa….It's a big, beautifully written novel about an underexplored topic, that succeeds in being both serious art and immersive entertainment.”
—Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air

"Engrossing....Though it contains plenty of nostalgia for the pioneer age of 1990s game design, this isn’t primarily a novel of nerdy insider references....Videogames happen to be the medium by which [Zevin's characters] best express themselves and share in each other’s life."
—Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal

“Woven throughout [
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow] are meditations on originality, appropriation, the similarities between video games and other forms of art, the liberating possibilities of inhabiting a virtual world, and the ways in which platonic love can be deeper and more rewarding—especially in the context of a creative partnership—than romance.”
The New Yorker

"Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a celebration of the narratives, in video games and in life, that reinforce just how important connection really is. In following Sam and Sadie’s journey from Massachusetts to California and into the imagined worlds of their games, Zevin writes the most precious kind of love story."
—Annabel Gutterman, Time

“The story of three brilliant kids who found a videogame company, this book is about so much more—friendship, love, loyalty, violence in America and the magic of invented worlds. Gorgeous.”
—Kim Hubbard, People

"Zevin is a great writer who makes you care deeply about her characters....Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow resonated with me for personal reasons, but I think Zevin’s exploration of partnership and collaboration is worth reading no matter who you are. Even if you’re skeptical about reading a book about video games, the subject is a terrific metaphor for human connection."
—Bill Gates

"You don’t have to be a gamer to appreciate the pulsing heart of this best-seller: In a story spanning three decades and references from Oregon Trail to Macbeth, Gabrielle Zevlin has written a modern, definitive story about work, love, and friends for whom you’d do and risk everything."
—Keely Weiss and Halie Lesavage, Harper’s Bazaar

“A remarkably absorbing portrait of friendship, identity, and the urge to create something beautiful, whether it be on the page or in pixels….Zevin…clearly knows her way around an RPG, but it's the analog intimacy of
Tomorrow's wise, sensitive storytelling that stays.”
—Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly

"I’ve never played a video game in my life, and I was sucked into this book like it was
Halo and I was a socially awkward tween in 2001. Really, this isn’t just a book for people who understand life through the pixels, but for people who understand life through stories."
—Jenny Singer, Glamour

"One of the most special novels written in the past decade. This story follows two friends who form a thrilling creative partnership that drives them together and apart over the course of their young lives."
—Kiki Koroshetz, Goop

"Utterly absorbing...Until I read
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, I had never heard of anyone playing games the way my husband and I play games, the way that Sam and Sadie do—on campaign mode but passing the controller back and forth. It takes a shattering lack of ego to play this way, knowing that someone else has the power to make a decision that would change the storyline or garner the skills to play through certain sequences that you’ll never see again. All that matters when you play like this is that you’re moving forward, and you’re together."
—Adrienne So, Wired

“This is a boy meets girl story that is never a romance – though it is romantic… Zevin blurs the lines between reality and play...
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is an artfully balanced novel – charming but never saccharine. The world Zevin has created is textured, expansive and, just like those built by her characters, playful.”
—Pippa Bailey, The Guardian

"Two friends, who are often in love, but never lovers, must contend with the fame, joy and tragedy that comes with success after they enter the world of video game design. Spanning three decades and multiple locations, this love story by
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry author is anything but predictable."
E! News, Tierney Bricker

"Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a decade-spanning feat in storytelling, switching perspectives as the story winds through the years."
—Elena Nicolaou, TODAY Show

"Despite [her] fantastical virtual worlds woven in lush detail, Zevin wants us to take a hard look beyond the screen...At its heart,
Tomorrow is a coming-of-age tale stretched, in so many ways, by grief and hurt. This is Zevin’s tough love: There is no shortage of misfortune in life. Take a deep breath. Click continue....Tomorrow is not the type of book to accept a game over. It clutches onto that innocent hope ingrained in all video games."
The Washington Post

“Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow…is buoyant despite the illness and pain that speckles its characters’ lives because they hope to meet again, to play again, to build again like gods….This book, with its respect for craft—the craft of love and games, or loving games—will remind you of how abundant one life is, how lucky we are to keep each other in our memories forever.”
—Ashley Bardhan, Kotaku

"This is a great novel. Zevin has the ability to make you care about her creations within paragraphs of meeting them....The book is rich with characters whose intertwined fates power the narrative...We are glad of the privilege of accompanying Sam and Sadie on the adventure of growing up and discovering who they are, and wondering who they might have been."
—Erica Wagner, The Financial Times

"If your Insta and #BookTok feeds are filled with pics of this read...there's a reason why....Trust us when we say to give it a shot....You'll follow [Sam and Sadie] over the course of decades, from Massachusetts to California, as they deal with ambition, loss, success, and heartache. We're not crying, you are." 
The Skimm

"Gabrielle Zevin’s potent new novel feature[s] a memorable and oddly stirring meet-cute, with Sam getting the attention of his long-ago childhood friend Sadie by shouting across a crowded train platform that she 'has died of dysentery.' If you picked up on that Oregon Trail reference, you may appreciate this funny, unpredictable story of love and video games set in the late ‘90s, a time when a couple of indie programmers like Sam and Sadie could take the world by storm with nothing but a good idea and a stack of floppy disks."
—Patrick Rapa, The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Utterly brilliant. In this sweeping, gorgeously written novel, Gabrielle Zevin charts the beauty, tenacity, and fragility of human love and creativity.
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is one of the best books I've ever read." 
—John Green, author of The Anthropocene Reviewed

“My #1 book to recommend…
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow… [is]  incredible, like The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon meets The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer. It’s about love and friendship and video games.”
—Emma Straub, Cup of Jo

“Is there such a thing as the Great American Gamer Novel? Because if not, I believe Gabrielle Zevin just invented it. She has crafted a brilliant story about life’s most challenging puzzles: friendship, family, love, loss. By turns funny, poignant, wistful, and occasionally devastating, this book absolutely pwned me—in the very best way.”
—Nathan Hill, author of The Nix

"Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a beautifully wrought saga of human connection and the creative process, of love and all of its complicated levels. A gem of a novel, intimate yet sweeping, modern yet timeless. Bits of this book lingered in my head the way ghosts of Tetris pieces continue to fall in your mind’s eye after playing."
—Erin Morgenstern, author of The Starless Sea

"Gabrielle Zevin has written an exquisite love letter to life with all its rose gardens and minefields. With wisdom and vulnerability, she explores the very nature of human connection. This novel, and its unforgettable characters, know no boundaries. To read this book is to laugh, to mourn, to learn, and to grow."
—Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage

"
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrowis the sort of book that comes around once in a decade—a magnificent feat of storytelling. It is a book about the intersection between love and friendship, work and vocation, and the impossible and relentless pull of our own west-bound destinies. Gabrielle Zevin is one of our greatest living novelists, and Tomorrow just may be her magnum opus. Remarkable."
—Rebecca Serle, author of In Five Years

“A polished, thoughtful novel about loyalty and love that, like the best video games, grows more absorbing the further you venture into it."
—Connie Ogle, The Star Tribune

"Zevin has written a fascinating novel about two friends who collaborate on designing video games. These games are so imaginative and innovative that you will wish you could actually play them."
Wisconsin Public Radio

“[A] brilliant tale of identity, human connection, and yes, love in all of its myriad of forms.”
—Sabienna Bowman, PopSugar

“If you’re into video games, this extraordinary coming-of-age/love story/social novel has your name on it. The story follows terrific characters from youth into their adult lives as founders of a successful gaming company. Even if you couldn’t care less about video games, Zevin’s signature narrative charms will still keep you riveted.”
—Marion Winik, Newsday

"The brilliance of Zevin’s tour de force is that you can come into this book with zero gaming knowledge and be blown away by her insights on the human condition, her prodigious capacity for storytelling, and how she weaves it all together — brilliant and brilliantly." 
—The Bridge

"Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before. Taking place over 30 years, this dazzling and intricately imagined novel by Gabrielle Zevin examines the nature of identity, disability, failure, and above all, our need to connect.
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is one of our most anticipated books of the summer and we can’t wait for you to read it." 
B&N Reads

“[This] novel explores themes of identity, disability, play and love in an unforgettable and richly imaginative way.” 
—She Reads

"Zevin… returns with an exhilarating epic of friendship, grief, and computer game development…. Zevin layers the narrative with her characters’ wrenching emotional wounds as their relationships wax and wane... Even more impressive are the visionary and transgressive games… This is a one-of-a-kind achievement.”
Publishers Weekly, starred

“Riveting… Zevin has written the book she was born to write, a love letter to every aspect of gaming…Zevin’s delight in her characters, their qualities, and their projects sprinkles a layer of fairy dust over the whole enterprise…Sure to enchant even those who have never played a video game in their lives, with instant cult status for those who have.”
Kirkus, starred

"Zevin creates beautifully flawed characters often caught between the real and gaming worlds, which are cleverly juxtaposed to highlight their similarities and differences. Both readers of love stories and gamers will enjoy. Highly recommended."
—Library Journal, starred

"It’s impossible to predict how, exactly, you’ll fall in love with Gabrielle Zevin’s novel
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, but it’s an eventuality you can’t escape... Her artistic, inclusive world is filled with characters so genuine and endearing that you may start caring for them as if they were real. Above all, her development of Sam and Sadie’s relationship is pure wizardry; it’s deep and complex, transcending anything we might call a love story. Whether you care about video games or not is beside the point. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is the novel you’ve been waiting to read."
—Chika Gujarathi, BookPage

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Knopf
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 5, 2022
  • Edition ‏ : ‎ First Edition
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 416 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0593321200
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0593321201
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.45 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.43 x 1.4 x 9.53 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 out of 5 stars 120,115 ratings

About the author

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Gabrielle Zevin
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GABRIELLE ZEVIN is the New York Times and internationally best-selling author of several critically acclaimed novels, including The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry and Young Jane Young. Her most recent novel is Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, a selection of the Tonight Show’s Fallon Book Club, the winner of the Goodreads Choice Award, a finalist for the Wingate Prize, and one of the best books of the year, according to the New York Times, the Washington Post, Time, Entertainment Weekly, the Atlantic, Amazon.com, Oprah Daily, Slate, NPR, and many others. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry is now a feature film with a screenplay by Zevin. Her novels have been translated into forty languages. She lives in Los Angeles.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
120,115 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find this novel to be an engaging story of long-term friendship with wonderfully developed characters and beautiful language. The book is praised for its gaming insights and thought-provoking content, with one customer noting how the game ideas serve as a metaphor for life. While customers appreciate the emotional depth of the narrative, some express disappointment with certain storylines.

665 customers mention "Readability"576 positive89 negative

Customers find the book highly readable, describing it as an excellent novel that was amazing to read.

"I loved this book completely...." Read more

"...The story itself feels like something that could make an excellent Netflix short series...." Read more

"I just loved it. Not a gamer myself but I connected so much to the characters and life and love and just how fleeting life can be...." Read more

"...The author's gift for imagery and her willingness to let (most) of her characters wear their warts on their sleeves makes them not only relatable,..." Read more

333 customers mention "Character development"270 positive63 negative

Customers appreciate the character development in the book, noting that the characters are wonderfully developed and their relationships are well portrayed.

"...The character development is nicely done, and I think the book captures the industry well...." Read more

"...Or to craft those horizons. Her characters are unforgettable...." Read more

"Enjoyed every bit of this. Read in just two days. Thoughtful characters with right balance of humor and somber tones. Highly recommend." Read more

"...What stood out most for me was the character development. I found myself completely invested in their journeys...." Read more

295 customers mention "Writing style"249 positive46 negative

Customers appreciate the writing style of the book, describing it as beautiful and highly readable, with one customer noting its lyrical quality.

"For a novel of this depth, it read surprisingly quickly...." Read more

"...In the 400 beautifully written pages of Zevin’s latest novel , These characters come together to form one of the strangest and most beautiful love..." Read more

"Enjoyed every bit of this. Read in just two days. Thoughtful characters with right balance of humor and somber tones. Highly recommend." Read more

"...But overall, the work is brilliant and wonderful and highly readable. Go for it." Read more

257 customers mention "Friendship"246 positive11 negative

Customers appreciate the book's portrayal of long-term friendships, with one customer noting how the relationships were reflected in the characters' games.

"...much more to it but at Tim’s heart, it was about how the love of friends changes us forever." Read more

"...Gabrielle wrote and depicted friendships so beautifully . True friendships are not perfect, they are not a straight line...." Read more

"...video game references, both real and fictional, that are woven together seamlessly...." Read more

"...So beautiful, so immaculately constructed—this is a book I’ll be feeling for a very long time." Read more

211 customers mention "Pacing"190 positive21 negative

Customers praise the book's pacing, finding it incredibly moving and poignant, with one customer noting how it made them feel deeply and another describing it as a deep journey into the hearts of the characters.

"...The relationship between Sadie and Sam and Marx was joyous and heartbreaking, Each section of the book had a slightly different style and tone which..." Read more

"...Otherwise, this is a moving, authentic novel about the experience of playing games with another special person and the conversations and connections..." Read more

"...interest me (i.e. gaming) but still manages to make it such an interesting and incredible read...." Read more

"...novel with nods to the literary world throughout that warmed my book is heart. Highly recommend." Read more

165 customers mention "Gaming insight"149 positive16 negative

Customers appreciate the book's insights about gaming, finding the story educational and fascinating, with one customer noting how the game concepts serve as a metaphor for life.

"...It romanticizes the idea of video game development, ignoring things like “crunch time“, running a business, office politics, and other meta elements..." Read more

"...love so much about video games; they are not just silly fun, but worlds to explore." Read more

"...the life I wish was mine, at least the happy parts about successful and respected games...." Read more

"...The story is loaded with video game references, both real and fictional, that are woven together seamlessly...." Read more

150 customers mention "Creativity"150 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's creativity, finding it thought-provoking and insightful about life, with one customer noting how it draws readers into a richly detailed world.

"...the synopsis, this is not about video games - its about people finding their way in life...." Read more

"...A book about friendship, ambition, disability, and triumph and all the different kinds of love you will inevitability experience along the way...." Read more

"...The story goes far beyond video games—it’s about friendship, creativity, ambition, grief, and complicated human connections...." Read more

"...But overall, the work is brilliant and wonderful and highly readable. Go for it." Read more

185 customers mention "Story quality"83 positive102 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the story quality of the book, with some finding it interesting from beginning to end, while others express disappointment with certain storylines and mention being distracted from the overall narrative.

"...probably be tempted to throw it away because of how unrealistically it portrays the industry. Myself, I’m halfway on it...." Read more

"...book is the way Gabrielle Zevin illustrates that even the best of humans are flawed. We all have moments where we shine...." Read more

"...There was a completely shocking event and that really threw me for a loop because I wasn’t expecting that type of situation based on what had..." Read more

"...storyline moved along from person to person and kept your attention with a few twists and turns so that you didn’t want to put it down...." Read more

Became an instant favorite upon completion
5 out of 5 stars
Became an instant favorite upon completion
Apart from being the prettiest book on my shelf (I mean come on, even the spine is beautiful)… it’s totally one of the best books I’ve ever read. It’s so hard to say what it’s about. It’s about two people that played games when they’re kids, and they go on to make games together when they’re older. It’s so much more, though. It’s about life and death, the creative process, how your coworker could possibly be the best you’ve ever had. Art initiating life, life imitating art. Video games, video games, video games. It’s a beautiful, masterfully crafted story. Full of amazing characters that you may not like initially, but I’m positive you’ll grow to love them as I did. I shed one of those grown-man Denzel tears when I read the last sentence. An absolute page turner.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2025
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    I loved this book completely. I think we don’t have nearly enough love stories about love between friends and that was what this book boiled down to for me. There was so much more to it but at Tim’s heart, it was about how the love of friends changes us forever.
  • Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2023
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    This book seems to be sweeping the nation as the new “The Fault in Our Stars“. It’s got higher than 4 and a quarter stars for having 300,000 reviews, which means it’s a box office smash (at least as far as books ago). So what is it about? Is it a romance? An adventure? A family saga?

    Kind of all three, but also not all three. It’s the story of two people who create a video game company. These two, a girl and a guy, used to be friends as pre-teenagers, but had a falling out. In college, they both fall into programming which leads to video game making, which leads to the story at hand as they become friends and business partners. Also, it’s about the other people that come into their life as a result of that, such as the best friend/roommate who goes from theater major to video game producer and the girl’s college professor. The story takes place from 1995 up to present day.

    Let’s talk about the two main characters. One is Sam. His trauma is that he has a foot that was broken in a million places, a handicap which has made him taciturn and stoic, though he reads like autistic–overanalytical, judgemental, aloof.

    The second is Sadie who also found solace in video games, as her sister had childhood cancer and became the focus of the family’s attention. She bonded with Sam since they both were often in the children’s ward of the hospital. Sadie has bouts of depression and insecurity, even though she’s a game-making genius. This leads to an affair with her foreign-born video game professor who’s one of “those” types (egotistical, pompous, always thinks he’s right and everyone else’s opinion is wrong) and much unhealthy relationshippage occurs.

    From the first chapter, I wasn’t sure how this would go down. Since the first main character is Sam, it sounded “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time“. The writing sounded like writing. The dialogue did not sound like how people talk. But I gave it the benefit of the doubt and continued. It starts out almost being a sick kids romance (The Fault in Our Stars, Everything, Everything, Five Feet Apart) But I was able to get past that and into the core of the book, which is about the creation of video games–what ludonarration means, video games as art, as ways to make the audience feel something.

    It romanticizes the idea of video game development, ignoring things like “crunch time“, running a business, office politics, and other meta elements that come with complex media production. Instead, the author focuses on the relationship between the people working on the project (e.g. game producers as public figures such as Will Wright or Richard Garriott).

    The author is writing video games not as they were but how she wishes they could be. Which would be fine… if the majority of this book didn’t take place in the past. See, the big video game they make is called “Ichigo” and the way they talk about it, it seems to be along the lines of “Limbo” or “Undertale”. It sounds artsy and avant-garde, which would be fine if this took place today. But in 1995, there were no such things. Video games didn’t make people cry in 1995. And they certainly weren’t used as pack-in games for new consoles, which is what this game becomes (as part of a plot point). The top games in 1995 were Quake, Duke Nukem 3-D, Command and Conquer, Super Mario 64, etc. War games. Shooters. Well-established franchises.

    You couldn’t be successful unless you were at least a little bit commercial. There is no freakin’ way someone would have made an artsy game as the pack-in. (They weren’t even using pack-ins anymore by this time.) And certainly not a game from a new unproven studio with just two people. There were no Bastions or Insides or Journeys or even Bioshocks that you could point to and say “here’s a successful example of the video game we’re making and that’s why this is going to work.”

    So that’s what bothers me the most–the backdrop is not plausible, and I pointed out a hundred times where “this wouldn’t have happened”, “no way should this have happened”, “the industry would have reamed them out if this happened”. The only game during this era I could even try to point to that succeeded was “Myst”. And that game succeeded because it had a big new gimmick–the CD-ROM which allowed complex graphics and FMVs. No such innovations in this book. It wasn’t until 2003 that companies started taking chances with non-traditional games (e.g. “Katamari Damacy” and “Shadow of the Colossus“).

    On the other hand, maybe this is the author writing about video games and how they evolved as she wishes they had been. Instead of it all being guns and gore and misogynistic heroes like Duke Nukem and Solid Snake, she wrote a universe where video games catered toward all genders instead of just guys. There’s no reason video games had to be marketed toward boys. It was just what they did in the eighties because executives believed in “there are toys for boys and toys for girls and there is no crossover.”

    There is good writing here. I particularly fell for the beautiful chapter in the third act break (no spoilers!). If you don’t know anything about video games as an industry, you will enjoy this book. If you do, you will probably be tempted to throw it away because of how unrealistically it portrays the industry. Myself, I’m halfway on it. The story itself feels like something that could make an excellent Netflix short series. The video game backdrop drove me nuts, but I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t the kind of book I wish I could write.
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  • Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2025
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    As somebody who grew up with Pong and Tetris, I was well past the video gaming sensation that was Donkey Kong and Frogger and the games of the 1981 era. But I loved everything about this novel that begins with 2 innocent kids in a hospital unit in the 80’s.

    I love the way the author unfolds what it is like to be a multi cultural human, an Asian human, a Jewish human, a genius, in a society that rarely celebrates others. Although I am not a big gamer, I enjoyed almost every moment of this book.

    The relationship between Sadie and Sam and Marx was joyous and heartbreaking, Each section of the book had a slightly different style and tone which I railed against and simultaneously embraced. Although I will always root for best friends to end up together as life partners - I can understand the tension that builds when two strong creative forces butt heads whether it be over video games, over hospital stays, over love,or over a company.

    Thank you to Gabrielle Zevin who continues to remind us that love is love is love and marriage equality is an important right, and that our world is made up of beautifully culturally unique people who brilliantly unfold during a novel.

    SPOILERS
    I wept at NPC - and Marx telling the story of the shooting.
    I got so frustrated at PIONEERS until I understood why the book took a tonal shift.

    Thank you for this gift that made me reconnect with what I love so much about video games; they are not just silly fun, but worlds to explore.
  • Reviewed in the United States on May 26, 2025
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    I just loved it. Not a gamer myself but I connected so much to the characters and life and love and just how fleeting life can be. Gabrielle wrote and depicted friendships so beautifully . True friendships are not perfect, they are not a straight line. Sometimes we have to start from the beginning again… more than once .
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • JR
    5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing read!
    Reviewed in India on March 26, 2025
    This book had me enthralled from the first page till the last. Cannot recommend this enough! I am not a gamer and yet found myself lost in the world of gaming and in the complicated yet beautiful relationships in the book.
  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars 日本のゲーム文化とアメリカのイノベーションの完璧な融合
    Reviewed in Japan on May 25, 2025
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    1980年代生まれの日本人読者として、この本は心の奥深くに響きました。ゼヴィンは日本のゲーム文化とアメリカの起業家精神を見事に織り合わせています。

    基盤は純粋な日本のゲームDNA - マリオ、ドンキーコング、クロノ・トリガーは単なる名前の羅列ではなく、物語の骨格として機能。幼少期に父親のPCを通じてゲームの喜びを発見した私は、登場人物たちの原体験に深い共感を覚えました。

    この作品を特別にしているのは、ゼヴィンがこれをUSカルチャーの重要点である、起業家精神。ハーバード/MITスタートアップのエネルギーとバランスよく描いている点です

    「レベルアップ」の構造が素晴らしい - 仕事、友情、愛が競い合うのではなく、共に進化していきます。この並行した発展は、個人的成長と職業的達成が絡み合うゲーム世代の体験を完璧に捉えています。

    最も重要なのは、この本が私たちの文化的輸出品を終着点ではなく、新しい創造性の出発点として描いていることです - そしてそれは日本人としての私自身の創造活動にも影響を与えています。真のイノベーションは情熱からくる融合から生まれるのだと。

    異文化間を行き来する人、ゲームで育った人には必読。

    As a Japanese reader born in the 1980s, this book hit me right in the heart. Zevin masterfully weaves together Japanese gaming culture with American entrepreneurial spirit in a way that feels both authentic and inspiring.

    The foundation is pure Japanese gaming DNA - Mario, Donkey Kong, Chrono Trigger aren't just name-dropped but serve as the story's backbone. As someone who discovered gaming joy through my father's PC in childhood, I felt deep empathy with the characters' formative experiences.

    What makes this special is how Zevin balances this with real Harvard/MIT startup energy - the urgency and ambition feels authentic, not romanticized.

    The "leveling up" structure is brilliant - work, friendship, and love evolve together rather than competing. This parallel development perfectly captures the gaming generation's experience where personal growth and professional achievement intertwine.

    Most importantly, this book shows our cultural exports not as endpoints but as launching points for new creativity - and it influences my own creation as a Japanese. True innovation comes from thoughtful synthesis, not dominance.

    A must-read for anyone navigating between cultures or anyone who grew up gaming. Zevin has created something genuinely transformative here.
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  • Rafaela Nunes
    5.0 out of 5 stars marvelous
    Reviewed in France on February 9, 2025
    Marvelous, a must read
  • G.
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great novel
    Reviewed in the Netherlands on June 3, 2025
    Loved this story, it was gripping and emotional. Definitely a must read and I would read it again
  • Eylül Özbek
    1.0 out of 5 stars It was boring‼️‼️‼️‼️
    Reviewed in Turkey on August 25, 2024
    I really tried to finish it but I couldn’t. I only could have read 100 pages. I hate this book…