Here comes the review I have been dreading writing ever since I finished reading the book over 3 months ago. I don’t think that I would have read “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” if it wasn’t for the “20- and 30-Somethings Book Club” in Paris that chose it as their book of the month. My initial gut feeling with this book was correct and I simply didn’t enjoy it. It ended up in my category of “overhyped but not living up to the expectations” group of novels, joining the club of “The Midnight Library” and “Klara and the Sun“.

First things first, you need to be interested in gaming in order to enjoy this book. Don’t believe the reviews that say it’s not a necessity – it is in my opinion and the majority of the book circles around this topic. It has been a while since I read a 400+ page novel and the struggle was real here since I couldn’t warm up to the topic until the very end. The worst part was having to read through a pure 20+ page game description, which tested my patience to its max. To make things easy, I might as well elaborate on all the other parts that I didn’t enjoy about the book:

• One star reduction for its style.

It wasn’t consistent, going from extremely pretentious and overly complicated in the beginning to dropping it, seeming like the author didn’t feel like making the effort anymore. It then made its come-back in the very end of the book again. As if the author said, “Wait a minute, there was this specific style that I was supposed to write in!” The conversations often sounded forced and unrealistic. They felt awkward and not like exchanges that could actually take place in real life. Below are some examples of what some of the worst parts read like:

That was when he espied his old comrade, Sadie Green. […]

They had been habitués of science fairs, the Academics Games league, and numerous other competitions […]. They would exchange glances across a room of nerds – sometimes, she’d even smile at him, as if to corroborate their détente – and then she would be swept up in the vulturine circle of attractive, smart kids that always surrounded her.

p. 4-5

Another inbound train was approaching. “That’s my train. Again.”

“That’s how trains work,” Sam said.

“It’s true. There’s a train, and a train, and a train.”

“In which case, the only proper thing for us to do right now is have coffee,” Sam said. “Or whatever you drink, if coffee’s too much of a cliché for you. Chai tea. Matcha. Snapple. Champagne. There’s a world with infinite beverage possibilities, right over our heads, you know? All we have to do is ride that escalator and it’s ours for the partaking.”

p. 9

“How awful do you think I am? Those were your things, not mine.”

“Yes, they probably were.”

“I’m still not tired,” Sadie said. “Probably the excitement of being sans enfant. Do you want to go take a walk?”

“I do,” Sam said.

p. 393

She seemed preoccupied to him, in the way that people are before a voyage, and though he had things he wanted to say to her, the manic energy of the airport did not lend itself to conversation.

p. 396

• Another star reduction for it wanting to be too much about everything.

The amount of topics spoken about just made the story line spread out too thinly. It made me think of the continuation series of “Sex and the City”, “And Just Like That”, where the writers thought that they had to address every single issue on this planet. The book also tried so hard to be “woke”, that it ended up being completely overdone and exaggerated. You’ll read about chronic diseases, gun control issues, mass gun shootings, gay marriage, drugs and the non-binary topic to just name a few.

• The final star reduction for the main characters not having enough depth.

One would think that 400 pages should provide enough space to draft intricate characters that the reader would care for but this didn’t end up being the case for me. I had difficulty feeling empathy for any of them, so that critical moments within the story development didn’t really touch me. On top of that, the narrative got really predictable at some point, it having become evident how the relation between the three main characters would end up.

The only reason why I finally settled for the 2/5 ★ final rating was because there ended up being a couple of interesting themes here and there. Finding parallels to one’s life in one’s 20s, 30s, building friendships, moving cities and finally, when the meaning behind the book’s title was finally revealed (which always makes me excited if there is actually one behind it).

They were both from Los Angeles and neither had wanted to return. To return to the city of one’s birth always felt like retreat.

p. 146

Sadie liked Zoe. They’d never been really friendly in Cambridge, but in L.A., they had become instant best friends in the way people can in their twenties.

p. 192

At a certain age – in Sadie’s case, thirty-four – there comes a time when life largely consists of having meals with old friends who are passing through town.

p. 369

All in all, I really wished that I would have spared myself the hours I spent reading this book. I really had to force myself to finish it and I don’t even see it being interesting enough to suggest to those who are fans of video games. Don’t be tempted by the hype, just stay away from this book 😛

★★☆☆☆ (2/5)

_{Edition: ISBN 978-1-784-74465-6
Chatto & Windus, 2022}