Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a novel rooted in gaming culture but grounded in deeply human emotions. Far from being a niche story for gamers alone, the book offers a sweeping narrative about creativity, ambition, loss, and the enduring complications of friendship. The story unfolds over decades and multiple digital worlds, yet its heartbeat lies in the fragile connections between its characters.
The foundation: Sadie and Sam
At the center of the story are Sadie Green and Sam Masur, two childhood friends who reconnect in a Boston subway station during their college years. Their bond—once sparked in a hospital game room—rekindles quickly through a shared love of video games. What begins as a conversation about pixels and mechanics soon evolves into the foundation for a game development partnership.
Rather than turning romantic, their relationship matures into something rarer: a long-lasting creative alliance built on shared language and vision. Their dynamic is tested repeatedly, but it endures, layered with unspoken gratitude, resentment, and admiration.
The evolution of games and identity
As Sadie and Sam grow into celebrated game designers, their projects begin to mirror their inner lives. From Ichigo, their breakout success, to later titles that explore grief, disability, or memory, the narrative draws clear lines between creation and emotional experience. Games are not just products in this story—they are metaphors, containers for pain, joy, and identity.
Key fictional games in the novel include:
| Game | Significance |
|---|---|
| Ichigo | Symbol of youthful ambition and idealism |
| Both Sides | Exploration of duality and perception |
| Pioneers | Project marred by grief and personal tension |
Each game serves as a narrative device, revealing character growth and internal conflict without resorting to exposition. Through coding and design, Sadie and Sam express what they cannot always say aloud.
Marx Watanabe: the anchor
Supporting their journey is Marx Watanabe, Sam’s roommate and their eventual producer. Charismatic and emotionally intelligent, Marx becomes the third point in the novel’s emotional triangle. He provides balance to the often-intense dynamic between Sadie and Sam, acting as both mediator and motivator.
Marx’s role is not just logistical—he grounds the narrative in warmth and stability. His presence adds dimension to the emotional stakes, especially as tensions rise and the friendship between Sadie and Sam is strained by creative disagreements and personal tragedies.
Representation of disability and pain
Sam’s physical disability, resulting from a childhood accident, is depicted with unflinching honesty. His chronic pain is ever-present, affecting his movement, self-perception, and relationships. However, the narrative resists reducing him to a symbol of perseverance. Instead, his pain informs his worldview—sometimes isolating him, other times sharpening his empathy.
Sadie, too, carries invisible burdens. Her emotional struggles, professional setbacks, and experiences of being a woman in a male-dominated industry are threaded subtly through the story, contributing to the layered portrayal of her character.
Gaming as language and memory
For the main characters, video games are not only a profession but a shared vocabulary. They use games to reminisce, to challenge one another, and to grieve. The narrative suggests that gaming can be a form of storytelling just as rich and affecting as literature or film.
The games they create are deeply personal—reflecting trauma, nostalgia, and experimentation. Their interactions as developers illuminate how games can serve as dialogue across time, allowing players to revisit moments and feel agency in how stories unfold.
Major themes in the novel
Zevin’s narrative explores multiple thematic threads, many of which interweave through the characters’ personal and professional lives.
- Creativity vs. commerce: The tension between artistic vision and financial sustainability recurs throughout the team’s journey, particularly when their studio faces deadlines or corporate influence.
- Platonic intimacy: The novel centers a friendship that resists romantic closure, challenging assumptions about closeness and partnership.
- Time and permanence: Through flashbacks and in-game metaphors, the story reflects on how people revisit memories, relive moments, and seek meaning in repetition.
- Grief and healing: Tragedy shapes the arc of each character, often becoming a source of creative fuel and interpersonal distance.
Literary influences and narrative structure
The book borrows its title from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, hinting at a meditation on time, regret, and the cyclical nature of human life. The narrative itself jumps across decades, cities, and perspectives, offering a nonlinear but coherent view of its characters’ development.
Chapters often adopt unique formats—some framed like memory loops in a game, others from unexpected perspectives. These shifts reinforce the thematic exploration of repetition and narrative agency, encouraging readers to experience the story less as a straight line and more like a branching path in an interactive narrative.
Emotional realism in digital settings
Although the novel’s world includes code, consoles, and virtual spaces, it remains anchored in emotional realism. Sadie and Sam’s disagreements are not exaggerated for drama; they stem from miscommunication, ambition, and history. The games they design reflect their inner lives without needing fantasy metaphors or sci-fi detours.
Moments of quiet despair, like Sadie’s isolation during a stalled project or Sam’s guilt over past decisions, resonate with universal emotions. Even when set in a pixelated landscape or a virtual simulation, these experiences feel grounded and relatable.
Resonance with readers beyond gaming culture
The novel’s detailed look into game development may appeal to industry insiders, but its core themes reach a broader audience. Anyone who has built something with another person—be it a business, a project, or an idea—can recognize the complications and triumphs of creative partnership.
The characters’ emotional arcs are not dependent on gaming knowledge. Instead, they hinge on themes of trust, memory, and missed opportunities. Readers unfamiliar with programming or design will still find resonance in the human stories embedded within digital creations.
Legacy of connection and creativity
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow examines how people use creativity to process experience, how collaboration can both bond and break relationships, and how art—whether through writing, coding, or design—carries fragments of the people who make it. The novel reminds readers that storytelling comes in many forms, and that some of the most meaningful narratives are built not from plot but from shared imagination.
It presents games as memory machines, empathy engines, and canvases for emotional complexity. Through Sadie, Sam, and Marx, the book suggests that while time marches forward, the connections formed through storytelling—digital or otherwise—can echo far beyond a single moment, a single life, or a single game.
