Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin - 4 1/2 stars

[Ellen]

Sadie Green and Sam Masur became best friends when they were only 12 years old while they both whiled away their time in a hospital. Sadie had been visiting her older sister who was being successfully treated for cancer and Sam was an in-patient dealing with a shattered foot from an automobile accident that took the life of his mother. Sadie and Sam instantly bonded over video games and spent hours together playing whatever happened to be available. Once Sadie's sister was released from the hospital Sadie continued to visit with Sam as he had a long recovery ahead of him. A misunderstanding between the two of them would cause a rift that would last nearly a decade.

Sam, now a junior at Harvard and Sadie, a student at M.I.T., happened to spot one another in a Boston subway station one morning. Although hurt feelings still existed, the two reconnected, once again over video games, and the beginning of would would be an incredibly successful gaming partnership blossomed. Their collaboration created popular games that were reviewed favorably across the world. Eventually they took their business to California where they were able to hire employees, own a their own building and continue to create. They had also brought their friend Marx into their company, a compassionate and caring man who was exactly the right person to handle the business. He was important to both Sam and Sadie as a life line between them when they inevitably butted heads. Their lives were more than they ever thought possible...until it wasn't. Once again they would find themselves on opposite sides of a highly emotional issue and the chance that they would reconcile was bleak.

This is a love story unlike any other I have read. Sam and Sadie do indeed love one another but not in the traditional sense. Sam continues to battle his childhood trauma with insecurity and withheld emotions. Sadie; I'm not quite sure what to say about her. She is not a very likable character, at least to me. Anger causes her to completely shut people out of her life and she easily slips into dark depressions. Their story spans more than 30 years and I don't feel I ever came to know Sadie as well as I did Sam. It is a great book that I enjoyed quite a bit.