Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

[John]

Sadie Green and Sam Masur have known each other since both were children. They met in a community hospital where Sam was recovering from an automobile accident that killed his mother and Sadie's sister was being treated for cancer. Their friendship formed through the aid of playing videogames. Their friendship took a hiatus until college where they reunited and discovered that each possessed specific skills which when combined produced popular role playing games. Later, they formed their own company with other friends to produce additional games, many having their inspiration from their own lives.

My summary of the book is simplistic. Some may avoid this book because of the gaming topics included, which required me to research techno-terms such as gaming engines and MMO-RPG, but I would recommend that you give it a try. The title comes from Shakespeare, and, in this context, that one never truly dies in videogame; you always have a means to begin again and, hopefully, it is right the next time. At its core, this is a coming of age novel with themes of friendship, loss, and the complexities of loving someone but not so romantically. This literary fiction novel was character-driven with characters especially nuanced in their development. I particully enjoyed how some of the character current lives were presented as characters in a RPG. I found this to be a very endearing and touching tale.

[KateNZ]

This was one of my stand-outs from last month - I’m so glad you enjoyed it too, John. I agree that the gaming environment shouldn’t put people off. It’s definitely not necessary to be a gamer yourself to enjoy this.