Reviews tagging Adult/minor relationship

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin

21 reviews

hannalizzy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This book was so beautifully written. The story plays out like an actual life, full of its raging beauty and sharp ugliness. I read it at the recommendation of John Green, and I can see why he enjoyed it. It has a bit of his poetic flair, and the characters have their unique quirks like his do. The characters are richly complex, and somehow lovable despite their very apparent flaws.  

I wonder how I will feel about the ending after I’ve had more time to think about it. It felt like it lacked some of the finality I was hoping for in terms of Sadie and Sam’s relationship. I also felt like Sam and Sadie’s fights became a little too repetitive, but of course, c’est la vie. 

I always love stories of characters encountering grief, loss, and depression in its most potent form and still figuring out how to manage to continue on. I think those kinds of triumphs are so important to read about in an age where poor mental health feels like a largely universal experience.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Mental illness, Gun violence, Death of parent, Death, Toxic relationship, Murder, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Injury/injury detail, Toxic friendship, Homophobia, Hate crime, Car accident, Adult/minor relationship, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Gaslighting, Sexual content, and Sexism

Moderate: Alcohol, Cursing, Abortion, Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, and Emotional abuse

jenmcreads's review

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I was conflicted throughout reading this book, but ultimately I did enjoy it. I would advise checking trigger warnings on this book as I think the way it is written can hit pretty hard on trigger points. What I loved in this book was the exploration of the value we place on romantic versus platonic relationships, given the central relationship in the book is platonic. The story was emotional, and well-paced given its sweeping timeline. I did not love the handling of mental health in all cases, but that is to a degree a matter of personal preference. I would definitely recommend this book, however would caution to read when you feel fairly stable in your own mental health. (Specific minor spoilers hidden with spoiler tag)

Spoiler

I was honestly particularly upset by the use of a background character's suicide to propel the plot of main characters who did not even know her. That felt emotionally manipulative and exploitive to me and it was a part of the book I struggled to move past. Similarly, I felt the treatment of abortion was quite glib and did not add much.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Injury/injury detail, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Domestic abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Medical trauma, Car accident, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Physical abuse, and Sexual harassment

hancaavdic's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

One thing I truly love about this book is that the author does an incredible job at crafting the characters and the dynamics of each relationship, without going into emotional detail (this may party be due to it being told in 3rd person POV?). And while I didn’t exactly *like/love* the characters themselves, nor did I fee any emotional attachment to them, I for some reason kept thinking about them when I wasn’t reading. I genuinely wanted to know what they were going to do next, what would happen next, etc.. 
that could be the only thing I actually really enjoyed about the story, apart from the writing.

This book is incredibly dense; definitely not as dense as A Little Life, if we’re comparing, but it’s nearly there. There are plenty of passages, paragraphs, phrases/sentences, dialogue, etc that I just did not care for. At all. In fact I think there’s a good chunk that could just be cut out from the book because it truly doesn’t do anything for the book, in the end, in my opinion. Like now that I think of it, I’m just asking myself what was the point? Why did I spend my time reading that? I don’t know. I felt like that a lot throughout the book. The structure and organization is weird because it constantly goes back and forth between the past and present and then at times—very quickly—it’ll jump to a time in the future, and then you’re pulled back in the present. The structure and organization are just weird; I hated the jumps in the past, and so much of it kept interrupting the flow of the story. 

The execution of the story is poor. It feels incredibly pretentious and that it was trying to do too much. 

Apart from that, one thing that really bothered me about the story is that with the characters, you wouldn’t know what they were exactly feeling or thinking about unless they actually said it themselves through dialogue. And because of that, when the reader reads through their dialogue, the characters seem to fall flat and almost monotonous. The tone of the language lacks emotion, there’s no spark. Nothing. Unless the character says so themselves, AND/OR when the writing in 3rd person POV is focused on their part of the story. And in other parts, it’ll change to 2nd person to put the reader as if they were the actual character. Again, trying to do too much, and in the end doesn’t add much depth to the story.

Also, final note: if you’re not interested in learning all about video games to the core, this book isn’t for you. I wasn’t prepared for that. I didn’t read the summary (I never do anymore with any book) but I don’t think not even that would’ve prepared me for the extensive talk and history about video games there is. Now I just genuinely don’t know what to do with all this information, and at the same time I don’t even know what I read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/injury detail, Medical content, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Car accident, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Abortion, Addiction, Cancer, Gaslighting, Grief, Racism, Vomit, Pregnancy, and Drug use

chichisode's review

adventurous emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

if a little life was less trauma porn and more of just "life happens to us and sometimes life means shit", also video games and just games in general. but we keep going. fucking cried when the reasoning behind the title was revealed on page. strong read for escapists— yes, even when you're not a gamer.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Homophobia, Injury/injury detail, Medical content, Grief, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexism, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Chronic illness, and Hate crime

Moderate: Car accident, Genocide, Ableism, Cancer, Abortion, Alcohol, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Death of parent, Drug use, Eating disorder, Suicide, Pregnancy, Antisemitism, Vomit, War, and Violence

apiora215's review

challenging emotional funny inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Cursing, Death, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Cancer, Car accident, Chronic illness, Cultural appropriation, Emotional abuse, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Murder, Racism, Sexism, Adult/minor relationship, Injury/injury detail, and Sexual content

alyssagirardi's review

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Ableism, Death of parent, and Grief

royam's review

reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I have complicated feelings about this book. On one hand,  I felt like

Spoiler

Marx's death

was not necessary to have character development. Life can be hard but it doesn't need to be hard every time. On the other hand, I really enjoy that the characters are human and complicated. Relationships, platonic or romantic, are never clear-cut. The more you open up to someone, the more vulnerable you are. But if you always keep yourself at a distance, then no one will ever truly understand you. The struggles with failure and success were super relatable and personal. As a gamer, I loved each game's progress and the characters' differing experiences with every game. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Car accident, Death, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Violence, and Adult/minor relationship

sakisreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow was a true tearjerker 🥲 I loved navigating Sadie and Sam’s sob stories (very valid and very vexing, especially Sam’s) and I felt that I could see them so clearly in my mind. I wonder if this will be a movie or series someday. I loved Marx especially, being the charming, cocky person he was 🥰

Spoiler

Him getting shot though devastated me and I had to dry my tears very discreetly, reading this on a plane! The way it was written out read like a game and hit me hard.

Even if you aren’t a fan of fandom and games, this is a must read for anyone navigating friendships, love and a whole lot of trauma. The way Gabrielle Zevin writes is great ✨ I am off to sit and wallow in my feelings now!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Chronic illness, Adult/minor relationship, and Suicidal thoughts

emwilliams's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Suicide, Gun violence, and Grief

Moderate: Sexual assault and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Eating disorder

jennikreads's review against another edition

emotional sad slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Murder, Medical content, Emotional abuse, Cultural appropriation, Adult/minor relationship, Suicide, Misogyny, Mental illness, Injury/injury detail, Gun violence, Death of parent, Homophobia, Sexism, Medical trauma, Grief, Death, Cursing, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Blood and Car accident

Minor: Terminal illness, Cancer, and Abortion