Uptown Cheapskate opening near Logan campus
By Bailey Daniels STATESMAN REPORTER
Students and residents alike will soon be able to make cash off of their gently used clothes and accessories while finding affordable and sustainable fashion. This is thanks to the new Uptown Cheapskate location, which is aiming to open in Logan within the next few months.
The store will be at 70 E 400 N #130 in Logan, next door to Kid to Kid, owned by the same franchise. Staff hopes to be open to shop in late February or early March but is planning to be able to buy used items in early January. They will buy clothing, shoes and accessories.
BaseCamp Franchising owns Kid to Kid and Uptown Cheapskate, which both buy and sell gently used clothing items with an emphasis on affordability and sustainability. Amy Lofgreen, who has worked for BaseCamp since 2012, will manage Uptown Cheapskate’s Logan location. One of her biggest fantasies has been to own a store.
“This has been more than a decade of dreaming, hoping and trying to figure out how to make it all work,” Lofgreen said.
“This has been more than a decade of dreaming, hoping and trying to figure out how to make it all work.”
— Amy Lofgreen
To open in February or March, the store will require 900 different people to sell to them.
“Usually once people start selling to us, they’ve been saving up for a long time, and I’ve had enough people asking me and stopping in that I think I’ll be able to fill the store nicely, but I have to have 900 before headquarters will let me, which is the same number as somebody in Atlanta has to have,” Lofgreen said. “That’s the thing I’m most nervous about, that this small community — it’s going to be hard to get 900.”
Stephanie Lenhart, Lofgreen’s daughter, will be helping her mom manage the store.
“We really hope to have a lot of university students come. We hope that they will come and share their fashion ideas with us and help us get to know what they want, but we hope that more than just the university will come too. Cache Valley has grown so much,” Lenhart said.
According to their website, Uptown Cheapskate aims to make selling clothes to their locations simple. All sellers need to do is bring their items and the trained buyers will go through them and choose which ones they think are a good fit for the store. Any items they don’t wish to buy from the seller, they offer to donate to other local thrift stores.
“We want to make sure every time somebody comes to sell to us that they feel appreciated. One thing that we plan on doing is if people come to sell to us, you get 25% more in-store credit than cash if you do store credit. If there’s a situation where we can’t take anything that they’ve got, we will hope that they’ll be able to get a store discount for shopping. Even when it doesn’t work out, they’re the lifeblood of our store,” Lenhart said.
This business model is similar to other stores in Logan, such as Plato’s Closet.
“What really differentiates us from Plato’s Closet is that we really want to make sure that it’s a curated experience for people when they shop. Our buyers are trained every season on what are the new colors and the new trends that are happening so we can keep our racks on trend,” Lofgreen said. “We like to buy some of the quirky, cool things also so that people can have their own unique way of representing themselves.”
Sustainability is incredibly important to Uptown Cheapskate. While working for BaseCamp, Lenhart shared the company paid for a soda fountain and reusable cups for employees so soda cans weren’t wasted. Every Wednesday, an employee would do the dishes from weekly team meals
so they weren’t using disposable cutlery or plates. Because of the importance of sustainability, they will be buying fast fashion in addition to higher quality pieces.
“I do a bit of both because I’d rather it not go into the landfill. The first thing we do is look over and make sure that everything we generally buy are like-new condition that would have been in the mall in the last two years,” Lofgreen said.
However, there are exceptions to the rule on buying recently-made clothing.
“When you’re four years out on something that is not as good of a quality, it just doesn’t wear well. I will buy things that are on trend, no matter how old they are if they’re really great quality. I will always have a section that is just those amazing finds that you hope that you’ll be able to find whenever you’re going thrifting,” Lofgreen said.
The target demographic for Uptown Cheapskate is from high school age to 40 with masculine and feminine clothing. In addition to used clothing items, Lofgreen hopes to sell hand-made items from local artisans to help uplift the local community.
— bailey.daniels@usu.edu
PHOTO BY Malory Rau
Logan’s new Uptown Cheapskate location, as seen on Dec. 13, ahead of its expected opening in early 2025.
New year, new eats: Hub 2025
By Bailey Daniels STATESMAN REPORTER
The Hub, Utah State University’s food court, always grows and changes to meet the campus community’s needs. Located on the bottom floor of the Taggart Student Center, students and faculty can expect some changes within the next couple of months.
Alan Andersen, executive director of USU Dining Services, explained these changes as a “domino effect.” Some preexisting eateries on campus will be moving while new ones arrive in their place. One of the most prominent changes is the removal and new location of Caffe Ibis.
“We’re still committed to them, and our partnership is not changing. The plan is to still have Caffe Ibis in the Skyroom — still have it in catering,” Andersen said. “We’re not getting rid of Caffe Ibis. In the Hub, we are removing it.”
Caffe Ibis’s coffee is still available in multiple locations across campus, such as Noni’s Coffee Shop and The Forum Cafe.
“Most of the coffee sold here on campus is Caffe Ibis. The grades are local roaster. They’re very sustainably focused, so great partners,” Andersen said.
One reason for moving Caffe Ibis is the integration of Starbucks into the TSC by fall. This will result in Starbucks leaving the Noelle E. Cockett Life Sciences Building.
Additionally, Dining Services is looking to create another STEEPED location serving Starbucks in the Lundstrom Student Living Center.
“We want to put Starbucks inside the Campus Store. That’ll give us a really great blend to have that — people can sit in there and enjoy,” Andersen said. “Starbucks offers us a huge financial incentive — basically discounted some of the finishings and things like that. Very serious numbers I don’t want to share, but let’s just say it’s over six figures.”
Keean Janson, assistant director over retail operations, is conceptualizing ideas on what to replace the old STEEPED location with.
“One of the things we’re thinking of right now is actually creating a focus on meeting dietary needs so we can stay away from all the top allergens. We’ll make sure it’s gluten free and nut free and all that kind of thing,” Janson said. “We want to try to diversify them enough to get a broad amount of people to go there.”
Those whose New Year resolutions include visiting the Aggie Recreation Center more often may be excited by the new Shake Smart location replacing Caffe Ibis’s spot in the Hub.
According to Shake Smart’s LinkedIn profile, the business was started by two San Diego State University students in 2011 to make healthy food more accessible to college students. Their USU location will consist mostly of smoothies and protein bowls.
“They’d have a kiosk in the ARC, so you get
done exercising, you can come over there, just enter what you want and order it. By the time you walk over here to the Hub where Caffe Ibis is, you can pick that up,” Andersen said.
Another new addition to the Hub seeks to make the ordering process more efficient. At the beginning of the spring semester, everything in the Hub will be ordered either on the Mobile Order app or one of the new available kiosks.
“We finally got the kiosks up and running so that people can order without having to go through the app. But most people I’ve talked to that use the app love using the app,” Janson said. “They’ve been really enjoying being able to order their food ahead of time and just go pick it up and go back to their office or whatever it is that they’re doing. I think it’s been a success.”
A potential addition to the Hub that didn’t work out was a Chick-fil-A. In its place is Chester’s Chicken, described by Andersen as a mix of KFC and Chick-fil-A.
“A lot of people ask us, ‘Why not Chickfil-A?’ We will spend less money, well about the same amount of money, to completely bring in Chester’s as we would on the franchise fee for Chick-fil-A,” Andersen said. “They pretty much wanted to be the only business in the food court.”
During the first week of February, the Hub will have a “grand reopening” where they will have different promotions. Dining Services will be partnering with USUSA during Casino Night to serve Chester’s Chicken to partygoers, and there will be specials at the Hub’s different restaurants that whole week.
“There’s a lot of stuff going on that week, and we’re partnering with them throughout the week to do some prizes at different events, like the High Stakes Bingo,” Andersen said. “Some fun things like free tacos once a week for a year for some students or something like that.”
Bailey Daniels is a junior studying technology systems. She loves Lana Del Rey, sweet treats and all things whimsical.
PHOTO BY Jack Burton
“Shallow Water” makes waves at WhySound
By Esther Owens STATESMAN REPORTER
Ally Dean, a singer-songwriter from Surrey, British Columbia, filled WhySound with heartfelt melodies and warm energy on Dec. 6 with a performance celebrating her debut album “Shallow Water.” Dean is a 28-year-old musician who splits her time between her home province and Salt Lake City. Dean said she appreciates the Salt Lake City music scene. “Everyone’s really supportive of each other, and everyone is really down to go to shows,” Dean said. “It just feels really warm, and I’ve always felt welcomed.”
Dean got connected to WhySound through friends in Salt Lake City. She played the venue for the first time at Whyfest in the spring and plays shows when she’s in town.
“I released my album at the end of September, and the show on Friday was the closest that I could get to that date,” Dean said. “So it’s a chance to share my album with my friends from Salt Lake and in Logan as well.”
After opening sets from Bella Woods and Antique Loft, two artists Dean admires, she went on with some friends accompanying her.
“Playing on stage with Jonas and my friend Josh and my friend Taylor and having that friendship on stage for the songs was really awesome,” Dean said.
Dean said the show went well and appreciated the crowd’s energy.
“There were some people singing the songs, which was crazy. People were really supportive,” Dean said. “It just felt like everything came together that night. I felt like so much love was in the room.”
Many of the songs on Dean’s debut album were written in 2021, but there are others she wrote five or six years ago.
“A bunch of times people actually reached out — friends or people in the music scene here — to record it with me,”
Dean said. “Everything kind of kept falling through, and I felt like it would maybe never happen.”
Dean ended up recording the album on Vancouver Island in her friend Colin Stewart’s studio, and her boyfriend Jonas Swanson helped with the instrumentals.
“Jonas and I were basically the band in the recording,” Dean said.
According to Swanson, getting to be a part of the music
process with Dean is something he values greatly.
“It’s really special,” Swanson said. “We’re together — she’s my girlfriend, and it’s cool to have a creative relationship with her too.”
Dean is also in a band called Sleepy Gonzales but has shifted her focus to her solo work.
“I was never the main songwriter in the band, even though I was singing,” Dean said. “So doing things as Ally Dean — it feels like I’m really able to express myself more and share my words and my thoughts and explore my creativity more fully.”
Esther Owens is a sophomore studying journalism. When she’s not busy working on a story, she’s probably at the climbing wall.
— esther.owens@usu.edu
PHOTO BY Aubrey Holdaway
Ally Dean performing her set at WhySound on Dec. 6.
Lenses on Bear Lake: USU photography students document nature, research
By Essence Barnes STATESMAN REPORTER
Through the lens of a camera, the complexities of the Bear Lake ecosystem come alive with its bright blue waters, fertile fields and delicate balance between nature and human impact. In a collaboration with the USU Institute for Land, Water, and Air, assistant photography professor at USU Jared Ragland and a group of eight photography students set out to document the intersection of ecology and human activity, creating a visual narrative highlighting the key issues and research happening within Bear Lake.
Ragland and his students have been working for roughly one year to photograph, research and assemble the Bear Lake Needs Assessment Documentation and Visualization Project. The photographs were exhibited in the Tippetts & Eccles Galleries from Nov. 4-Dec. 13.
“The Bear Lake project blends scientific research and visual documentary storytelling to look at critical issues surrounding Bear Lake,” Ragland said. The project was funded by the ILWA Bear Lake Research Grant.
According to the ILWA website, this research is vital in determining how to properly manage the variety of resources Bear Lake provides, from recreation to water usage.
Ragland and his photography students worked alongside nine other research teams who had also been awarded the grant in order to tell the story of their research through documentary photography.
“The use of documentary photography, since its inception as a medium of photography, has been used to record what happens in the world — to say something
about it and to invoke positive change,” Ragland said.
Ragland and his team focused on documenting a handful of the research teams and their studies of Bear Lake, including the research into fishery and watershed health, recreation, nanoparticle and plastic contamination, invasive species and land development.
“Bear Lake is many things to many people,” Ragland said. “One of the biggest challenges was being comprehensive while also being specific enough so that we get to the heart of the issues and tell a compelling story.”
As documentarians, the team prioritized telling a sincere and authentic story that captured the complexities of Bear Lake to the fullest extent possible.
“Our goal was to document those many different perspectives and experiences and share what we found across the board,” Ragland said.
After the exhibition closes, the photographs from the project will be used for the ILWA’s annual Report to the Governor and Legislature on Utah’s Land, Water, and Air.
“It’s really wonderful to have our work included in that so it can help inform the governor and state legislatures when they go to make decisions on our behalf about how our land, water and air are used and managed,” Ragland said.
ILWA will also archive a digital collection of the photographs to create a record of lasting research.
“Bear Lake has long been a place of change, particularly in the modern moment,” Ragland said. “Having a documentary record to show what it looks like now is important for the future.”
Essence Barnes is a second-year student majoring in journalism and minoring in environmental studies. She enjoys reading, writing and caffeine.
— essence.barnes@usu.edu
Max Murray is an enigma whose existence has been debated by scholars and baristas alike. Some say he haunts the airwaves of Aggie Radio, while others claim he’s just really good at avoiding people. Either way, we recently received a message from Max via echolocation that led us to this playlist featuring five songs we can only assume are really important to him.
New Song Antique Loft
How Many Miles Mk.gee
Over There
The Japanese House
little mystery
Fred again.., John Martyn
something that we can’t give up Humble the Giant
PHOTO BY Claire Ott
Pieces of the installation “Bear Lake Needs Assessment Documentation & Visualization Project” located in the Tippetts Galleries, as seen on Dec. 5.
Food additives, social media and accessibility
By Landri LaJeunesse STATESMAN REPORTER
Editor’s note: This piece was orignially written for a feature writing class.
For Utah State University student Karina Ramirez, what’s in her food isn’t always her biggest concern — unless it contains Red 40.
“I’ll look at the ingredients if I’m looking at candy to see if there is Red 40 or something in it,” Ramirez said. She is worried Red 40, an artificial food coloring often found in food items to enhance their appearance, might negatively impact her health.
“I’ve heard a lot of things about it being bad for you,” Ramirez said.
As a result, she’s tried to avoid the red additive. Many students, including roommates I have had while in college, often opt for easy-to-get foods, like candy and ramen, but Ramirez is wary after what happened the last time food additives were a large part of her diet.
“I used to eat Eggo waffles every day, but that hurt my stomach a lot,” Ramirez said.
For her, avoiding things like Red 40 and Eggo waffles has become a health priority. Ramirez said once she began eating more fruits and vegetables, she began to feel better. Immediately, I had a question: Was it the food additives that were causing Ramirez to feel sick?
To get that question answered, I spoke with food science student Andrea Knowlton, who thinks there is more to the story.
Generally, food additives are part of a broad group of ingredients that are added to a food item to enhance its
appearance or shelf life. Ramirez avoids certain foods because they make her sick, but Knowlton thinks some people are scrutinizing and avoiding ingredients because of outside sources.
To her, the reason they’ve faced scrutiny recently isn’t about how many there are or how they affect people’s diets but about what people are seeing about them on social media.
“Social media plays a huge influence on what people eat and also the information we receive when we say food additives,” Knowlton said.
Knowlton thinks the use of social media is causing more people to excessively worry about what’s in their food. When it comes to how additives are portrayed online, she said it has a lot to do with creating fear — especially surrounding additives like Red 40.
“Some people can use it as a fearmongering term,” Knowlton said. “As a food science student myself, it’s kind of a weird thing. It’s just a term that can mean anything, really.”
From adding coloring in candy to putting salt in a brownie recipe, Knowlton said the range of what is and isn’t an additive varies greatly. To her, they’re not a new topic of concern.
“Food additives and people adding weird things to your food has been a topic of conversation for a lot longer than just now,” Knowlton said. “It’s just shared a lot more.”
She suggests that people are focusing more on what they hear online than what they are experiencing in their bodies. Knowlton thinks the real issue isn’t about food additives but how much of them people are eating.
“I think more of an issue of food is overconsumption or
sometimes how the food is processed,” said Knowlton. “We can overconsume so easily.”
Knowlton believes the reason some people might experience discomfort after eating can come from the amount of food they consume rather than what it is. Knowlton claims that when people eat more processed foods, they aren’t getting as many nutrients as they need so they eat more food to make up for it--resulting in overconsumption.
She also thinks food accessibility plays a role, especially for college students.
“If you can’t get fresh fruits and vegetables, you’re going to eat what you can get,” Knowlton said.
Knowlton said if students could get access to foods that contain more nutrients, like fruits and vegetables, they would be less inclined to eat high volumes of processed foods. However, not everyone can afford or access healthier options.
“That’s why I really love SNAC,” Knowlton said.
What Knowlton is talking about is the USU Student Nutrition Access Center, known on campus as SNAC. The purpose of the program is to provide food and information for students who have monetary or other impediments that stop them from getting the proper nutrition.
Knowlton likes utilizing SNAC as a resource for information about what she’s eating, and she said programs like SNAC can help students like Ramierez tune in to their bodies and make informed decisions about what’s right for them.
Between busy schedules, monetary burdens and limited access to healthy food options, Knowlton thinks the best way to fight food-related health problems comes down to ignoring what you see online and knowing who you are.
“You really have to figure out what’s good for you and what affects you in the right way,” Knowlton said.
With help from the SNAC and a new perspective on social media, she hopes students will be able to make educated decisions about what they eat. She reminds students that there isn’t one right answer.
Whether you choose to avoid Red 40, it’s about what’s right for you.
“It’s very much a personal choice,” Knowlton said.
Landri LaJeunesse is a junior studying journalism and communications with a minor in yoga studies. Catch her radio show “RADIO ESPRESSO” Wednesdays at 10 a.m. - landri.lajeunesse@usu.edu
The winter break basketball breakdown
By Carson Frost STATESMAN REPORTER
With the stress of the fall semester well behind us, many Aggie fans felt the need for a break from all things Utah State. We left campus and reunited with our friends and families, spent countless hours immersing ourselves in corny Christmas movies, and probably had a bit too much fun on New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile, the USU men’s and women’s basketball teams spent their winter breaks gearing up for conference play, preparing for the toughest stretches of their seasons. Here’s a quick recap of what you may have missed during the 23-day hiatus:
Men’s Basketball
The good news: this season has arguably been one of the most successful starts in program history. As of Jan. 2, the men’s team holds a 13-1 record with their 10-0 start setting a program record. Head coach Jerrod Calhoun is the only USU coach to win his first nine games.
The Aggies’ most recent road trip showcased their potential to make noise come March. The team secured three consecutive victories against Saint Mary’s, San Diego State, and Nevada, all of whom rank among the top teams in their respective conferences.
The most impressive of these recent wins had to be the
Aggies’ 67-66 upset of San Diego State. The Aztecs entered the game ranked 20th in the nation, and USU made history by earning their first road win against an AP Top 25 team since 1991. Even better, the game was won in dramatic fashion when forward Tucker Anderson drilled the game-winning three with just a couple of seconds left to cap off the comeback victory.
“He [Anderson] is so deserving,” Calhoun said following the win. “He has been working with [assistant] coach [Mantoris] Robinson because he has been really struggling with his shot. So proud of him that he had the guts to take that shot.”
This year’s team boasts incredible depth, with seemingly a different player being the hero night-to-night. Guard Mason Falslev has been most consistent in scoring, rebounding and passing, so much so that he recently won the Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week. Guard Ian Martinez has shown his ability to score in bunches, most notably when he scored 17 straight points for the Aggies in their win against Nevada. Forward Karson Templin has been one of the more reliable bench players in the country with his ability to bang inside and score from the outside.
“That’s the beauty of this team,” Calhoun said. “Anybody can do it on any given night. We certainly have a couple of stars, but we have a lot of good players.”
And now the bad news. The team finally suffered their first loss of the season on Dec. 17 against UC San Diego in a 75-73 heartbreaker. It wasn’t a poor showing by the Aggies by any means; they simply struggled to score in the second half, and the Tritons made enough plays down the stretch to secure the win.
With this single loss being a noticeable blemish on the program’s resume this season, the Aggies remain unranked nationally despite their early historic brilliance. Prominent NCAA media correspondent Andy Katz called for the AP to give Utah State more consideration in a video he posted on X.
“Where is Utah State in the AP poll?” Katz asked in the video he did with Bleacher Report. “They knocked off Iowa in Kansas City. They also beat Saint Mary’s on the road, they beat San Diego State at the buzzer and they beat St. Bonaventure who has had a great year. I ask, and I’m not getting any answers.”
The men’s team will have the opportunity to earn the favor of the AP after facing conference rivals San Jose State on Jan. 7 and Boise State on Jan. 11.
Women’s Basketball
When first-year head coach Wesley Brooks arrived on campus in the fall, the entire culture changed within the women’s program. Brooks outlined many of his high expectations in an interview before the season on Media Day, and it may be most effective to evaluate the team’s performance so far in light of what he shared during that interview.
“We’re gonna run that 22. We brought the 22 to Logan. We’re gonna press.”
The “22” refers to a half-court press defense that emphasizes trapping the ball-handler and speed up offenses,
forcing teams to take quick shots and preventing the ball from getting into the post. Brooks was known for helping implement this strategy to much success when he was an assistant at Ohio State. However, the Aggies defense has been the worst in the Mountain West all season. The 78.1 points they allow per game is about 11 points worse than anyone else in the conference and is among the worst in all of college basketball. The press hasn’t been a complete failure, as USU has forced the third-most turnovers in the Mountain West. But once opponents break the press, the Aggies have struggled to recover.
Frost is a transfer student from Denver studying journalism. His family originally hails from Los Angeles, and he is a passionate fan of the Lakers, Dodgers and Philadelphia Eagles. He loves writing, making music, hitting the gym and taking road trips.
PHOTO BY Wyatt Merchant
Karson Templin, 22, goes up to the basket against a player from UC San Diego during a USU Men’s Basketball game on Dec.17.
PHOTO BY Jack Burton
Cheyenne Stubbs, 24, dribbles up the court during a USU Women’s Basketball game against Westminster on Oct. 25.
Carson
By Aubrey Holdaway LIFESTYLES EDITOR
When I fly out of Utah to visit my family, I choose a book from an airport shop to read on my flight. The options are usually limited, so I read something I wouldn’t have otherwise.
That’s how I picked up “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” by Gabrielle Zevin, which I had heard was good but knew nothing about
Halfway through the first chapter, I worried I’d just wasted $20 on a book I wouldn’t enjoy. Video games are a central part of this novel, and the only two I had ever finished were the “Sonic Adventure” games 16 years ago.
But I was on a three-hour flight and wasn’t going anywhere, so I persisted. And with each chapter, I was more hooked.
between creator and audience. Their first major success “Ichigo” is a game that combines the nostalgic charm of retro gaming with innovative storytelling. This blend of old and new mirrors the novel’s own structure, which draws from classic literary themes while embracing the modern sensibilities of its protagonists.
Zevin’s prose is lyrical, but not so much so that it’s inaccessible. Complex ideas feel intimate and personal, and her characters are deeply human. Sam’s physical and emotional traumas are handled with sensitivity, as is Sadie’s struggle with depression and her efforts to make it in a male-dominated industry.
While the novel’s primary focus is on Sadie and Sam, the supporting characters are equally memorable. Marx Watanabe, Sam’s college roommate and later Ichigo Studios’s producer, brings warmth and stability to the narrative. His presence serves as a counterbalance to the often fraught dynamic between Sadie and Sam.
The games they design become a metaphor for life — finite, but filled with infinite possibilities.
Although I’m definitely not a gamer, I do enjoy watching the occasional Let’sPlay on YouTube, and what I’ve grown to appreciate about games is that many are just stories the player gets to become an integral part of.
Stories and people are my passion, and so that’s ultimately what drew me in. This novel is a love letter to the human condition and storytelling in all its forms, not only as a source of entertainment but as a way to make sense of life’s complexities.
“Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” focuses on the lives of Sadie Green and Sam Masur, childhood friends who reconnect in adulthood. Their chance reunion at a subway station in Cambridge, Massachusetts, sparks their previously dormant friendship. Together, they create a company and develop a series of groundbreaking video games that push the boundaries of the medium.
Zevin captures the highs and lows of collaboration, portraying the joy of shared creativity alongside the inevitable tensions that arise when two strong-willed individuals work together. The interactions and conflicts feel real and raw.
However, these conflicts between Sam and Sadie in the novel started to feel repetitive about halfway through. Most of their issues were the result of lacking communication, which is my least favorite plot device of all time.
One of the novel’s most compelling aspects is its exploration of art’s role in shaping identity and relationships. Through the games Sadie and Sam design, Zevin delves into questions of agency, escapism and the interplay
—
Aubrey
Holdaway
Marx’s unwavering support and quiet wisdom highlight the importance of chosen family, a theme that resonates throughout the book.
Another strength of “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” is its treatment of time and legacy. The title, borrowed from Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”, underscores the inevitability of change, the desire to leave a mark on the world and the beauty of trying again.
Zevin weaves these ideas into the story through the characters’ creative endeavors and their reflections on mortality. The games they design become a metaphor for life — finite, but filled with infinite possibilities.
Although I really enjoyed my read, the pacing can be uneven. The novel shifts from focusing on collaborative processes to individual struggles, has an occasional second-person chapter and drops readers into a video game world. While I loved these sections for their artistic value, it made the experience occasionally feel disjointed.
This book also earns itself a trigger warning — the big turning point of the novel is emotionally traumatic and involves gun violence. The chapters were some of the most beautiful writing I have read in a long time, but I wasn’t prepared for how sad it was, and it made me cry for a full hour afterwards. I would encourage those who may be sensitive to that type of content to be cautious. For students like myself, Zevin’s novel offers both inspiration and a challenge. It prompts readers to consider how their own passions can be harnessed to create
something meaningful and enduring and reminds us that behind every achievement are the relationships that shape and sustain us.
“Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” is a novel that lingers long after the final page. It is a testament to the power of storytelling and the resilience of the human spirit. Whether you’re a gamer, an artist or simply someone who appreciates a well-told tale, this book will resonate in ways that feel both deeply personal and profoundly universal. For those looking to end their year with a read that challenges the mind and stirs the heart, Gabrielle Zevin’s latest work is an excellent choice.
Aubrey Holdaway is a senior studying print journalism. She is currently tackling her last semester while enduring her millionth car repair this year.
a.holdaway@usu.edu
Sudoku puzzles are provided by www.sudokuoftheday.com. Last edition’s solution:
DESIGN BY Jack Burton