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The Long Wait for Tomorrow

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“Looking for humor? Poignancy? Mind-bending time theories? You’ve come to the right book.” — Booklist

This sexy and smart YA novel has all the small-town football worship of Friday Night Lights with an unexpected sci-fi twist.

Kelly McDermott is the golden boy, the high school football star dating the hottest cheerleader. To his best friend, Patrick, it seems the world can’t wait to give Kelly everything he desires. Until the night things go too far.

The next morning, Kelly is different. The “new” Kelly McDermott is caring, knows how to play pool, and can’t remember how to run football plays. Should Patrick believe him when Kelly says he’s actually forty years old and asleep in a mental institution? And will they have enough time to figure out what catastrophe Kelly’s older self has come back to prevent?

Joaquin Dorfman is back with another contemporary YA novel that pushes the envelope of literary fiction, examining identity, high school roles, and even the high-blown concept of destiny through a cool science fiction lens.

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

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148 people want to read

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Joaquin Dorfman

5 books3 followers

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5 stars
12 (10%)
4 stars
36 (32%)
3 stars
33 (29%)
2 stars
24 (21%)
1 star
7 (6%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
42 reviews
October 30, 2014
One day Kelly McDormic wakes up and is surprised to find himself in his room. His friend, Patrick notices his strange behavior. Kelly explains to Patrick that he was 20 years from the future and he is living in a mental institution, and that he thinks the world he is in now is all a dream. Kelly, struggling with his inner demons, does something that was very unexpected to all of his friends and himself as well.

I recommend this book to anyone who are very mature and like a good plot twist and time travel. As well as any sports mixed into it. Maybe to mature teenagers.

This book is amazing. It has an expert plot twist at the end that would leave you shocked, although in the story itself it explains some things. The word choice of this book was excellent, and the way the author wrote them made me feel maybe just a little bit confused at first, but in the ending it made more sense to me. Also, I love how the characters in this book played their roles. How the little guy who was maybe just a big geek and barely hanging onto sanity himself, but not showing it to others falls into a big tragedy - literally. I feel that all the character's roles really helped fit into the roles and really make the plot just pop. At first their roles were a little confusing until it all made sense in the ending, when the plot climaxed with a big surprise no one would have guessed. I gave this book five stars, but I really think it deserves even more than that because of how interesting and mysterious the book gave off as its main theme.
7 reviews
October 25, 2018
Personal Response:
I thought this book, The Long Wait for Tomorrow, was confusing because it skipped around a lot.The main character, Kelly, travels back and forth through time and I didn’t know what he was talking about. The plot was difficult to follow.

Plot:
In the beginning of the book, Kelly and some of his friends were torturing a younger boy, Edmund. Edmund apparently saw something he wasn't supposed to see. They stripped him and took a photo of him. They used the photo to blackmail him. He ran home. Kelly was a time traveler. He went back in time and was gone for a while. When he returned he did not remember bullying Edmund. He skipped his football game to find out what happened with Edmund. Edmund and Kelly became friends. Kelly beats up Cody for making fun of Edmund.

Recommandation:
I recommend this book to males ages 14 and up because it is about football. I recommend this to males 14 and up due to the amount of violence. I rate this book a 3 out of 5.
Profile Image for TheSaint.
974 reviews17 followers
September 6, 2016
I love a story that keeps me off balance. The Long Wait for Tomorrow nearly had me tipping over.

Kelly seems like a normal, privileged jock, heading for a normal privileged life. Hopefully he can take along his girlfriend, and his sidekick, Patrick.
But we don't really know this about him until we've seen him do a rotten thing to a fellow student. Really rotten.
And maybe that really rotten thing sends Kelly over the edge. Jenna and Patrick (and everybody else) can tell that something's not right with him. Trouble is, they kind of like The New Kelly.
What's different about him? Driving recklessly? Check. Drinking coffee? Check. Drinking and smoking? At a bar? Check and check. Claiming to be a time-traveler? Check and mate.
Clearly, Kelly has an important agenda: to stop another really rotten thing from happening. But which one?

It's not often in YA fiction that I find the diction to be compelling, but Dorfman has a way with words, and doesn't talk down to his audience.

This is gritty, thought-provoking, mind-bending stuff.
15 reviews
October 31, 2017
Personal Response:
The Long Wait for Tomorrow was a good book. I liked how the book kept me wondering what really happened to Kelly McDermott. I also liked the author's choice of events that occurred. I was surprised when Kelly went to Edmund to get help, because earlier Kelly had helped tape him to a flag pole. It had a good plot and good theme. It was a long read, but it was a good book.

Plot:
A high school student named Kelly was the starting quarterback for his high school team, he had a scholarship for Ohio State University. Kelly also bullied other kids at school. His best friend was Patrick. They were like brothers ever since they were little, and their parent’s cars crashed into each other. They were the only survivors and became best friends after the crash. Kelly acted really strange and did stuff he never did before the day before his big game. He also thought recent events happened a long time ago. Patrick did not know why, so he spent the next two days trying to figure out what happened to the old Kelly. Patrick learned that Kelly's 40 year old self had traveled back in time from the mental institute where he lived. He tried to change the fact the he had been a bully during high school. Kelly was not able to change his future, but he was able to help Patrick fall in love.

Characterization:
Kelly McDermott started off as a high school starting quarterback with a hot cheerleader as a girlfriend. He had good grades, never got in trouble, and was great at football. He was also a bully. He woke up that day before his championship game and started acting really weird. He drank coffee when he had been against it his whole life, because it caused dehydration. As he drove to school, he sped down the road and blew intersections. Later that day during lunch, Kelly had taken his girlfriend, Jenna, and Patrick to a bar and he drank. He continued to do stuff that he normally would not do, which would possibly ruin his scholarship to OSU.

Patrick was Kelly's best friend. He was not a good athlete. He was quiet and shy. He noticed the sudden change in Kelly and worked to solve the problem, so he could help his friend.

Setting:
The setting was a middle size town named Verona during modern times. It was relevant to the plot, because everyone in the town loved the star quarterback, Kelly McDermott. Kelly was treated like a king, but he bullied other people. The people in town tolerated his behavior because he was a good quarterback.

Recommendation:
I would recommend this book to people ages 13 and up. Younger kids might not understand some of this events in this book, especially the time travel. This book would be a great read for boys or girls who want to learn about bullying. I gave this book a four out of five, because there were some events that could have been explained better.

93 reviews
February 10, 2022
Confusing.... but very very well written. Definitely made up for the storyline.
138 reviews
August 27, 2010
I was really rooting for this book, which is probably the only reason I was able to finish it. Sadly, it never redeemed itself.

Football player Kelly is a stereotypical high school jock - a jerk, a bully, a meathead. His friend Patrick is the sensitive one, so we are told over and over again, who likes jazz and thinks a lot. Jenna is Kelly's girlfriend, a cheerleader, who is anything but stereotypical, but mainly because she seems to have multiple personalities (which was not at all the writer's goal, I'm sure.)

One day, Kelly is torturing a nerd with the rest of the football team, while Patrick watches silently. The next day, Kelly's gone off the deep end - he eventually admits that he is actually 40 years old - his mind has somehow been transported back to his 18 year old self. Patrick thinks a lot about this. Jenna seems to like The New Kelly (as he is called ad nauseum in the book) though at other times, she seems to like Patrick. I don't remember this ever being resolved.

Patrick and Jenna seem to follow Kelly around wherever he goes, possibly to keep an eye on him, possibly just because the writer wants them to and they don't seem to have anything better to do (they blow off class, and their parents, a lot.) Kelly and Patrick team up to save the nerd from something horrible - Kelly isn't sure what, but he thinks that something bad is going to happen, and that preventing it is the reason for his return.

The themes and motifs of this book are too much in your face. Everyone talks about time, and living in the moment, and the future, and blah blah blah. The nerd even gives his report on the time travel. Everything is prophetic to the point of absurdity.

I never cared for any of the characters, nor did I find them believable in any way. This includes everyone - from the three main characters, to the teachers at the school, to the parents, to the classmates. Everyone was dull and paper thin.

I wish I could go back in time and decide to not read this.
Profile Image for Carissa.
3 reviews
February 27, 2015
The book was very confusing with a lot of details that never went anywhere. As Anton Chekhov said "Remove everything that has no relevance to the story. If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there." There were a lot of "guns" hanging around that were never "fired", except for the literal one. I kept waiting for a more interesting twist, like Patrick was really the time traveler and it was all an alternate reality in which Kelly actually turned out to be Casey or they were all really dead or something. It would have been much more interesting than Kelly actually ending up in a mental hospital and being perfectly ok with it and the fact that his girlfriend and best friend should just go off, be together and forget about it. I also found it very contrived that Cody got "what he deserved" and that the steroids that would have been seen as a betrayal turned out not even to be steroids. There were multiple occasions when I thought the author was FINALLY taking the story in an interesting direction only to have him take the most contrived route. So disappointed.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Tranna Foley.
162 reviews5 followers
September 9, 2011
Very interesting take on "time travel." Kept me intrigued and was a quick read. :)

Review from Booklist:
After a brutal opening in which a group of high-school football players torment a nerd, Dorfman changes tone so rapidly it’s initially disorienting. We are introduced to two of the tormentors: Kelly, the popular quarterback headed to future glories at Ohio State, and his more introspective pal, Patrick. Both Patrick and Jenna, Kelly’s girlfriend, realize that Kelly is a jerk, but he’s also a force of nature neither of them are up to deflecting. The next morning, however, Kelly wakes up a new man. He buys Patrick expensive gifts. He kisses Jenna like he means it. He’s what they dub the New Kelly McDermott—a pleasant change until Kelly mentions that he is a 40-year-old version of himself who has time-traveled in from a mental institution. Dorfman’s leisurely unveiling of information sometimes seems counterproductive, but his infectious, last-day-of-school vibe effectively clears the way for a conclusion every bit as unexpectedly ferocious as the opening chapter. Looking for humor? Poignancy? Mind-bending time theories? You’ve come to the right book.
5 reviews
September 12, 2011
The day after the football team tortures a friendless classmate, the star quarterback wakes up different. Patrick immediately notices the dramatic change in Kelly, but isn’t sure what’s going on. Then Kelly starts claiming he’s really his future self back in his teenage body. Although Kelly can’t remember what happens in the future, he has a sense he’s there to change something. Patrick and Jenna (Kelly’s girlfriend) try to help Kelly, but without knowing what event is supposed to change or even if Kelly’s story is to be believed, it proves to be a difficult task.

It took me a while to get into The Long Wait for Tomorrow. There were still unanswered questions regarding Kelly’s story when the book concluded, but it also ended in such a way that I had a sense the questions were supposed to remain. I’m glad I kept with it as I did enjoy the book once I had some understanding as to what was going on. There was a brief hint toward the beginning, but the full explanation comes so late that the unlikely friendship proved to be a distraction.
Profile Image for Erin Sterling.
1,186 reviews22 followers
July 15, 2010
A confusing, mind-twisting book that begins with a cruel high school bullying incident featuring Kelly, the high school football star as the main tormentor and his best friend Patrick watching from the sidelines. But the next day, Kelly is a completely different person; in fact, he is himself from the future come back as his high school self to change the course of events. But is this just a dream? Will he be able to change the course of events if he can't even remember what he's supposed to do? Kept me engaged until the end trying to figure out what was going on, but there were certain interactions that didn't make sense and I think I was a bit disappointed by the ending. That said, an intriguing read.
1 review
November 5, 2013
I read the book A Long Wait for Tomorrow by Joaquin Dorfman. I gave the book three stars out of five. The book started when Kelly was beating up a kid named Edmund, because Edmund saw something he should not have. Kelly starts to think that he time traveled back from the future. He tries to stop things from happening, but because they already happened, they have to happen. Kelly’s friends Patrick and Jenna are the only ones who believe him. I did not like the ending, I felt as though there were a lot of unanswered questions. I would not recommend this book to anyone, unless you really like the high school setting in books. If you like A Long Wait for Tomorrow by Joaquin Dorfman, you may also like Playing it cool by Joaquin Dorfman, because she wrote A Long Wait for Tomorrow.
83 reviews
June 8, 2013
By chance, I read this right after Going Bovine, and there are some commonalities. At least, they are both books where you aren't always sure exactly how reality stands in the story. Also, they are both written from the male perspective, and include segments of realistic high school days. I was intrigued by the premise of the time-traveling "soul", and the sense of impending doom in the second half made the story move right along for me. I also liked the characters (after the first chapter, anyhow). I might read it again sometime - I'm not convinced the ending quite works, and maybe a re-read would help me decide whether and why that is true.
Profile Image for Christine.
88 reviews5 followers
February 21, 2014
I read this book while in the hospital and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I called the library in the hospital and asked for a YA novel. I was expecting the Hunger Games or Divergent (I love those, but thats what ppl usually think of when you say YA) but instead of bringing me those, she brought me this. It was something I never would have read otherwise. It was hard to even find it again to do a review because I completely forgot the name of it. Not because it was forgetful but hey, I was in the hospital!

Anyways, I would label this as a contemporary novel with some time travel mixed in. It was fun and I am happy I had a chance to read it.
Profile Image for Renae.
212 reviews32 followers
August 7, 2013
There were times when I was getting into this book and alot more were I was pushing through hoping it would get better. This story was hard to follow at times, though probably cause I kept putting it down.
Kelly is a star football player. His girlfriend Jenna is a cheerleader. Patrick is Kelly's sidekick. So Patrick does what he is told. But what if one day Patrick wants to stop an attact of bullying and doesnt, only to wake the next day to a Kelly that thinks he's from the future and wants to make things right?
Profile Image for Sabrina.
13 reviews
February 3, 2011
This boy who is in high school named kelly is now the new quarter back for the footbll team. His best friend, i forgot his name and then theres this girl that is a cheerleader that he really likes, that is now his girlfriend. One night something happened then the next day he felt different, he didnt feel like himself. His friend now thinks that he is a 40 year old in a mental instatution and he thinks that too.
166 reviews
Read
July 31, 2011
Kelly is the guy eveyone wants to be: popular, a star football player, sure of himself and his charmed life. Patrick is his best friend always by his side, always overshadowed; Jenna is the cheerleader girlfriend, the trophy every star athlete needs. One day everyone plays their part. The next day a "new" Kelly emerges that no one knows how to handle--mainly because he claims to have come from the future. Loved it!





Profile Image for Andrea.
167 reviews2 followers
May 7, 2016
How do you write a boring book about time travel? Dorfman has done just that. The story is excruciatingly slow. The author was trying to hard to make the book thought-provoking. But it ended up as an annoyingly subtle yawn. I ended up not caring about the characters at all. I only cared about discovering what event Kelly has been sent back to prevent. And even that isn't really paid off. [return][return]If you are looking for a fast paced book about time travel. This is not it.
132 reviews
February 20, 2010
A little confusing at first with the two main characters, but now that I am used to the characters it's moving along. I don't want to put it down b/c I want to know what happens.
This is a young adult book, but DEFINITELY NOT for middle school.

AT first I was intrigued, but it started to jump around too much. I was very disappointed in the book.
Profile Image for Courtney.
31 reviews1 follower
October 31, 2010
I read a few pages and was not in the mood for some upper middle class jock story, I didn't even get to the time travel part. This is where "you have to read 100 pages minus your age" comes in to effect. I picked it up because I want to round out my current YA reading, but I don't do well with confusing stories with multiple simultaneous plots. This was just not a book for me.
Profile Image for Stephanie.
98 reviews21 followers
December 11, 2009
I really enjoyed this book! I actually won it off of the random buzzers site, and I am glad I did. This book was confusing at times, but when you finish the book, it all comes together. It was really good!
54 reviews2 followers
January 6, 2011
This book had an interesting premise: a man from 20 years in the future possesses his 18 year old self. He doesn't remember much, but he does know something bad is going to happen. I liked it OK, but it wasn't a page-turner.
Profile Image for Mark.
225 reviews
June 7, 2016
This was a very interesting book. Sci-Fi without the Sci. What I found weirdly, interesting is that the story ends on June 7th [2008] and I finished it on June 7th [2016]. A little weird, but interesting.
Profile Image for Elijah Zarate.
233 reviews
November 1, 2023
More than anything, this was interesting. I didn't really know where this was gonna go, and I liked that part of it. The interactions between the characters were peculiar at times, in my opinion. For something with such a low rating, this was actually pretty decent. 7/10
Profile Image for Kim.
127 reviews
February 11, 2010
A bully is forced to relive his life over and over. Very exciting!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
2 reviews
November 11, 2010
I think it was an amazing book, just amazing. It's my favorite book. I read this book about 5 times and I'm know reading it a 6th time, I just can't stop reading it:D.
Profile Image for Sabrina.
574 reviews9 followers
July 29, 2016
Don't really remember this...but I wrote that it was only an okay bookk, i guess...kind confusing end....okay...cute sorta..idk =/ must not have liked it as much
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews

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