Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced copy of You’ve Reached Sam by Dustin Thao!
In You’ve Reached Sam, we meet teenagers Julie and Sam who have that all consuming, young love. They’re in their senior years and looking forward to a future together with stars in their eyes. One night when Sam is on his way to pick up Julie after an argument, he is killed in a car accident. Julie is beside herself and struggling to carry on daily life, so she decides to call Sam, to hear his voice on his voicemail. Except, he answers. How long can this miraculous thing last?
You’ve Reached Sam draws the reader in from the first page and swiftly shatters their heart. To me, this story did feel like a Charlie St. Cloud for a new generation. That being said, it didn’t make me love this book any less.
Dustin Thao is a great storyteller and I’m anxious to see what else he comes up with.

Absolutely gut-wrenching and painful - my god, what a beautiful and poignant story. I do think the writing got a bit too choppy at times, but I'm very interested to see what Thao writes next!

I can't say I cried (actually, it's rare for me to do so when it comes to books), but, as many people say online. I felt all the feels! Really appreciated how it showed that each person knows how to they should deal with grief. There is no right way in doing it. Also, I felt like the protagonist was talking to me. I really felt connected to her, which means this character was well created and written. Can't exactly say the same about Sam. I think everything was too focused on the protagonist's view of him. I think this book would be a 5 star book if it included both POVs, as in if not only got what the protagonist was going through, but what if we also could see how Sam was dealing with his own death? With this temporary connection between him and Julie? I think this is what was lacking the most.

The writing is absolutely beautiful. I like how, in the end, we didn't get any answers regarding the connection these two characters had after Sam's death. Life is full of weird things that can't be explained. As many like to say, it's full of miracles. So, I'm glad that, in the end, there was no explanation. Life is like that indeed.

Can't wait to see what this authors does next. I also have to mention that this cover is a masterpiece and rightfully works as a visual synopsis of the book!

I adored You’ve Reached Sam, especially how lyrical the prose is. With Thao’s writing, you feel immersed in the world he’s created. The writing style as well as the use of flashbacks to drive parts of the story definitely made for an emotional read. Julie’s character and arc felt fleshed out — grieving is a process that never feels complete, and you really get to see her experience the messy parts of it. I would highly recommend this book.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!

This one was a good exploration on grief, and what it would be like to talk to your lost loved one just one last time. I really liked the ending and seeing the full circle of Julia's grieving process, but it did feel a bit abrupt. She spent a lot of the book ignoring those around her and being a pretty unlikeable character and the changes she goes through were very quick, making her character seem a little underdeveloped. I really like Oliver and Mika though, and seeing how everyone goes through the lose of a friend/family member in different ways really added to the overall story. I think in the end, I didn't get the emotional impact of the story and it dampened my overall enjoyment of it.

Wow, wow, wow. This was my most anticipated book of 2021 and Dustin did NOT disappoint. This was every bit perfect and heart-wrenching as can be, it emotionally destroyed me but I thank Dustin for that. It was a beautiful story on grief and second chances that people would kill to have with their loved ones who are no longer around. I loved the mystery of how Julie was able to speak with Sam, but I need to know the ins and outs, what happened in the universe for that to have been possible!? When I reached the final page, I had built up so emotion, I honestly just burst out crying and no book has ever had me react that way until now... I couldn't recommend this book more.

I would say do not expect too much from the book. It's young adult and it deals with some heavy topics regarding death and grief. Take your time.

Well... I stopped caring about the characters and the whole thing about Sam when I reached half the book.

What went wrong?

But first, what was done right.

The writing is gripping. The characters are relatable. They are realistic. They are the age they are. The grief and the emotions felt so real. There are tears and guilt and regrets. Yes, you will feel connected to the writing, the characters and the emotions.

However, the plot kept stretching too much that the second half didn't feel that important. The story could have been much shorter. The side characters somehow felt disconnected from the main story and the main characters.

The cover is just beautiful and I am really glad it's related to the story and the main characters.

The hype couldn't live up. It's okay. The writing is good and the main characters seem real. That's the best part.

Was really interested in the concept of this book and its reflections on grief and love, however, I really couldn't get past the unlikeable main character, also the writing felt pretty simple and emotionally detached (even though the content is really emotional??) and so that kept me from enjoying it.

This morning I finished #YouveReachedSam by @thedustinthao and it was truly a lovely book. I want to quickly thank @wednesdaybooks for the egalley to review! I gave it 4/5⭐️ and it was such a beautiful exploration of first love and grief. We follow Julie who is 17 after her boyfriend (Sam) of 3 years is killed in a car accident. In the immediate aftermath her grief is so intense that the only thing that she can think to do is phone him to listen to his voicemail message…only, he actually answers the phone and she is able to talk to him again! Overall I thought this story was very well told, and shared themes that I think are quite important. Through Julie, Thao explores what it’s like to lose your first love tragically and what it takes to move on. Connection is a huge theme as Julie is reconnected with Sam through this phone line after his death, but also because many people around Julie slowly but surely build back relationships with her in mutual support & healing. What does it mean to move on and start living again while not forgetting ~ both the person themself and the impact they had on you/the world. Julie wasn’t the most likeable protagonist, especially since we meet her in the midst of a tragedy and the result is raw, messy, & real but I grew to empathize with her and appreciate her growth throughout the book. Finally, I thought the way Thao set up the timeline was quite effective in telling Sam & Julie’s story. The story starts off with a flashback of their first meeting as a prologue then transitions to right after Sam’s death, and the book goes back & forth between current time and different flashbacks. We get to know Julie through her relationship with Sam as well as through her grieving process. I feel like a lot of people will be able to relate to and appreciate this novel, but keep in mind your personal headspace given the content. Looking forward to reading more from Dustin Thao!

This book is essentially about grief. Julie loses her high school boyfriend in a car accident, and like any person, struggles to move on. When she dials his number, he answers, and they have a chance to talk, even though he’s not really there. The premise was so interesting, but the execution didn’t quite work for me. Julie apparently packed up everything Sam had ever given her and threw it out within a week of him dying. It felt unreal. Her behaviours in the past, and in the present, often came across as selfish, which meant I didn’t root for this young girl to process her grief and move on the way I probably should have. There were some touching moments in this story, but I actually wanted to tell Sam he should have picked another girlfriend,

I loved the idea of this book. While I knew it was going to be sad, I thought there would have been enough things happening to keep me interested. Sadly, for me there was not. I just felt the entire thing was just sad. Sam was to perfect and the girl, I honestly don't even remember her name was annoying. This one wasn't for me.

Julie is about to graduate high school, and she is ready to move on with her life: She’s getting out of her small Washington town to attend college in a big city, she’s going to write, and her boyfriend is coming with her. She and Sam have been inseparable for several years. But then he dies in a car crash, and she is devastated. She throws out mementos, she doesn’t attend his funeral, she skips school and avoids friends and Sam’s family. But then she just wants to hear his voice, so she calls his phone number — and he answers.

Neither one knows exactly how they have this connection, and Sam doesn’t share details about where he is. He does tell her she’ll continue to be able to reach him when she calls, but it won’t last forever. Their time is limited. He has to move on, and so does she. They’ve been given a chance to say goodbye. But Julie doesn’t think she’ll ever be ready.

She has to keep their calls secret or risk losing their connection. They do help her slowly get back to life, but she stumbles when her other plans and expectations don’t go the way she’d hoped either. And when there comes a time his family needs her, Julie comes to a crossroads.

You’ve Reached Sam is told in the present, as Julie comes to terms with heartbreak and grief just as she is at a critical time in her life, but it features flashbacks of how she and Sam met and of other moments of their time together. They have a very sweet relationship, and Sam is a good young man who has been loving and supportive of Julie. So it’s hard for the reader to know that it’s over and Julie has to look ahead to a life without him. It’s a poignant book about love, friendship, family and grief, about figuring out how to change plans when life throws curveballs (which it always does). It’s sad but satisfying.

I am SOBBING!! This book is 100% worth the hype. Dustin Thao did an excellent job!!! I will never stop recommending! Thank you so much to the publisher and to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this early in exchange for a honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, Wednesday Books, and the author, Dustin Thao, for sending me this e-arc copy of YOU'VE REACHED SAM to read and review.

TW + CW: strong grief themes, death mentioned and described on page, light bullying, car accident, racism
Rep: gay side character, numerous Asian characters (Japanese American, Vietnamese, and Thai)

YOU'VE REACHED SAM is a contemporary novel following seventeen year old Julie as she navigates her life and grief after her boyfriend, Sam, has recently died. She had everything in her future planned with Sam: attending college, spending time in Japan, and moving out of town but, his death has changed everything. Julie misses his funeral and vigils, she doesn't communicate much with those close to Sam, and tries to remove all memories of him from her life. However, she finds a note from Sam in her yearbook and decides to try calling him/listening to a voicemail again. Sam picks up. Now Julie has the opportunity to say goodbye but it's only temporary and neither know the risks they can take with the phone calls. As she continues calling Sam, Julie is witnessing how Sam's death has affected others and battling wanting to let others in on the secret but allowing them, and herself, to grieve.

I picked up YOU'VE REACHED SAM on Libby as an audiobook and dived right in without a second thought. Even though this book is about grief and learning to be on your own/grow after losing someone so important to you, I didn't cry until the last chapter. Anyways, this book hit in all of the right places. It was emotional, it was hopeful and inspiring, it was lighthearted and quick to get through,. I found myself growing attached to the characters, starting to grieve Sam, and feeling my heartache for the characters BUT it wasn't enough to get me fully emotionally attached. If it had just a little bit more of something, I think I would've been right there with the other readers that loved this. I also felt like the main female character Julie was selfish from the time during the flashbacks to current time, even with some of her character growth. She often did things on impulse without thinking about the feelings of others or the impending consequences. I can see how grief may change the choices of someone but it seemed she hadn't changed too much throughout the book. With that being said, I did enjoy reading about each of the characters grieving in their own ways and seeing them come together as they grieved.

Overall, this is a 3 star book for me. I found it very enjoyable and an emotional read, even if I didn't tear up until the last voicemail. I flew through it with hopes something positive would come out in the end and felt bits of my own grief coming to the surface.

Recommend? Yes but, only to those that feel emotionally ready to read a book with strong grief themes in it. I anticipate many readers having a hard time getting through this or crying a lot.

Back in 2020 I read "The Two Lives of Lydia Bird" by Josie Silvers and fell in love with the heartbreaking tale of communication beyond the grave and carrying on the life with a loved one who had passed. When I heard of "You've Reached Sam" I couldn't wait to dive in and what I was met with was a good story of the same nature written for the Young Adult audience, but it doesn't quite reach amazing.

"You've Reached Sam" followsd Julie, a 17 year old attempting to finish high school as she deals with the aftermath of her boyfriend, Sam's, death. In a crazy turn of events one night when she goes to call his number to hear his voicemail though, Sam actually picks up the phone. What ensues is keeping secrets from friends and family, learning how to live with Sam in this new way, and planning an almost impossible future.

If that seems a bit odd, it's because it is. Julie genuinely believes that she can continue her normal life and her future plans with Sam despite the fact he's dead. Julie spends a lot of the book on the verge of delusional (in her defense her dead boyfriend is speaking to her through the phone) but it drags on her character throughout the book and ends up making her a fairly unlikable main character.

Julie spends most of the book building a future and plans with him which ends up pushing the other characters away. All together it creates a lack of care and empathy for Julie which makes it harder to read. She's crazy and you want her to stop talking at many points in the book for what I consider to be second-hand embarassment.

The few moments that Julie actually brings care and feelings to the book is when she lets other characters talk to Sam through the phone where she has to selflessly sacrafice their connection with the danger of it potentially breaking permanentaly being present. If it weren't for this I'm not sure the book would have much redemption for her as a character.

In the moments she does redeem herself she is constantly thinking of herself only, even going so far as to break Sam's own requests from beyond the grave. The ending half of this book, while emotional and did manage to make me cry, was bittersweet with the fact Julie just can't move on.

For a book of this manner, moving on is essentially the goal. Breaking the connection at the end to appreciate this one last chance is important, but Julie throws that out the door easily. I fear that beyond this book, she would never be able to grow or move on which, as a reader, feels like the book is pointless to an extent.

Despite my grievances with Julie, this book deserves kudos. I have a hard time crying at books, but this book made me cry quite hard at the end. It is still a book dealing with death and the challanges of leaving someone important to you in a past part of your life. Dustin Thao shows that he has a lot of potential in the world of Contemporary YA and I look forward to reading what he does next.

The Verdict
Despite the main character's struggles to move on and feel like they learn anything, "You've Reached Sam" is a tear-jerking debut novel. Its bittersweet story attempts to convey a story on making amends and moving on. Thao shows a lot of potential in the YA genre and I'm looking forward to see what he does next.

Final rating: 3.5 rounded up.

Devastated. That’s the only feeling to describe what you feel after reading this one. And to read it even after people saying it’s gonna break you ? Utter stupidity , but do I regret it? Nope.. 😬

4.5 Moon rating!

Me and my partner read this book together! I fully went into in knowing that I would burst into tears, especially from what I was seeing from reviews. While I did not cry many tears like I did with Song of Achilles or A Mark on My Soul, but it was still a captivating story that kept me wanting more. Dustin Thao does such a good job with crafting an interesting and complex character like Julie and handles what she is struggling with very well. I honestly did not like Julie at the beginning, but after getting to know her, I really loved her character and the way that she turned out. I do not want to say much about this story without spoiling it, but it was such a worth it read. I cannot wait to see what else Dustin Thao does next! Let me know what you think if you have read this one before!

'You've Reached Sam' tells the story of a high school student struggling with the death of her long term boyfriend. He dies a week prior to the beginning of the book and she cannot bring herself to attend any of the memorials or the funeral, she can't cope with the whole concept. At one point when she struggles so much, she takes out her cell phone & calls him...and he answers. Most chapters of this book start out with flashbacks or dream sequences to show the reader the budding romance and then jump back into her life as she tries to manage school, plans for after graduation, reconnecting to friends, all while keeping the secret that she still can talk to her dead boyfriend on the phone. The connections between characters are simultaneously heartbreaking and heartwarming. You will cheer for her to reconnect with others while being sad that this means she will have to let go & move on. This book can help show teens how different people deal with grief. A recommended purchase.

Oh stars, this book just completely destroyed me. My heart is hurting, and I just want to hug Julie and Sam both. This book honestly did such a good job of portraying grief, and how Julie worked her way through letting go of Sam. The way we start with her wanting to get rid of everything he ever touched and then going to her wanting to hold onto every single thing that had anything to do with him.

Connecting to Sam over the phone was interesting, and my heart went out to her and how she eventually had to choose between remaining in the past with him and moving on with her life without him. I died over Sam and how it was truly Sam, and how he had regrets and how much he had loved Julie. I wanted to cry over the flashbacks to their time together, and how sweet and amazing they had been together.

I died over Julie missing out on her own life as she spent time talking to Sam on the phone and how she had to eventually speak with her friends, and how she came to appreciate them even more as they helped her and she helped them through everything, Mika was so great, and I really loved how Julie told her the truth. And then OLIVER. My heart completely died over Oliver and how he lost his best friend, the love of his life, and how he had no one to talk to about it, how Julie was the only one who could understand. I liked how they became friends, and how they talked to each other and connected over their memories of Sam.

This was just such an incredible story, which completely tore me apart and made me want to cry. All the characters felt so real, and I really loved the writing and everything about this book.

CW: grief, loss of a loved one

Grief has 5 stages, but what if your grief reaches into the ethers and defies the state of death?
Sam and Julie are close, as close as two teenagers can get. They love each other, plan on going away to college and living together in an apartment that they can envision down to the furniture it will hold.
Then on a raining, dark road, the worst comes and Sam dies trying to get to Julie. You've Reached Sam by Dustin Thao tells the story of Sam and Julie's relationship and how Julie deals or doesn't deal with the grief of Sam's death.

Author Dustin Thao reached into my empathy vein and bled me dry after a billion tears were shed for the devastation of Julie's grief. Julie tries to deal with this grief on her own while in that solitary journey she finds others who are also grieving for Sam that she had alienated by the focus on her own grief — his cousin Mika, his best friend, Oliver, his little brother James. This is the story of how grief can lead to the impossible.

I appreciated this Young Adult novel being sensitive to the different types of grieving. To those who move forward as fast as they can, not dealing with the heartache and sadness, only to have to deal with it later on. To those who wallow for what some feel like is forever, though to the one grieving it seems like such a short time, and to those who try to take a middle of the road approach and deal with all five stages on what therapists say would be the best possible way of dealing with their grief. I feel like everyone should deal with grief in the way is best for themselves and no one has the right to judge how long it lasts or how they face what life has left the ones behind.

You've Reached Sam is the type of story that you want to read when you need a good cry. It functions as a cathartic balm to what makes life hard and brings it to what we all wish — another chance to talk to a loved one who has passed on.