Amazing book. After taking a few hours to progress it, this is definitely a five star read. Whether or not you're a fan of YA, this book will touch you in so many ways. In addition, while the theme of the book is grief, it shows that grief can have many memorable, warm moments with loved ones. It also shows the different ways people can grieve, which was refreshing to see as grief is always usually represented in 1 day. I also think it did a good job showing how weird it is to move on and continue on with the world and be happy when someone you loved has died, but also how absolutely necessary it is in order to live your life. I could write a whole essay dissecting this book, but it would be filled with spoilers and this is a book you should go into knowing as little as possible to get the full experience. I read it in 1 sitting because I could not put it down. I cannot wait to get the physical book.

This book wasn’t what I expected, both in good ways and bad, if I’m honest more disappointing than bad. It was a book that I expected to break me, but aside from the beginning and the very ending I couldn’t find myself very invested, especially in Sam. (We’ll get to that in a second). I still definitely think this book is worth a read, for a debut, this has some of the most beautiful writing that I have ever had the pleasure to read, every sentence of this was just gorgeous, and I adored so many of my side characters. (Tristan, Mr. Lee and Mika, the loml’s). The dialogue was excellently done and I could literally feel the raw emotion packed into ever sentence and conversation. The transitional scenes and some of the flashbacks were heartbreaking , and I loved seeing some of the moment with how Julie and Sam’s relationship blossomed. The exploration of grief and how it affects the self and then our perceptions of others grief was also really interesting and I think that if I was more attached to Julie or Sam it would’ve been incredible.

Now, sadly, like I said before, I didn’t really care for Sam’s character, I understood completely why Julie loved him and the flashbacks with them were filled with so much love, but the present-day Sam (the one we got in the calls) honestly felt a little disconnected, none of their conversations were what I expected, and I am so, so sad we didn’t get a hint of what was in the ones he had with the people aside from Julie. Also maybe I’m just not an observant reader BUT WHAT WAS ACTUALLY GOING ON WITH THE PHONE CALLS I’M CONFUSED. I thought it was like a metaphor for something or just a coping mechanism for Julie, but it wasn’t. Also I felt as if Julie had an incomplete emotional arc like I didn’t expect her to get over her grief, but I felt as if part of it was about her being more pro-active, which she wasn’t, but she did begin to reconnect with those that she had left alone after Sam’s death. Her actions confused me 90% of the time, but I’ll forgive it just because that ending is so good. I’m mixed about the character work in this book, which isn’t great for a story that is completely character driven but the last 5% of the book honestly saved it, and some of the quotes from that are just beautiful, especially Sam’s final goodbye to her.

Hm. Okay.

The synopsis sounded like it was promising a heart-wrenching sobfest that would leave me wrecked and in tears. It didn’t.

Sure, it was sad. It made me feel emotions. But they weren’t very strong emotions. I wanted a screaming-and-crying heartbreak type of thing, and what I got was me staring at my tablet thinking “well that was sad”, frowning out the window for a few minutes, and then continuing like nothing had happened.

The plot was pretty good. After her boyfriend Sam dies in a car crash, Julie doesn’t know how to cope with her loss. In desperation, she calls Sam’s phone. And Sam picks up. Their connection is temporary, but Sam assures her that it won’t end until she agrees to say goodbye for the final time.

For me, it felt a little bit repetitive. The plot was Julie’s flashbacks about their romance, her conversations with Sam, and how the people around her were reacting to Sam’s death. There didn’t feel like there was a lot of direction except for their “final call” deadline. It just didn’t feel like there was enough happening to fill the book.

I wasn’t bored, exactly. It’s just that there could have been more that happened in this amount of pages. For example, in the beginning when Julie is running around (or something like that) - was it really necessary? I was questioning what happened when Julie ran to the cemetery and then back home again.

It’s an accurate portrayal of grief to feel emotions that make you desperate for something, or make you do things that don’t seem rational, but I don’t know how much of that was really significant. There’s a balance between showing Julie’s emotions to contribute to the plot and showing Julie’s emotions as something that takes up space in the book.

The grief representation was overall done pretty well, but some of it didn’t feel right to me. I know that everyone grieves differently, but that was actually one of the problems - it felt like all of the other characters were grieving in the same way, and Julie was the only one feeling different.

Julie handled her shock and grief by giving away all of Sam’s things and staying inside on her own, skipping his funeral, etc. She basically locked herself away from everyone and everything in order to cope. And then everyone else got mad at her for not being with them and “not caring about Sam.”

She was asked things like “Do you know how alone I was? Do you know how much I needed you? Why didn’t you go to the funeral, don’t you care?” by all the other characters - so she was basically guilt-tripped about the way she grieved. Which is...wonderful. It’s not like it’s incredibly fucking hard to face your grief and acknowledge a death.

This wasn’t anything wrong with the book itself, it just didn’t feel right to me as someone who still has trouble dealing with grief. It didn’t sit right when Julie had to apologize to everyone for not being there for them, when it’s perfectly valid to need some time to yourself to figure things out and cope.

The romance felt a little bit cliché, but it was pretty nice. Julie and Sam were a nice couple. I can’t say I shipped them, but the romance was the core of the plot and it did work, so it was good. The execution was done well (again, kinda the same thing as any other romance, but still).

The plot...honestly could have been done better, in my opinion. There were so many questions that could have been answered. I loved the idea of the storyline, but it left a lot to be desired. I had a lot of questions. Actually, they were questions stated in the book that were never answered.

Why do Sam and Julie have a limited number of calls? Sam says they’ll be able to talk until julie is ready to say good-bye, but then their calls start running out. That doesn’t seem like waiting.

Why can’t Julie share the phone calls with someone else? All Sam says is that their connection might be disrupted, but how can neither of them know for sure? What was the reason for this?

How does Sam even know what’s happening? He just says stuff like “I feel like” or “something tells me” whenever Julie asks him questions. He’s supposed to be alone somewhere, since whenever Julie asks him what he sees, he’s never in an inhabited place. So how does he know what’s going on with the whole phone calls thing?

I feel like this book was trying to use the “no one knows what’s beyond death” thing to its advantage by not providing concrete answers, but it didn’t work for me.

The characters were all great, but there wasn’t a lot of layering or development. They were pretty flat.

Julie didn’t really seem to change throughout the story. While it’s true that character development isn’t entirely necessary and can be a lot to ask sometimes, it felt disingenuous with the book’s storyline being about closure and having the main character pretty much not change at all. Over the whole plot, Julie’s perspective didn’t really seem to develop and she didn’t really “learn” anything, which doesn’t go with the whole “learning to let go” plot that the book was supposed to focus on.

I did like Mika though. She was definitely my favorite out of the characters (not saying a lot, but still).

Wow. This is a short review by my standards. Maybe it’s because I don’t remember a lot of the book.

Overall, I was expecting this book to be a lot stronger. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it. There were some parts that I liked and some that I didn’t see the point of reading. This book was trying to be emotional and hard-hitting, but it wasn’t working for me.

I was not able to finish this book. It seemed very repetitive in the beginning. It was also eerily similar to a subplot of the last "To all the boys I have loved before" aside from the death part. I did not care for this book.

Wow. What a beautiful book. It’s actually very rare for me to get attached to many characters if I hadn’t already read the books previously. But what a wonderful way Dustin Thao has written these characters and brought them to life on page. One of the biggest fears in life I think for anyone would be falling in love with someone so deeply even if it was for the first time and then having them taken away from you immediately. I don’t think any amount of love can bring back the one you fell for.

Dustin Thao is and incredible writer for I felt every emotion in this heartbreakingly haunting book. It’s the definition of pain. Thao managed to capture several emotions and trigger several emotions out of me in such a short amount of space and I loved it. I think julies character was flawed and realistically beautiful. Loosing someone you love so much can easily make you detached from the world, Do I agree with everything she did? No. But I think Dustin Thao captures the essence of love and loss perfectly. Julie loosing Sam was devastating and im glad the author didn’t brush over it and sugar coat it.

Overall excellent book. I adored it. I’m not really one to pick up heavy emotional reads because they don’t do much for me but this one is incredible and all credit goes to Dustin Thao for writing such a phenomenal book.

I was lucky enough to get receive an e-Arc of "You've Reached Sam," a highly anticipated YA novel that's set to debut in November. It's been months since I've devoured it in one sitting, but the poignancy of the heartache I felt while reading it still lingers, which says a lot about the book in my opinion :)

Dustin Thao does a remarkable job of weaving two timelines to capture the depth and purity of the love shared between Sam and Julie, thus making the impact of Sam's sudden death a lot harder. From their meet-cute to the time in their golden field, Thao tells a story weaving not only beautiful imagery of memories and settings but captures emotions in such a raw and fresh way. You're transported to the fields of golden wheat, the sidewalks under the cherry blossoms, and then to the tragic night when it all happened.

I cannot recommend this book enough. It explores the trauma of sudden loss through the messiness of Julie's journey throughout it. You can't help but get frustrated at her lack of emotional maturity at times, but I think that further demonstrates Thao's applaudable ability to show how a 17-year-old human would respond in such circumstances. Julie and Sam had their entire lives planned out, but what they didn't have planned was one to leave the other. Fear not, reader. This book ends on hope that even through devastation of loss, there's light to always be found. I'll definitely be pre-ordering and recommending friends to do so!

This is a solid 3.5 stars for me. The book was good! Thao definitely conveyed grief and pain in such lovely ways, especially how it can affect a person and how everyone deals with grief differently. I loved the imagery and all the Your Name vibes--it was all so beautiful to read. I truly felt like I was watching an animation of the book in my head. I, however, wish that there was more depth about Sam's Asian American identity and how that shaped him and Julie's relationship. I was off-put by some of the comments about the Asian Student Club and wish the author chose to explore that aspect more. Overall, this was a good book and the ending did hurt!

This book, sadly, did not work for me. From the get go, I found the writing to be average at best, and far too disjointed. The emotional impact of the content was also mellowed due to a lack of connection with the protagonist. I had somewhat high hopes for this, and I ultimately feel let down.

Received a digital ARC of this book via NetGalley.

This book held my heart from beginning to end. Truly bittersweet.

What if you got the chance to say good bye to someone... after they’ve died? Julie has her entire future planned out, from getting accepted into her dream college, to writing a book, to moving into a place with her boyfriend Sam... but it all comes crumbling down when Sam dies in an accident... an accident that Julie blames herself for. Now she can’t seem to function. She struggles between trying to forget him to trying to just function when everything reminds her of him. But one day she calls Sam’s phone.... and he picks up. Even after he’s died, he is somehow now able to talk to her through the phone. Sam tells her that he will talk to her until she is ready to say goodbye. This is their second chance at goodbye. This was a gorgeous story about lost love, grieving, and moving on. It was a sweet and sad story and you could feel the pain that Julie goes through as she struggles to accept her new reality without the person she thought would be her future. It shows how grieving is different for everyone and how everything takes time and that you are not as alone as you think. Filled with friendship, warmth, and a bit of magic this was a wonderful read for me! I would highly recommend it for anyone looking for a bittersweet yet amazing read filled with love, friendship, acceptance, and how life moves on.

*Thanks Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

Great premise but so much repetition. The characters keep saying the same thing over and over, and it feels like nothing's happening. No real escalation. I personally couldn't stay engaged. DNF.

Thank you Wednesday Books for the access to this book on Netgalley!
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This is one the saddest and heartfelt books I have read so far this year. A story of grief, moving on, and healing, all bound into this well done standalone.
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I loved how the atmosphere was kept melancholic throughout the story that gives it so much emotional weight that will be hard to forget. It is very touching to see how the characters all have so much love for Sam all on their own ways as they all try to move on and reach gradual healing; trying their hardest to give themselves forgiveness from the inevitable.
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But there is one character that just did not work well for me. They have been guilt trippy towards the main character when they both are just grieving the same. I was hoping for a consequence of actions towards how that certain character behaved but I was let down.
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I hope this book serves as a reminder to everyone who will read that you don't have the rights to tell someone how to grieve; to let people heal at their own timing and pacing. We all have different ways to cope and we should respect and understand that.
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I highly recommend for this book if you want a really touching and uniquely told story that deals with the topics of grieving and moving on!

<i>Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.</i>

Unfortunately, <i>You've Reached Sam</i> was a complete disappointment for me. 2 stars, maybe 1.5 stars. I'm honestly not entirely sure why this book didn't work for me. YA contemporary is my favorite genre and I especially love books that deal with difficult emotions such as grief. The writing certainly wasn't bad--it felt like a very typical YA style--but I just could not for the life of me get into the plot or feel connected to the characters. It took me about a month or two to finish this book, when I usually blow through YA contemporaries in a day or two. Again, I'm not sure exactly why I found this book so utterly boring, but I really struggled with it and I really never reached a moment where I was finally hooked. The characters weren't interesting to me either.

I came here to be sad, and all I got was a hearty helping of boredom.

The very last scene kind of made me think "oh, that might be sad" but other than that, <i>You've Reached Sam</i> did not work for me. HOWEVER, I do feel like a movie adaption would work really well! Perhaps that means it was a pacing and detail problem that made this book drag.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy of You've Reached Sam. I was intrigued by the premise of this book and was fully prepared to feel all the feelings, but it missed the mark a little for me. I did like that the book dealt with the wide variety of ways people grieve. There are some poignant moments for sure, but I felt as a reader that I lacked a connection to Sam and Julie as a couple, which reduced the emotional fallout a bit. I do think many of students will enjoy this one!

[ 2,5/5 stars ]

The premise intrigued me however unfortunately this book didn't live up to my expectations.

It story is mainly about Julie's journey of moving on from (her boyfriend) Sam's death. The main issue for me was the uneven pacing -nothing happened until the last 15% when the plot becomes more meaningful and we get to see her growth as a character.
I wasn't invested in the story nor the characters up to the ending when there are some emotional moments that I would like to share, besides the theme of grief is explored in a balanced way. I think this story needed a better editing.

When I got an ARC of “You’ve Reached Sam” I had a lot of mixed feelings. On the one hand I was looking forward to read this book because I was very intrigued by the concept and the idea of being able to talk to your loved one even if the person is already dead, but on the other hand I was also worried because I was pretty certain this would hit close to home. I won’t go into detail here but suffice it to say Julie and I have way more in common than I’d like to admit.

This said “You’ve Reached Sam” had the potential to be a great book and in some ways it was, but in others it unfortunately didn’t live up to my expectations. There were a lot of things I liked about this book, like for instance the realistic portrayal of the different ways to grieve. Everyone is different and therefore everyone grieves differently. There’s not just one way to grieve, there are about a million. Some people might throw away the things of their loved ones because they can’t stand to look at them, others might collect every little item that had to do with them and cherish it for the rest of their lives. Some might withdraw from the world and others will decide to live life to its fullest. Everyone is affected differently and every person tries to cope as best as they can. There’s no right way to grieve and I loved that Thao gave us multiple reps and ensured that this was addressed. It was a very realistic approach and I’m thankful for it!

Another thing I liked was that we had an Asian rep in here and that it was done nicely. It’s rare to come across Asian reps in books but Thao provided us with a couple of Asian characters and I’ll always be happy about that! =) The portrayal of the character cast’s healing process was great as well and I loved some of the metaphors that were hidden throughout the book. In many ways this was an easily readable book that kept my attention until the end.

Still, there were some things that didn’t work for me, one of them the simple fact that the storyline began one week after Sam’s death. For me this was way too early and yes, you can criticize me for this statement all you want, but I think it made the entire story less believable. A lot of the characters were already at a point you only reach after a couple of weeks or months have passed, so for me this resulted in the fact that the timing was totally off. There are seven stages of grief and Julie was already at 3 and 4 when the book began. Mind you, we’re talking one week after Sam’s death. Some people might take that at face value and it’s okay if they do, but as a person who basically went through the same thing Julie did, this felt wrong to me. A week after almost everyone is still at stage 1 and to be honest some remain at that stage for a couple of weeks or even longer. (I’m no psychiatrist, I only speak from personal experience here.)

So for me, personally, the timing was off. There were a lot of things about Julie’s behaviour I couldn’t relate to and I’m sure if some time would have passed between Sam’s death and her actions everything would have been more realistic. Maybe due to that the story didn’t hit me as hard as I thought it would. This had all the makings to cause me to cry into my tissues but instead of crying my eyes out I found myself kind of emotionally detached. I had the feeling the entire story was just touched at the surface; that we got to see the tip of the iceberg but that we never got deeper than that. Of course this could also be an “it’s me not the book thing” but I guess we’ll never know.

All told, “You’ve Reached Sam” is still a great book with a diverse character cast and a lot of different and well done grief representations. This book might not have had the impact I expected it to have, but that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t good. Thao’s writing style isn’t only effortless but also easy to read and I’m definitely looking forward to read his next book. For a debut novel this was actually pretty good.

This book is about Julie, the main character, going on a journey of grieving and accepting Sam's death and arguably most importantly, learning how to let go.
What drew me into this book first was the stunning cover design, which I fell in love with instantly and right from the start, this promised to be a good book.
I can say I was not disappointed. The rhythm and feel of the story overall is just so beautiful and bittersweet as you are given pieces of flashbacks to moments Julie and Sam had together when he was alive, which in contrast to the present, where Sam no longer is alive, provides that extra piece of pain to an already poignant storyline.
I think what I loved most about this book was the realness of it all and how we got to see a variety of characters and how they coped with Sam's death.
Personally the only gripe I really have with this book is that the ending felt a little rushed.
But overall, I definitely would recommend this book to someone looking for a quick, but beautifully sad read.

You’ve Reach Sam was a debut that packs quite an emotional punch. Unfortunately, despite its potential it just doesn’t captivate me emotionally or plot-wise.

I’m not going to lie, I am pretty disappointed that I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would. The blurb sounds like such a fantastic book and I have actually been enjoying (if you can enjoy a book about grief, ha) books that center around grief as I deal with my own. My biggest issue for this one lies with the characters.

Julie is dealing with the loss of her boyfriend and it’s been rough when you blame yourself and seclude away from the outside world. I understand the guilt of feeling like something could have been different. I’ve been there numerous times. I understand her grief and wanting to be able to say one last goodbye and hear their voice once again. The problem is I couldn’t connect with her beyond that and felt she was a bit selfish when it came to her friends. I also didn’t totally feel for her story either. It’s easy to understand her actions but it wasn’t easy to feel the emotions I know I should have when it comes to a story about grief. I honestly don’t even know if this is making sense, heh.

The other characters were fine but again, there was just no emotional connection. There was nothing that left me wanting to continuously read.

Overall, it was okay/ fine. It’s another case of “it’s me, not you”. It’s written nicely and I know others will connect with it better than me. So maybe this will be an unpopular opinion.

Rating: 2.5

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange of a honest review!

"You've reached Sam" presents a raw and heart-clenching look at the depths of grief, and the different forms one can manifest it. Julie is struggling to deal with the loss of her boyfriend, Sam, and the consequential loss of a whole future they'd planned together. While I understand why many readers disliked Julie's behaviour during most of the book, for it was selfish and repetitive, I felt like the author did an excellent job in showing how grief can quicky turn into a vicious cycle that knock us down and doesn't let us get up. And how we can find support in the most obvious places, and the most unusual ones. This book is sweet, and sad, yet beautiful, and got me crying for a long time after I finished it.

The only "problem" I had with it was misplaced expectation. I don't know if it was the synopsis or the pitch (comparing it to Your Name), but contemporaries aren't my favorite, and I thought this book would have more science fiction elements than what I was given. Of course, this doesn't take away the glow of the book: like I said, it is a character-centered story about grief, and everything else is secondary.

Nonetheless, I very much recommend "You've reached Sam" for those who yearn for a sad and beautiful story about love and loss, intertwined. I am so happy it will be translated to my language this year, so I can make my friends read it and cry with me!