This was a very sweet novel about grief and learning to move on with life when everything falls apart. I liked the parallels that Thao created with Julie's connection to Sam and her missing connections to the rest of the world. Unfortunately, I personally felt a lack of connection to any of the characters and none of them were particularly sympathetic to me. At the beginning, Julie's character is not very likeable and in the end she becomes just tolerable. The emotional aspects of the plot was nicely developed for Julie as a protagonist. But it felt a bit like the Asian characters were just there to further her growth.

The idea of this book is such a cute one! But it ended up falling a bit short of the mark for me.

Maybe its because I lost my mom when I was in high school, but I really wanted a bit more. I totally connected with Julie at the start of the book. Her grief was very natural and similar to how I handled my own. However, I do not feel like the story showed her growth and how she dealt with her grief. The entire time period was too short. And really, it was all about prolonging her connection to Sam.

A lot of the moments at the end of the book are TELL and not SHOW and I think these are the scenes the book should have focused on. Her reconnecting with her mom, going with her friends to Seattle, graduation, maybe visiting Japan. Living life but still keeping Sam alive in her memories. We needed to see her do these things instead of telling us... and showing us how she is still holding on to Sam.

Also, some things didn't make sense to me (and not the idea of the phone calls, that is obvious) or didn't add to the story... such as how Sam's phone didn't need to be charged at the end after being in a box for weeks.

But, for someone who hasn't experienced loss, this is a good story to give an idea of how grief can affect someone. It just didn't focus on the aspects I was hoping it would.

First, thank you so much to Netgalley, Wednesday Books, and St. Martins for providing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review! There may be some minor spoilers below but nothing drastic!

Unfortunately, this fell completely flat for me- which was incredibly disappointing. You've Reached Sam was one of my most anticipated reads of 2021. While the premise was very promising, the execution didn't make it too far and left me completely unsatisfied and frankly, angry. The story follows a young woman named Julie who lost her boyfriend in a car accident and in one last moment of grief decides to call his cell phone number, and is shocked when he actually picks up the phone.

My problem mostly lied with the main character, Julie. I found pretty quickly that I REALLY disliked her and felt that a majority of her actions were selfish, unrealistic, and annoying. Regardless of the circumstances of the death of someone close to her, I don't feel like it's an excuse to act this way and felt really put off. She has these "daydreams" that seem bent in reality, but unfortunately make her look psychotic instead. There were also many interactions between characters that I felt were awkward and ridiculous and would literally never happen. Case in point: Julie has a sudden epiphany sometime in the book and just grabs her moms keys out of her hand says "make dad come and get you!" and just like peels out in her moms car going literally nowhere in particular? Finally, much of the dialogue was just... awkward, particularly towards the end of the novel. The novel was not tied up well, and left me extremely frustrated. There were no explanations, there were a lot of questions unanswered, and had probably one of the most unsatisfying endings I've ever read.

I will say, the beginning of the book was much more intriguing and more well-written. If the author had put the same effort into the ending I think I would be less upset. Unfortunately, I will not be recommending this novel or buying one for my classroom.

What a truly stunning novel. This is a wonderful debut novel that explores the depths of grief in a way that I had read before. The way the flashbacks into our main characters relationship with Sam was seamlessly woven into the current time line was brilliant. Can’t wait to pick up a final copy when this comes out!

Following a teenage girl who lost her boyfriend to a car accident and magically gained a final opportunity to speak to him through phone calls, the haunting premise of You’ve Reached Sam promised an emotionally devastating study of grief, loss, and letting go. While I appreciated its depiction of the different ways people grieve and cope, never shying away from what might not be the cleanest, most acceptable forms of grief, I unfortunately didn’t feel very connected to the story or emotionally affected by it. There is poignant, heartbreaking beauty to be found in this book, certainly, but this is a story that you feel all or nothing for—and unfortunately, it was erring on the side of nothing for me.

Julie was an interesting character to follow, and though I didn’t quite love her specifically, I did love what Thao explored with her. To me, it was not an issue that she was “unlikeable” or “annoying” as other readers might call her, because her story was about working through her grief in whatever forms it might have been, whether or not it was kind to herself or others. I thought her arc was a beautiful examination of learning how to hold on to people after they’ve gone, without holding them or herself back. The fact that Julie becomes a bit insensitive and prickly is a testament to the exceptional ways a loss of a loved one can affect people, especially when juxtaposed with how others grieve for Sam.

Sam, on the other hand, completely lacked dimension until the ending, perhaps because we only see him through the lens of Julie and her grief, so he was less of an actual, rounded person and more of a figure. Because Sam was not well-fleshed out, his relationship with Julie fell flat for me. I mostly didn’t feel that they truly loved each other to the extent that Julie was making it out to be, and sometimes I even thought that Julie had approached their relationship in an unhealthy way (before Sam’s death). And since their romance is the focal point of the story yet I felt no emotional connection to it, the entire book failed to make an impact on me. Most of the sadness I felt over You’ve Reached Sam was a result of the general concepts of death and grief being tragic, rather than Julie and Sam’s specific story being particularly sad to me. A loved one dying at such a young age is surely horrifying, but the specificities of Julie and Sam’s relationship didn’t make it any more emotionally devastating.

In fact, if you’re not emotionally invested in this book, you probably will not enjoy it, because the plot is a bit repetitive (and the beginning is particularly stagnant). Though Thao explores the relationships Julie has with other people, mainly those also affected by Sam’s death, this is more the story of Julie’s personal growth in relation to grief and letting go. And since I lacked a strong connection to the story most of the time, the book felt dragged out even though I knew the character development that was taking place. There really isn’t much else to latch on to as an uninvested reader—the writing leaves much to be desired with its clunkiness and lack of emotion at times, and though the other side characters are interesting, they aren’t given a lot of pagetime because of the focus on Julie’s arc.

You’ve Reached Sam is truly a book I feel will be either a complete hit or miss, depending on the extent of its emotional influence on you. Though I do love how it portrayed how many shapes someone’s grief can take, and I was touched by some heartbreaking scenes (especially the end), those were pretty much the only highlights for me and they were not enough to make up for the considerable indifference I felt over the majority of the book. I wouldn’t particularly encourage nor discourage reading this book, since I genuinely feel that it will be different for each person. But I think if you intimately know the impossible struggles of having to move on from and let go of a loved one, this might be a book you find a deep connection with. I, unfortunately, was unable to find that.

3.75, rounded up. I loved every bit of this except the fact that they talk on the phone after his death. I just can’t see students taking that seriously during book talks. However, I loved their love story and didn’t want it to end.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

You've Reached Sam is about young love, grieving, loss, a second chance goodbye, and learning to move forward. The story is from Julie's POV of the loss of her boyfriend and her process of grieving. Through her grieving, she decides to move on by throwing out all of Sam's things and her last thing to do was to give him a call not expecting him to answer of course but he does!

Dustin's debut novel is very well written and structured well. His flashbacks of Julie's time with Sam are beautiful and that is where he is at his best writing.

All the characters are a bit one-dimensional and Julie (main character) doesn't seem to have much character growth. For example, she notices some relationships with the important people in her life she should work on since she has neglected them, ghosted them, or being selfish for her own reasons. It seems hard to not judge Julie because everyone grieves in their own way but to repetitively acknowledge your own mistakes/shortcomings over and over again gets annoying hence her lack of character growth. Julie is an aspiring writer and for someone who is an amazing writer (according to Sam), she is terrible at communicating to the people that matter.

Out of all the characters I really enjoyed Mika and Sam the most. Mika for her insights on the Asian customs/culture on honoring and keeping your promises to people especially those who have passed and she's insightful for Julie. Sam for being so sweet and being patience with Julie in the first place.

There are some aspects to the story where it seems a bit of filler or doesn't seem to have any significance being in the story (aka Student Asian Club). Toward the end of the story is where my heart did ache for the loss of Sam. I didn't cry as anticipated and I'm actually a bit bummed about it. I was walking into this ready to have my heart ripped out however, it didn't hit its mark. I still think this book is very good for a debut novel and I strongly feel this is just the beginning for Dustin Thao. I look forward to seeing his next work and would recommend reading this book.

I'm going to be honest--I really wanted to love this book. I was excited to read something a little different from my norm and looked forward to a good cry. Unfortunately, that was not in the cards for me in this read. I found the main character to be extremely annoying; all of her decisions were extremely selfish and even if we allow some wiggle room considering the circumstances, I still don't like her or connect to her at all. In fact, I felt that way about all of the characters. In addition, I felt the ending was a bit rushed and wasn't really buying Sam's confession at the end. From what I know of his character, he would have said what he said to make Julie feel better...not because he actually meant it. There were a lot of possibilities for this book, and I'm most disappointed that it didn't really make me feel very much at all. I felt a bit of true emotion towards the end of the story as I finally pitied Julie and the loss of the one she loved most, but then it was ruined by the hasty ending as I mentioned above. I am giving this book a 2.5/5 star rating because even though I didn't care for it I did find it a slightly compelling read.

I'm normally a mystery/thriller reader, but I have a soft spot for YA romance. This book is on the heavier side, rather than light romance, due to death. However, this story is wonderful and definitely is a book any fan of YA needs to read.

Beautifully written story of love, loss, and second chances. This novel will break your heart and move you to tears. Character driven and evenly paced.

Thank you Dustin Thao and NetGalley for letting so many people read this one.
First of all, the cover its beautiful, nice work. I was happy to read a book that talks about the representantion of asian america.
For me was a good book right from the description. I read that one really fast and I think its because of the chapters (before/after). But that just happen after the chapter 3 because the beginning was a little bit confuse for me.
I wish I could read the book in Sam's vision, because in the most time of the story I felt more curious about his life than Julie. That probably happen because i didn't like her, i get it, she's deep in her grief and a lot of times its just about that. I really would like to know more about her, about her before everything happen. Make me feel that all her life was about Sam.
3,0! Its a cute book, Dustin Thao made a great job talking about such a hard topic with a lof of respect and heart breaking!

I was so, so excited for this title both because of the pitch (IF I STAY meets YOUR NAME) and because of the Asian American representation! I read the pages with bated breath because I was scared that I wouldn't like it, and... I think it wasn't the book I hoped it would be.

The prose in this story was lyrical and there was such sense of place! I really felt the small townness and rain and bone-deep dreariness of it all.

The first chapters with the montage scenes was confusing and a little disorienting. That immediately made it hard to get into the story. I understand that it kind of built this atmosphere that was mystical and magical and shrouded in fog (like Washington state), but I don't think it was done in a way that was quite necessary. It tried to imitate how a movie montage would look, but I feel like with written scenes, it just didn't seem as mystical or nostalgic. It just caused a lot of confusion and detracted from me trying to orient myself in the story.

Additionally, I think a lot of the book hinged upon whether or not Sam and Julie's romance was believable. And I... just didn't really FEEL anything for them. It's so hard to make a reader fall in love with a character who is already dead when the story starts, and I felt that with Sam. I really wanted to root for them and their romance, but I couldn't quite understand why they were together (and for so long!) in the first place.

Dustin Thao writes grief really well. In a way that made you feel the weight of it when you read the book. But I think Julie is so deep in her grief, and perpetually in her grief, it was hard to figure out who she was outside of it, which made it feel like she wasn't a fully fleshed out character, even though she's the protagonist of this story.

Julie and Sam are young, in love, and ready to graduate so they can start their lives after high school. Their future is so close they can almost taste it, but Sam dies leaving Julie to struggle through her grief alone. Not doing such a good job of letting him go, Julie calls Sam and to her utter amazement, he picks up the phone. What unfolds is a heart-wrenching look at grief, the ones left behind, and how "life is what happens when you're busy making other plans". I had thought I picked up a romance. Yet, there was so much more to this story. The biggest take-away is that sometimes we get so caught up in our own grief that we don't see the other people who are affected by the loss of a loved one. It's been a long time since a book made me cry. You've Reached Sam grabbed on to my heart and the tears just flowed. I loved this book. From the beautiful cover, the gorgeous prose, and the beautiful beautiful story. I cannot recommend this book enough. Thank you from the bottom of my heart NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC. It is without a doubt one of the best books I've read in 2021.

Wow. I really have no words for this book. So heart wrenching and heart breaking. This book ruined me in the best way possible. Cannot recommend this enough.

"Why were we given this second chance? Just to say good-bye?"

My heart feels like it's been scattered like a thousand cherry blossom petals in the wind. You've Reached Sam by Dustin Thao is one of the best books I have read in a while. The story follows Julie as she grapples with her life now that her boyfriend Sam has died. She is ready to get rid of everything relating to Sam to lessen the pain she feels. She calls Sam's phone to hear his voice one last time, but he picks up.

"Maybe we can just enjoy this chance for what it is. For as long as we have it."

I loved the cast of characters in this book, and I am glad they had each other. I loved seeing Sam's relationship with his younger brother James was heartwarming to read about, and I am grateful we got to see that. I also loved how the story flipped back and forth, showing us memories and then bringing us to the present day. It flowed with the storyline and gave the characters more depth.

I loved seeing that Julie had supportive people around her (Mika, Jay, Rachel, Yuki, Oliver, Tristan, Mr. Lee, and Julie's mom) even when she didn't handle things the best. If you are a writer, then Mr. Lee and Julie's mom might be your favorite. The advice they were able to provide and give Julie was so important. Especially with so much going on in Julie's life, it's okay to hear that your writing can be whatever you want it to be.

"Letting go isn't about forgetting. It's balancing moving forward with life, and looking back from time to time, remembering the people in it."

That quote right there is so important. Julie struggled with how to handle certain things when it came to Sam, and that's understandable. Changing your mind happens, and I am so glad we got to see that growth in Julie. When you lose someone, it is never an easy thing, and it impacts us. Anger, regret, grief, hopelessness, and so many more emotions can occur. Learning and balancing how to keep them in your memory while also moving past any guilt or pain you had takes time.

One thing I absolutely loved in this book was how it handled college. It was nice to see a character being okay to go to a smaller college or somewhere local, and not an ivy league one. That is not something you read a lot of in Young Adult literature, but it should be. Where you go to college is not the end of the world, and all that matters is if it fits with your life during that time and if you are happy with it.

I wish the Epilogue was slightly longer and covered more of the characters, but still a hard-hitting ending to an emotional book. 100% recommend people read it because it has so much more than meets the eye within the story. This book has it all, from great life lessons to it being a tear-jerker.

This book was beautifully written and hit so many emotions 😭. It broke me.

"It's okay to wish for those things, and even imagine him here with you. Because those moments inside our heads are just as real as anything else."

Thank you to Wednesday Books (St. Martins Press) and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Review posted on Goodreads on 6-18-21

I received a free e-ARC from the author/publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

DNF 21%

This is a book I thought I would love, but sadly just didn't work for me. I a lot of it was to do with the writing, and the way Julie and Sam's relationship was portrayed.
I felt like there was a lot of telling, rather than showing, which causes an immediate disconnect for me. And the memories from Julie and Sam's shared past didn't actually make me believe that they were even in love, so I wasn't invested in their story.
I think You've Reached Sam had a lot of potential, and will definitely appeal to the right reader. Unfortunately, that is just not me in this case.

This was such a heartbreaking book. I cried myself to sleep while reading. The writing is so beautiful and profound. I simply look forward for this author to break my heart more in the future with their future releases.

So, judging by that gorgeous cover and wonderful synopsis, I expected heartbreak, lots of tears and ugly crying, and unspeakable pain, especially since I also just lost two people very dear to me.
However, this didn't make me feel much of anything really, and I'm kind of disappointed.

I feel like I would have liked this more had the main characters been a little older and not high schoolers. I feel like they all handled their grief really poorly and I just couldn't relate to any of their decisions at all.

all i can say is wow so many tears. SO many. I can't stop crying.

This is such a tear jerking book in the worst and best of ways. The gut punch hits you early on and there's not even much you can do besides grab some tissues and settle in for the tears. Grief, loss and learning to live after both of those things are key elements of this book.

When do we decide to move on? what's a healthy time and way to do so? If we had the possibility to keep holding on would we take it?

I was so excited when I received this arc, and am so happy to see that it lived up to my expectations.

Though I feel the execution of the story could have used a bit of work, I wasn't disappointed with the direction it took. I also love Thao's writing and style, and I would definitely pick up some of his other books in the future.

I love emotional books that make me FEEL, and this did just that.

Thanks to the publisher for the arc!!