High school senior, Julie has many post graduation plans—leaving her small town for the city, living with her boyfriend, going to her dream college and becoming a writer. But one night all those plans crumble when her boyfriend, Sam, dies. In the weeks following she distances herself from everyone consumed by grief and guilt. Then the unbelievable happens when she calls Sam’s phone number. He picks up.

The premise of this book drew me in immediately. The idea of getting a second chance to talk to someone you have lost is a bittersweet concept. The potential for tears comes pretty high for a story like that. However, this book fell a bit short for me. At best I thought it was okay. Its high points come from the message of learning to grieve and still be able to move forward in your life. There definitely is something here that people will be able to take away from! Just perhaps not me.

Knowing the plot line, one can expect that many of this book’s characters would be grieving. Julie especially considering Sam is her first love. But as I read it just felt more like everyone was straight up miserable. Not just over Sam’s sudden passing, but just in general.

In Julie’s case, she is grappling with a level of grief that seems unbearable so I can give her a pass of being very prickly towards others. But to be quite honest, in the flashback portions of the book she seems like she was that way even at the best of times. Teen angst years? Maybe, but it rubbed me very much the wrong way because it bled into how I viewed her chemistry with Sam.

The relationship chemistry was almost lacking. It read almost as if Sam was always much more active in their relationship than Julie ever was. Always reaching his hands out to her and her rarely taking the initiative to do the same back. I had a difficult time feeling sympathetic sometimes for Julie because of this.

Just one final note I had taken—the writing quality felt a bit like a pendulum. Sometimes quite great; enough to make my heartstrings twinge a bit. Other times I had to pause, reread a portion and still had to squint at the page for a few extra moments afterwards. Really wanted to enjoy this one more.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

(I will be posting this review to my blog and Goodreads closer to publication month.)

**Disclaimer: I received a free early access copy of You've Reached Sam by Dustin Thau through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this opportunity.

You've Reached Sam by Dustin Thau is a YA magical realism novel.  It's about a girl named Julie who recently lost her boyfriend Sam in an accident.  One day in a need to hear his voice, she calls his phone hoping for the answering machine.  However, instead, Sam answers the phone.  It is set to be published on November 2nd, 2021.  I rated it 5 stars on Goodreads.


Here's the summary from GoodReads:

If I Stay meets Your Name in this heartfelt novel about love, loss, and what it means to say goodbye.
Seventeen-year-old Julie has her future all planned out—move out of her small town with her boyfriend Sam, attend college in the city, spend a summer in Japan. But then Sam dies. And everything changes.
Heartbroken, Julie skips his funeral, throws out his things, and tries everything to forget him and the tragic way he died. But a message Sam left behind in her yearbook forces back memories. Desperate to hear his voice one more time, Julie calls Sam’s cellphone just to listen to his voicemail.
And Sam picks up the phone.
In a miraculous turn of events, Julie’s been given a second chance at goodbye. The connection is temporary. But hearing Sam’s voice makes her fall for him all over again, and with each call it becomes harder to let him go. However, keeping her otherworldly calls with Sam a secret isn’t easy, especially when Julie witnesses the suffering Sam’s family is going through. Unable to stand by the sidelines and watch their shared loved ones in pain, Julie is torn between spilling the truth about her calls with Sam and risking their connection and losing him forever.

I first heard about this book on Twitter and was mesmerized by the cover.  I was very excited when I heard it was being put up on NetGalley.  It sounded like a great tearjerker of a book, and it's been awhile since I read one of those.  I was very right.

You've Reached Sam is a brilliant story about grief and how different people experience it.  Not everyone is going to react to the same way to a monumental loss and I really felt that this story exemplified that.  At first Julie wanted nothing to do with any of the things Sam left behind, but when she got rid of them she realized she had been too hasty and had regret.  We don't always think straight when we're dealing with something like that and it was really well illustrated.


I read this story over a couple of days and nearly every time I picked the novel up, I would start crying pretty quickly.  I can be an easy crier but it's been a while since a book got me this regularly.  The characters felt real and relatable, and I felt for them as they tried to cope with what no one should have to cope with.  I appreciated the way that it was handled.

The overall plot of the story was well done too.  The calls between Julie and Sam felt interesting and it was nice to see her have something to hold on to when she didn't feel like she had anything else.  

I also really appreciated the way that it depicted high school relationships.  It felt very realistic to what I see in my students as a teacher.  They often thing they're meant to last but they don't always.  Who knows where things would have gone with Julie and Sam if he had lived?  They'll never know now.

Overall, it was beautifully written and developed.  I really appreciated how the story came together, and how it ended.  I cannot recommend this book enough and you should check it out when it publishes in November.

The premise of this book immediately drew me in even before I had seen the stunning cover. Death and grief have always been topics that I loved seeing explored in stories because they are so central to the human experience. You’ve Reached Sam explores how a sudden death impacts people, and what someone might do if they were given a final chance to say goodbye.

I really enjoyed Julie, and I think Thao really captured a powerful sort of grief. Thao wrote such sharp and poignant emotion into his work that I often had to set the book down and sit with it. I could feel how Julie clung to the memory of Sam. How she grieved not just the loss of him but the loss of his objects. For has deep as the grief hit me, the highs answered them. I loved the vignettes that explored the times before the accident. I loved seeing Sam and Julie’s fluffy relationship and love as it grew over the years. It really helped me to feel what it was exactly that Julie was losing.

The plot is, predictably, slow. This is a very character driven book so people looking for a story that goes somewhere will be disappointed. Not much actually happens in You’ve Reached Sam outside of Julie’s character development and the relationships she builds with others through her grief. I think too much focus on any sort of forward moving plot would have taken about from the beautiful study of grief and learning to move on.

Ultimately that’s what Thao has written about: moving on without entirely letting go. Letting go enough to be able to live your own life but not forgetting how important someone was to you. Letting them leave a mark on you and be a piece of you without letting them consume you. This book actually made me lean back and think about my life and the people I love. About how I need to treasure the moments I have and not let them pass by while I wait to get to some point in the future.

Thao has created an absolutely brilliant debut that is full of raw emotion. A stunning exploration of grief that doesn’t pull punches. Julie’s grief often makes her cruel to her friends and family. She’s not attentive and she often lets people down in her desperation to hold onto Sam. Some people will find that this makes Julie irritating but I thought it was very real. Grief can bring out the worse in a person.

My only gripe is the ending. There was a specific event where I thought we were going to get a shocking ending. An ending that would look at the truth of death, and how we cannot plan for tragedy. How we don’t get a chance to tie things up in a neat bow, but then the story did an absolute backflip into a puddle of cheesiness. I really didn’t vibe with the last little bit of this book but I did think all the build up was beautiful…and the epilogue is still a little tear jerking.

This was such a tearjerker! The book did start off slow before the story really unfolded. It is definitely an emotional story.

This book is achingly beautiful and you will absolutely need tissues to get through this one--I'm an easy crier, but this book made me weep. In the best way, though. The way this lovely book handles grief and loss is so poignant and heartbreaking, but this book also has a spirit of hope and triumph that is so very powerful.

*minor spoilers ahead-read carefully*
In terms of plot, I really loved the premise of this book. Having Julie and Sam able to speak after his death is a really interesting concept, and while it is implied that the calls were, in fact, "real." I still think there's a lot that's been left open to interpretation and I love that. While some may want answers as to the logistics of things, I found myself not all concerned with that. Instead, the focus of the book is exactly where it needs to be: on Julie's journey towards healing. I personally found the plot and the execution of the plot to be wonderful. I think the author did an incredible job with this book and with such a tough topic, and I for one, am grateful to have read such a beautiful book.

An absolutely heart-wrenching debut, but one that leaves you feeling like you've experienced something incredibly real--and what more could a reader ask for than that?

Thank you so much to the Dustin Thao for the memorable reading experience--it will stick with me for a long time!--and to Wednesday Books for the ARC. Well done!

Heartbreaking. I had to take my time with this one even though it was a very short book because of the sad tone that permeates through the entire book.

If you need a good cry this would be the book to pick up. That being said I liked this one okay but it definitely didn't become my new favorite sad story. This tackles young love/first love and grief for someone so young in a way that makes it easy for the targeted audience to connect with. I really liked how we saw grief from the family, from Julie, and from the friends at school. When someone dies so young the impact it can have on everyone involved. I liked to that we saw the grief from the deceased on how they may have a hard time moving on also.

Thank you to @Netgalley and Wednesday Books for the eARC access.

unfortunately this book was not my cup of tea - I didn't really connect with the characters or the plot, and it overall felt unfinished to me.

3.5/5

A beautiful second chance. I’m grateful I was able to experience this book. Losing a loved one unexpectedly is never easy and I’m sure many wish they had a chance to get by. But what if we did get that second chance? When Julie loses Sam she is plagued with regret and guilt. She wants to forget Sam and move on, hoping these feeling of shame will follow, but things take an unexpected turn when she calls Sam’s phone and he actually answers. Julie is given a second chance and we get to see the how she makes the best of an unexpected situation.

Throughout this book, we get to relive the soft and tender moments experienced through young love. I wish this book was written in a different way. Not necessarily better, just in a way that I personally prefer. A lot of Julie’s flashbacks are almost written for film, as though there is this fog and she is switching between events. Instead I would have preferred just a simple past to present flashback scenario that had dates and timelines to follow. For me personally, it would have made the writing more mature.

**stop reading here as there are minor spoilers beyond this point**

This being said, I still enjoyed the book. I was a bit surprised that the narrative continued until the end. I’m not sure what I expected exactly, but I was expecting the calls to Sam to be fictional versus having Sam talk to James (his brother) and Mika (his cousin), solidifying that they were real.

Overall, it’s a sweet contemporary with moments of warmth, full of hope. Yes, there were tears shed on the process.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Wednesday Books for the e-ARC version of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley, St Martins Press, and Dustin Thao for a gifted copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wow, what a story. I think this story is such a beautiful tribute to grieving and the process people go through (and how it’s different for everyone.) I am always here for a dream-cut-short type story and this one delivered. Julie’s grief is full of those steps you hear people talk about when they grieve themselves, but unlike the rest of us, she gets another chance to say goodbye. I have mixed feelings about the conversations with Sam. I understand what it represents and why it is there, I also kind of wish that aspect had been a little bit shorter. As someone who does not typically shed tears when reading a book, this one certainly brought them out of me. The emotion is very real at times, and not just the grief. There are some really great moments with new friendships forming, discoveries, and fun banter.

If you enjoy a story about grief, learning to process and let go, and finding yourself give this one a try!

I really wanted to like this one, and the cover is gorgeous. Thao's prose paints a tender, slightly dream-like atmosphere that feels alternately like hope and hurt. But while the novel does a good job at portraying Julie’s grief, it does so a little too well–the middle was slow and repetitive, filled with endless conversations between the two at the expense of her relationships with everyone else. Her tunnel vision for Sam was understandable but made an unlikeable character, the same way I found the plot device that Julie can’t share the secret with anyone understandable but incredibly irritating, especially since I couldn’t help but feel for the grief of everyone else who hadn’t gotten a second chance at connection. There are some beautiful scenes with gorgeous imagery and a better last third, but too little too late, unfortunately.

I'm glad that we're seeing more and more YA novels published that deal with heavy emotional topics in nuanced ways. I think the fact that Julie as a character was given so much room to make mistakes and hurt others through her actions (though of course she repents for them later) was a refreshing allowance for a character struggling through grief. I really cared for Julie even when she was pushing those who cared about her away - it made her feel more realistic. The side characters were great additions to the story, but they always felt on the periphery of Julie and Sam's story, and I think that reflects how Julie feels cut off from the real world.

The author has an excellent eye for evoking emotion in readers in a way that feels earned and genuine. Books that rely on a fantastical device can often feel gimmicky, but that was never the case for this book. The author also is really creative in the way that flashbacks are incorporated into the story. For example, there is a really great chapter towards the beginning showcasing moments from Julie and Sam's relationship that was one of the closest things to a film montage that I've ever seen in literature.

This was a really excellent debut novel, and I'm glad to see more nuanced considerations of teenage relationships in YA literature.

I had a very hard time starting, even finishing, this book, and it’s not because it’s bad. Far from it, in fact. You’ve Reached Sam is the epitome of an emotional rollercoaster. I was sobbing when I started it, I was sobbing in the middle, and I was sobbing at the end. I can’t tell you how many tissues I went through but trust it was a substantial amount.

This book very clearly states it’s about loss and moving on, so I’m not really sure what else I should’ve expected. It’s heavy from the very beginning- we aren’t eased into Julie’s loss, it’s front and center immediately, and you can feel it. While it’s a very serious story, there are still parts that make you laugh and smile. As the reader, you try to move on with Julie.

I really admired the characters. They’re young, and they read like that, too. When you think of traumatic stories for young readers, The Fault in Our Stars comes to mind readily for me. And while TFiOS has its merits, one thing that always distanced me from that story was how mature and unrelatable the characters felt. I understand trauma can make you grow up faster but it definitely felt like an adult trying to write teenagers. On the other hand You’ve Reached Sam actually feels like real teenagers. They’re impulsive, they’re unsure, and most of all they’re lost.

My main issue with this book is the plot. Julie calls Sam a week after his death and he picks up. It makes for an interesting story, but there are more questions and no answers. How is this able to happen? Where is Sam? I would’ve loved to see answers to something, something that explains how they got this second chance, but there’s nothing, even though it’s alluded to multiple times that Sam could explain the situation, he just doesn’t. I understand Thao probably wanted to keep this as a contemporary book, but it’s already got some kind of supernatural / sci-fi threads purely because Sam does answer the phone. I don’t think it would’ve been bad to expand on that.

Aside from that, Julie wrestles with sharing this newfound connection as she sees how those closest to her are also struggling with Sam’s death, and how she needs to move on but can’t seem to let Sam go. It’s very simple, but very repetitive when these three things are just bouncing around every 50 pages, back and forth. Sometimes it felt like Julie was moving on, but then something would happen and she’d be back at having Sam again. Because of the constant ping ponging, it feels rushed when they finally do get to say their good-byes.

The plot isn’t as deep as I feel it could’ve been, and it was hard for me personally to find motivation to read this because of how emotional it made me, but that’s exactly why it’s so worth reading. People always ask themselves what would they say or do if they could tell a loved one goodbye, and this book explores one possibility.

I will say, I really expected some turn; like Julie was really writing this in the future as some kind of homage to Sam, or maybe the chapters from “before” were her writing sample for college applications. I feel like we could’ve really seen how Julie moved on if, by the end, it was revealed she was the one telling the story. She says she wants to write about her and Sam’s story, so maybe she writes that when she calls him, he answers, and she works through a process of letting go by writing- that could explain how Sam answers the phone in the first place, if Julie were just writing a “what if” in an attempt to move on herself. Thao really could’ve expanded a lot with his own story, but maybe it’s a good thing he didn’t. Keeping it simple keeps it appealing, especially when the emotions might be a turn off after so long.

I loved it, purely for the fact that despite being about loss, there’s so much love in these pages.

After hearing all the rave about this book, I wanted to read it. I loved the writing style but I wasn’t a fan of the ending. It wasn’t for me. Even after saying the ending wasn’t for me, the writing in this book was amazing!!

<i> You've Reached Sam </i> is a story about a girl, Julie, who is given a second chance to say goodbye to her boyfriend, Sam, who has unexpectedly passed away. The paranormal part of the book is what got to me. I think the whole message of loving, losing, and grieving was a really important message to share, but it could have been a stronger message if the book played out a different way. I feel like because of the fantasy realism associated with the characters, I wasn't able to truly get engrossed in their story which deterred me from getting really invested. Maybe that is just me, but *shrugs*

On a positive note, the cover art is stunning.

⭐⭐⭐⭐++
Teens Sam and Julie have their future all planned, they are going attend college, Julie want to be an author, Sam a musician, they plan to spend the summer in Japan visiting Sam’s grandparents. But that doesn’t happen because Sam dies.
Julie is so heartbroken and tries to erase their memories but it a total wreck. As she is packing up every memory she has of Sam ~ I start screaming at her ~”NO don’t throw away memories!”

She decides perhaps she needs to hear Sam’s voice so calls his number on her phone (she did delete it as in her sorrow to remove memories but does remember his number. When he answers ~ “you’ve reached Sam”, she thinks it is his voice mail but Sam is talking to her!

Awww I knew this was going to be emotion and I also know I am not the target audience for this novel but I LOVE this! I am still wiping tears from my eyes!
Most of all ~ who knew I was going to totally ‘tear up’ with the “Space Ninjas” story of the ‘baguette’!!!

Grief is a powerful emotion and we all deal with it differently. Julie and Sam’s story is Awesome!

As a high school guidance counselor, I loved to read Teen/YA stories, always fun to mention a book I read that my students might like. Then I got discouraged as most of my reads seemed to be formula driven: Sex, drugs, suicide, bulling, and of course a lot of foul language.

Aww Dustin Theo you brought back such hope to me!! Thank You!!!!!!!
I am so ready to read another “ Dustin Theo’ story!
I hope this is as much a hit with everyone who reads this as it is to me!!!

Want to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this eGalley. This file has been made available to me before publication in an early form for professional review purposes only.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for November 2, 2021

Thank you net galley for this arc.
I had heard great reviews of this book and started reading it with high hopes.
However I found it difficult to connect to the characters and ultimately decided not to finish it.

You’ve Reached Sam touches on one of your worst fears: the love of your life dying. But what would you do if you called his phone just to hear his voicemail one more time, and he answered?
This book is a love story with a beautiful magical realism aspect. The stunning cover of this book drew me in immediately. Then I read the synopsis and knew I just had to read it.
The story hooked me from the beginning. I already loved Sam as soon as I read the prologue. And I loved the side characters just as much! They had so much personality and were just as lovable as Sam.
The only problem I had with this book is that I didn’t care for the main character, Julie. I didn’t connect with her at all. I didn’t hate her, but I definitely didn’t love her. She was exceedingly self centered. At the beginning of the book I figured it might just be her grief causing her to only think of herself, but as the book went on she barely improved. We can all get wrapped up in our own grief and forget others are grieving too, but the fact that she never got better at caring about others really bothered me. She only did things for others when she knew she should, not because she cared. Her personality is ultimately what made this a four star read instead of a five star.
Other than that, I had no complaints about the book. The writing was beautiful! The way Thao transitions scenes during the chapters set before Sam’s death were so seamless. Those chapters really made me feel like I was there with them.
I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys heartbreaking, character driven reads.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/Wednesday Books for this arc. All opinions are my own.

TW: Death, Grief

You’ve Reached Sam is a book that was sold to me as one that rips your heart to pieces. This isn’t a set-up to say it didn’t do that for me — it did, to an extent, although perhaps less so than I was expecting.

The story follows Julie, whose boyfriend Sam has just died. Heartbroken, Julie doesn’t attend the funeral and throws out all of Sam’s things. But then, having listened to an old voicemail he left, she calls his phone, and he answers.

I’m writing this review at least a month after having read the book and, in all honesty, I don’t remember a whole lot about it. Yes, I enjoyed reading it. Yes, it got to me, mainly in the last quarter. But. It didn’t stick. I can’t recall a fair amount of the book, I had to look up character names. For all that I liked it, I wasn’t amazed by it.

That being said, it’s one I would still recommend picking up. It’s an exploration of grief, but the kind of grief that’s a little uglier, less acceptable. Julie doesn’t go to Sam’s funeral, she throws out his things, she variously misses him and hates him. I love the kind of contemporaries that are on the heavier side of things, and this is that.

I also liked that Julie isn’t always very… likeable I suppose is the best word. She’s selfish at times, she gets called out by her friends. Part of that is her grieving, but also. No one’s perfectly likeable and selfless all of the time and this book did a great job of showing that.

I think the one thing I would say though, is that it perhaps didn’t feel like Julie had got to the point where she could let Sam go, at the end. The character development in that respect was slow anyway, but then it felt like she was suddenly able to, out of the blue. Of course, this is a book I read seven months early, so it’s entirely possible that gets evened out.

So, in the end, I would definitely suggest you read this book, come November. I’m willing to all but guarantee that you’ll enjoy it.

A gorgeous heartbreaking book. I was intrigued by Julie's grief and healing process. Though I felt we could've gone deeper into the plot at times

This book broke my heart, but it did so in such a gorgeous way. I was swept up in Julie's grief from the very first page, and definitely found myself welling up a few times towards the end of the story. The relationships between the characters are complex, rich and real, the prose is absolutely stunning, and it is a vivid, at times painful, but overall wonderful portrayal of grief.