You've Reached Sam is a story about love, loss, and what it means to say goodbye.

CW: Racism, grief, death of a boyfriend, car accident

This book gave me all the feels. My best friend lost her boyfriend our senior year of high school and the feelings Julie experienced took me back to my discussions with my friend. Especially feeling like others blamed you for what happened, when the ones that really matter, like family, never did.

You've Reached Sam made me cry, it made me think about what would happen if I lost my partner. I loved the concept of Sam being able to contact Julie because they're still connected on their phones. I love that this book discussed how healing takes time and sometimes you really need the chance to say goodbye.

I enjoyed watching the past unfold so that we could understand Julie and Sam's relationship. I also appreciated how Dustin Thao discussed how Sam's death affected everyone around him, not just Julie.

If you're ready to be have all the feels, read this book.

We follow Julie in her senior year as she grapples with the loss of her boyfriend. The prologue was beautifully written detailing how she met Sam and his importance in her young life. Julie tries to forget about Sam at first, seemingly throwing away everything and everyone who became a part of her through Sam. We follow her as she tries to understand how to deal with her grief and the reminders of him in her life.

I thought this was well written and an engaging story. I think it details an important lesson Julie is learning through her grief that life can go on and everything will be ok. I did think the ending was a little rushed and some aspects might have been too ‘happy’ for me. Nobody gets this many chances with the people they lost. Julie can learn, and the readers through her, that she may have to find her own closure without Sam handing it to her. I’d be interested in that story as a truthful recount of people who have lost their beloved so young.

This was exactly the bittersweet, painful, healing novel I needed. We almost all go through grief right now and this book helped me face mine. Julie wasn't always a character I could relate to, but I know that everyone faces death and grief differently, so it didn't bother me too much and didn't hinder my enjoyment of the book. Please be careful: this book will make you cry, and I suggest being in the right mood for it before reading it.

This story will break your heart and then put it back together, piece by piece. Great characters and spin on the question we all ask ourselves when dealing with loss: what would you say if you got to speak to that person one more time?

I’m not much of a contemporary fiction reader, but I decided to request for an ARC of this novel because the plot sounded interesting and there was an amount of hype going around for it. However, for me, this story just missed on everything I was looking forward for.

The plot felt a little slow at times, and I felt like most of it never moved forward enough, with too much of a focus on characters and not enough on the world and how they interacted with it. The number of flashbacks used, while understandable considering this book was about Julie dealing with the passing of Sam, just felt like a drag, and brought down the level of excitement to the story.

The characters on the other hand, felt a lot more vivid and drawn out, and were the only thing that got me through. Julie and her grief were excellently written, and the prose at times felt heart wrenching, drawing me in, but ultimately failing to capture me due to the slow movement of the plot.

Overall, this wasn’t an awful book, I just don’t think it was one for me and I definitely would recommend for any contemporary fans out there!

*I received a free e-book through Netgalley, this in no way influenced my review*

This book was simply beautiful.
I don’t have many words to talk about this book without spoiling things for other readers, but I just can say that any person who already has had to deal with grief in their life, should pick up this book.

I, personally, never had a close relative die on me before and certainly not in the situation in this book.
Our main character gets a second chance to talk to Sam by calling him on their phone.

You’ve Reached Sam is a story about moving on, letting go, but also being allowed to look back from time to time.

Reading You’ve Reached Sam was like being in a fever dream. I started it and I got sucked in. Nothing else in my life was in focus. It did not allow me to live my daily life until I finished reading it. And I wasn’t the same after finishing it.

the concept
We generally talk about the plot in book reviews. But for this book, I want to talk about the concept.

Julie, in a weak moment of grief, calls Sam’s phone number and he picks up. Immediately, we’re lulled into the conversation that Julie has with (dead? ghost?) Sam while being drenched in rain outdoors.

The book combines grief with magical realism to put across points that would look too harsh when told in plain words. While also totally stamping our hearts.

Using the concept of talking to Sam through her phone, Dustin Thao shows how it disconnects her from talking to other loved ones. The book portrays grief in its raw form, holding nothing back. It also shows how holding onto someone can be harmful.

Yes, it made me feel a LOT and I did cry at the end. Even while crying, I appreciated the way this message was shown instead of told like in other books that I’ve read.

I picked up this book wanting to cry and it delivered. The entire book is about grief but the feelings build up until the end where one paragraph broke me. It was done really well.

the writing
The book is written so well that the writing was almost non-existent. I did not notice the writing or the words themselves, I was just in the scene directly. It’s rare for a book to become a conduit to the story for me.

The writing in You’ve Reached Sam is very visual. The descriptions are so vivid, even when we are in dreams or memories. It really felt like I was experiencing everything with Julie.

Multiple times, I felt like the book is written keeping visual content in mind such as TV shows or movies. The plot and the imagery felt like that. It would make a great adaptation.

the characters
The book is completely character-driven. We go deep into Julie’s feelings, dreams, and fears. And we see her grow through the pain.

Sam didn’t feel real, and neither did his relationship with Julie. The character and the relationship were too perfect. When I mentioned this after finishing the book, Eleennae said that it is probably because Julie’s grief magnified it. And that makes a lot of sense.

Because we’re reading the book from Julie’s perspective after Sam has passed away, we see Sam and their relationship through rose-tinted glasses. It is hard to bring up bad points about someone after they’re dead. So that heavily contributed to Sam’s character, which was interesting and done very well.

The supporting characters held their own even though they were shown considerably lesser. Julie’s mother and friends were shown enough for us to connect to them as well. Especially Sam’s cousin Mika.

one tiny complaint
In the grand scheme of things, this is VERY small. It’s a tiny plot hole but it still annoyed me because it so clearly didn’t make sense.

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD: A bunch of senior kids decide to start a club two months before graduation. That timeline doesn’t make sense?? And they wanted to make use of the snack budget that the school provides for clubs but they didn’t host any events and actually use the budget?? The plot didn’t serve any real purpose too. END OF SPOILERS.

overall
While it is a book that will break your heart, it is much more than that. It is an honest and raw portrayal of grief that is written very well through magical realism elements.

If you’re looking for a book that will make you forget about your life and will make you feel, pick You’ve Reached Sam.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the e-arc

I usually separate my reviews into plot and character, but the plot and characters are intertwined here as the plot is about the main character, Julie, overcoming the grief of her boyfriend passing and still talking to him on the phone.

I definitely teared up at times reading this, as by premise alone it's pretty emotional. I wish I felt more connected to Julie and Sam while reading, but their characters alone didn't particularly draw me to the story.

I think the point of this story is how our lives are made up of more than just one person, and that their are lots of important relationships in our (or at least Julie's life) and while I thought there was a lot of potential in all of the relationships Julie had with the characters beyond Sam, I felt we only got to a surface level in all of them. I would've preferred this novel if we'd delved into a few characters intensely instead a lot of characters briefly.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars

"You won't just leave again?" "I promise, Julie. I'll stay as long as I can."

You've Reached Sam was a story of grief and growth. I wasn't expecting to come out of this crying, but those last two chapters hit me really hard. Over the course of the story, I fell in love with both Julie and Sam. These are two characters that I'm sure will stick with me for a very long time. Their dreams for each other felt so natural and I found myself dreaming alongside them.

I'll definitely be rereading this book once it is published if only to relive the beautiful imagery throughout the story. All in all it was an amazing book and I'm excited to see what others think.

Thoroughly immersive and moving, You’ve Reached Sam will connect with a wide variety of YA readers. Emotional and heart-breaking, the narrative is still quick paced enough to engage even reluctant readers. Perfect for fans of emotional, character-driven stories. Highly recommended.

This book wasn’t bad but was not what I wanted or expected. I was mostly bored throughout the reading experience. The characters didn’t feel realistic and I didn’t connect with them separately or as a couple. The writing felt basic and didn’t do anything to keep me interested. I might read the final version since I got such an early copy but overall this was pretty disappointing.

There is a lot I like about this book but there were also some things that I didn’t care for. This book is about loss. Seventeen year old Julie is struggling with the sudden death of her boyfriend, Sam. She is so consumed by grief that she shuts everyone and everything out.

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. Sam tells her that their phones have a connection and he is only able to talk to her. He also tells her their time is limited. What would you do if you had a second chance at goodbye?

The book goes back and forth before Sams death and after. I didn’t enjoy the way the story played out that way. I felt like it was choppy. There were also a lot of characters who didn’t do anything for the storyline. The main characters were well thought out and written. There was also a lot of different things going on in the book.

I have mixed feelings about this book. I really enjoyed the story I just wish it wasn’t so choppy. It was a quick and touching read.

I genuinely felt curious and excited to read this book. The cover and title was perfection but it lack the depth I was after. The whole premise of the story made me expect to cry nonstop but I knew the moment the characters told what really happened, I lost interest.

One of the things I loved was the sincerity of the characters. I love how they felt real and vulnerable. I love how they care for one another. I love how bravely the main character deals with grief. However, I found their development forced and underwhelming.

I’m actually not sure what made me request this ARC, but I’m so happy I did. This story was beautiful and painful and far more profound than its Young Adult label will ever get credit for. I’m not going to lie; both husband and dog came into the bedroom to check on me when they heard how loudly I was sobbing at this story.

In this poignant novel, high school senior Julie has her entire future planned out - leaving her small town behind to attend college in the city with her boyfriend, Sam. But when Sam dies, everything changes. In her grief, she calls Sam’s phone to hear his voicemail, only to find herself actually talking to Sam. Somehow, Julie’s been given a second chance at goodbye. But when does the process of saying goodbye turn into holding on to something she can never have? The opening sentence grabbed me right away, even if I was slightly confused about what was happening at first. I deeply appreciate the respect Dustin Thao has for his characters. Sometimes I feel like YA novels (or society in general) don’t take teenagers seriously and minimize their pain. Julie’s profound sense of loss is represented with the depth of emotions it deserves, and, as an adult reader, I felt it hard.

Here’s what I didn’t like:

I had a hard time following the timeline of flashbacks. I agree with Thao’s choice to not let the reader follow the love story first and then rip it away, but by showing random moments out of order was confusing for me. If he had shown them in order or maybe even given some dates, it would have been a lot easier to follow.

Many thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for sharing a digital reviewer copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts.

This is the novel you didn’t know you needed to read, until you’ve read it.

I don’t have enough words to describe how beautiful this novel is. It absolutely broke my heart, and I honestly which I would have been able to read it in one sitting because I truly did not want to put it down. Grief is a very difficult thing, I wish I would have been given the chance to speak to someone on the phone too. It’s a beautiful novel about friendship, love, life, death, grief and learning to move on. Julie being given the chance to talk on the phone to Sam is a way to help her say goodbye and move on with her life, but also for Sam to be able to move on too even though moving on doesn’t mean you have to forget the person. But before they both get to actually move on, Sam still has presents to give to Julie and things to show her and Julie still wants to get to make sure Sam will be remembered and that is dream about his music will come true.

You can feel the pain that every characters feels. You get to know so many of them, and how they were connected to Sam. I wish we could have known more about some of them, like more memories connected to Sam (for example for Oliver, I truly wished we would have seen more of him and Sam and even him and Julie).

This book is about grief and about moving on after losing someone. Even though I liked the premise of the book, there were 2 aspects that I didn’t quite enjoy: first, I particularly disliked the MC, not because the way she was grieving, because each person griefs differently, but by the way she was before the tragedy - she came across as rude and sometimes entitled (to a point I wish she was the one who died); the second aspect is the magic realism itself. I don’t feel it was explored enough and we don’t really understand how it works/is possible, and leaves us completely blind to the “rules”.⁣ In the end, even though it’s a pretty fast book to read, I couldn’t get past these two aspects.

Thank you to St Martins Press, Wednesday books and of course Dustin Thao for the ARC of this book. You've Reached Sam is a Young Adult Contemporary Fiction Noval, aimed at the Teen/YA crowd.

This book covers the teenage love story of Julie and Sam, and the gaping hole left in her life when he passes away unexpectedly. Julie is heartbroken at the loss copes the only way she knows how, by trying to forget. But Sam doesn't let her.

Despite being a book about death and grief it is actually surprisingly light and refreshing. It flicks back and forwards to before the accident and after the accident.

A pleasant read.

My heart is utterly broken. I've said that about other books and it doesn't compare to this one. I absolutely love the aesthetics that are coming through in this novel (now that cover makes so much more sense! and even more heartbreaking!) By the end, you're just numb from the heartache and the angst. The whole novel is steeped in grief and the lesson taught is one of the hardest to digest but it's well-meant.

You've Reached Sam is a beautiful, heartwarming story of a young girl learning to live through her grief. It's a story of growth, and moreover of how to deal when life appends all your plans and expectations.

Characters- Julie, our main character, is a very realistic and flawed character. She is a complicated mess of feelings after her boyfriend, Sam's death.
And as you see her grappling with that sense of loss, you also see her struggling with all the things of everyday life, like maintaining friendships, graduation, college applications...
It just forces her to realise that the world doesn't just stop for everyone even if it feels like it has collapsed for you.
Also, I also appreciated that the side characters were really well-developed. All of Julie's friends seem like they could all have their own book.

QUOTE-
I missed you. I missed you infinity.

Writing- The writing, and I feel so bad saying this😅, but I didn't expect it to be so good, for some reason, but the writing was wonderful!
It had this really spring-time, atmospheric feel to it. It was very vivid, and I really enjoyed it.

This book is less of a love story and more magical realism I guess if I had to classify it into a genre the fans of the bookstore nation colour of after by Emily X aap and are going to love this even though getting calls from a dead person sounds Visa at first I could understand by Julie believed it and accepted it that even though I wouldn't necessarily do the same thing I understood the frame of mind and how she must have felt at that moment.

QUOTE-
“Who are you writing for again?” Mr. Lee asks, arching a brow. He asked me this before. I know the answer he wants to hear. I write for myself. I'm not sure what this really means, though. I can't help caring about what people think, especially about my writing. "We have too many voices inside our heads. You have to pick out the ones that mean something to you. What story do you want to tell?”

Representation- The Asian representation in this book is fantastic! Both the main characters are Asian- American, and the way their culture was incorporated is so well done.

THEMES- The author does a really good job of portraying how grief isn't a definite thing. It doesn't really come to you in those orderly stages of shock, anger or guilt. It's more of a confused muddle of emotions hitting you at different times.
I feel like this will be such a relatable rate for anyone who's going through the pain of losing a loved one or has gone through it especially in these times.

The Quick Cut: A teen girl grapples with mourning over her recently deceased boyfriend when she gets a call from him.

A Real Review:
Thank you to Wednesday Books for providing the ARC for an honest review.

Grief has a way of sneaking up on you and surprising your closest friends and family. Some try to pretend it doesn't affect while others lean so hard into it that they can't do anything but mourn. For Julie, she can't face the present now that her boyfriend Sam is gone.

Julie is seventeen years old and on the verge of adulthood. She's planned her life plans around her boyfriend Sam. When he does unexpectedly, all those plans disappear (along with her interest in the rest of her life). She refuses to go to the funeral, gets rid of all of his things, and tries to do what she can to keep going. It all fails... until she finally calls Sam's phone to hear his voicemail one last time and he picks up. How is this possible? Can she get him back?

Death and loss are something we all go through at some point in life. How we deal with those says a lot about our strength of character. No offense, but our lead character Julie epically fails that test when her boyfriend Sam does.

Julie literally drops everything in her life and refuses to let anyone be there for her. I can't say I really wanted her to make it to the other side of her grief at any given point. She's one of those people who drops everything when she's dating a guy. When he died, a part of her seemed to as well. I do appreciate that she did bring a plethora of Asian representation to this story though.

The part that really made me not enjoy the story is the fact that there really wasn't anything unique about the book. Death happens. Grief hots hard. What unique story did this tell? I couldn't find it.

A book about death that says nothing new.

My rating: 2 out of 5