Julie and Sam are in their last year of high school. They have plans for the future, to leave their small town and build their lives, together. But that was before Sam dies in a car accident and Julie is left to figure out what happens next. In her grief, Julie dials Sam’s number desperate to hear his voice, but instead of ringing through, Sam picks up. They are reconnected. You’ve Reached Sam is a beautifully constructed YA that undertakes the process of dealing with loss.
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Chapters move between before the accident, in montages of memories, and after, and
one of the things I loved most about this book is how you are visibly taken through the different stages of Julie processing her trauma. Originally, she distances herself from all of her friends and family, closing herself off from the world, everything seems overwhelming. Sometimes words and phrases could feel repetitive, but it also worked because that is how working through emotions can be. As time moves on, she learns to talk through her grief by connecting with those who are also feeling the same pain and embracing her memories. In balancing the future she desires, with the reality she has, Julie learns that life doesn’t always work out the way you plan. Instead, you should appreciate everything and everyone you have, and live in the moment.

Yes, I cried. It was the broken promises that got me. Dustin Thao has a simple, clear writing style that makes every sentence pack a punch. His character development adds to this, including a diverse set of characters, each personality contributes to the story in individual ways, and Sam is such a loveable character, it makes the pain stronger. This is another character lead, rather than plot-based, story, but this doesn’t drag out the book. This book is worth the read, just have tissues at the ready!

How do you move forward when everything you love in on the line?

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. 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.

What would you do if you had a second chance at goodbye?

I received a copy of this from the publisher Wednesday Books, and Netgalley in turn for an honest review.

I remember seeing Dustin talkin about this book ages go on Twitter, and I knew straight away it was something I would love to read. So when it came available on Netgalley I jumped at the chance of requesting it, and was very happy to be approved.

You’ve Reached Sam is a lovely story about grief, losing someone you love, and coming to terms with moving on.

It’s something we’ve all wanted isn’t it, one last phonecall or conversation with someone we’ve loved and lost. That’s what made this book sound so interesting. I know I would jump at the chance to talk to my Grandma again, and yet it was something similar to Julie that helped me come to terms with her death quite a while later. No I didn’t talk to her on the phone, but Julie has dreams which she doesn’t realise are actually her way of making sense of things. I had a dream like that and without sounding all cliche about it, I honestly woke up and felt so much lighter.

If you love sad stories with uplifting ends then this is one for you, it had me cry a few times, and smile a lot. We watch through their lives before Sam died, and Julie’s life after. The grief is real, we see her struggle to even talk to other people, let alone be around others much. But we see a beautiful love story in the background, their day trips, the things they do to see the other one smile.

The book reminded me somewhat of The Phonebox at the Edge of The World by Laura Imai Messina, which is another amazing story about talking to loved ones after their passing. Definitely give it a go.

Thanks again to the publisher Wednesday Books, and Negalley for my advanced ebook.

As soon as I heard about this book online I just knew I had to read it. I'm not the biggest fan of those stories that seem tailored to bring you to tears on purpose, but I have to confess this one was really well conducted. To me, it's a book about grieving, which justifies the slow rhythm of the story, as we are presented to the characters and their experiences step by step, with the memories and flashbacks making the narrative even richer.

One of the best parts are the secondary characters. While it was hard for me to get attached to the main character and her decisions, all the others were very well developed and written. From Sam to characters only appearing for one scene, they gave the plot motivation and movement.

At the end, it's a sweet, calm book, in which time seems not to even pass, not relying on sad scenes to attract and hold the reader. There are, of course, tears to be shed, but we're presented to this couple and everyone around them in such a well-put way that it seems like a hug.

You’ve Reached Sam by Dustin Thao is a contemporary YA, though with a supernatural twist. Julie is shortly before high school graduation when Sam, her boyfriend, dies in a car accident. The story follows her as she navigates her grief, and rebuilds her life after this massive upheaval. But this isn’t made easier by her being able to call Sam on her phone. Somehow, they are able to have conversations across the boundaries between life and death, and Julie gets a chance to say goodbye all over again. This is heart-wrenching – though not as emotional as I was expecting it to be. But it’s still a very solid read, even if I personally didn’t fall in love with it.

This book is beautifully written. The flashbacks were done in such a nice way (it felt like a movie!) and I'm amazed by Dustin Thao's artistic prose. Where I felt the book was lacking was almost made up for with the writing.

Then there's Julie. Her grief was overwhelming and I can't imagine how much pain she must have been in. However, she just felt so unlikeable at the beginning and it was incredibly difficult to root for an MC who kept making such frustrating decisions. I think maybe the way I felt about her impacted my ability to connect with Sam and the plot.

However, I really did grow to love some of the side characters. Firstly, I love anything bookstore-related, so everything about sweet Mr. Lee made me very happy. Mika was also super cool. Who doesn't want a friend that can easily take out your enemies? I also really enjoyed reading about Oliver and how his friendship with Julie developed.

The other thing: it's so easy for books to make me cry. Like, so easy. But many people (who don't normally cry from books) sobbed... and I didn't shed a single tear. Hm.

In summary, this book was beautiful but just not for me.

**I posted a short IG review in my saved highlight, but I will be posting my full review on Goodreads, tiktok, my blog, and twitter, closer to the release date (Nov. 2, 2021)*

“But the truth is, no one experiences grief the same way, and we all come out of it differently.”

4 stars

This heartbreaking contemporary was designed to hurt me, but I say this with love. We follow a girl who's boyfriend Sam has just died in a tragic accident. The story follows them throughout the timeline of their relationship, as Julie discovers she may have one last chance to hold onto him - through their phones. Honestly, I wasn’t a huge fan of our main character Julie at first at first. I know everyone grieves differently, but her impulse to distance herself from memories of them together is just so different from mine, I had to remind myself not to take offense. (I’m one of those people who cling to memories and memorabilia of people in order to remember/feel close to them.) Spoiler: A small part of me died when she threw out the stuff Sam had given her.

I loved Sam so much. He's the sweetest and most caring boyfriend, and I clung to their phone calls together. There were so many touching scenes in this book that shredded my emotions. Sam’s yearbook note was a knife to the heart, and there's an important song in the book that I actually listened to during a specific scene. It crushed my soul a bit.

I also really like how the flashbacks aren’t written in past tense, but the author writes them like we’re actually reliving those moments. This style was much more engaging than just “they did this” and “then they did that”. We get to see Julie struggle between her old life with Sam and the life that keep propelling her forward into a life without him.

No spoilers, but the end of Ch. 16 had me weeping. I felt Julie's pain so much in that moment. There’s a line near the end of the book that I’m pretty sure was designed just to hurt me specifically. This book ripped my heart out but it was really good. If you like sad but still a fun book, I would recommend picking this up November 2!

Trigger Warnings: death of loved one, grief

This is a book about love and lost and saying goodbye. Julie had her life planned out. She would graduate Highschool, move out of her small town with her boyfriend Sam, go to college in the city, and go to Japan with Sam during the summer. Yet one night changed all her plans and now she has to find a way to say good bye and find a way to start over. When Sam dies in a tragic accident Julie doesn't know how to handle it and blames herself and thinks everyone does as well. Wanting to hear his voice one last time she calls his cell phone but instead of getting voicemail Sam actually answers her call. She has to keep the calls a secret if she doesn't want the connection to end. This gives them a second chance to say good bye but, that is never an easy thing.

This book was beautifully written. I like how the author goes back and forth between the present moment and then goes to the past to give us a view on the relationship of Julie and Sam. I won't lie and say there where moments I was upset at Julie but, the story shows how we all handle death differently and there is no right way. Saying good bye doesn't mean we forget our loved one because they will always be a part of us. I highly recommend you read this book. It is a touching story and I look to more from this author.

Sam, only a few weeks from graduation, dies in an accident and leaves his girlfriend Julie behind. She thinks it would be easiest to just forget, and she deletes all the messages, and she throws out all the things that remind her of Sam. When she realizes what she has done, with nothing left to remember Sam by, she frantically calls Sam to hear his voicemail. To her shock, he picks up, and Julie doesn't know how to let go of Sam a second time.

A beautiful story about navigating grief, remembering loved ones, moving forward and rebuilding a life.

This book was absolutely fantastic. I've already added it to our library collection and will recommend it to students.

I’m writing my review while I just finished it like 10 minutes ago still heartbroken and crying in my bed.
This book is beautiful, rough, dealing with the lost of someone you love in a beautiful way. I wished that I had that kind of time with my love one too. It’s sharp and Julie’s acceptance and growing up without Sam is hard (not gonna lie) but necessary. It’s a long process that we did in this way. I loved it. I loved it. I have not any other words to express.
It’s beautiful. Everything. Thank you for breaking me.

I loved this book! It was such a sweet story about grief and love. It talks about knowing when to let go and about learning to enjoy life even when it doesn't go according to plan.

You’ve Reached Sam

3/5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a free eARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Julie and Sam had everything planned. Moving to a bigger city post high school and follow their dreams of becoming a writer and a musician. Then what they least expected happens, Sam dies. Now Julie’s life and plans are all falling apart. Driven by grief, Julie wants to forget him

Then the unexpected happens, he answers.

I won’t lie, I as a huge fan of the animated film Your Name the premise of the book had me hooked.

The sappy romantic in me was all for this story and the pain it did bring and now I have mixed hurt feelings at the hand of this book.

The flashbacks are cute and the relationship build up is also good. There are some scenes that I absolutely need to see as fanart, or in live action or as an animation cause they sound extremely beautiful.

It hurts to read how she lost her boyfriend and the future she wanted to have but at the same time it frustrated me that she didn't have a better support system. I wish she'd had a better support system. Her friends cared about her but when she didn't answer they didn't really check up on her.

She did have some growth with her friends and I liked that. It seemed that before she did get along with them but her life mainly revolved around Sam and I wasn't really for that.

It most likely is a me thing! I've never really understood relationships that seem to revolve around their partners and that's the impression this story gave me.

However this is a book about letting go. About loving someone so much that losing them, feels like losing yourself, but also not forgetting them.

If you like romantic stories that will break your heart, I 10/10 recommend this. (I've already tried putting this book on my roommates radar since I know she'll love it)

Not being able to say goodbye to a loved one who dies unexpectedly is the one of the hardest parts of the grieving process, but in “You’ve Reached Sam” Julie is able to do that. She is able to apologize for their fight, and talk to him almost daily. Unfortunately, this brings about other consequences. This was a very sweet, sad, and ultimately hopeful book about first love and first losses, of the permanent kind.

YA

You know from reading the description about the book that it will pull at your heartstrings. This book absolutely does that. Who wouldn't want the ability to speak to a loved one, even one more time, after they die?

Julie is crushed, guilt-ridden and struggling to get through her days after the death of her boyfriend Sam. Looking for any kind of connection to him, she calls his phone. And . . . he answers. Neither knows why, but both are grateful for more time to speak. Sam doesn't know how long he will be able to keep talking to Julie but promises it will be long enough for her to be able to say goodbye.

What a great concept for a book! The story is well written. We get Julie's memories of Sam, which of course are colored favorably. We get to experience her day to day struggle with her grief and her guilt over how Sam died. We feel her pain and confusion but get to celebrate her joy at talking to Sam again. This is unexplored territory and Thao navigates it well, but I did feel it dragged about halfway through. The ending redeemed the book, for me.

I may be wrong, but feel like this book could have used a small dose of reality to go with the surrealism of speaking to a dead person over the phone. All the adults are basically MIA to the kids going through the grief of Sam's death. Seems hard to believe that Julie would be going through this experience without some kind of counseling, etc.

This is a sad poignant story about loss that will definitely resonate with anyone that has ever lost a loved one too soon.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC of this novel.

You've Reached Sam is a tale of loss and grief and how we deal with it in different ways. Losing a loved one is never going to be easy but what if others blame you for the death? What if you can't stop blaming yourself?
One day our main character rings her deceased boyfriend's phone and he answers. While doing so she thinks they have another chance to be with each other at the same time losing grip on reality.
Would you take the chance to have that last phone call with a person you've lost unexpectedly? Most of us would say yes.
A lovely story and a page turned. Really pulls at reader's heartstrings

I honestly just read this book because it was offered on NetGalley for anyone, for 48 hours. So, I went ahead. It didn’t take me long to read, but the thing about this book is that it was very... weird, so to speak.

To start off, we have our main character Julie, who deals with the loss over her boyfriend, Sam. She discovers that she can still communicate with Sam through phone calls. It’s an storyline that I felt the author could have done more with, but it wasn’t terrible.

Something about this book made me enjoy the side characters more than Julie. I think it’s mainly due to the fact I found Julie to be very selfish? She often only thought of herself, and I understand she was in pain, but so was everyone else around her. The amount of times she apologized for things she wasn’t really sorry for was crazy at that point, I wish I kept a counter over how many times it was said.

Other than that, I wish we could have gotten to know Sam better. He was a character who I enjoyed more than Julie, and I felt the story would have performed better if it was written in different POV’s, Sam’s POV, or if the story was even flipped.

The main reason this is at 2.5 stars, really, is because of the ending. It really struck with me how loss is a universal feeling, and comes to us in life no matter how much we think we can avoid it. I’m glad that it had that particular ending, despite how heartbreaking it was.

Thank you to NetGalley, Wednesday Books, and Dustin Thao for this read.

Dustin Thao’s “You’ve Reached Sam” is a fantasy love story where the protagonist deals with loss, reconnection, and friendship.

Julie and Sam are high school sweethearts. They have dreams of becoming a writer and a musician. They planned on moving out of Ellensburg, renting an apartment, chasing after their dreams, and growing old together. Tragically, life doesn’t turn out as planned. Julie lost her boyfriend of two years, a blossoming relationship, to a vehicle accident. She feels guilty about the incident, because he was on his way to picking her up. She begins to shut herself off from her family, friends, and others around her. It’s her way of dealing with the loss of the love of her life.

At first she wants to forget Sam by throwing away his belongings and avoiding places that remind her of him. Then a “gift” or “glitch in the universe” brings Julie and Sam together. They are able to communicate through phone calls. It’s a chance for them to properly say “good-bye.”

Sam’s death not only brings Oliver, Julie, and the Asian group together, but Julie learns that everyone grieves the loss of Sam differently and at the end, she doesn’t have to forget Sam completely.

“You’ve Reach Sam” is a beautifully told story. I highly recommend it.

**This e-book was provided to me by NetGalley in exchange for my honest review**

This book follows Julie after she suddenly loses her boyfriend, Sam. This book was beautifully written and handled the grief aspect so well. The before parts of the book were too busy for me, I would have liked to see more focused memories of Julie and Sam. The after parts were so well written, that I could feel the grief throughout the book. The ending was wonderfully wrapped up and showed how grief is something that can be a part of our lives, but not something that will drown us.

At firt I didn't mean to read this book because I'm usually not a fan of these settings. I usually read fantasy, sci-fi or historical fiction and contemporaries are usually something I try to stay clear of. But then I read that this book was compared to <i>Your Name</i> which is one of my favourite anime movies (Ghibli ones not counting). And I think that was a mistake.

I might have had too high expectations going into this book because I expected it to affect me in a way that <i>Your Name</i> did, but it just didn't. Maybe I'm just not the ideal audience, maybe I expected too much or maybe it was something else.

What I know is that I just didn't really connect with the story or the characters in it. Sure, it's a sad story. A teenager dying with all his life still before him and his young girlfriend just overburdened by grief. But that alone doesn't make for a good book. I initially didn't like Julie, kind of startet liking her a little towards the ending, I didn't feel much for Sam either. I mean, I feel like I barely got to know him, except that he loved music, his family and was head over heals in love with Julie. All the other characters kind of felt flat to me too. You had the foreign exchange students, the cousin, the mum and so on but none of them really spoke to me.
Overall I felt the book was a little underdeveloped. The premise is great and could have made for a great book. But in the end it felt more like a slice of life (centered around grief) to me, kind of insubstantial. Maybe that's what the author intended but in that case the book just wasn't for me.

Recently I‘ve been consuming a fair amount of media dealing with loss, grieving and moving on. Every book I‘ve read so far gave me something else to think about and „You‘ve Reached Sam“ is no exception – above all, it talked about hope.

The story follows Julie, a high school senior, dealing with the recent death of her boyfriend, Sam. Julie finds it hard to accept the fact that Sam is gone – he was so young, and they had made plans together, and what if this is her fault? – and in a moment of desperation she decides to call Sam and leave him a voice mail. Except Sam picks up. Now Julie must figure out how to keep their newfound, once-in-a-lifetime connection, how to get used to the life after Sam, how to deal with their mutual friends and prepare for the inevitable goodbye.

The story consists of two alternating parts – Before and After. Through the Before part we get to learn more about the characters as well as the love story of Julie and Sam, as seen by Julie. The After deals with the main storyline and Julie‘s road to accepting Sam‘s death and learning to move on. I absolutely loved the transitions in the Before parts – they were so beautifully written and blended together that I could easily visualize them, as if scenes from a movie.

The characters in the story were diverse and it was interesting to see how different traditions and thoughts about death and the dead influenced the way characters dealt with losing their family/lover/friend. I felt like I learned new things without getting info dumps or representation for representations’ sake; instead, it was realistic and genuine.

While the book mostly focuses on grief and acceptance of having lost, the part that hit closest to home and that felt like looking in the mirror was during the scene where Julie talks with her mother about how life is more about the journey than it is about the results. It’s a short scene, but the way Julie felt about this conversation punched me in the face. Maybe it’s not the best example, but I am sure that this story has something for everyone and is absolutely worth the read.

I received an advance review copy for free from NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.