I was beyond excited to be given an arc of You've Reached Sam from Netgalley! I heard about this book a couple months ago and the synopsis instantly hooked me--a girl who loses her boyfriend, calls his phone to listen to his voicemail one more time, and he picks up? I'm so sold. I was dying for November to come around, and when Netgalley gave me access to the arc, I was thrilled!

This book both did and didn't live up to my expectations. It won't be released until November, so I don't think this was the final draft of the book, and I took that into consideration when I was reading it. For the most part, the writing was incredibly immersive and beautiful, but there were a few moments of cringey dialogue and awkward writing, and compared against those more beautiful moments, those not-as-strong scenes did stand out.

I will say, I fully expected to cry when reading this book, and I didn't. I think there are a few reasons for that: most of the story was pretty predictable, and in some of the potentially more heartbreaking scenes, that was when the writing would verge on telling more than showing what Julie was feeling and experiencing, which caused me to disconnect from her slightly, when all I wanted to do was connect with her and feel that grief.

But putting that aside, this truly was a beautiful story and grief and forgiveness and moving on after losing someone you love. I definitely related to Julie and loved watching her development throughout the story as she put herself back together and reconnected with her friends in the wake of Sam's death. I do wish the ending hadn't been quite so abrupt because I would've loved to see a little more of what happens with her and her friends next, but it didn't detract too much from my enjoyment of the story.

I could definitely see myself rereading this in the future. I'm definitely interested in picking up a finished copy when it comes out and seeing what kind of changes are made between then and now--if some of that awkward writing is ironed out, or if the epilogue is expanded on at all since it was so short, etc.

Regardless, I'd still recommend picking up a copy when it's released! I definitely think this is a story that a lot of people could connect with.

When I hear a book pitched as similar to If I Stay, I have high hopes for it - I want it to tear at my soul and make tears pour out of me, you know? And I have to say...I don't think You've Reached Sam hit me the same, but it definitely delivered in it's own way.

The premise is enough to catch your breathe about. I mean, how would you feel if you were to call someone you've loved and lost--and they pick up? After going through the psychological self-evaluation that I'm losing it, I would feel a million different things and NEVER want to hang up the phone. I would be desperate to stay connected, no matter the costs and no matter who I have to ignore or what I have to do.

Which is pretty much the mindset of Julie, once she reaches Sam again. I think she's brave to hang up after the first call -- though I guess it's a testament to their relationship that when Sam tells her to trust him, that he'll always pick up, she actually does. It's exemplary of their entire relationship - sweet, and reassuring, and trustworthy. There's an immediate chemistry between the two characters almost as soon as you read the first page, and it was really lovely to read about and learn how it began and how it was going. I won't go too far into the details of Sam's death, since it's a major plot point, but trust me that it's definitely enough to keep this storyline going and hook a reader.

I went into this book looking for a story about love and loss and how it melds together and if they can coexist. And it's there, but honestly - it's also a story about how to say good-bye. And all the messy, emotional, gut-wrenching processing to get to a place where you can do it. Not even if you want to, or are okay to do, or ready to...but if you simply can.

I have to say, I enjoyed all the secondary relationships as well, and that they were able to show different processing of grief and loss. They were also interesting, and great developments to friendship in general, but also as multiple ways to identify in mourning. (Also, I want a spin off about Oliver!)

You've Reached Sam deserves the comparison to If I Stay, but it stands alone in it's exploration of good-bye, and how you can get there. If nothing else, read it to know a love like Julie's and Sam's.

The book takes you on Julie’s journey in grieving the death of her boyfriend Sam, a Japanese-American teen. He died in an unexpected car crash. The book starts a week after his death and Julie makes the decision to call him one last time to hear his voice. What happens next is something that changes Julies perspective on everything: Sam picks up the phone. She wasn’t dealing with his death in a “good” way (everybody deals with death differently). Now they get a new chance to say goodbye and say what they didn’t get to say before he died because of their strange and new connection. It scares Julie a lot because she is so afraid of losing him for a second time.

It really gets into the grieving process Julie goes through. It confronts all the aspects of it, the good and the bad, which I found really eye-opening through the book as it isn’t always the good and healthy side of healing and grieving as Julie really struggles with accepting the fact that Sam is really gone. And with their phone calls it makes Julie go into a cocoon as she doesn’t want people around her finding out about the phone calls out of fear she will lose Sam again. You also see friends and family of Sam grieving though the eyes of Julie which is an interesting perspective as all people deal with the death of a loved one very differently.

I knew even before I started this book it would break me and I predicted it as I cried a couple of times during the book. Throughout the book there are so many happy moments and also many sad ones. It’s a heartbreaking story. It got me thinking about what I would do if I had the chance to talk to someone I lost for the last time. I would definitely take the chance. This book stayed with me even long after I read it and I’ll definitely remember it for some time. I’ll also reread it at some point. I even explained the whole novel to my mom as I finished it. She normally isn’t really interested in the books I read but this one she listened to.

It’s a YA contemporary fiction book that deals with dead and grieving. I would recommend this book if you don’t mind some heartbreaking moments. It’s a book you have to be in the right mindset to read. TRIGGER WARNINGS: death, grieving and discussions around that, car crash.

you know when you're reading a really angsty book (or fic) and you get that stabbing sort of pain in your chest that spreads through your entire body, down to the tips of your fingers? yeah, i love that feeling. that's the kind of thing i was hoping i'd get from this book.

the concept sounds promising enough, right? after Sam's tragic death, somehow, he and Julie are still able to talk on the phone, though their calls are limited. they get another chance to say goodbye, but the more they talk, the harder Julie finds it to let go.

sounds SUPER angsty, right?
well.
i expected this to be a real tear-jerker, i was looking forward to getting my heart broken, but honestly... the book was pretty underwhelming to me. it saddens me to admit this because it was one of my most anticipated releases of the year. the beginning and the very end were strong, but the rest? not so much.

first of all, i couldn't really connect with Julie. she just wasn't very interesting to me as a character and i didn't care about her very much. i understand that she was heartbroken and grieving, and i felt bad for her, but i just feel like there wasn't much to her outside the grief? i wish we'd gotten to know her more as a person. that's why i found the side characters much more compelling — Tristan, Oliver, Mika, Yuki, Sam, of course... i cared about all of them more than i cared about Julie.

second of all, the pacing felt kind of weird and awkward at times... it left me feeling confused on more than one occasion, and it definitely affected my overall enjoyment of the book. maybe it was the writing style? i don't know, but something just felt off at times.

furthermore, i feel like we didn't really get to see enough of Julie and Sam's relationship before the accident. we saw glimpses of it, sure, through flashbacks and Julie's daydreams, but not nearly enough to convince me they were truly so in love that they somehow managed to stay connected even after Sam's death. i feel that, if we'd gotten to experience their love on a deeper, more personal level, if we'd witnessed more moments of them together before, all of this would've been more impactful, more painful.

all in all, i just expected more from this book. i expected heart-shattering angst, i expected to cry—MULTIPLE TIMES—because that's what the reviews and the author's tweets prepared me for. buuut that's not what i got.
maybe i'm just a stone-cold b*tch? who knows. i just know that, if it hadn't been for that ending, i probably would've given this 2 stars.

I was floored by the concept of this book as well as the cover. It's one of those arc approvals that makes your day. But, as many other reviewers have noted, this book did not live up to my expectations. Some reviewers noted that the first chapter made them cry, so I expected my heart to be shattered early and often. However, I found it very hard to feel compelled by these characters and this story, no matter how exciting the premise. I had to read the first chapter several times before I could a feel for the story. Once I was in it, I found myself rushing through chapters in the hopes that the pacing would pick up.

I will not be adding this book to my curriculum. That being said, I think this writer has huge potential and will be on the look out for future contributions.

Also, I would still encourage students to read this book because of the many positive reviews. Just because it isn't for me doesn't mean it won't be for them!

I was ready for this book to shatter my heart into a hundred pieces, but it didn’t so much as crack it.
The general idea of the plot was genius, and it had the potential to be phenomenal. I couldn’t have possibly been more excited to receive an ARC of this book. It had a promising opening, but it only went downhill from there. The characters fell flat, the storytelling was all over the place, and I was left with a plethora of unanswered questions. As a whole, this book lacked emotion and depth, resulting in a very mediocre story.

I felt like I didn’t get to know Sam enough to be mourning his death along with Julie, and that was necessary to create an emotional, dynamic story. He was a likeable character, but I didn’t feel any connection to him. I also struggled to find the chemistry in his relationship with Julie. It got better toward the end of the book when we were getting increasingly more flashback scenes with the two of them, but for myself personally, they came too late in the narrative to build a true emotional tie. It was difficult to fully grasp Julie’s feelings when she was missing Sam when I knew so little about her relationship with him in the first place. I so dearly wanted to feel invested in their relationship, but it just wasn’t working for me.
Actually, I think that the best way to describe it is that I felt sympathy for her, meaning that I understood her grief, but I struggled to empathize with her, which is to say that I did not personally feel emotional or share any of her feelings. I believe that empathy between the reader and the characters is what it takes to build a powerful and moving story.
There were some scenes, such as when they honoured Sam in the field, that I liked, but I needed more of that emotional connection there to really love them.

Julie was not an unlikeable character per say, but she certainly is not my favourite protagonist. I understand and sympathize with the fact that she was grieving Sam’s death, but she was self-centered and mean to her friends at times. I don’t think that there was any ill intent behind her actions, but they could still be hurtful, and that is not an excuse.
The cast of side characters fell flat to me, unfortunately. I was interested in learning more about them, but I felt that we weren't given enough opportunity.

I can’t get past the fact that neither Julie nor we, as the readers, got any sort of explanation about anything. Where was Sam? How was he calling Julie? How did he know or have any idea of when or why their connection would break? Why were they running out of time for their connection? I was left with a multitude of unanswered questions, which was incredibly frustrating. And honestly, I don’t understand why the characters in the book were not frustrated by it.
On top of that, I was concerned by how calm everybody involved in the phone calls with Sam were. Maybe I could initially excuse Julie because she was deeply grieving and perhaps in shock, but she was totally chill about it for the entire book. And to make matters worse, the other people who she got involved in the situation seemed to hardly think twice about it. I mean, you are literally talking to a dead person on the phone… WHY AREN’T YOU FREAKING OUT?

Something I did like about the story was learning about Sam's Japanese culture. I love learning about different cultures, and it was really well incorporated into the story.

The cover of this book is gorgeous. The illustrations of the characters are breath-taking, the colour combination is beautiful, and the cherry blossoms are a lovely touch. If only the story was as beautiful inside as it is on the outside.

This book was a dreamy experience that may leave you devastated. I even shed a tear or two. I loved the concept of a phone to the afterlife, especially with the terms and conditions that came with it. Julie and Sam were such vibrant characters and I loved watching their relationship grow and change in the aftermath of Sam’s death. Wonderful job, Dustin Thao.

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

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I wanted to like this more than I did. I was intrigued by the concept of what would it be like to be able to stay in touch with someone you loved after they die. From this story, it didn't seem to make the grieving process any easier. I just didn't relate well to Julie, who is devastated by the sudden death of Sam, her boyfriend of several years. Through an inexplicable cell phone connection with Sam, she clings to their "relationship" even though he died. Her growth felt a little bit stilted to me, and I was unable to suspend my disbelief regarding some plot points.

You’ve Reached Sam started out so strong. I felt every emotion and cried a few times. The writing was beautiful and explored Julie’s relationship with Sam and the aftermath of his death very well. I think this book is important in the way it shows that grief is messy and you cannot expect someone to grieve in a specific way or cope with death in a specific way. It set up the conflicts and the main plot line very well.

I do think, however, that by the 50% mark, things lost their charm. I was hoping that these mysterious phone calls between Sam and Julie would lead to character growth, closure and an exploration of losing someone you love at such a pivotal time in your life. But Julie stays in denial about Sam’s death for so long that I started to get really frustrated with the repetitive conflicts between Julie and her friends. I felt like the book offered no room for Julie to really develop as a character and it made the end so jarring.

Suddenly at the 90% mark, everything is resolved so quickly. She makes up with her friends, she has dinner with Sam’s parents and she can let go of him. I felt like most of the book was used to show her inability to move on and then shoehorned the resolution into the last 2 chapters. The writing also lost its emotional appeal by the halfway mark and I found Julie to be a very uncaring and unlikeable character by the end.

I do think that the side characters shine in this book. I loved Julie’s friends and Mr Lee. They were easily recognisable and it was great to see them support each other through this difficult time.

Overall, I think this story has a lot of potential but the pacing of the character development is very jarring and I liked the beginning more than the end. A full, spoiler free review will be posted to mousethatreads.com closer to the release date.

This book broke me. It's a beautiful novel that centres around grief, and how people deal with that grief. Dustin is a wonderful writer, bring all of his characters to life in an endearing and realistic manner. You're truly rooting for them, and wanting them to heal and get better. We go on such an emotional journey with these characters you forget they aren't real - you forget that they are fictional.

Honestly, I think this book is perfect. I haven't cried that much since watching Pixar's Coco for the first time. I highly, highly recommend this book.

You’ve Reached Sam was one of my most highly anticipated reads of the year and it did not disappoint. It was an absolutely beautiful story that broke my entire heart. This book had phenomenal writing and characters that were so relatable. It is a story that confronts and explores grief and vulnerabilities and it’s just so so good! I am looking forward to reading more of Dustin Thao’s work!

That you Netgalley and the publisher's for the advance digital copy to read and review.

This is an emotional story about a girl named Julie who loses her boyfriend Sam her senior year in high school. She skips almost everything related to his death. The funeral, the wake, all the candlelight services. She just doesn't want to believe he is gone. Then one day she calls his phone just to listen to his voice on his voice mail, but he picks up. Could this be a joke? No, the universe has given her a chance to say goodbye. He tells her they can talk as long as she needs until she is ready to say goodbye. But will she ever be ready to say goodbye?

If you think you need a good cry, this is the book that you are looking for.
Rating 4.5/5
Julie had her life planned with her boyfriend Sam until he died in an accident, everything that they planned is coming down. Julie decides skip Sam´s funeral, throw away all his things and she tries to forget everything about him. In her yearbook she found a last message Sam wrote to her before he dies. So, Julie calls Sam one last time to hear his voice, but what she does not expect is to Sam answer the phone. A temporary connection, they have another chance to said goodbye to each other. Keep the calls with Sam as a secret won´t be easy especially when Sam´s family is in pain.
To start I want to say this is the saddest book I have read this year. At the biggening we can see how Julie is trying to deal with pain and uncertainty about what the future without Sam will be but at the same time we see how she is decided to forget everything about him. But when she starts to call to Sam, she is decided that his dead is just a bad dream and he will come back soon, and start Julie codependence to Sam’s call, what is follow by depression. The author with his words makes you feel like the situation is really happening to you and that made me sad for a few days. He choice right words for describe how loss feels and how depression is.
About the characters, Julie loves with all her heart Sam, but she is struggling with his lost and mourning in her own way, but other characters judge her about how wrong her way to feel pain and sadness was, when it is important that every person deal with their emotions in their own way, and neither is good or wrong, and sometimes that bother me.
It was easy and fast to read. I think the only think that I don’t like was I felt the last chapter a little to fast and one think didn´t make sense to me, but I really love this book.

Julie and Sam seem to be the perfect couple until Sam unexpectedly dies in a car accident. Julie falls into depression, ignoring her friends and family, and wondering how she’ll ever move on. One night she decides to call Sam’s phone in the hopes this is all a bad dream and she is surprised at who answers.

This book starts out so sad that I wasn’t sure if I was going to enjoy it but it turns out to be a very sweet story about growth. This book moves back and forth in time, almost as dream sequences, and you get to see Sam and Julie’s relationship and how she is dealing with the aftermath of his death. I think this would be a good book for anyone who enjoys romance or is a fan of Gayle Forman or Sarah Dessen. It deals with a lot of depression, grief, and death so may be better for mature readers.

Dustin Thao’s debut novel is a very good one. It’s a story of heartbreak, heartache and healing. Losing a loved one happens to us all. If you ask most people what they would wish for when mentioning their passed loved ones I’m sure they’d say the ability to speak to or see them one more time. At least, that’s what I’d say.

Julie gets that opportunity when she calls her boyfriend’s cellphone number and he picks up the call. Her boyfriend, Sam, passed away in a tragic car accident days earlier. Sam tells her they have this limited connection to speak until Julie can accept his death and say goodbye.

The novel centers around this plot line as well as the affect Sam’s death has on his friends and family. Often heartwarming, I never thought the plot dragged. My only complaint was that I wished the supporting characters are a little bit more fleshed out. I feel like their were things going on in their lives that were implied but would have been better to be explicitly explored over the course of the novel.

I’d very much like to see this adapted to a movie. I definitely recommend this one.

Thank you NetGalley for a copy.

I'm sorry it took me so long to write about You've Reached Sam, I just wasn't mentally prepared to talk about it.

So, here we go.

*wipes tears*

You've Reached Sam is a book about grief, loss, love, and moving on, and honestly, it broke me. From time to time, I had to make pauses of 30-40 minutes just to stop crying and continue reading (Yeah, it was that sad).

Dustin Thao's writing is so mesmerizing and yet so simple, every sentence felt so real and full of emotions. If someone else wrote this book, I wouldn't love it as much, that's for sure. (Prologue killed me and if you decide to read it you'll see why)

I loved all characters, they were written so well. Julie was a little irritating at the beginning of the book but I guess we all have our way of dealing with loss and grieving. I admired her for her strength, honestly. If I were her I would fall apart and abandon everything in my life, even graduating and uni. So yeah, she was an incredible character, and I loved how she dealt with her pain and grew as a person.

Sam was so sweet and nice, a ray of sunshine. I knew he would die but I was just so sad about it, he deserved to be a famous musician and enjoy his life. But that's the life I guess, we can't get everything we want.

I also loved Mika (Sam's cousin) and Oliver (Sam's friend) very much. I would like to have them as friends.

I enjoyed reading You've Reached Sam and I'd love to see it adapted to a movie someday in the future (I want to listen to Sam singing so badly).

If this was Dustin's debut novel, I can imagine how phenomenal his next works will be! Can't wait to read them and reread this one when it comes out in November!

You've Reached Sam - 5🌟

* Thank you @netgalley and publisher for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review *

Julie blames herself for Sam’s death, throws away his belongings, skips his funeral and attempts to move on. When things get too much, Julie rings Sam’s phone one more time to hear his voicemail but he picks up!

There’s no doubt the writing was lovely and the subject matter heartbreaking, but I struggled to connect to the MC Julie. I didn’t particularly like her which made it more difficult to care. I did like Sam a lot though so that helped.

This wasn’t a quick read for me, I found myself picking it up and putting it down a few times. I liked it but I didn’t love it.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Julie and Sam had fallen in love and were going through typical high school relationship woes when he passed away. Julie and the others in the town blamed her for his death because he was supposed to be meeting her at the train station. This is a story of her grief and communication with Sam after his death.

While I wanted to love this book so much based on the description, I struggled to connect to the story line. I loved the relationship they built, even after his death. I understood the turmoil she was going through as she processed it all. It just fell flat when I needed to comprehend them having phone conversations when he had passed, and the fact that only certain people’s phone calls/texts were coming into her phone while others were being sent to somewhere else.

This is a beautiful story about grief and love and letting go. Within the first 20% or so of the book, I had already shed a few tears. It has a wonderful cast of characters, and you truly can’t help but feel for the MC, Julie, suffering the loss of her boyfriend, Sam.

Letting go is so incredibly hard. And when you lose someone, who hasn’t tried calling their phone one more time? To be able to hear their voice, their laugh, their advice—all of it just one more time. Julie was granted that...and so was Sam.

The story follows Julie’s plethora of emotions—from anger all the way through to acceptance. It’s beautifully written and, while slow-moving, full of so much emotion, that is not at all a negative aspect (especially since it’s so character-focused).

This is perfect for fans of Contemporary and coming-of-age stories. The ending felt just a little rushed, but I think that was purposeful—because that’s exactly how Julie felt.

Biggest tip? Have some tissues handy when you read this one.
♥♥ ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review ♥♥

What a unique story idea. I was intrigued just by reading the description...how could Sam still talk on the phone? Was he a ghost? A spirit? Did he not really die in the first place? Once the story started, I couldn’t put it down because I had to know how that was possible. Wondering if I would want to only have a phone connection with the man I love. Then I wondered how Julie would ever be able to move on. Then being skeptical of how all of that was possible. What a beautiful teenage love story.