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.

This book was beautiful, absolutely beautiful. From the cover to the interior, everything was so heart-wrenchingly gorgeous. In a few words, this book is about grief and acceptance. Honestly, it's not something that I would reach for unless I was in a particularly sad mood, but I loved every bit of it. Plot-wise, I love the idea of a phone call that transverses dimensions? time? and allows our main characters with a connection beyond death. I love this aspect because it very much reminds me of how historically, some people developed phones to talk to the dead. So concept-wise, I loved it. And it was executed equally as beautifully. Julie is such a real character and her development makes her so real. You are shown her grief and her relationship with Sam. I really enjoyed the dispersal of small anecdotes, memories, Julie had with Sam because it really brought to life the emotions that Julie feels. I really liked how Sam helped her, even after death. (In particular, I really loved Julie's interaction with Sam's younger brother). Altogether, this was such a beautiful read about coping after the death of a loved one. While I am so thankful that I have not experienced something like this, diction of this book really immersed me inside Julie's story and made my heart ache. Just a warning, bring some tissues for this heart-warming ride.

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.

I was really excited for this book, but it just didn't live up to my expectations. The concept for the story was good, but the execution was just really slow. I didn't feel connected to any of the characters and their overall growth was lacking.

304 pages and countless unnecessary ellipses later, I have finally finished this book, and I am nothing short of underwhelmed. Although the exploration of grief was done well, I struggled to get invested in Sam and Julie’s relationship, which is unfortunate given that the emotional impact of this book hinges almost entirely upon it. I don’t think enough time was spent on depicting their relationship before Sam’s death, and as a result, I failed to understand the enormity of what Julie had lost apart from her idealized vision of the future. I also failed to connect with Julie, which made for an incredibly dull reading experience. Surprisingly, the final chapter and the epilogue ended up hitting me like a ton of bricks—I could feel a palpable ache in my chest when I read them—but apart from that, only two other scenes actually dragged any emotion out of me, and even then, it was just a vague, fleeting pang of sadness. Until the final moments of the book, I never truly felt like i was grieving along with Julie. I’m not upset at the time I spent on reading this; I don’t feel like it was a waste of my time. I just feel that it could have offered so much more.

So I think it’s a miracle I actually finished the book cause I simply couldn’t physically read it with all the crying. This story felt so close to my heart like I knew these people and I could understand the heroines pain. God Sam somehow being “back” to her life made this 100 times harder cause no matter how many times you talk to someone you crave to see them, you crave their touch. Amazing writing I will definitely pick up more of this author’s work !!!

What a truly beautiful story. It is really hard to put words to how someone feels about loss, and this book put it in a really approachable and realistic perspective. It is the dream for anyone who has lost someone close to them to be able to talk to them just one last time. Julie gets that and more with Sam. I really enjoyed the story and going through the grieving process with Julie was so realistic and heartbreaking. Thank you for this beautiful book!

After the death of her boyfriend Sam, Julie calls his cell phone to listen to his voicemail—and he picks up. Connected by an unknown force, they're able to speak to each other again. But how? And for how long?

These are the questions that haunt Julie, and understandably so. The exploration of Julie's connection to Sam and how it both helps and hinders her because no one else can know about or experience it (and, of course, because he's dead) was really heartfelt and interesting. I also loved the secondary characters in this book – Oliver, Mika, Jay, Yuki, Rachel, and James. As Sam's friends, they all helped illustrate what kind of person he was and the impact he had on them.

Unfortunately, I did feel that the plot was lacking. Julie didn't have a lot of goals or motivation of her own, and since Sam was unable to have his own active goals, the story fell a bit flat. Some of the secondary characters also felt quite one-dimensional, and often that dimension was conflict with Julie. When Sam's friends, Julie's friends, and Sam's family all resent Julie for things that happened both in his life and after his death, it starts to feel a bit repetitive.

Overall, I appreciated the exploration of death, grief and moving on, and I definitely teared up a couple of times. I'm sure this book will speak to people with similar experiences and I look forward to its publication.

Thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC of You've Reached Sam in exchange for an honest review.

This book has been getting a lot of hype and it's clear to see why. The description is basically a recipe for soul-crushing emotional turmoil. That's why I'm have a lot of trouble trying to figure out what I want to say here because while I enjoyed it and Dustin Thao is really good at writing some standout, really impactful lines (particularly at the end of chapters), there's this weird numbness that I feel like also persisted throughout. It's not because Julie or Sam didn't have personalities because they did, but it kind of felt like every time something impactful happened it was done in a really constructed way that made any emotional response it did cause feel a bit cheap.

I want to stress that this wasn't bad. I'm glad I read it. But while I liked this thematically, I don't think it was quite as emotional as it was aiming for.

My rating - 3.5 stars
You've reached Sam is a sweet YA fiction. I fell in love with Sam in the initial chapters and I can totally relate to the feelings of Julie on what she would have experienced when her plans for life are cancelled, just like that, with no notice or what so ever because the person with whom you filled your plans with was no longer there. The story beautifully captures being felt struck, not wanting to talk to anyone or attend the social gatherings or even get out of the room when we loose the person we love dearly, when future seems bleak. Although I am not sure on how it can happen, Julie gets lucky with a chance to talk to Sam again, share her feelings and figure things out. on the way. The conversations with friends felt realistic and Sam felt like a perfect boyfriend. This book is a good one time read.

This book had me in tears for days. It was so well written and emotional. As someone who has suffered a lot of loss recently i understood exactly how Julie felt and could relate to what she was feeling

This story was both sad and sweet; touching. Sweet in the way the characters helped each other through their loss. I thought it was a good portrayal of grief and moving on. It also had a touch of magical realism which I liked. However, I would have loved to know more about the side characters such as Oliver, Tristan, Yuki, and Sam’s family. Julie and Sam’s relationship was endearing, but I thought it could have used a little more depth- I guess I could say this for all characters. There were also some conversations and/or interactions I found repetitive, while reading I knew there was no progress to be made and it sort of through me off. Writing style also wasn't up my alley. But the message was nice and I still found the characters good.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc!

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

First, let me start off this review with 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭. Second, I will state that even though I knew this was going to be an emotional read, due to reading the synopsis, I wasn't prepared for any of it whatsoever. Hot damn, You've Reached Sam definitely pulled on all my heart strings and I just sat back like a damn harp and wept.

In this, you will meet Julie and Sam. At seventeen, they had dreams of going to college and living a life together. Unfortunately, not all dreams come true and there was a tragic accident. Everyone deals with grief in their own way. So for Julie, she just wanted to forget. She didn't want anything that reminded her of Sam because she couldn't handle the heartbreak anymore.

She's not the only one in pain and it takes her a while to see this. Eventually everyone starts to heal in their own way. It was really nice seeing Julie hanging out with people again. A lot of what happened in this book hurt my heart because I just wanted everyone to be okay again. Different but okay. Sam wasn't gone forever because he was still in their hearts and memories.

In the end, I just wanted to gather everyone up and hug them. They needed it and this book made me feel all their pain and happiness. I'm so happy that I got the chance to dive into this and I recommend You've Reached Sam to everyone. It's amazing! Just have some tissues, chocolate, and wine near by.

Grieving girlfriend calls her deceased boyfriend and he picks up the phone? Sounds like an interesting premise...and so much more could have been done with the concept! However in You've Reached Sam, the author, Dustin Thao chose to show virtually no growth in his main character Julie as she grieved for Sam after an accident took his life. At first she questioned him on how she could be talking to him, which would have been an interesting route to take, but then went on to complain about how lonely she was without him, even though she made no effort to reach out to others, attend his memorials, etc. His friends reached out to her, she made promises to go out with them and broke them. I understand how difficult it was for her, but don't promise to attend memorials if you don't plan to attend. The whole book just felt flat to me...no character growth, no moving in the right direction, I found it to be repetitive and boring.

Thank you to the author, St. Martin's Press - Wednesday Books and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.