Similar to You've Reach Sam, When Haru Was Here, this book is about grief and how Eric deals with follow some recent events. While I was expecting to this to me just as emotional, it didn't quite hit the mark. I still however enjoyed reading Eric's story and I could not put it down. 4.5 stars.

This is my second book by the author and I’m sure I’m in the minority but I just can never get into this author’s writing. I never feel the things I’m supposed to feel. The writing felt disjointed to me and I never really quite knew what was real or not. I know the main character is an unreliable narrator but it just didn’t work for me. I just couldn’t get into this one. I’m sure others will really love it. It just wasn’t for me. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the arc in return for a honest review!

I'm really not sure how to feel about this one. Because I read it. And I didn't dislike reading it. But, there was never a point where I sat down and said "wow, I'm really loving this book." Most of the time I spent reading it, I felt apathetic. Things were happening, but I wasn't actually invested in any of it.

I think this stems from how disjointed the story as a whole was. We had so many different stories of grief and loss crammed into one book, and I don't feel like the connections were drawn clearly enough. I know that part of what When Haru Was Here was trying to explore was the tenuous meaning of what is 'real' and if this definition even matters, but I think it got lost along the way. With so many of the interactions being false or imagined, they lost some of their emotional value.

Maybe I'm just not the target reader for Thao's books. I'd enjoyed You've Reached Sam, but it didn't crush my heart. And while I enjoy it when a book hits me hard, I don't think Thao's writing has that ability for me. I can see some people loving this, but it's not something that I particularly enjoyed.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

The plot was harrowing, piecing together who is alive and who is watching over the protagonist. It was confusing at times but also made complete sense, working through grief and love.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

Thao gave the people what they wanted. “When Haru Was Here” is a sad story, just like his previous novel. The issue is that it feels forced. I feel like (no hate to Thao) but he saw how the public responded to “You’ve Reached Sam” and decided he needed to make a book that discusses the same themes of grief and loss. And I think by doing this Thao didn't create something that he was truly passionate about creating. But I digress.

Onto the flaws of the book. The characters are dull, and this is an issue that can easily be fixed by simply adding more chapters. This would cause many of the events in the story to hit the reader SO MUCH harder because they will have a far deeper emotional connection to the characters. After all, two chapters are not enough.

Another issue is that Haru is an incredibly unexplored character, which I found made trying to fall in love with him difficult, because both me and the MC basically only know that his family owns a stationary store. This is an issue, because it really took away from how much I cared when things would happen between Eric(MC) and Haru

And, my final complaint, because I apparently woke up today and chose to be hypercritical is the sentence structure. Never before when reading a book have I ever been triggered by sentence structure, but there is an over abundance of simple sentences. And it made it incredibly choppy to read.

All in all, this book is getting a 2-star rating, due to it feeling like this should be the first draft.

Again, thank you to Netgalley and the publisher.

4.5 Stars

This is a tender and meditative coming-of-age story about grief and loss, what comes after. When our main character loses his best friend, he puts his life on hold, until one day he is at a cafe, and someone sits beside him… That someone is Haru, a “missed connection” from over a year ago that he met on a whirlwind, romantic day… The only catch is that no one else can see him.

This was a tearjerker, and often in unexpected ways. It chronicles our protagonist growing up, trying to live his life, and making decisions shaped by his grief, his desire to move through it, and also his age as a young adult shaped by love and loss and heartbreak, while also trying to grow up and discover who he is. I knew it was going to be sad, but wasn’t expecting the emotional GUT PUNCH that comes near the end (I was literally crying on the train).

I’m really impressed with Thao’s writing. Book 2 is just as strong as book 1 (You’ve Reached Sam), with a lot of the same appeal. Both are sweet and beautiful stories of grief and love, and although a lot happened in Haru, Thao keeps it tight and everything kind of makes sense. It’s a confusing and kind of messy story for our character, mirroring our confusing and kind of messy journeys through grief.

My one qualm is that we don’t see that much development or layers or personality from most of our characters, even some of the more central ones who occupy a lot of the story (Jasmine, Haru, Daniel). Our main character Eric too, felt a bit removed from us as readers - like there was almost a layer of numbness or a wall in between us (who were inside his head), and what he was feeling. I could be generous and say that it’s a really powerful meta comparison to the numbness people who are depressed or grieving may feel, but I don’t know that it was that. Thao’s creating a great body of work that does well exploring love and grief and teenage feelings, with some sort of genre-bending or magical realism twist. The stories are great - tender, melancholic, romantic, but I hope as he matures as a writer, we see a bit *more*. He’s definitely a writer I’m excited to see grow, and excited to continue reading!

I was given an advanced copy in exchange for my review. This is my honest opinion I am leaving voluntarily. You know a book is good when you read the acknowledgments. This book wrenched out my soul and the ending gave me hope. I read “you’ve reach Sam” when it first came out and I didn’t think anything else could destroy me just as equally. I love the way this author writes and you know reading it’s not real but it’s real to Eric and that’s what made it more gut wrenching. I love this book so much please read it!

Dustin Thaos book got me crying! I’m so happy to read another book in the same reality as You’ve reached Sam! This book was so wholesome and tackles hard topics such as grief, loss, love, and memories. Sometimes to have memories, means to revisit painful feelings all over again. Sometimes it’s better not to have memories of that person at all. 5/5 Haru and Eric Ly had me in tears! Amazing for the advanced copy! Thank you to the Author!

My heart is broken. Dustin Thao is an automatic read for me

If you have read - You’ve reached Sam you will have a hint of what is to happen

If you have not then…

To have such loss in life is super hard. And Eric has gone through it. You will walk through loss and heartbreak with him.

Highly recommend this book and author

Thank you Netgalley and St Marting for the advanced copy.

This book was one of my anticipated 2024 released books. The cover was the main reason.

Sadly, I didn't enjoy my reading process. All felt rushed. That was why I didn't feel any grieving which had to be the main topic in this book. It was only 191 pages (on my Netgalley shelf app), I thought it should have more pages, so we could savour all the feelings in this book.