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.