You've Reached Sam

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A heartfelt YA read. At times maybe leaning toward the younger YA age range, which is entirely fine - but I do think it missed out on some depth because of this. A story about grief. A story following a teenager who just experienced the first real traumatic event of her life.

The writing also made me feel numb because it encompassed so many emotions. Also, it was so dang quotable. This young adult novel’s enthralling premise and gorgeous, manga-style cover art promise an emotional ride. Thao does not disappoint. You’ve Reached Sam punches directly in the chest during countless moments that hit right on target." —Associated Press Sam and Julie are meant for each other, destined to meet, destined to be together until the same destiny pulls the tragedy card. Cruel.

About Kasey

There’s a lengthy -- and I do mean lengthy -- prologue that, I guess, is supposed to make us like Sam and Julie so much that we’re grieving for them too but it’s a hot mess of clunky writing that attempts to blend memories into something like a camera fade in a movie. Major fail. It’s hard to follow and is so deeply one-sided that all we know at the end is that Julie sure does like herself but maybe doesn’t like her boyfriend that much. I would most likely recommend this book to those who are slight masochists and want to feel something, once in a while. Who obviously want to tear up in the last chapter and come on, if you don't like it, I can read your rants! Oh, And you could maybe skip all the MC's lines. They are of no consequence. The grief representation was overall done pretty well, but some of it didn’t feel right to me. I know that everyone grieves differently, but that was actually one of the problems - it felt like all of the other characters were grieving in the same way, and Julie was the only one feeling different.

When I got an ARC of “You’ve Reached Sam” I had a lot of mixed feelings. On the one hand I was looking forward to read this book because I was very intrigued by the concept and the idea of being able to talk to your loved one even if the person is already dead, but on the other hand I was also worried because I was pretty certain this would hit close to home. I won’t go into detail here but suffice it to say Julie and I have way more in common than I’d like to admit. I wondered why someone would want to intentionally experience that. I think I figured it out. You want to feel something. Something meaningful, and intense. You want to feel that thing in your heart and stomach. You want to be moved. To care about something, or fall in love, you know? And you want it to feel real. And different. And exciting. The loss of Sam impacts Julie’s whole community, and she doesn’t realize until she begins talking to him again that she’s withdrawn not only from his family but from her other friends and even her own family. At first the calls seem to help her regain her feet and process her emotions. Eventually, they morph into something else, though. And it becomes more and more clear that the calls can’t continue forever or be an alternative to saying goodbye.for me, the book falls apart as soon as it becomes clear that all of the characters are flat. all of them. julie's friends and parents, sam's family, and the random bullies at school all feel like rough outlines of characters. none of them feel real. and even sam and julie themselves feel flat. i think sam is kind of a manic pixie dreamboy?? and again, this takes away from the emotional resonance of the story. When everyone else was grieving Sam’s death, Julie got a second chance with him. Their number of calls is limited and Sam told her from the beginning that this won’t last forever. There will come a time when they must say goodbye. If I Stay meets Your Name in Dustin Thao's You've Reached Sam, a heartfelt novel about love and loss and what it means to say goodbye. This… had so much potential. The premise made me believe that this book had the markings to be a five star read. The plot sounded absolutely amazing. However, the execution failed on so many levels that I don’t even know what to say. I think that my biggest problem with this book is that, in my opinion, this sort of premise and this sort of topic are too good to be dealt with in a YA setting. The story should have explored themes of death and grief but given the fact that this is intended for a younger audience, the author barely delves into these topics, which was this novel’s biggest downfall. This book broke my heart. It has so many emotions and I’m still speechless because of it. It was SO GOOD.

It had original part: the phone calls between late boyfriend and alive girlfriend, and I do appreciate it's uniqueness, but if I am being completely honest, after a while I just didn't see the point. The main problem that I feel like this book had was that the conflict was coming from too many different areas that the story had a hard time pulling that together at the end. I’m going to once again bring up Your Name since it’s everywhere in the promotion of this book and it’s hard not to compare it when they do that… but in that movie the characters are mostly fighting against this natural phenomenon and that’s really where the main conflict was. And although multiple conflicts isn’t necessarily a bad thing either, it needs to form a cohesive storyline that comes full circle in the end…. which was what Your Name was able to do successfully but this particular plot failed to see through, in my opinion. I feel like this book was trying to use the “no one knows what’s beyond death” thing to its advantage by not providing concrete answers, but it didn’t work for me.Life will pass right by you,” she says, her eyes focused on the road. “And you end up missing the little things, the moments you don’t think matter—but they do. Moments that make you forget about everything else. Just like with your writing,” she adds out of nowhere. “You don’t write to get to the end. You write because you enjoy doing it. You write and don’t want it to end. Does that make some sense?” You’ve Reached Sam is a hauntingly remarkable debut. Dustin Thao gently weaves grief, regret, second chances, and the honestly beautiful moments we carry from a first love. Every tear you will shed reading this book will be worth it." —Julian Winters, award-winning author of Running With Lions

Also, the grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors are distracting. (Yes, I know I’m reading an uncorrected proof but it’s not like this was typeset from a hand-written copy. This isn’t the 1900s, folks. I have to assume that the author turned in a manuscript full of errors.) There were more than a few parts that annoyed me. Given this is young adult, the immature scenarios and personalities are slightly understandable but i don’t think the “mean kids” and other “mean people” were flushed out or written very well. It honestly felt like they were just there to provide additional conflict when I think the book could have done without them or if their personalities were more subtle/nuanced/implied. It felt very “in your face” and I didn’t enjoy that. Especially since I don’t think that part of the plot was given proper closure either. There were certain plot decisions that i wasn’t happy about because they felt like cop outs. It added an aspect that did not match the atmosphere I was hoping for. I’m in the minority here (as usual😩) so y’all will probably end up liking this more than I did! Give it a chance if you like YA and if the premise sounds interesting to you! Anyway, here’s a short review to encapsulate my rage:Morning light comes through the curtains as I lay curled in bed, listening to Sam’s voice mail again. I also loved Dustin Thao's writing 💖💖 It was just beautiful and conveyed a lot of emotion. I found it very easy to digest, which was great in a book with such heavy topics. I would love to read more by him!! 🥰🥰 The MC was extremely infuriating at times. And yes, I do understand her grief, and we all have different ways of coping with it (personally, mine is food and annoyance), but even before she lost someone whom she didn't deserve (*smirk), she was extremely whiny, and frankly not a very interesting person.