Name: You've Reached Sam
ISBN: 9781250762030

Dustin Thao

Seventeen-year-old Julie Clarke has her future all planned out--move out of her small town with her boyfriend Sam, attend college in the city; spend a summer in Japan. But then Sam dies. And everything changes.

Heartbroken, Julie skips his funeral, throws out his belongings, and tries everything to forget him. But a message Sam left behind in her yearbook forces memories to return. Desperate to hear him one more time, Julie calls Sam's cell phone just to listen to his voice mail recording. And Sam picks up the phone.

The connection is temporary. But hearing Sam's voice makes Julie fall for him all over again and with each call, it becomes harder to let him go.

What would you do if you had a second chance at goodbye?

A Novel

You've Reached Sam

oui oui

 If the ending is this painful, I don't know if this was worth it all. 

𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝙳𝚒𝚗𝚎🦩

Tija

Sarah | @sarahsbookcase

ariah 

 the sun lowers itself, turning his skin almost golden

Dine Munar

 But sometimes you just wake up. No matter how hard you try not to.

 You're one of the best things to ever happen to me. And when I think about my life, I think of you in it. You are my entire world, Julie. And one day, maybe I'll only be a small piece of yours. I hope you keep that piece."

Melina

Natalia Melike

"Letting go isn't about forgetting. It's balancing moving forward with life, and looking back from time to time, remembering the people in it." 

Makayla Reed

Georgina :)

Kath Lau

fc ♡

Zimal.Q

I have mixed opinions on You've Reached Sam. On one hand I think it does portray grief well, people don't always behave in ways society expects when they suffer the loss of a loved one and Julie was evidence of that. Often times Julie's decisions felt incorrect or nonsensical, in the beginning I actually struggled to like her. However she does experience growth, and over the course of the book we see her come to terms with her grief and realise the mistakes she's making. Its way I chose to continue reading this book, even though I wasn't really enjoying it especially at the start. 

On the other hand, this book is definitely on the "young" part of young adult. I'm not someone who discounts books just because they're in the YA category, however I found the writing of You've Reached Sam to be a little juvenile. It was very simplistic and Disney channel-esque at times. There was no point where I felt like use of language was note-worthy which in turn made the exploration of grief very surface level. I also felt like the first half of the book is really a slog , I couldn't connect with Julie so I found it hard to invest in her story and the pacing was slow so I had to really power through it. Even 20% in I didn't feel invested, I can see from reviews and forum posts that many others felt the same. I think maybe a younger reader could connect with some plot points a bit more but I still think the pacing and overall quality of writing could be much better. I don't think I would recommend this book to anyone over the age of 18 to be quite honest. 

In less eloquent terms this book was just "meh". 

Marz 

I have mixed opinions on You've Reached Sam. On one hand I think it does portray grief well, people don't always behave in ways society expects when they suffer the loss of a loved one and Julie was evidence of that. Often times Julie's decisions felt incorrect or nonsensical, in the beginning I actually struggled to like her. However she does experience growth, and over the course of the book we see her come to terms with her grief and realise the mistakes she's making. Its way I chose to continue reading this book, even though I wasn't really enjoying it especially at the start. 

On the other hand, this book is definitely on the "young" part of young adult. I'm not someone who discounts books just because they're in the YA category, however I found the writing of You've Reached Sam to be a little juvenile. It was very simplistic and Disney channel-esque at times. There was no point where I felt like use of language was note-worthy which in turn made the exploration of grief very surface level. I also felt like the first half of the book is really a slog , I couldn't connect with Julie so I found it hard to invest in her story and the pacing was slow so I had to really power through it. Even 20% in I didn't feel invested, I can see from reviews and forum posts that many others felt the same. I think maybe a younger reader could connect with some plot points a bit more but I still think the pacing and overall quality of writing could be much better. I don't think I would recommend this book to anyone over the age of 18 to be quite honest. 

In less eloquent terms this book was just "meh". 

Natalie Jordan

This book will bring you tears. I'm not joking at all...

This book made me drop down and cry for Julie. Julie and Sam, were amazing together. Her stories, his songs... They made me want to see what would happen without the death of him. He seemed so sweet, she seemed so pure! I was insanly sad for Oliver. Nothing on that cause I'm trying not to spoil it! But yeah just know when you read this it will bring you to tears. 

But! Read this book still! It is gonna be a tough but heartwarming book.

)Anyone who is going through grief I'm terribly sorry you have to. Just know that even though I don't know you I love you(

Ari 💙💛

This book will bring you tears. I'm not joking at all...

This book made me drop down and cry for Julie. Julie and Sam, were amazing together. Her stories, his songs... They made me want to see what would happen without the death of him. He seemed so sweet, she seemed so pure! I was insanly sad for Oliver. Nothing on that cause I'm trying not to spoil it! But yeah just know when you read this it will bring you to tears. 

But! Read this book still! It is gonna be a tough but heartwarming book.

)Anyone who is going through grief I'm terribly sorry you have to. Just know that even though I don't know you I love you(

To talk to me just chat me up! :-

Sarah

yousr abu sboulah

Zoe R

3.7 
Julie kinda sucked honestly like she was selfish and generally bland. But it was sad.

Mercy Jepchirchir Barno

To be honest, I don’t even know where to start with this book. It probably has to be one of the most beautiful books that I’ve ever read in my life! There were moments Julie kinda frustrated me a bit (but loved her nonetheless) and although I can never understand the grief one goes through after losing such an important person in their life, I feel I was able to read that through Julie and how hard it’s been for her to move on from Sam. Love that as time went by she was able to reconnect with not only herself but with people again. Also loved that she got that second chance to talk to him. 

Obviously loved almost all the characters (I think Oliver has to be my favourite so far), and the writing was just as wonderful. The emotions as well; I was tearing up, I was smiling and I was laughing!

Is this a book I would highly recommend? Yes. Yes I would. :)

Anjorin Molayo 

tiktok recommended this book and i was so excited to read. i started because i wanted to cry, but it’s just a sad book which’s ending was expected. not as sad as tiktok put it to be. 
A 3.5/5 🤞🏾

Bria

I have been waiting on this book for so long, and I was in a slump when it came out. I finally got around to reading it, and I just didn't enjoy it like I thought I would. It fell short. The writing is flat, and the characters are so one-dimensional. I only know them on a surface level, and getting to know characters is my favorite part of reading a fiction book. Maybe "When Haru Was Here" will be better.

Moonchild

I was granted a copy of this book by Netgalley, in exchange for my honest opinion.     
This book hooked my attention with this beautiful cover, which says a lot by itself, I was predicting tears, and it delivered. 
The perspectives between past and present made it so realistic, me seeing all feeling it and suffering with Julie I cried in so many moments, and it’s been hard to find a book that manages that for me. 
The realism of our main character's grief it’s so relatable. 
The development of her character throughout the book made me care for her more and more.
I only can say that it delivered what was proposed, and my expectations. Definitely want to follow the author and see what we can have next.

amira

Instead of feeling sad, I felt pissed off through the entire book? The feelings are mainly targeted to our MC, Julie. A huge part of me says she only cares about herself and want others to understand her without her telling them. Though, I genuinely like the ending. The voicemail Sam left for Julie? That hurts. I’d cry if I didn’t stay up until 3 in the morning to finish this book.

The bestselling TikTok sensation! If I Stay meets Your Name in this heartfelt novel about love and loss and what it means to say goodbye.

Rodrigo Figueiredo Severino

The first like 80 pages I was ready to drop this and move on with my life, pick it up some other time. But then I really got into it. I really liked the exploration of grief in this, and I need an Oliver in life me thinks. That plot with him was done really well, didn’t expect it.
I do wish the whole magic of the book was better explained (explained at all really) which upsets me but besides that I really liked this

Seventeen-year-old Julie fell in love with Sam the day she met him, and planned to attend college with him; but Sam died, and getting rid of his things, trying to erase him from her life is not working, so desperate to hear his voice one more time, Julie calls his cellphone expecting to hear his voicemail--but then Sam answers, and suddenly their cellphones become the living connection between them, a connection Julie finds impossible to let go.

This book’s summary felt like it had so much potential - girl is suddenly able to call a dead boyfriend - why? how? WHAT??? Instead it was 10 hours of emotions and grief which I wasn’t a huge fan of but that could also be due to my mismatched expectations coming in.

Wingyan Chan

liana

3⭐️


⚠️THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS⚠️


You've Reached Sam by Dustin Thao is a contemporary fiction YA book about Julie, who struggles to readjust to life after the sudden death of her boyfriend of three years Sam. After a week of her loss and not knowing how to deal with her pain and after her not going to his funeral to say goodbye, she tries calling him on the phone and he surprisingly answers. After this second chance life has given them both, she realizes she can tell him everything that she wanted to say to him while he was still alive but didn’t. But as they talk more and more, Julie has to accept that at some point, this weird connection between them will result in her having to let Sam go all over again.


➵How many more calls before I lose you?


The characters of this story were… meh. I think I disliked most of them, and I didn’t connect with any of them either. Also, I would’ve loved to know more about the secondary characters (Mika, Jay, Rachel and Tristan).
-Julie was really annoying throughout basically the whole book. I understand that she’s grieving and everyone grieves differently, but she acted like she was the only one who lost Sam. She’s just a “pick me” girl, not caring about other people’s feelings and she loves avoiding problems like the plague. I know she’s in her last year of high school, but she was also really immature.
-Sam is a good character, and even though he dies and we get some insight of his life through flashbacks, I would’ve loved to know more about him. I think I would’ve connected with him much more if he appeared more and if he didn’t die in the first chapter.
-Oliver is Sam’s best friend and I think he’s one of the few characters that I liked, but again, this book should’ve been longer so I could connect with him/feel much more things about their friendship. 
-Mika is Sam’s cousin and I feel like she was the only one who I connected with. I love how the author portrays her grief and she’s just basically my favorite character.
-Jay, Tristan and Rachel are Sam and Julie’s friends, but we don’t get too much about them to form an opinion on them. Nonetheless, they’re great people.


➵We were two parts of a song. He was the music. And I was the words.


This book was good, but I read other reviews saying that it was “heartbreaking” and that I “was going to sob nonstop” but that never happened. The first chapters were sad but after that it was just boring. The worldbuilding was acceptable, but I’ve read better stuff. Although I love how Thao portrays grief in so many different ways. The fact that I didn’t connect with any character really threw me off. It is very difficult for me to connect with someone who’s dead at the very beginning, that’s why I would’ve love this book to be much longer so I could get a backstory on every character and even though we get flashbacks, it is just not the same, and sometimes they were just repetitive. Yes, with the phone calls you could feel how much love Sam and Julie had for each other, but I think it would’ve been more painful (I guess I love to suffer) if we knew more about their relationship before tragedy happened. This applies to every character’s relationship with Sam, because there’s just a lot of problems between them and with most of them I was like “why?” because the author just doesn’t explain the reason behind them. 
Overall, I liked it but I sure am going to forget about it really soon. The start and the end of the book were good, but the middle of it was boring. The hype this book has is tremendous, and I can understand it to some point, but I didn’t cry at all (I just never cry, and no, there isn’t any problem with me) and I expected more, and the fact that we don’t get the reason why Julie can connect with Sam through the phone just made me angry. It would’ve been so much better if there were a plot twist about it, but instead the author just leaves you hanging for nothing.


➵Letting go isn’t about forgetting. It’s balancing moving forward with life, and looking back from time to time, remembering the people in it.


And last but not least, to my beautiful  Rae thank you for buddy reading this book with me, and I loved commenting this book together💖 I hope we get to BR again soon, my love!🥰


I think I recommend it if you want a book with a good message, but if you’ve gone through the death of a loved one and/or you’re grieving from a great loss, please do NOT read it, as the book talks mainly about that topic and check the trigger warnings before doing so (tw such as: grief, death, car accident, bullying, violence, racism, etc.).











(English is not my first language, if you find any mistakes please let me know).

Honestly, I went in thinking I'd be fine while reading, but the last two chapters before the epilogue really got me 😭 This book left me thinking about a few things, but also had me at a loss for words. While we tread carefully around the topic of grief and loss, this book had moments I resonated with in some way or just left me in thought. You understand how different people handle the loss of someone dear and it shows that coping comes in different ways. Julie of course had her flaws, but I think that's what made her character and journey to coping more real. She experiences guilt, regret, sadness, and hope like anyone else, and I empathized with her. The switch between then and her present-day throughout the book was interesting and added depth to Julie and Sam's relationship. The magic realism also added a unique way for characters to experience closure other than Julie which was comforting to read.

While the book wasn't as plot-heavy as I had hoped for, I think the story is a really good read and could resonate with anyone who has dealt with loss or struggled moving forward from one. Saying goodbye to loved ones is never easy, but the emotions, experiences, and lessons the characters go through really brought realism to the book. Sam's perspective and feelings throughout the story also made a powerful impact on how we perceive loss. Overall, I enjoyed the read as it was a touching story with beautiful moments.

Heather

What a touching book was so worth the long wait on reserve list for library

Maui S.

I cried when they said hello again and I cried when they said goodbye.

This book is a one-time read for me. The main character Julie was just too self-centered, and I felt that her development only came later when so much damage was done. I didn't want to judge her too much because she is dealing with the death of Sam (as were everyone else) but this was not a very good read. I thought I would cry or at least get emotional but throughout the book I was just passive about it. Just the one read was enough, don't see myself picking this up for a reread anytime soon.

daph 🫧

Syahla Aurel

And I think about him whenever I close my eyes, and see us together again, lying there in the fields.

Was it sad? yes, but was it that great? no. It was still a very enjoyable read though, and this book succeeded to convey how it feels to lose someone and how hard it is to move on with life while you’re still grieving.

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. How do you move forward when everything you love in on the line? Seventeen-year-old Julie has her future all planned out—move out of her small town with her boyfriend Sam, attend college in the city, spend a summer in Japan. But then Sam dies. And everything changes. Desperate to hear his voice one more time, Julie calls Sam’s cellphone just to listen to his voicemail. And Sam picks up the phone. What would you do if you had a second chance at goodbye? Filled with a diverse cast of characters, the heartache of first love and loss, and the kind of friends that can get you through anything, plus a touch of magic, You've Reached Sam will make an instant connection with anyone looking for a big emotional romance of a read.

skim haunts

Oh man this book just made my blood boil so much. MISS MA’AM IS JUST TOO SELF CENTERED FOR ME TO UNDERSTANDDD oh man. It was just really really boring for me and a hard read to finish simply because of how annoyed I was at Julie. I’m pretty sure tiktok overly hyped this up for me as well. But Sam, you deserve the world 🤩🫶🏻 (the only reason i finished this book was cause i kept reminding myself of how short it is)

You've Reached Sam A Novel