Huge thank you to NetGalley and WednesdayBooks for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

"Feeling heartbroken after her boyfriend died, Julie calls Sam's phone just to hear his voicemail. But then he answers the call. Giving Julie one last chance to say goodbye."

My rating: 4.5/5 stars

tw: car crash, grief, death.
The story idea is great! The writing is also phenomenal, that i actually feel like I'm in the book (and lemme tell you, it was such a pain). As for the character, Julie, i feel like i know her very well because of the author's writing. But, i don't know if i like her? And sometimes her actions just frustrated me? Maybe it's because i have a different grieving process, so i don't feel connected to her somehow. I still like her though. But my absolute favorite character is Sam. I want more people to know him more!

This book is heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. Nevertheless, I want more people to read this book!

p.s. prepare your tissue paper. (from my experience, I've already cried in chapter 3. Or was it chapter 2?)

I went into this book with high hopes, as I loved an adult novel with a similar plot concept (The Two Lives of Lydia Bird) that utterly destroyed me. Unfortunately, everything about this book fell flat. I knew from the very beginning that the writing style was going to put me off a bit, as it's written in a choppy, ultra-simplistic way that reminded me more of middle grade novels than YA. But I've read Wilder Girls, so I was sure I could look past that and focus on the heart of the story. Surely at some point I would get swept into the romance and the heartbreaking sadness. But I never did. In fact, the "risk" - the threat of losing connection with Sam by allowing his family comfort - doesn't even come into play until 90% of the way into the book and feels extremely forced. The entire thing lacks emotional depth and maturity of writing. I'm a bit baffled at the high ratings it's already received, and I'm even more baffled that this was, in fact, not a poorly edited self-pub, but released by a big publisher.

I love the premise of this book. I lost a family member while I was in the middle of reading this and would love to be able to pick up the phone one more time, hear their voice, and say "I love you". I thought the book did a good job of showing how everyone handles grief in their own way while figuring out how to move on. I was disappointed in the phone conversations between Sam and Julie. It felt like I was reading the same dialogue every time and I wanted more. All in all, it was a good read but left me feeling like I was still on the surface when I wanted it to go a bit deeper.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for access to this arc.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!
All opinions are my own.

I can’t remember the last time that I’ve read a book that made me cry. This book completely tore my heart apart. The amount of love that I have for this book is endless.

We follow Julie as she’s trying to come to terms with the death of her boyfriend Sam. Julie isn’t ready to say goodbye to Sam until one day she calls his phone and HE PICKS UP! There’s still somethings Sam wanted to show Julie and presents he wasn’t able to give her. As the days go on with them talking, their connection grows weaker.

The first part of this book, I was aggravated with the way Julie was acting. She completely shut herself off from the world and stepped away from her friends that were hurting just as much as she was. But as the story progresses, I can sympathize and relate to her. This story hit way to close to home for me at the moment but it made me love it even more.

The author did a wonderful job with expressing how loss and grief can effect someone. You will end up wanting to hug every character in this book and want to sit down and cry with them.

If you’re looking for a book that will destroy you and will stay with you well after you’ve finished it, this book is for you. I highly recommend!

This was a beautiful, heartbreaking story that impacted me deeply. I’ve often wondered if we could have a little more time to talk to those we’ve lost; what we would say and how it would affect our lives. I’ve lost a few people that I’ve fervently wished to be able to speak to them just once more. Sam and Julie’s story broke my heart and then built it back up again. It was a lovely tale of grief and what we would do if we could only speak to our lost loved ones a few more times. I highly recommend this book, especially to anyone who has lost someone dear to them. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my free arc in exchange for my honest opinion. Great and wrenching story, you should read it for yourself!

You’ve Reached Sam is such an amazingly emotional book, and there were so many things I loved about it from the style the book is written in to the way Julie’s grief, guilt, and eventual acceptance of Sam’s death are explored to Julie’s relationships with her friends and family after Sam’s death.

I enjoyed the way most of the book takes place in the present after Sam's death, but every now and then something would trigger a series of memories of Julie's time with Sam. It was also interesting to watch Julie's relationships with other people who were close to Sam evolve as Julie works on moving on throughout the book.

You’ve Reached Sam is such a heartbreaking book, but it is so beautifully written. I had so much trouble putting the book down that I read the book in one day. You’ve Reached Sam is fast paced, incredibly sad, and beautifully written.

Thank you to Netgalley for giving me access to an ARC. I really appreciate it.

I don't even know where to begin with this wonderful book. I found this to be a fascinating and creative exploration of grief, loss, and moving on. This book had a hold on me from the very beginning. From the way it was written down to the plot, I found it so enchanting and beautiful. It truly tugged at the heartstrings.

I believe that around the fourth or fifth chapter I was able to pick up on what was going to happen at the end of the book but I don't think this is bad whatsoever! Some people may see this as a book being predictable (and there are negative connotations attached to that) but I felt extremely good knowing that I was able to follow the story and pick up what the author was putting down.

While I didn't cry, my heart did. It grieved with Sam, it grieved with Julie. It grieved with everyone who was experiencing this gaping hole in their heart and trying to pick up the pieces in the process. One of the things I left with was being reminded that healing isn't linear and that the pain comes and goes. Eventually, that absence you have in your heart will be filled with something else but you truly never forget the people you've lost.

I am so thankful for a book like this. I appreciate books that deal with hard topics like learning to let go and moving forward with the grief that we have. Just a wonderful book all the way around.

P.S. Although I didn't physically cry, I advise others to have tissues near them and be prepared for an emotional rollercoaster.

I fell in love with this book in a slow, peaceful way. I connected so much with Julie and Sam that my heart broke when Julie’s did. The writing in this book was so beautiful that I felt an ache in my chest while reading it.
I especially appreciated the way the author guided Laurie through the stages of grief and loss. I believe many readers, and not just me, will relate to these feelings that were so gently incorporated into the plot.
The author wrote this book beautifully in such a way that I, to, felt that I was letting go of Sam. He became such an integral part of this book and I think everyone has a Sam in their lives that they imagined while reading this. I would recommend this book to all lovers of YA. I would relate this book to others such as Five Feet Apart and If I Fall.
I will be posting my review on Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes and Noble and Instagram @allbookedup95 the week of the publishing date. Below are the links to my platforms. I will update this site with links to my reviews after I post them.
https://www.instagram.com/allbookedup95/
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/33947766-hannah-bishop
 https://www.amazon.com/gp/profile/amzn1.account.AE2TNQQINVDX644UUTEWUXWW5AWQ?ref_=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_pf

I'm not okay. I'm okay, but I'm not, and that's... okay?

My heart hurts. My head hurts from the amount of tears I spilled.

This book is sad, but also hopeful. It is full of loss, recovery and looking for loved ones that have gone away.

What would you do if you had a second chance at goodbye? I would read this book again and again, because I do not want to leave these characters out of my sight.

Thank you for the e-galley. But also, no thank you because my eyes have spilled so, so many tears.

This book broke me. It killed me. It shattered my soul and heart.
I cried the whole time, it was so beautifully written.
It talks about grief, about the loss of a lover at a young age and how difficult it is to get through it when the only person who could help you isn't here anymore.
I loved Julie and Sam's connection and I loved seeing Julie slowly accepting everything that happened.
This book was so good, I'm going to tell everyone to read it once it comes out!

4,5/5

(A huge thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s press for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review)

"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"

Julie tem seu futuro planejado junto de seu namorado, Sam. Mas com sua inesperada morte, tudo muda. De coração partido, Julie tenta em meio ao luto esquecê-lo, e numa última tentativa liga para o telefone dele. E ele atende.

You've Reached Sam era um livro que eu tinha certeza que iria mexer comigo, e acertei na mosca. Que montanha-russa de emoções; quantas reflexões trazidas sobre o luto e a possibilidade de se ter uma segunda chance de se despedir daqueles que amamos, mas que já partiram; quantas lágrimas derrubadas (essas eu perdi a conta). Meu coração saiu esmigalhado dessa leitura, mas inspirado a mudar um pouco o jeito que levo a vida.

Não é de hoje que escutamos que 'a gente nunca sabe o dia de amanhã', e pra Julie isso foi um baque. Ter perdido o namorado tão subitamente numa noite, carregar junto do luto (tão difícil quando se trata de alguém que a gente ama) uma pontada de sentimento de culpa, não é nada fácil. Julie fica reclusa, tentando não aceitar o fato da morte do amado. Não sai do quarto (por vezes até da cama) por nada, não comparece ao funeral de Sam, não visita os pais dele, não vai à escola. Tudo numa tentativa (frustrada) de escapar daquela realidade. E como o autor soube fazer isso construindo aos poucos a tridimensionalidade da Julie! É uma personagem repleta de camadas, que aos poucos vão sendo retiradas e mostrando a essência de quem ela é. Impressionante.

Sinto que peguei muitas das nuances e mensagens que o Dustin quis trazer nessa história, e isso foi demais. A questão das ligações, do ruído que surge às vezes, do suporte que o Sam dá à Julie nesse momento, e como tudo no fim se liga a uma mensagem de que, eventualmente, a gente precisa seguir em frente. O sentimento de luto, não só da Julie, mas de outros personagens, exala pra fora das páginas. É descrito de uma forma tão genuína, natural, que você mesmo se pega de luto pelo Sam. Tirei muitos análogos meus de formas como lidei pessoalmente o luto e o que Dustin faz aqui é poético.

Apesar de me deixar num descontrole emocional e aos prantos em alguns momentos, admito que o livro tem sim algumas falhas. Primeiro, sinto que os personagens secundários em alguns momentos demonstram alguma relevância pro enredo, mas o desenvolvimento deles foi bem raso, e em alguns momentos fiquei duvidando/questionando as motivações deles (dando 2 exemplos de personagens, Tristan e Taylor). Segundo, o autor em alguns momentos quis reforçar a importância de um fato no enredo pelos questionamentos da Julie. Mas tiveram 2 fatos em específico (que não citarei pois obviamente é um spoiler) que ele quis enfatizar por meio de repetição, e isso me irritou um pouco. Por exemplo, um mesmo fato ocorrer 3 vezes e ela fazer o mesmo questionamento 3 vezes (e até que num intervalo curto de páginas), me pareceu um pouco preguiçoso.

Sem mais a falar, apenas reforço que vocês leiam esse livro quando sair em novembro! Mas preparem os corações e deixem a caixa de lencinhos do lado.

4.5/5 — when i say i cried the whole book, i’m not even exaggerating. i’m the type to steer away from books with death tropes and goodbyes because i’m not the type of person who can brave through those moments/scenes (that’s on trauma) but this book made the exemption, and i’m glad i read it. the transitions from scene to scene and the world was just so vivid in my head that i could see everything so clearly. there were plot holes and things that didn’t make sense to me by the end of the book that i wish were addressed — like how they were able to stay connected through the phone and the things sam had to go through to be able to stay and talk with julie — but even so, how it ended and the message of it all was really beautiful.

people deal with death so differently, but the way julie dealt with sam’s hit so close to home. i guess if someone hasn’t experienced the earth-shattering feeling of losing someone so important to you so suddenly, and hasn’t gone through the same destructive behaviour to cope like with julie, they would find themselves not liking her character at first but that really is the thing with grief, isn’t it? it can turn people into selfish beings and sometimes, it’s hard to get back from it because it means letting go when you don’t want to.

you’ve reached sam is a beautiful debut from dustin thao and i can’t wait to see all the other stories he has to share with us (and get a physical copy of this book).

thank you to netgalley for the arc.

I ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY LOVED THIS BOOK. I wasn't quite sure what to expect in the beginning and it was somewhat hard to follow at certain points. But I felt every emotion possible while reading this. And I would highly recommend this book to everyone!

You've Reached Sam is such a beautiful (and sad) book. I cried throughout the entire book and it is now one of my favorites. I was instantly drawn to the characters, Thao did a great job in bringing the characters to life. This is the first book that I've read that deals with the characters grieving and how they process it. I think the author did a really good job at showing how Julie and Mika are grieving and how it affects them.
I think this book will be a good addition to my classroom library this fall.

loss is hard enough ready, but losing the one person whom you expected to spend the entirety of your life with only makes it a thousand times worse.

the writing of this novel was absolutely stunning. every time a memory or a daydream of sam and julie was brought up, i felt a pang in my heart that continued to grow and grow until sam left his voicemail, and my heart exploded. many years were shed.

this novel made me realize i need to make more memories with those i’ve loved, and that i need to cherish them more.

the only reason i’m giving this novel 3 stars is because of how repetitive a lot of the conversations julie had with others were. everytime it happened, my feelings towards this book disappeared and i could only focus on the negative.

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Trigger warnings: death, grief

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. Heartbroken, Julie skips his funeral, throws out his things, and tries everything to forget him and the tragic way he died. But a message Sam left behind in her yearbook forces back memories. 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.
In a miraculous turn of events, Julie’s been given a second chance at goodbye. The connection is temporary. But hearing Sam’s voice makes her fall for him all over again, and with each call it becomes harder to let him go. However, keeping her otherworldly calls with Sam a secret isn’t easy, especially when Julie witnesses the suffering Sam’s family is going through. Unable to stand by the sidelines and watch their shared loved ones in pain, Julie is torn between spilling the truth about her calls with Sam and risking their connection and losing him forever.

Julie’s grief is palpable and relatable on many levels. As a teenager planning out her future, it’s already a stressful time. Have her love die suddenly and have the future they planned together ripped away ... life will seem almost impossible. I really appreciated that we saw Julie on her ups and downs. Grief, sadness, affects everyone differently and it isn’t something that’s constantly there. There’s always the possibility of a smile, of a laugh or that moment of forgetting what’s happened. Then it hits again, knocking you back. For Julie, talking to Sam was that lifeline in a storm and it was almost difficult to read because it felt so real.

I’m not ashamed to admit that this book made me VERY emotional throughout. I was already crying at the end of chapter one which proves what an emotive book this is. And oh lordy did I bawl like a baby at that ending - ugly snotty tears. Thao’s writing at times felt a little simple but it made sense - in times of grief, our thoughts are stilted, they don’t flow in the normal ways. I’ve personally never experienced a loss that I remember but I do remember how I felt when I almost lost my baby sister when she had brain surgery. I can remember the feeling of hopelessness and emptiness when I found out she was in the ICU hundreds of miles away because she stopped breathing again. Events like that stay with you, they leave an impression - just like the impact death has. The idea of Julie being able to talk to Sam on the phone after his death is something many have contemplated. What would you say to someone who’s passed? What do you wish you could’ve told them before they went? Thao certainly knocked it out the park with this one. I feel I have very few words to describe just how brilliant, engaging and utterly emotional this book is.

Overall, You’ve Reached Sam is a beautiful and heartbreaking story that reminds you to live every day to the fullest.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Thank you again to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for an advanced copy of this book. Review will be live on my blog on release day - can be changed if asked.

You've Reached Sam is a story about grief, loss and prolonging to say goodbye to a loved one. It has been way too long since I read a book that has impacted me so much emotionally that it made me cry so hard. It really is such a beautiful story but so painful at the same time and this book deserves all the hype.

Everything about this book is utterly beautiful and heartbreaking. I think pretty much everyone can predict what will happen at the end yet somehow I was still caught off guard. It was the at the last chapter when something unexpectedly happen that I was just begging everything to burst free. I didn't expect the tears to flow so freely which is so unlike me. I mean, I was warned but I wanted to experience myself first but they were right after all. It totally made my heart break into a million pieces.

There's just something about the author's writing style that I find so remarkable. The plot is not something new and not that out of the ordinary yet it is such an amazing read. I would totally want to experience it firsthand all over again where I didn't know what awaits ahead of me.

I wouldn't want anything changed at all with this book. It is absolutely perfect as it is and I read an advanced and unfinalised copy. I am definitely going to read it again once it comes out in November and see if anything changed but I really hope it will remain as it is.

I am undoubtedly going to be screaming this book to everyone and shove this book in everyone's faces. I cannot recommend this book enough and make sure to prepare yourselves with tissues because it is a hundred percent will make you cry.

I haven't read a book that devastated me like this for so long. I don't know how Dustin Thao did it but he just wrecked me with this book. A more coherent book review will be updated soon!

4.5 stars.

Full disclosure; I'm still crying as I write this so I'm just going to have to hope for the best when it comes to typos and general coherency.
First up, what drew me to this book was the mindblowingly beautiful cover - I mean do you see that?? Gorgeous. When I downloaded the ARC yesterday I ran to show my Mum and gush about the cover to her. I am ridiculously relieved that I enjoyed it so much because that means I can buy a physical copy in November and then I'll be able to look at it in my hands whenever I want. This is very good.
Anyway, I should probably move on to the actual book content now.
I have to say, I found the opening of this book kind of jarring to read. It was switching through Julie's memories with Sam and I became quite confused as I did not really know what was going on. This did not last long as I adjusted to the writing and I had no problems later in the book when Julie cycled through her memories.
To be honest, this is not generally a book I would pick up. I tend to like happy books, and while I have read books I know will be sad and I have enjoyed them, it is not something I really look for when deciding what to read. But honestly I am starting to think I need to reevaluate my wariness towards sad books. You've Reached Sam is a book primarily about grief, and there is something really wonderful about reading a book about grief and being able to see the protagonist healing from that grief. Julie's whole life is turned around when her boyfriend, Sam, dies and suddenly the future she had been planning goes up in smoke. Watching Julie come to terms with Sam's death was difficult, but also, by the end of the story, really kind of uplifting. And Sam. Sam. Oh my god. I just wanted to wrap him up in a blanket and give him some hot chocolate. He is one of the sweetest characters ever, which only made the book that much more heartbreaking to read.
I also loved the friendships in this book and I would very gladly read another book about Mika or Oliver or Yuki or Jay or Tristan or really just anyone. And there was something about the writing that made it so easy for me to vividly imagine all of the characters and the settings more so than normal. Plus, I really liked the whole magical realism aspect with the phone calls between Sam and Julie and wow that voicemail at the end completely wrecked me. I am going to be reeling from this book for days.
Even if you don't generally go for sad books, please read You've Reached Sam - this recommendation coming from someone who doesn't generally read sad books because she knows she'll cry her eyes out. It was worth it.

"You've Reached Sam" is a sweet, emotional story about Julie, a girl whose boyfriend with whom she'd made plans for the future with just died, and her dealings with the grief she's left with afterward. On a particularly hard night, she calls him, and he answers. They create routine phone calls and Julie continues to distance herself from others without realizing it. Throughout the book she slowly eases back into real life and gets thrown a lot of realistic curveballs, while never really letting Sam go.

I enjoyed the storyline, but I wish we got to find out how everything worked. The ending offered some resolution emotionally, but left me wanting a little more explanation. Throughout the book we are left to just trust Sam in that phone calls might be affected by telling others or other outside events. I liked that there were scenes from before Sam's death to give us a better sense of their relationship and who he was, and the character development was good with Julie and many of the other characters. 3.5 stars rounded up.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.