Deeply moving with a bittersweet ending I knew would happen yet couldn't prepare for. YOU'VE REACHED SAM had me sobbing. This book was such a beautiful story about grief after an unexpected loss. I could feel Julie's sadness, anger and guilt with such sharp focus. The synopsis was dead-on. I could see the magical realism similar to a Makoto Shinkai animated film. I really enjoyed the play on connection/ disconnection with Julie's cell phone. I wish there could have been more of Julie with Sam's family though. Overall, this book was heart-rending and beautiful.

This is a story that I expected to ball my eyes out to but, I only shed a few tears. This is a story of young love and young grief. I think that this story has so much potential to help many people work through these emotions. This is the book that I wish I would have had when my best friend passed away almost 8 years ago because I think it would have been the perfect book to help me process my grief.
I feel like this is a book that I will recommend to parents to help their teens process the loss of a friend or even a loved one.

This YA contemporary novel is a haunting exploration of grief, with an otherworldly twist that drives home the emotional impact. The book follows Julie, who gains a second chance to speak with her boyfriend through phone calls after his tragic death in a car accident. Although the story was sweet, there were also difficult moments as Julie worked through the personal process of her grief and the process of letting go of the boy she’s lost. In that way, the sweetness is accompanied by an aching sadness that permeates the book. I thought it was a beautiful way to show the highs and lows of the grieving process, and I cried so much while reading it!

i think this is the type of book that is meant to purposely make you cry, like the author set out to make his readers cry and not write a story that was worth crying over. i understand why people have been obsessing over this book for years but i think it was a little rushed and i could tell this was Dustin's debut

It’s really not hard to make me cry while reading a book, yet somehow this book managed to fail. I love a then and now timeline, but the way there were dreams, memories, and flashbacks felt a little chaotic in its organization. It didn’t feel that we were learning anything important for almost the first half of the book. It also took me half the book to care about the characters, especially Julie. I didn’t mind Julie’s personality, and thought she did her best trying to contend with her grief while others expected different things from her. I ended up caring more about the supporting characters than Julie and Sam though. Mika’s shenanigans to get Sam and Julie together and putting Taylor in her place, Oliver’s clinginess and fun personality, and Tristan’s earnestness were the best parts. Overall, it wasn’t the worst book and it wasn’t the best, but the ending was really sweet.

In "You've Reached Sam," Dustin Thao delivers an emotionally resonant YA romance that transcends the boundaries of love and loss. Set against a backdrop of heartache and healing, the novel revolves around the tender and poignant love story of Julie and Sam, two individuals brought together by fate and separated by tragedy.

Thao's writing effortlessly captures the essence of young love, infusing the narrative with genuine emotions that evoke both laughter and tears. The novel's exploration of grief is sensitively handled, and readers are invited to share in Julie's emotional journey as she grapples with the loss of her boyfriend, Sam.

Julie's character is beautifully developed, and her introspective nature adds depth to the story as she navigates the complexities of grief and acceptance. Thao paints a vivid picture of their relationship through a series of heartwarming flashbacks, allowing the reader to witness the growth and depth of their connection.

The story's pacing is well-crafted, guiding readers through a rollercoaster of emotions as Julie discovers a mysterious voicemail left by Sam after his passing. This discovery sets her on a path of healing and understanding, leading to unexpected revelations about their love and shared dreams.

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Thao's prose is lyrical and heartfelt, capturing the essence of young love with tender precision. The dialogues between characters are engaging and natural, fostering a genuine connection with the reader and allowing them to immerse themselves fully in the story.

In conclusion, "You've Reached Sam" is a captivating YA romance that skillfully navigates the complexities of grief and the transformative power of love. Dustin Thao's evocative storytelling and well-drawn characters make this novel a must-read for those seeking a touching and heartfelt exploration of young love and the enduring bond between soulmates.

I absolutely loved this book! This was such a sweet and sentimental story. I was left an emotional wreck at the end. MANY tears were shed.

I had been putting this one off again and again until finally my book club decided we would all be hurt together and man were we hurt. But 10/10 would get hurt again.

Thanks to NetGalley / Edelweiss and the publisher Edelweiss for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for a review.

My poor heart, this book is sad, insightful and just over all well written. I have to say i don't tear up or cry reading 9/10 times but this book did make me tear up a bit. it is a beautiful story that has a great meaning behind it.
totally would recommend and give them a box of tissues as well.

This absolute heartbreak of a novel was so beautiful and moving. It's the type of story that splits you open and makes you reflect on your life and relationships. Highly recommend for anyone who wants to cry.

After reading all the raving reviews about this book and especially from my friends I was so hyped to read this!! Sadly, it did not meet my expectations and I found myself quite bored while trudging along the story.

The flashbacks featuring Julie and Sam made me feel nothing??? They had some nice moments but nothing that had me swooning and shipping them so much. I don't know. It was sad at times but nothing heart-wrenching or emotional as I hoped it would be.

I'm pretty disappointed, but I know that many loved this so I'm glad this reached out to many!!

I cried, I cried reading this book. Everyone is confronted with grief in different ways. It packs a punch, be it a happy or sad emotion. There was a point I laughed and smiled while crying. The story begins after Sam's death, and our protagonist, his girlfriend Julie, is grieving, Grief that made Julie prickly and unbearable being around her. It made her human and I understand her actions even though I can't entirely agree with many of them. Thao constructed the characters in such a way that they were living, breathing people. Sam's best friend(s), relatives, and Julie loved him so much in different ways. Their grief physically hurt me to read. This is a story I never will forget and I can't wait to read what Dustin Thao does next

To be honest i could not finish this book. I requested it 2 years ago and now have no interest in it. It is not a bad book or anything. Nowadays i just prefer to read romance and otherwise happy books. And this book's premise is definitely not that.

I went into this story expecting to feel a lot of emotion, to be crying and sobbing my through the book. Whilst this book had a lot of heart and I felt the wave of different emotions it did feel a little flat for me.

It was a beautiful story with a fantastic premise, it just missed the mark slightly for me.

Dustin Thao has written an absolutely lovely novel. I highly recommend this book for readers who like to cry, or want to read a book that will make you reflect on your own life. You’ve Reached Sam explores the importance of connection and friendship, the affect of loss on all aspects of life, and navigating life as a teenager when it feels like your whole life has been rearranged. I recommend this book to everyone, and congratulations to Thao for creating such an emotional and thought provoking read!

I thought this was a super cute read, if not directly up my alley. The cover was a beautifully done graphic, and while I know I was not the intended audience for this, I did recommend it for my little sister to read instead.

a really sweet, sentimental story that is dampened by an unlikable main character.

i honestly wanted to cut julie some slack in the beginning. grieving is an incredibly personal process and everyone handles it differently, so i was willing to tolerate a lot of her anger. but then i realised shes just as selfish and rude in the flashbacks. so its not her grief and sorrow thats making her lash out and treat everyone like crap, thats just who she is and it makes for a very frustrating and unenjoyable book.

which is such a shame because i think the story at its heart is a really good one and one i think will resonate with any reader who has ever struggled with letting someone go and moving on. the last chapter and epilogue are really quite touching, its just that i know i would have emotionally felt more if i had cared about julie. but i didnt. and sam deserved better, tbh.

but overall, still a decent debut and im interested in seeing what comes next!

I really wanted to love this one more. Maybe it would be better as an audiobook or a physical copy. I loved the premise and the beginning but felt like the end of the book didn’t quite follow through. Great voice and excited to see what he does next in YA!

this book deals with heavy subject matter, and may be triggering for some readers. That being said, Thao handles the subject matter with sensitivity and care, and I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a thought-provoking and emotionally impactful read.

You’ve Reached Sam is an emotional read about trying to make sense of life after bereavement and remembering loved ones who have passed away. Seventeen-year-old Julie’s whole world is upended after the death of her boyfriend, Sam. Wanting to hear his voice, she calls his phone and from beyond the grave, he answers.

“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.”

This is a really weird review to write for me because at the time I read this book in early 2022, I found the story quite emotive and it brought me to tears at the end but as much as I could sympathise, I had never experienced grief before. But now as I write this review that has all changed as my father died suddenly in June 2022. Now that I think about this book in hindsight, everything about it feels so much more personal and all the themes in it really do hit me like a truck. If I read this book for the first time now, I’m sure it would have affected me a lot more.

I relate so much to the idea of being desperate to talk to the person you lost just one more time, seeking some sort of closure. In Julie’s case it is still a double-edged sword because she gets her closure with Sam and he helps her to adjust to life without him in it anymore but at the same time she has to lose him twice.

The way someone experiences grief is entirely unique to every person and to every bereavement. I feel like Julie’s grief was quite isolating and over the course of the story she began to reconnect to the people around her who loved her and wanted to help her and also allowed her to realise that she wasn’t the only one who lost him and they needed her support too. It can be really hard to ‘grieve together’ with the other people who lost the same person because, again, everyone copes differently which can lead to clashes and also they serve as a reminder as much as a comfort. This was something that Julie really struggled with (and me too to be honest).

I also loved how Sam’s death brought Julie closer to people she wasn’t close to before, especially Oliver. The way their friendship developed was really sweet and it’s nice to think that as tragic as death is, it can lead to new beginnings.

As much as it helped her cope, keeping a connection to Sam also held Julie back in the past and didn’t allow her to move on. When Julie was calling Sam after his death, she didn’t receive any calls or texts from anyone else during the period she was talking to him which caused her to miss a lot of people checking up on her and making others think she was ignoring them. I thought this was a really creative way of showing how her inability to let Sam go was isolating her more and more.

I think this book should also serve to remind people to treat a grieving person with compassion. All of her classmates were extremely judgmental, blaming her for Sam’s death when it was out of her hands. There is even a part when she is late to hand in an assignment and her teacher basically tells her that grief is no excuse as the whole class already had an extension and “out there life doesn’t give you extensions. Even during the hardest times. So let this be a valuable lesson for you“. Firstly, failing to understand that Julie’s loss is different to that of her classmates, she lost her boyfriend after all. And secondly shouldn’t we show compassion during someone’s hardest time? Even if the rest of the world isn’t like that, why not set an example? Grief is already hard enough without other people making it harder for no reason, you would think this is just basic human decency but I guess a lot of people out there don’t have that.

I would definitely recommend You’ve Reached Sam. I love the message that you never really let someone that you love go, even after their death, but you move on while safely keeping them in your heart. A concept that has really helped me is the idea of ‘growing around your grief’, even though your grief will never diminish or fade away, your life will keep going and grow bigger and fuller. Gradually, the grief becomes smaller in proportion as your life grows around 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.”

Even though Julie would never do all of the things she had planned to do with Sam, she had so many beautiful memories of him that she would hold onto. Her connection with Sam beyond the grave helped her to remember the beautiful parts of their time together so that she would always have a piece of him to treasure. Really, more than the grief and the loss, at its core this book is about Sam’s desire to be remembered with love.

So the message I want to leave you with is this: make good memories with the people you love because that’s what matters most in life— above all worldly things— so that even when you’re gone they will cherish you in their hearts.