On the precipice of graduation, Julie and Sam can’t wait to go away to college, get an apartment, and live the rest of their lives together. But Sam dies in a tragic accident, leaving Julie behind to cope with her grief and guilt–they had a disagreement before he died. Julie skips the funeral, school, and throws away every memento, and then, in a moment of anguish, calls his cell phone number. Sam ANSWERS.

The universe either magically gives Julie and Sam a way to say goodbye and find the closure they need… OR she is delusional in her grief and created the world she needs to live in to get through. It’s never explained, but it doesn’t matter; I believed that JULIE thought she was connecting, and it was what she needed to move on.

On the surface, Julie comes across as selfish, but the truth is, she’s just a young girl who lost her first love and boyfriend of three years. The path of grieving is different for everyone, and that has to be respected. There are friends (and sadly, teachers!) who don’t seem to understand this.

Something about the characters and their relationship didn’t quite resonate with me. It might be due to the distance;l we only see Sam through Julie’s eyes. Their intimacy is assumed but never really divulged. The epilogue is short sweet and frankly, unnecessary: a young adult novel should end with a sense of a new beginning, even if there is closure around a plot point or character’s development.

Oh my gosh!!!! THIS BOOK WAS SO SAD! I HAD NO IDEA HOW SOUL CRUSHING THIS BOOK WOULD BE! I'm writing up a longer version on my blog but holy shoot! This was devastating yet incredible at the same time!

You've Reached Sam is one of those novels that stick with you for a long time. I read the book in February, and I still think about it to this day. This is a character-driven story that's beautifully written and will definitely make you cry. The book also does an excellent portrayal of grief. Although the book was slightly repetitive, it did not take away from my enjoyment at all and I still absolutely love it. 5 stars.

MY HEART!!!!!! Oh my gooodddd I am still dying and reeling from this book. I cried MULTIPLE TIMES OK!!! Just fantastic and amazing. The cover is also stunning but the STORY! The story TT_TT

i really, really loved the premise of this novel, to the point where each time i caught a glimpse of the cover, just that simple act was enough to put me in my feels. then, when i started the novel, i could practically hear the orchestral swells in the prologue, with julie's opening montage of memories.

but as the book progressed, i realized - with increasing certainty - that this was not the book for me. it crushes me to admit this.

as other reviewers have said, i do not wish to condemn or judge julie's pain or grieving process (or the pain and grief of any person, for that matter).

however, that does not mean that i enjoyed this novel or liked julie. to be frank, i found her narration insufferably self-centred. i did not understand why other characters, sam included, continually provided julie with unreciprocated generosity and magnanimity. each of her relationships felt incredibly one-sided – with sam (and others) giving and giving, and julie taking and taking and taking. at one point, julie says that the only way she is able to understand another person's pain is because “[m]aybe it’s the empathy from being a writer”. what???

this is not to say that julie does not deserve support: rather, i wish the relationships in you've reached sam had been depicted with more reciprocity. i wish julie had demonstrated more accountability to the people she very clearly neglected or hurt.

because julie's relationship with sam felt so one-sided, sam was - in my eyes - reduced to a one-dimensional, manic-pixie sort of character who exists to please and comfort julie. at best, this felt like poor characterization; at worst, this replicated, for me, the sort of non-reciprocal emotional labour that BIPOC folks frequently provide to white people. (i'm not saying this was the book's intent, just the feelings evoked in me personally.)

i was also surprised and disappointed to realize that this was not, in fact, an ownvoices story about an asian protagonist. yes, the author is a person of colour, and the book features asian side characters (always awesome!). but our narrator julie is not asian - she's white, and that took me by surprise because she appears asian-coded on the cover. i guess i shouldn't have presumed, but i'm also going to be honest: i was disappointed! :(

unfortunately, all of these factors made it very difficult to feel the emotions and poignance i was so hoping this book would evoke.

i want to end on a positive note, though! i liked the chapters that reminisced about "before" - i could easily picture the transitions between different sam-and-julie memories as a montage in a k-drama or j-drama. i also appreciated that, at the very end, we hear from sam (the manic pixie speaks!) about his experience and emotions - if only this had happened more throughout the entire book, i don't think my reading experience would have been as much of a let-down.


thank you netgalley and st. martin's press / wednesday books for providing me with this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

You've Reached Sam was supposed to be a quick read, but it took me so long to finish it because there were times when I found the protagonist, Julie, to be... a little too much. We get it. You're grieving. You get to take your time to process everything. But there were so many moments when it felt like she didn't want to process her emotions. I found it to be unhealthy (But then again, who am I to judge her? The girl lost the love of her life.) and a tad bit frustrating at times. What I liked most about it, as expected, were the last few chapters as I believe they wrapped up the story quite nicely. Acceptance, and wanting to actually move on from a sad experience are, of course, 2 of the most important steps to fully recover, and I'm glad Julie, after taking her sweet time, learned how much she needed to let Sam go to be able to move forward.

All in all, this is an impressive debut. I didn't love it as much as I thought I would, but I'm definitely looking forward to reading more from the author.

Back to finally leave a review. This book will make you hug your loved ones closer tonight. It'll make you want to call and record their voices and hold on to them.

Reading the synopsis, you know this'll be an emotional book and did I cry whilst reading? Yes.

There's something special about the way Julie and Sam's story is written. It jumps between then and now. Many stories have the jump but the special bit is all in the before. Each section of before is made up of many memories and the transition between them... I love it. Each memory blends with another and sometimes, I didn't even realise it was a transition. It was all so smooth.

I would recommend that you read the book just for the transitions.

I had a hard time getting through this book and kept having to go back. I couldn’t connect to the main character at all which made it fall a little flat for me.

I think of the premise of this book is very interesting (a girl who calls her dead boyfriend's cell phone and finds that she is still able to talk to him via phone), but the book just didn't hit for me. I could recognize a lot of emotional components, a larger conversation about grief and moving on from grief, but I never felt emotionally connected to the story or its characters. It seems like this book should have had all of the trappings of a full-on tear-jerker, a book that breaks you in a wonderful way and has powerful messages that stick with you, but it just fell a bit flat for me. It's not a terrible book, and maybe others would be in a headspace that they would feel more connected to the story, but I just didn't.

I knew from the blurb that this book would destroy me. It is so emotional that will have everyone reading screaming and crying even after this is finished. This is not really heavy on the plot but Julie’s grieving is messy and painful and so real.
This book will stick with me forever.

I understand this book was supposed to be sad and heart-breaking but I didn't find it to be so.

I enjoyed the writing and they style the author has so I'll probably be interested in reading their books in future. But I didn't connect with Julie the way you're supposed to. I understand why Julie loves Sam, but why does Sam love Julie, she comes of as annoying. Her characterisation does a disservice to this book because it has the potential to be amazing.

That being said I can see why so many people would like this. If you look past Julie this book could be heart-breaking and an emotional tale of what it means to love someone who is no longer with you.

Overall, this was a solid 4 star for me! When I first started the book, I was in a little too much of an emotional headspace, so I put it down for a little bit. But when I picked it back up, I flew through it. The main character got on my nerves from time to time but overall, I loved the story.

I received an e-copy of this story for my honest review.
This is one of the most intensively emotional, heart-rending, and cathartic books I have ever read. We get to experience the strong love of two people, and the devastation when one is suddenly taken from the other. And then, the journey that the person still here takes to get to the point of letting their loved one go.

This was the best YA book I've read this year. I'm still thinking about how the author was able to masterfully tell this story without a boring/muddy middle. It was strong from the beginning and stayed that way till the very end. And boy did that ending make me cry.

My poor heart.

This was one of my most anticipated releases of 2021 and I was so scared of the pain this would bring. So many moments were painful and I physically winced at times, for the grief, loss and debilitating pain these characters experienced, but this was also about family, friends, growth - basically life.

I had a hard time with Julie at first. I nearly DNF’d the book because of it. But then I pushed through and I realized that it wasn’t Julie I disliked. I realized that it wasn’t even dislike. She was just an embodiment of a grieving person and I realized how easy it was to look away from people who are hurting. Julie’s pain was visible and her behavior at the beginning of the book was an echo of it.
It turns out Julie was my favourite aspect of the book. At first she kept mentioning all the things Sam did for her and I thought that he loved her more that she loved him but as the story progressed I realized that she was unreliable as a narrator and everything was filtered through her lens and that’s why it seemed that way. But she grew so beautifully. You never get over losing someone you love but the memories start hurting a little less and that’s what the story was about. I loved her staring to recognize her wrongs, embracing life and finding joy in jt after such a traumatizing event. The last chapters brought me to tears but the ending was very satisfying.

I really enjoyed the friend group and how everyone was grieving and moving on in their own way. Oliver was the star of the show and so were the others. All the little elements that included writing, music and college were really welcome and made the story what it is. It was so nice to have “lighter” moments even if grief was still on the background. That was a very realistic aspect. I loved the optimistic yet realistic on life and how it affected tbe characters’s arcs. The subtle social commentary about the racism the Asian characters went through was very much appreciated and necessary.

All in all this story delivers on its promises and I was pleasant surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I read this in a day.

I usually try to go into books blind, but I had read a little too much into the book before reading and found the reviews to be quite mixed. It was either incredibly amazing or not at all. There wasn't much in between, which was where I found myself standing. It was a good read, but just not one I'd mark as a favorite or would read explicitly again.

I will first say this was not one of my favourites, but it wasn't a terrible read either. The plot and writing were done very well but this just wasn't the story/genre for me.
I would still recommend it to others who I feel would like the romance and heartbreak with the heavy topic of grief. From the description I'm not sure what i expected but I was surprised with the content of the book and how it was easy to relate and feel for the characters. The characters were very realistic with raw and relatable emotions.
I lost interest a little past halfway just because of personal preference. So my advice would be that, if this sounds interesting to you, I would recommend giving it a chance and you might love it.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this ARC.

This was a very highly anticipated read for me, and I’m very sad to be giving it only 2.5 stars. The writing in this book is very beautiful and dreamy, there is no denying that Dustin Thao has a way with words. However, as I continued to get into the story I struggled to feel connected with the characters. I struggled to understand Julie. I tried to give her patience, as grief is different for everyone, but I truly struggled to understand her decisions. I struggled with the way the writing would flow between scenes at times, suddenly shifting to a totally different moment. I struggled with the vague explanations of how the plot worked, and at the end I wanted to cry and I just didn’t. If I had been able to connect to this story, I think it would have gutted me emotionally. However, that wasn’t the case.

I’m really glad I read this. It showed the complexities of grief and how everyone handles it differently. I enjoyed the writing, and know the author's future books will be even more refined. But I couldn’t quite connect with the MC. I found her to be pretty unlikeable and she made way too many selfish, bad decisions.

Overall, this was a good YA book about life after loss and moving on in a healthy way. Great debut.