You've Reached Sam: a review

Dec 24, 20213 min read

D E T A I L S

- Title- You've Reached Sam

- Author(s)- Dustin Thao

- Genre(s)- contemporary

- Age rating- 14+

- Publication date- 09/11/2021

- Publisher- Wednesday books

P R E M I S E

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 cell phone 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.

[GOODREADS] [STORYGRAPH]

R E V I E W

// Content Warning: bullying / car accident / death / grief / racism //

The premise scared me shitless and I was terrified to pick up this book (also me: reads book a couple of hours after its release). I feel like this entire book is the continuation of A THOUSAND BOY KISSES or (according to my sister) the entire plot of ALL THIS TIME.

The entire plot was pretty much the premise and there weren't any plot twists (if there were they flew right over my head because I didn't see anything unpredictable or something I couldn't guess). I was also very curious to find out how the entire phone call with the dead worked but sadly that question remained unanswered. Like, he wasn't buried with his phone now, was he?

This is one of the books with zero plot but you stay for the beautiful writing (and also the tears). Very short review because there's absolutely nothing.

4/5 stars

T R O P E S

- friends to lovers (except he's dead)

S I M I L A R B O O K S

- All This Time by Mikki Daughtry and Rachael Lippincott

Kyle and Kimberly have been the perfect couple all through high school, but when Kimberly breaks up with him on the night of their graduation party, Kyle’s entire world upends—literally. Their car crashes and when he awakes, he has a brain injury. Kimberly is dead. And no one in his life could possibly understand.

Until Marley. Marley is suffering from her own loss, a loss she thinks was her fault. And when their paths cross, Kyle sees in her all the unspoken things he’s feeling.

As Kyle and Marley work to heal each other’s wounds, their feelings for each other grow stronger. But Kyle can’t shake the sense that he’s headed for another crashing moment that will blow up his life as soon as he’s started to put it back together.

And he’s right.

[GOODREADS] [STORYGRAPH]